Galileo and the Milky Way Sidereus Nuncius

Galileo wrote this, 400 years ago in 1610:

"What we observed in the third place is the essence, namely the matter, of the Milky Way, which can be seen so clearly with the aid of the telescope that what philosophers found for centuries an excruciating problem has been solved with ocular certainty thus freeing us from wordy disputes"
From http://bit.ly/7WsibK

Aristotle maintained that the Milky Way was a celestial fog

Astronomy books for kids ages 4 - 10

Here's a list of the great astronomy books written by Jacqueline Mitton. All books are 32 pages, with stunning illustrations by artist Christine Balit. Kids just love the glittery foil stars. From amazon.com $8. Star struck kids love them to bits. Astronomy is looking up! The URLs take you to amazon.com. All titles available from amazon.co.uk etc

Zoo in the Sky, a book about animal constellations, is a best seller. See the customer reviews on amazon http://bit.ly/zooSKY Get them outside finding those animals in the sky!

Zodiac, Celestial Circle of the Sun is similar to Zoo in the Sky, but introduces the 12 zodiacal constellations with a nice mix of real science and myth http://bit.ly/ZODiac

The Planet Gods blends real science with the Greek mythology. http://bit.ly/PLAnet

Once Upon a Starry Night presents a further ten constellations, with Greek and Roman myth blended with real science http://bit.ly/STArry

Large Hadron Collider

Will it be a Happy New Year for the Large Hadron Collider? If the experiment does not find new physics, old physics could suffer serious funding cuts

Blue Moon New Year's Eve 2009

The first decade of the 21st century concludes tomorrow as a Blue Moon rises in the east. In a definition dating from 1946, a Blue Moon is the second Full Moon in a calendar month. This phenomenon happens about once every 2.7 years.

Galileo Sidereus Nuncius

7 January 2010 is the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first sighting of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter, which he named the Medicean stars. I'll be blogging Galileo's observations of 2010 on a real time basis, just 400 years late. http://bit.ly/7WsibK

Seigneurie d'Arse wine

Finally got round to drinking this Fitou this evening. Fitou was the first area in Languedoc-Rousillon to get AOC status. The wine is supple and drinkable. A good quaffer for €4. A good joke wine. Joke wines are not that common.

Astronomy on cruise Queen Mary 2

We've worked very hard on this. Cunard Queen Mary 2 11 - 17 November transatlantic. Lectures Armchair Tour of the Universe, Aliens and Astrobiology, Cosmology Big Bang and Origin of Univer, The Sun our Datime Star. Lecturers are Simon Mitton and Jacqueline Mitton engaged by Cunard