Imagining the moon
Mare Crisium in a lithograph printed in 1834 from observations at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh. The photograph was made by an amateur astronomer in 2010. The moon “appeared like […]
Tag Archives: astronomy
Pluto, then and now
This is a really fun look back at our attempts to visualize Pluto. I mean, look at even the most recent views acquired by the powerful Hubble space telescope. They […]
A supernova in needlepoint
I hate to admit that I didn’t know a thing about the amazing astronomer and astrophysicist Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin until I stumbled on an archival photograph of her less serious work with needle […]
Exoplanets and the limits of human imagination
Our solar system is in no way typical of the diversity out there. The number of known planets orbiting other stars now stands at more than 200. The Kepler satellite mission has […]
Behold: The Māori solar system!
Traditional stargazers in New Zealand referred to celestial bodies as Te Whānau Mārama, or the family of light. They observed, without telescopes, most of the planets in our solar system […]
