When will T Corona Borealis go nova? The Blaze Star, corrected for the southern hemisphere! (Credit: Adapted from The Farmers’ Almanac ). By Dirk Goës The Blaze Star, whose scientific name is T Corona Borealis (T CrB), is a star which experiences a thermonuclear explosion on its surface about every 80 years.  The last explosion occurred in 1946 and according to observations and measurements made by astronomers in the last few years it is set to explode any day now.  This kind

Andrew's setup at the Frogmore Astro Camp. Photo by Andrew Wood. By Andrew Wood For visual observing especially, light pollution greatly diminishes the experience of observing deep sky objects – star clusters, nebulae and galaxies. Even with the sophisticated imaging equipment available today that enables those who like to take images of these objects in less-than-ideal skies, a dark sky will make the images even better. Finding a dark place, unless you live on a rural prop

Listening to Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell speak gave us direct personal insight into how she made her discovery of pulsars and she generously expanded on this in her response to questions from the audience.  

The following describes objects in our night sky for October and is especially written for beginning observers. Moon Phases The Deep Sky...

A historic photo of the Anglo Australian Telescope.  The dome is 50 metres high and 36 metres in diameter ( Credit : David Malin,...

The following describes objects in our night sky for September and is especially written for beginning observers. Astronomy from the city...

On the weekend of the 16-17 th  August the Sydney City Skywatchers (SCS) ran their annual telescope viewing sessions for the public at...

The cover of the new Australian Astronomy Decadal Plan.  Cover artwork: Seven Sisters, Noeleen Hamlett, Wajarri Yamaji ( Credit :...

The evolution of interacting binary stars

Stars that pull each other apart, merge, and explode A still from an animation simulating a thermonuclear explosion occurring on the...