100HA – live blog from the Yorkshire Planetarium

And we are back live with the Virtual Telescope with 100 Hrs of Remote Observing, this should now be changed to 124 hrs! Gianluca has set up the solar scope and we are observing the Sun, LIVE through the webcast, and the Virtual Telescope web site: http://virtualtelescope.bellatrixobservatory.org/100harealtime.html Of course this is the closing event for the VT but you have to hand it to Gianluca, he is has done fantastic job at opening up the universe for us all to access during these past few days, he deserves a medal! read more ❯

Some shocking news that has greeted me just now, that Italy has been struck by a devastating Earthquake and many are injured and worse. My first reaction is my best friend took a flight back to Pisa yesterday and I am hoping that the earthquake there didn't hit them as hard, but my thoughts are going out to the people who have lost their homes and their lives, this is just simply very, very sad news. And I'm hoping of course that everyone I know in Italy has not been affected by this!!! To top this all, me being typical me... read more ❯

Here we go again, Gianluca Masi has managed to open the observatory to begin the observations with the Virtual Telescope and for the time being we are observing the bright objects visible while we wait for the skies to further clear as there is alot of patchy cloud around. So far we've viewed Saturn again and here we have some images of the Moon, over the weekend the Virtual Telescope has enjoyed over 15,000 visitors during 100 hrs of remote observing so this a record in its own right! read more ❯

Whilst munching on my dinner in the midst of 100 hrs of remote observing my son had to point out that an olive that I was about to eat looked a little bit like a scary dinosaur. On further inspection I had to agree that it looked too good to eat so I'm  sharing this photo with you now, it still makes me laugh just looking at it : D !!! read more ❯

Its the final leg of 100 Hours of Astronomy and we are back observing with the Virtual Telescope. Unfortunately right now it is cloudy but we are all hoping that it will clear. Yesterday the skies cleared and we had clear skies but patchy cloud so we are hoping for the same again. In the meantime here is an animation from earlier today of the solar observations taken with the telescope. http://virtualtelescope.bellatrixobservatory.org/sun_5april09_1400.gif read more ❯

So most of us by now who are have been participating in the 100 Hours of Astronomy events are in real need of some rest, I'm feeling fine at the moment as I've just had a nice cup of tea but I have the feeling that most of you out there who have been burning the midnight oil arranging and participating in all of the 100 hours events are in some dire need of rest and coffee. Shame our coffee cup on the Cosmic Diary page is only an image and not real espresso! For now the live webcast from the Virtual... read more ❯

By the way, this is live and you can access this directly from the VT website where the live webcam is broadcasting the direct views of the Sun, and here is a lovely day too! (this is a first for Manchester you know!) http://virtualtelescope.bellatrixobservatory.org/100harealtime.html read more ❯

And we're back observing LIVE for 100 Hours of Remote Observing from the Virtual Telescope. Today is the event Sun day and we are observing the Sun together with several events worldwide organised for this very special event for 100 Hours of Astronomy read more ❯

Hi everyone and a good morning from Manchester where it is a beautiful sunny day. There is a lot of thin haze cloud around and I am online now checking out the events for today. Gianluca Masi tells me that there is a live show on today at 9am UT for Solar Observing so I will be keeping you all updated on that, and will be also atempting to classify as many Galaxy Zoo objects as possible so if Isee any strange and wonderful objects in there I will post them here also. read more ❯

By the way everyone, I am writing a set of articles for the Science Newspaper to report on the events and activities taking place during the 100 hours of astronomy events and if you have something that you want to tell us about, please send your info to me so that I can include this in the feature articles. The Science Newspaper has a dedicated section to IYA 2009 so anything you think is worthwhile to share with the rest of the world will be appreciated  ! You can reach me at sotiratrifourki@hotmail.com and the Science Newspaper at http://www.sciencenewspaper.eu read more ❯