What’s Happening In Space

As the nights settle into the deeper rhythm of winter in the southern hemisphere, June offers something rather special. The air becomes steadier. The skies often clearer. And the long nights give us more time to observe what is above us. For those willing to step outside and look up, this month quietly reveals a remarkable sequence of events. The Shape of the Winter Sky June is a turning…

As an astronomer, I spend much of my time working in the dark. That might sound unusual, but in my field, darkness is not something to fear. It is what allows us to see. The faintest stars, distant galaxies, and delicate structures of the universe only become visible when unnecessary light is removed from the equation. And increasingly, I find myself thinking about that same principle much…

Safety and Darkness. A Conversation Worth Having As someone who studies the night sky, I spend much of my time working in darkness. Not avoiding it, but learning how to see within it. In astronomy, darkness is not an absence. It is a condition. It allows faint detail to emerge. Without it, even the brightest stars can be lost. Artificial light scatters in the atmosphere, reducing contrast and…

For about 24 hours, it looked as though NASA’s Artemis II mission was finally settling into place. Following a successful second wet dress rehearsal, the agency announced that it was targeting 6 March for the first crewed mission around the Moon since 1972. Fuel loading went as planned, hydrogen leaks were kept within limits, countdown procedures were exercised, and confidence was cautiously…

Many of us spend our evenings looking up, but every so often the sky offers something that invites a longer pause. The lunar eclipse on 3 March is one of those events. Eastern Australia will have a particularly good view, with the entire sequence unfolding at a civilised evening hour. This makes it one of the more accessible eclipses for both newcomers and regular sky watchers.A lunar eclipse…

A Southern Hemisphere guide Late February offers a pleasant opportunity to observe several planets in the western sky after sunset. This type of grouping is often described as a planetary alignment, or planet parade, which refers to occasions when several planets appear close together along the ecliptic from Earth’s perspective. These positions are a matter of perspective rather than physical…

In recent days, NASA has confirmed a delay to the first crewed Artemis mission, a decision prompted not by engineering challenges but by an extended spell of unusually cold weather at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. This mission, known as Artemis II, marks the first time in more than fifty years that astronauts will journey around the Moon. For those of us who follow lunar exploration…