#128 - February 2023

AWESOME ASTRONOMY

The Discussion:

• Our dark sky practical astronomy event, AstroCamp
• Farewell Apollo 7’s Walt Cunningham
• Comet C2022 E3 ZTF reaches naked eye brightness

The News:

Rounding up the astronomy news in February, we have:

• Incredible finding: stars have not always been made the same way throughout the history of the Universe
• The debacle of the first space launch from UK soil
• 3 rocky water worlds found by the Kepler Space Telescope

The big news story: a decade-long study finds light pollution is worse than we thought

The Sky Guide:

This month we’re taking a look at the large winter constellation of Ursa Major with a guide to its history, how to find it, a few deep sky objects to seek out and a round-up of the solar system views on offer in February.

Q&A:

Does the James Webb Space Telescope have to take calibration frames like I do from Earth - darks, flats, and bias frames to then stack? From our good friend Peter Coates in East Yorkshire.