Star Safari

We interviewed Mitch Schulte, Mars Exploration Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC and our NZ Astrobiology Network official adviser.  Mitch talks to us about Perseverance, Mars regolith, asterisms, working from home and we are listening to sounds from Mars and try to find out how our voices would sound like if we were on Mars. You can do this too at https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/participate/sounds/ Simply record yourself and then play it back.  The interview was taken in July 2021 by Hari Mogoșanu and Sam Leske.

A tour of our favourite celestial objects in the night sky that you can see in May and June 2021 from Wairarapa, New Zealand one of the darkest places in the world, where the Milky Way stretches from one horizon to the other.  A favourite this month, quasar 3C - 273 and other space oddities, Omega Centauri, Gem Cluster, Eta Carinae. Scorpius is rising and Orion is slowly disappearing. Brightest stars, when to avoid the Moon and why and what did the ancient Egyptians think of the circumpolar stars.  Clear skies and enjoy