Thursday 21 June 2012

Moon Phase Calculator

Well it's been a while since I last posted and thats because even if I did get a nice clear night I would have to stay up really late to wait for it to get properly dark. So while I havent been doing any astronomy I have been learning to do basic computer programming, I have been learning a programming language called small basic which is for beginners. After about 1 week of learning it I have finished my first program, a moon phase calculator, it isnt the most precise but I was pretty happy with it for my first ever coding project. If you would like to learn small basic the link is here. Any feed back on my moon phase calculator would be appreciated. To view my moon phase calculator click here.

Wednesday 6 June 2012

Street Light Turn Off For Astronomy

Well I was browsing the Internet today and I was very pleased to find out that
8,500 street lights across Shropshire will be switched off between midnight and 5:30 am. The main reasons the council is turning off the street lights is to save money and to be more Eco friendly, but it also means that amateur astronomers will be able to get better views of the sky. This is great news because a lot of the light pollution that ruins the night sky is caused by the light from street lights spilling up into the sky. This light pollution is most evident when taking long exposure images of the sky, because the longer your exposures are the more of an orange glow your image has. And you try and take really long exposures then the image goes completely orange and is unusable. If you don't take long exposure images then you can still benefit because the less light pollution there is then the more stars you can see in the night sky, as you will be able to see stars with much higher magnitudes. If you are interested in finding out wether or not the street lights near you are being turned then you can visit your local councils website to find out. Leave a comment below in wether or not the street lights near you are being turned off.