Harvest Moon

About an hour ago I went outside and spent fifteen minutes or so battling against fast moving clouds which kept bringing in showers of rain, moving in on cold blasts of northerly air. Still it wasn't a waste of time and I managed to catch a sight and take some images of …

Day 15 - Tuesday 24th July 2006

It was yet another crisp, clear morning as we, bleary eyed and only half awake, clambered aboard a tiny shuttle bus which took us the short way down to the Interislander ferry terminal. We checked in our bags and only had to wait ten minutes or so before we were allowed …

Moon threatens star

This morning observers in the Midlands and the South West of England might have been lucky enough to catch a grazing occultation of the star Regulus (Alpha Leonis) by the Moon. Unfortunately up in Scotland there was no occultation, but as I went outside this morning …

MNM: Siberian

A few years ago now, back when I was working before university, I remember reading Q Magazine one afternoon and coming across a brief review of the debut album by a Liverpool-based band called The Open which convinced me to pick it up. That album, entitled The Silent …

Pastures New

My time here at the University of Durham is almost up and though a great many things must sadly come to an end, one thing I hope to continue is this website and blog. Unfortunately I do lose my hosted webspace so I've had to take the plunge and find my own place on the …

Live Music

The Nymphettes with The Eye Jab and The Spanish Summer System

The Cluny, Newcastle, May 31st 2007

It was a real shame that a few more people didn't make it out to the Cluny last Thursday evening for it was an excellent night of local music. The headliners, Montreal's …

MNM: The Envy Corps

These guys were the definite highlight of my recent day out at Middlesbrough Music Live, a day of (you guessed it) live music which took place over a number of stages dotted throughout Middlesbrough town center. As the sun started to sink behind the Town Hall, and the …

KTHXBYE

Although I haven't been writing a great deal recently, the blagosphere certainly hasn't lessened in any way its ceaseless attempts to bring the newest and strangest things to the attention of those who care to read the myriad sources of information that now exist. In …

MNM: Moonbabies

Despite English not being their first language, Sweden's Moonbabies have managed to find an onomatopeaic name and are going places with it. Perhaps the Moon is

MNM: Venice Is Sinking

Success! Now that I've reduced Monday's New Music to

May the 25th be with you

I feel quite disappointed that I can't celebrate tomorrow properly. Star Wars came out a few years before I was born and thanks to a relatively sci-fi free house (with the exception of Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind) I didn't really get into Star Wars properly until …

Happenings In The Sky

A quick round up of things that have been going on it what has been a pretty busy week or so for events in the sky

Venus-Moon Conjunction

This was the more obvious of the two big events this week and plenty of people around the world saw this beautiful sight in the …

A Sky of Delights

It's been a pretty good couple of days in the skies. Everything kicked off yesterday evening when, out of the twilight, came the magnificent sight of the planet Venus and our Moon separated by just over a degree in the sky. We had a full Society session to observe this …

Crescent Moon Watch

Having been thwarted last night by cloud lurking on the horizon I was determined this evening to catch sight of an early crescent Moon. After a day of intermittent shower and sunshine the evening turned cooler, a rising wind coming in to blow out the few remaining …

I am waiting for this moment

One of my favourite "discoveries" from this year's Coachella, which I now seem to have seen almost in full thanks to the wonders of YouTube and the AT&T live webcast that beamed images of the festival in the desert throughout the weekend, is the Los Angeles fourpiece …

I Dream of Spaceships #1

Made with only the greatest respect for the master, xkcd.

Read all about supernova SN 2006gy and why the star Eta Carina, 7,500 light years away, might be about to follow its example in this article from NASA's Chandra mission.

Technorati tags: comic, spaceship,

Spend each night in your arms

Yes, I realise that I'm well behind on both Monday's New Music and the Friday Download Review but you'll have to excuse me as the dreaded exam season is upon us so I'm trying to keep distractions to a minimum. That doesn't mean I have stopped listening to music: I'm …

Live Music

The Eye Jab with New Vinyls and Beth Jeans Houghton

Head of Steam, Newcastle, April 24th

To say that there was a buzz around this gig at Newcastle's Head of Steam would be an understatement. Arriving early we went upstairs for a drink to find the room filled with A&R …

Gliese 581 C

In my opinion the barometer for science in

All The Young Dudes

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." So spoke The Guide in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and …