Five Star Crop Circle

Inside view of a crop circle at Stanton St Bernard in Wiltshire, England. The first formation to appear resembles a church or temple with five spires and five teardrops beneath.  (It is suggested that these represent five stars, or four stars plus Venus, which is known as the Evening Star) A second formation of concentric circles was added at a later date. For aerial views and further details go to Crop Circle Connector.

St Swithins Day

After heavy rain across the UK over the past month, St Swithin's Day is now upon us.

According to the traditional rhyme, if it rains on this day, (15 July) 40 days of rain will follow. If it is sunny, there should be 40 days of fine weather: 

"St Swithin's Day if it dost rain, for forty days it will remain.

"St Swithin's Day if it be fair, for forty days 'twill rain no mair."

Swithin (sometimes spelt Swithun) was a Saxon Bishop of Winchester and legend has it that as he lay on his deathbed, he asked to be buried outdoors, at one with nature.

For nine years, his wishes were followed, but then, in 971, the monks of Winchester decided to build the saint a splendid shrine inside the cathedral. There was a heavy rain storm on 15 July which hampered the attempt to remove his remains indoors, and this was taken to be a sign of St Swithin’s protest at the move.

Fire and Stone

Stonehenge was lit up with lanterns, flaming candles and burning coals to create a Fire Garden. The installation by Compagnie Carabosse was organised by Salisbury Arts Festival as part of the extended programme of events marking the London 2012 Olympic games. The Olympic torch passed through Stonehenge and Salisbury on its way to the games.

Transit of Venus

The transit of Venus takes place when the planet passes in front of the sun. While Venus and the earth roughly line up with the sun every 584 days, their orbits are tilted in relation to each other, meaning that a transit only takes place on the rare occasions when the two planets and the sun are almost exactly in line.

On average, transits of Venus take place around 80 years apart, but when they do so, it is in a pair of events which are eight years apart.

 

The last transit was on 8 June 2004 and the transit on 5-6 June 2012 is the second of this pair.

Only the final stages will be visible from the UK, in the early hours of the morning. The entire event will be seen from eastern Asia and Australasia, the Pacific Ocean and north-western parts of North America. The following transit of Venus will not take place until 2117, so 2012 will be the last chance in most people’s lifetimes to view this rare event.

The Royal Astronomical Society issues the following guidelines: *Never look directly at the sun, with or without a telescope or pair of binoculars, without using a safe solar filter. To do is very dangerous and could result in permanent blindness.

World Book Night

World Book Night on April 23 is a celebration of reading and books. 

Avid readers in the UK, Ireland, Germany and the USA are taking part, and thousands of books will be given away to spread the written word to local groups and communities.

Use the hashtag  #worldbooknight to connect on Twitter. 

http://www.worldbooknight.org

Super Moon

On 5 May, the moon will be full at the same time as it passes relatively close the earth, making it appear exceptionally bright as a result. Astronomers call this a perigee or Super Moon, in this case the largest and closest appearance until 2014, probably about a third brighter than average.

Extreme tides are likely around this time as a result of the proximity of the moon to earth.

Earth Hour 2012

Earth Hour is a world-wide initiative to raise awareness about the environment and climate change by switching off lights for an hour in the evening. This year, Earth Hour is on Saturday, March 31 and starts at 20:30 (8:30pm) local time.

Even astronauts on the Space Station will be doing their part, watching to see if there is any  noticeable change in the amount of light from earth visible from space. Astronaut André Kuipers will be taking photos and videos from space.

Earth Hour first started in 2007 as single-city initiative in Sydney, Australia,  and has now grown into a global movement to save energy and help the environment. Earth Hour 2011 was the world’s largest event so far with people, businesses and governments in 135 countries joining in, and organisers hope that up to 1.8 billion people will take part this year.