People are being encouraged to look upwards and tour the night sky during lockdown by taking part in the Winter Skywatch.
The Society for Popular Astronomy (SPA) says the coming week will be a great time to see the stars, planets and craters on the Moon.
It is running the campaign from February 13 to February 20.
The SPA, an organisation for beginners to stargazing, wants families or individuals of all ages to take the opportunity to travel into space and tour the universe without having to leave home.
It has produced a free downloadable guide to the winter stars and planets that can be seen from people’s gardens, or even from their windows.
Perseverance is scheduled to touch down on the Martian surface at approximately 8.30pm (UK time), on Thursday, February 18. Watch NASA’s build up to the big day and a live landing broadcast via this link: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/watch-online/ This month, I caught up with Cardiff Astronomical Society member Katrin Raynor-Evans who has combined her love of astronomy with philately. Ms Raynor-Evans, formerly from Undy, now living in Pontypridd, told the
Argus: “My first love is definitely astronomy. I had always considered stamps boring! My dad owned a telescope, and I will never forget the moment he showed me Saturn through the eyepiece.
The heavens have inspired mankind ever since the ancient Egyptians worshipped Ra, god of the sun, and the Ancient Greeks believed the constellations were placed there by the gods. Now Van Cleef & Arpels turns to the skies for its latest high jewellery collection, Sous Les Étoiles, which combines age-old celestial motifs with the latest in 21st century astrophysics.
Always with a foot in the past and all things fantastical, the house’s designers immersed themselves in centuries of history, astrology and fairytales about the heavens to create a collection of more than 120 pieces. Inspiration came from places as diverse as Renaissance astronomer and astrologer Johannes Kepler to Camille Flammarion, the author of