Caoimhín's Content

Astronomical and Educational content, in English and Irish

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  • The Basics of Stellarium and How to Use It

    Today, we are going to have a quick look at Stellarium. Stellarium is the software that I use for these videos, and it’s free. It’s available online and regularly updated. I just updated it, so I am currently using the latest stable version of the software, Stellarium 24.2. You can download it from stellarium.org. The…

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  • Pluto, and What is a Planet Anyway

    In today’s piece, although we are going look at the dwarf planet Pluto, this serves mainly as a background to a discussion of the naming conventions around what planets, dwarf planets and asteroids and comets, also known as minor planets. There are different usages of the word planet, but I wish to be upfront here…

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  • Opposition: Saturn and Neptune at Their Closest to Us!

    Today we are going to be looking at oppositions, specifically Saturn and Neptune coming to opposition, as they will both do so this month. I have taken a look at Neptune specifically quite recently and only a couple of months ago we took a close look at the planet Saturn as well, so although I…

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  • The September Lunar Eclipse and October Solar Eclipse!

    After alluding to these events last time, we are today going to take a look at the upcoming partial lunar and annular solar eclipse. The Partial lunar eclipse will occur in September, but we will look all the way forward into early October to catch the solar eclipse as well. All lunar eclipses happen during…

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  • A Look Ahead to September: 6 Planets and a Supermoon!

    As usual, now that we’re coming to the end of the month, we’re going to take a look ahead to the next one. September is going to be a jam packed month, so this overview will skip over some of the details, but I will return to them as they occur. We will begin as…

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  • Planetary Nebulae, Nothing to do with Planets!

    Today we will begin by revisiting an object that I have mentioned a few times before, the Ring Nebula in Lyra. The Ring Nebula in Lyra is a fantastic object to try and take a look at, as well as being a fantastic example of a planetary nebula. Medium to large telescopes will give you…

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  • The Truth about the Full Blue Super Moon

    Today, for a change, we are going to be talking about something that is happening today, on the date of this publication, really something from yesterday, the 19th of August. However, there is no need to worry if you’re getting to this piece a day or two late. In fact this piece is specifically about…

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  • Na Laethanta Ráithe, nú Tras-Ceathrú

    Today’s article is connected to an Irish language video, this means that there will be a lot of Irish words and translations throughout the piece. We will be looking at 4 particular days during the year, one of which has just passed, the 1st of August. August in Irish is Lughnasadh, and the same name…

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  • The Occultation of Saturn: Saturn and the Moon Align in August

    Today we are going to look ahead just a little, to the 20th of August. As usual, we begin at sunset, so we will begin on the 20th. For those of us here in Ireland, we will be waiting until the morning of the 21st to catch the occultation of Saturn by the Moon. The…

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  • The Perseid Meteor Shower: When They Look Best

    Today we are looking at the Perseids again. I did take a quick look at the Perseids last year at around this time, but they are such an impressive meteor shower they deserve to be mentioned again. Starting right at sunset will mean that the Moon is in the sky, but very low to the…

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