The Star Learner UK tour for writing up controlled assessments is complete!

Well done to our distance learners!  Our days for writing up controlled assessments have gone so well.  We travelled the country to keep the distances down that our students had to travel.  There are some great pieces of work to mark -

             Looking at sunspots to work out the rotation period of the Sun

             Superb images of the features of the Moon and the Messier catalogue

             Stellar density readings across the Milky Way

             Meteor shower observations, constellation drawings...  the list goes on!

The picture below shows our students hard at work near Andover, Hampshire at Farleigh Preparatory School.  Thank you to Father Simon, Head of Farleigh, for letting us use the outstanding facilities.                      

Star Learner relocates to Poole

After perfect night skies in Herefordshire, we have now set up just a mile and a half from the centre of Bournemouth.  Having written monthly night sky articles for the Docklands area of London, we will be enjoying viewing in town and out over the sea at the promenade.  The spring skies have seen some superb views of Venus and Jupiter in the western sky.  Now that all the internet connections, computers and office equipment is up and running - not to mention our webman David back from honeymoon with Shona (congratulations!) - expect to see changes soon to the Star Learner website.

Rest in peace Steve Jobs.

We are very saddened to hear the news of Steve Jobs' passing. He was a true visionary and his Apple products have revolutionised the way we work and communicate with each other.
Last year we made Starlearner completely compatible on Apple's and PC's, and it was only when I'd bought my first iMac that I really appreciated what Little Miss M had been raving about for years...
He had a unique insight to forsee what people would need before they realised it themselves - he created the technology to make our lives more creative and interesting.
Our thoughts are with his family. Rest in peace Steve Jobs.

See a Supernova!

A supernova can be seen in the sky with good binoculars or a telescope.  The star blew up recently in M101, a faint galaxy in the Messier catalogue.  The supernova is named SN2011fe.  At magnitude 11, it is not bright, but compare what you see with a low power image of M101 - the supernova will be just like ‘spot the difference’.  A star chart is given to help you locate M101 and a photo to show the area to look:-

Incredible results: Starlearner student achieves highest result in all of the country!

Incredible results all round - so chuffed to report that ALL of our Starlearner Distance Learner's achieved a grade B and above! 

Not only that, special mention needs to go to Liz Walker, who completed the Starlearner distance learning course and came top in the whole country. 

Liz can be seen writing up her controlled assessment practicals in the glorious setting of Thoresby Hall - one of Warner Leisure Hotels flagship hotels, which we had booked for the day. Liz decided to use the floor so that she could lay out her mountain of notes and photographs! 

Congratulations Liz and to all of the Starlearner Distance Learning students who've worked so hard - it was totally worth it and we're very proud of all our STAR LEARNERS!

Lanzarote viewing...

Little Miss M was in Lanzarote last week and saw this brilliant image in a restaurant taken by none other than NASA. Such a good picture of the island. She was happy to report back that there were plenty of miles of untouched, dark beaches for viewing but the best overall place that she saw was Ermita de Las Nieves, a small church that over looks Famara in the north of the island. Super dark for super viewing.

Image courtesy of NASA

Google celebrates the Lunar Eclipse

Did you view the lunar eclipse last night? I hope you all saw a glimpse of it despite the not so perfect conditions over here in the UK... it only ever occurs on the night of a full moon when the Earth, Sun and Moon are all in alignment and the Earth blocks the Sun's rays from reaching the Moon. Viewers all over the world enjoyed seeing the Moon turn a stunning red colour last night when it looked more like Mars than our Moon!
Google have celebrated it with their time lapse forming one of their 'o's' check it out here.

Lunar Eclipse from Tenerife - Getty Images