skywatch

The Tarantula Nebula is a gaudy show-off, even by cosmic standards. A city of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 170,000 light-years from Earth, its clouds of gas writhe and billow like smoke...

Last weekend, I found myself in Middlemarch, attempting the impossible: warming up a shed.

There’s something quietly marvellous about stepping outside just after sunset in midwinter.

Out in the dark, on a frost-bitten Saturday in Middlemarch, I turned my telescope towards Messier 83.

Some things in life just don’t line up the way you’d expect.

There’s a bend in the shared pathway out on Otago Peninsula just before you round the corner to Broad Bay.

King’s Birthday weekend saw the Griffin clan decamp to our new crib in Middlemarch.

Last weekend, after some intense strategic planning as part of my day job, I finally managed an entire night under the stars at my new observing site out in Middlemarch.

Very keen-eyed visitors to the recent Cleveland National Art Awards show in Dunedin might have noticed a small, unassuming 4-by-5-inch photograph tucked away on a gallery wall - entry number 71.

In the pre-dawn hours of May 23, the sky above Dunedin becomes a tapestry of ancient stories, barely holding together.

The other day, my favourite astronomy image-processing software updated itself — as these things tend to do without so much as a by-your-leave — and presented me with a shiny new feature: "Remove...

At nearly 60, the body is no longer the reliable companion it once was.

Autumn is a wonderful time to stargaze in Otago.

If you’re an early riser with a clear view to the east, this week offers a celestial treat for which it’s well worth setting your alarm.

For more than a decade, I have called Portobello home.