Get Social with Mission Astro

GAZE BACK IN TIME WITH US! ✨️⁠ ⁠ We are showcasing the delights of the night sky with stargazing activities to suit all - from tiny to tall!⁠ ⁠ Stargaze in Hampshire or Warwickshire with cake and hot chocolate while enjoying astronomy talks from our super friendly experts. You are sure to be wowed (even if the weather is cloudy!) by @missionastro_ and @novastargazinguk ⁠ We are thrilled to announce that you can now book our Stargazing Events on our sparkly new website: ⁠ ⁠ missionastro.org/astronomy-events/ ✨️⁠ ⁠ We'd like to say a huge thank you to Darren @webxdesign.studio for all your hard work in bringing our Mission Astro vision to life with an out of this world website and booking system.⁠ ⁠ #spacelovers #stargazing #hampshireevents #hampshiredaysout #warwickshire #warwick #hartleywintney #uknightsky #nightskyevents #discoverthenight #astrophotography #protectthenight #milkywaychasers #missionastro #astronomycourse

Eddie the space dog here! 👩‍🚀🐾 As the Barketing Officer here at Mission Astro I like to test out the very latest cosmic dog toys! I give this astronaut from @petscorneruk and @greatandsmallpet 10/10! Excuse me while I blast off and do some rocket powered zoomies with my new astro buddy… 🚀 #missionastro #petscorner #greatandsmall #dogtoys #astronaut #cavalierkingcharlesspaniel #cavlife #spacedog #dogsinspace

What to see in the October night sky 🔭⁠ ⁠ 🔭 5th: Venus lies near waxing crescent Moon (pm)⁠ 🔭 14th: Saturn Near Waxing Gibbous Moon (pm) 🔭 17th: Perigee full Moon (Supermoon) 🔭 19th: Lunar occultation of the southern part of the Pleiades (pm) 🔭 21st: Peak of the Orionid Meteor Shower With the autumn equinox behind us, in October there’s more night than day for the first time since March, and it’ll stay that way until March next year. At Mission Astro we have been longing for the longer, darker nights, with October offering some spectacular highlights: Perigee full Moon (Supermoon) 🌝 The Moon revolves around the Earth in an elliptical or oval-shaped orbit, which means that during its orbit it travels from its closest approach to us (perigee) to its furthest distance from us (apogee). A full Moon at perigee will appear 14% bigger and 30% brighter than a full Moon at apogee. Orionid meteor shower ☄ The peak of this meteor shower is expected to be on October 21, towards midnight and into the early morning. The meteors come from Halley's Comet and can be seen for up to 10–20 per hour under a dark, moonless sky. The shower will remain active until mid-November. Lunar occultation of the Pleiades ⭐ Lunar occultation happens when the moon passes in front of another object in the sky, such as a star, planet, or asteroid. The Moon will appear to be clipping the edge of the Pleiades star cluster on the 19th, possibly one of the most beautiful and well observed open clusters in the night sky. HAPPY OCTOBER STARGAZING! ✨ missionastro.org⁠ #whatsinthenightsky #nightsky #uknightsky #missionastro #justgoodscience #astronomy #astronomylovers #astronomyfacts #octobernightsky #stargazing #fullmoon #ilovespace #givemespace #scienceautumn #lunareclipse #pleiades #hartleywintney

Laura from @springphysics asks Dr Sarah Crick a fascinating question about dark matter. ✨ Why is dark matter so hard to catch? Dark matter is the grand master of hide and seek… 👀 Watch the video to find out more exactly why! Do you have any space questions for us? Ask away in the comments below. We may even make a video answer for you in our feed! ✨ missionastro.org 🚀 #space #darkmatter #darkenergy #ouruniverse #spacelovers #physicsfun #astronomycourse #astronomyworkshop #astrophysics #missionastro

#ｓｕｎｄａｙｍｏｏｄ We think we will stay in bed 🙊✨ Don’t forget to take time for you today. To do your best you need to rest ❤️ Gorgeous notebook from @flyingtiger 📝 #missionastro #ukastronomy #astronomy #astronomylover #astronomyworkshop #astronomyart #sciencetutor #astrophysics #todoyourbestyouneedtorest #tutoringtips

Orbit 36 complete ✨ Hi, it’s Sarah! Birthdays are always a time to refocus 🌅 What a year it’s been for me (@drsarahcrick), @justgoodscience and @missionastro_! Thank you all for being part of it ☺️ especially my colleagues and students ✨ and of course to @dale_ightful_bakes for making my birthday space cupcakes 😋 Some hopes for my next orbit; 🍎 Good health 🦋 Chance to watch people flourish in their own unique ways and achieve their goals 🐹 Kindness 👷‍♀️ Opportunity to build @missionastro_ and complete fun projects with great people 🌌 Time to look up 🫧 Harmless scientific mischief 👗 Many space dresses 😜 What do you wish for on your next orbit? Do we share any wishes? #space #cake #astronomy #hartleywintney

Buckle your seatbelts, fellow space lovers! We’re about to blast off to see the infinite wonder of our universe… 🚀⁠ ⁠ By teaching children and adults about space through interactive workshops, talks, online courses and more, Mission Astro prepares space lovers to make out of this world discoveries. Our dream is that some of these space fanatics will go on to do things we never thought possible! ⁠ ⁠ Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars!⁠ ⁠ Missionastro.org ✨️⁠ ⁠ P.S. Did you know that there will be a partial lunar eclipse, visible in the UK tonight? The Moon will enter Earth's penumbra at 1.41am and leave at 5.47am. The maximum of this eclipse will occur at 3.44am, with only 3.5% of the Moon in Earth's umbra at this point. 🌙⁠ ⁠ #missionastro #spacelovers #astronomycourse #onlineastronomycourse #shootforthemoon #lunareclipse #lunareclipse2024 #uklunareclipse #moon #astronomylovers #stargazing #uknightsky

Bath bombs like this only come round once in a blue moon! 🌙 We couldn’t resist this astronomical bath art from @lush that left us with shimmering stardust on our skin! Make sure you follow us for more out of this world fun from missionastro.org 🚀 #lushcosmetics #missionastro #bathbombaddict #spacetheme #intergalactic #intergalacticbathbomb #astronomylover #spacelovers

WOW WOW WOW! Did you watch blast off this morning?! 🚀⁠ ⁠ Polaris Dawn mission launched at 10.23am BST from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It marks the start of SpaceX's five day mission which aims to test new spacesuit designs and conduct the first private space walk.⁠ ⁠ Some interesting facts about the mission:⁠ ⁠ The mission is headed for an altitude 3 times higher than the International Space Station, making this mission the furthest that humans have been from Earth in over half a century! 🌍️⁠ ⁠ The mission will break the record for the most people in the vacuum of space at once... The Dragon Spacecraft - called Resilience - does not have an airlock, which is a sealed room between the doorway into space and the rest of the spacecraft. ⁠ ⁠ Normally the airlock is depressurised before astronauts step in and out, but in the case of Resilience, the entire craft will have to be depressurised!⁠ ⁠ The spacecraft has been adapted to withstand the vacuum, extra nitrogen and oxygen tanks have been installed and all four astronauts will wear EVA suits, although only two will exit the spacecraft.⁠ ⁠ Visit missionastro.org where you can try our FREE astronomy course on our easy to use virtual learning environment.⁠ ⁠ #spacex #spacexlaunch #polarisdawn #rocketlaunch #astrophysics #itisrocketscience #spacecentre #astronauts #missionastro⁠ ⁠ Image credits: 1: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon Resilience capsule, carrying the crew of the Polaris Dawn Mission.⁠ Chandan Khanna | Afp | Getty Images. 2: BBC NEWS LIVE⁠ ⁠

AURORA IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM 🪐⁠ ⁠ Our Academic Manager, Dr Heather Campbell, explains what aurorae are and why they are different on other planets compared to here on Earth!⁠ ⁠ Let's travel to other planets and discover the rainbow of colours we can find... ⁠ ⁠ Discover more in Heather's blog:⁠ ⁠ missionastro.org/blog 🔗⁠ ⁠ #missionastro #astronomycourse #onlineastronomycourse #astronomylovers #spaceblog #welovespace #aurora #hubble #nasa ⁠ ⁠ Image credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Nichols (University of Leicester).

iPhone Astro Photos! Sarah from @missionastro_ and Jordan from @novastargazinguk went to try out one of the venues for our joint winter stargazing events and this is what they captured on their phones through the telescope! Many of you are astrophotographers on here so these will look terrible in comparison to your photos but everyone has to start somewhere and these photos are our starting point! Perhaps we’ll post some at a later date and you can see if we’ve improved?! Anyway, challenge time, what objects are shown in the photos? The prize is immense pride and satisfaction that you know your space objects 😜 Perhaps also some of you can help us settle a debate; NGC 457 … an owl, E.T. or a new suggestion by Sarah … a stick insect 🤔 (there is some chat that she may need her lens prescription checked 😂) Clear Skies Forever ✨✨✨ #stargazing #iphoneastrophotography #hartleywintney

Hey space lovers, Sophie here 🤩 I’m currently house hunting and one of the best things about that is getting to mooch around beautiful show homes. Imagine my delight when I came across an out of this world space themed bedroom by @davidwilsonhomes_ ✨ I just had to share it with you all. Do you have any space decor in your home? Comment with a photo of it! Help inspire me! 🤩 #spacelovers #househunting #spacedecor #spacemural #astronomylover #davidwilsonhomes #showhome #showhomes #interiorstyling #homestyling #spaceart #spaceroom #missionastro

What to see in the September night sky 🔭⁠ ⁠ 🔭 2nd: Very thin Moon lies near Regulus (am)⁠ 🔭 5th: Venus lies near waxing crescent Moon (pm)⁠ 🔭 8th: Saturn at opposition⁠ 🔭 18th: Full Moon & partial lunar eclipse (am)⁠ 🔭 22nd: See the Moon approach the Pleiades⁠ ⁠ For the best opportunity to stargaze in September, make sure to look up on the 2nd, when there is a new Moon. You'll have less light pollution in the sky. Regulus is one of the brightest stars in the night sky and it will appear close to a thin crescent Moon on this date. There's another opportunity to appreciate the crescent Moon on the 5th when it will lie near Venus.⁠ ⁠ Saturn reaches opposition on 8th September, when the planet is presented at its best to us viewing from Earth. Shining at magnitude +0.2 among the stars of Aquarius, Saturn reaches around 30° altitude when due south, which is much better than it has managed over recent years.⁠ ⁠ Set your alarm early on 18th September! A partial lunar eclipse will begin at 3.14am, when the Moon begins to enter Earth’s umbra (the darkest part of Earth's shadow) and will end at 4.16am when the Moon is outside the umbra. During its maximum at 3.45am, 3.5% of the Moon’s disk will be in shadow. ⁠ ⁠ Finally, the 22nd September will be an exciting day! Firstly, it's the autumn equinox, where both the day and night will be almost exactly 12 hours. It marks the beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, so look forward to longer nights of stargazing from now on. ⁠ ⁠ Also on the 22nd, you will be able to see a close approach between the Moon in a waning gibbous phase and M45, an open star cluster called the Pleiades. You will also be able to see the constellation Orion, which contains the asterism ‘Orion’s Belt’ made out of the stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mantika. If you follow the line you get from connecting these stars, it will guide you to M45. ⁠ ⁠ HAPPY SEPTEMBER STARGAZING! ✨️ missionastro.org⁠ ⁠ #whatsinthenightsky #nightsky #uknightsky #missionastro #justgoodscience #astronomy #astronomylovers #astronomyfacts #septembernightsky #stargazing #fullmoon #ilovespace #givemespace #sciencesummer #lunareclipse #pleiades #saturn

Look how far we’ve come 🤩! On the 13 May 2024 when Dr Sarah Crick from @misionastro_ made a @teresamillsmosaics.mosaikit rocket with her kids and posted a stop motion video, little did she know that this small act would start a wonderful partnership! For three months now, we’ve been working on something in secret; a range of make-at-home space-themed mosaic kits for humans aged 6 and over. And what’s more, making the beautiful mosaic is just the start; the kits come fully loaded with a link to an interactive world of online space activities including video space lessons, fun quizzes, colouring challenges, word searches and interviews with current space researchers!! (Eeek so exciting and unique!!) Here’s the first mosaic in our collection and we’re so proud of how it’s developed. It’s based on Uranus and the kit will be all about the ice giants in the Solar System. We’re putting the final touches on this first kit now so it will be available to purchase soon 🎉✨🤩 Which other space objects do you think we’ve made mosaics of for the space kit collection? We’ve got 4 kits coming out so there’s 3 left for you to guess … #stemeducation #stemkits #astronomy

How do you put your best foot forward at work? The summer holidays are nearly over in the UK so we’re gearing up for the start of another academic year of fun! One of my favourite ways to start conversations with my audiences and students is a cracking space dress. Without fail, they bring compliments and confidence! Which is your favourite? 1, 3, 4 and 5 are @startorialist and 2 is @popsyclothing 🚀

📍You are here, worrying about your exam results. We know many of you have been feeling nervous about GCSE results day today. You don’t deserve to feel like that so we wanted to put things into perspective… You live in a house in a town in a country on a planet called Earth. Our planet, along with seven others and our sun, makes up our solar system. Our solar system orbits the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, which contains tens of billions other solar systems. If you could see our galaxy from above, you’d notice a spiral shape much like the one you can find in your very own fingerprint. There is so much out there to discover, and it’s all waiting for you! 🚀 Today is a very small part of your exciting journey! Love from the Mission Astro crew ✨ #missionastro #gcse #gcseresults #gcseresultsday #gcseastronomy #astronomy #spacelover #physicsteacher #physicsfun #justgoodscience #examresults #ukschools

Fancy swapping a package holiday to Greece for a package holiday to space next summer?! 🚀 Space tourism, in simple terms, is travel beyond Earth’s atmosphere for recreational purposes. It signifies the next evolution of travel, offering private citizens the unique opportunity to view Earth from an entirely new perspective and experience the thrill of weightlessness and space exploration. Dr Sarah Crick chats with Dhara Patel from @spacecentre about her thoughts on space tourism and its benefits to humanity. What do you think of space tourism? Let us know your thoughts in the comments! 🚀 #space #spacetourism #missionastro #holidaytospace #spaceholiday #summerholidayideas #spacecentre #physics #gcsephysics #astronomylover #spacelovers

When you hire @lounospace for your kid’s birthday party but their rocket activity is too fun to resist!! Calling all adults! Space is not just for kids!

We had the best night stargazing with @novastargazinguk recently! We headed down to the playing field at The Lucy Pygott Centre in Hartley Wintney on a warm summer’s night to set up the telescope. We saw the moon in magnificent detail, Saturn, some beautiful constellations and shooting stars! Make sure you’re following our page for when our stargazing night tickets are released in the autumn! We can’t wait for our autumn/ winter workshops to begin in cosy season… Think hot chocolate and sparkling night skies with loved ones while you learn all about our magnificent solar system! ✨missionastro.org #missionastro #stargazing #nightskies #uknightsky #hartleywintney #starrynight #spacelovers #astrophotography

The Perseid meteor shower is one of the most dramatic things to see in the night sky between July and August, and is a highlights of many meteor hunters’ calendars due to its high hourly rate and bright meteors. In 2024 the Perseid meteor shower is active between 17 July and 24 August. The shower will peak 12-13 August. The best time to see the Perseids is between 12:00 midnight and 5:30am. The radiant of the Perseids is actually always above the horizon as seen from the UK, which means that observers in the UK should be able to see some meteors as soon as the Sun sets. Therefore, it is worth looking up in the early evening. The meteors will seem to originate from the constellation of Perseus. You can use a stargazing app to find the exact location you should look. Laura from @springphysics asks Dr Sarah Crick a fascinating question - Why are meteors different colours?! See how many different colour meteors you can spot over the new few days as we head into the peak of the Perseids! #perseid #perseidmeteorshower #perseids #meteorshower #shootingstars #stargazing #astronomy #lookup #summerstargazing #missionastro #uknightsky #astronomylovers