Waning Cresent

Welcome back to school and hello new astronomy students. What a summer of astronomy. We were really sad to lose two pioneers. Firstly Sir Bernard Lovell, who died aged 98, was the leader of the team that built the Jodrell Bank telescope in Cheshire, at one time the largest steerable radiotelescope in the world.

Secondly we said goodbye to Neil Armstrong, the US astronaut secured his place in history on 20 July 1969, when, as commander of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, he was the first man to set foot on the moon, and made his famous statement: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

On a much brighter note the Mars Science Laboratory landed safely on Mars and the Curiosity Rover quickly sent back amazing HD images of the surface of Mars. The rover has ten different scientific instruments to analyse the surface of Mars and search for evidence of life.

We excitedly await further discoveries. At the distance of 56 million km (perigee) or 249 million km (apogee) away, these images and experiments are all the more extraordinary. I'm sure Sir Bernard and Neil would be astounded at the rapid pace of space exploration.

And don't forget - wink at Neil next time you look at the Moon!