Do you feel it? While we are officially in the middle of winter, the country has been a-flurry with sunny days this week. We’ve had a few chillers this season (to say the least!) so I was interested to find out when exactly, the cold weather of winter starts to fade in favour of spring breezes.

With the help of the National Climate Database, a New Zealand database of historical climate information, I set out this week to analyse temperature patterns in two of the main NZ centres to determine when exactly we should be expecting a little relief from the weather gods.

I think I’ve uncovered good news too. My (albeit un-meteorologically educated) assessment of the winter temperatures in Auckland and Christchurch over the last two years has determined that the coldest point of the year is the first ten days of July, with a low going down to around -7 degrees once or twice during this period. We’ve just hit July’s double digits today, so my optimism says we’re over the worst, and summer is on the way up! Also interesting to note that both cities rarely are submitted to negative temperatures (i.e. frosty, dangerous mornings!) after around July 23, just two weeks away.

Keep an eye on New Zealand weather by visiting the NZS.com weather section frequently (it’s updated hourly!) for both short and long range forecasts for your town or city.

During the the summer holidays this year, we spent time in Dunedin. There are plenty of great things to do in Dunedin but one of the things that really stood out was the Marine Studies Centre.

Not only is it a great aquarium but is also a research centre for the University of Otago. It was fun to check out their amazing collection of fish inside the glass tanks and even get to handle some of the creatures in the touch-tanks.

This centre is at the forefront of research into the marine environment as well as being a popular outdoor education provider to all ages.

In my perambulations around the Web the other day I discovered a very geeky site, that I have since used quite a bit, called Galaxy Zoo.

Astronomers have taken over a million pictures of galaxies in space - and now they need to categorise them. Currently, the only way that we can categorise galaxies is by having a person look at a picture of a galaxy and then decide whether it’s an elliptical or spiral shape. It turns out that computers can’t really do this job very well at all, so what a group of astronomers have done is provide the Galaxy Zoo website, where anybody can categorise galaxies after a quick ten minute tutorial.

The thing about pictures of galaxies is that some of them are quite spectacular; hence the site can be quite addictive. It’s very cool to be part of a real astronomy science project too.

Find more fascinating astronomy facts in the NZS.com directory.

Image from Flickr.

The earth moved for South Islanders in the early hours of this morning.
An earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale shook Southland. While there were no reports of injury or damage, the quake was felt strongly across the South Island. GNS Science duty seismologist Mark Chadwick said the quake, which struck at 1.29am, was centred 60km from Milford Sound at a depth of 24km. A 4.6 magnitude aftershock followed at 2.50am and a second aftershock was felt at 6:34am. There was no risk of a tsunami, although further aftershocks are likely over the next couple of days.

As Carl’s earlier post mentioned, Geonet provides up-to-date information on New Zealand quakes - here they keep us clued up on the most recent earthquakes, including today’s shake-up and aftershocks. They operate a nationwide network of seismic stations that transmit their data to the GeoNet Data Management Centre (DMC) where it’s analysed by automated processes. The information is released to the public if the Duty Officer confirms that the earthquake is real and significant.

They’re clever with their seismic reporting after the event, but will they be able to predict a big quake?
As Wikipedia, the great equalizer, tells us: “the reliability and reproducibility of prediction techniques have not been established.” So it’s unlikely that we’ll be warned before a big one strikes, although seismologists can calculate the probability that a quake will occur in a particular location. And when the earth experiences a flurry of seismic activity, there’s no need to panic; a ’swarm’ of earthquakes doesn’t necessarily indicate a high-magnitude quake is on the way. You may be comforted or frightened by this fact, but GeoNet records around 15,000 earthquakes in and around New Zealand each year, only 250 of which are big enough to be felt.

Read more about NZ earthquakes, but don’t get too shook up about it!

Mother Nature’s always keeping us on our toes and catching us by surprise…

Last night people fled from the slopes of Mount Ruapehu, as an eruption shook the area at around 8:20pm.

A 22-year-old climber was rescued from the mountain and is recovering in Waikato Hospital from leg injuries and hypothermia. He was injured when a rock fell through the roof of his hut where he was staying with three friends. There were no reports of other injuries.

The volcanic eruption sent two lahars (muddy torrents) down the northern and eastern slopes of the mountain, taking out a monitoring hut near the crater lake. The geothermal activity sent plumes of black smoke into the air, which were seen by pilots flying in the area. Skifields and ski lodges were evacuated, and roads and rail links closed last night.

The eruption has been described as a ‘blue sky’ eruption, as there was no prior warning or indicator that an eruption was imminent. It was similar to eruptions in 1969 and 1975, but smaller than those in 1995 and 1996.

Mount Ruapehu is the largest active volcano in New Zealand and, at 2,797 metres, is the highest point in the North Island. For more on this mammoth mountain, visit our New Zealand volcanoes category.

Ever heard of a fellow called Jack Parsons?

He was a dedicated occultist who co-founded America’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). It has been reported that “before each rocket test launch, Parsons would invoke the god Pan.” The New Zealand relationship? Sir William Pickering of New Zealand is the most famous Director of JPL.

Wernher von Braun is widely recognised as the leading figure in the development of rocket technology in America, but he held Jack Parsons in high regard… “von Braun remarked that Parsons, and not he, should be regarded as the father of the American space program.”

In 1952, Jack Parsons died in an accidental explosion of fulminate of mercury at his home laboratory, but there is an interesting connection between Pan and Apollo. “Once Pan had the audacity to compare his music with that of Apollo, and to challenge Apollo, the god of the lyre, to a trial of skill.” Of course, the US went on to name their most influential rocket program Apollo (originally meaning “the destroyer”). In addition, the new Orion (God of Hunting) capsule designed to carry people to the moon will be launched by the new series of rockets Ares (God of War).

Why has America gone for such provocative names for their rockets? Why didn’t they choose some nicer Gods like Eros, Aphrodite or Hestia? Why did they choose Greek Gods as a naming convention in the first place?

All in all, a series of interesting coincidences and I’m sure Jack Parsons will be smiling in his grave. There’s little wonder conspiracy theorists have a lot of fun in America!

On March 29^th, 2007, The European Space Agency (ESA) signed an agreement for the installation of a transportable telemetry station at Awarua. Southland is located on the launch trajectory of ESA’s Spaceport launch facility in Kourou, French Guiana. Located just south of Invercargill, the tracking station will be used to track the Ariane 5 launcher as it manoeuvres its payloads to the International Space Station.

After extensive preliminary analysis, the Awarua site was selected due to its excellent visibility of the Ariane 5’s trajectory. Civil works, road adaptation, concrete platform, power, telecommunications and fence construction started in January, 2007.

It’s superb to see Venture Southland take an active interest in pursuing space science projects. Robin McNeill from Venture Southland sums it up nicely in a Listener article quote:

“Most Kiwi kids feel that space science is something that happens overseas. But it’s happening here in Southland - that’s inspiring!”

We may be at the bottom of the world, but we’re on the aliens’ radar.

A mysterious, dome shaped object was spotted in the sky on April 28th, 2007, near Kaitaia in the Far North if New Zealand. Our buddies at UFO Focus New Zealand have taken a look at photographs of the as-yet-unidentified-flying-object and declared that the object seems to be a craft, a view backed up by an international expert. Dr Bruce Maccabee said the craft appeared to be of a circular shape, with a dome shaped top.

The lucky onlooker who captured the UFO photos watched the UFO for five minutes as it manoeuvred north, before eventually disappearing. Adding to the ‘mystery’ factor, there were no scheduled flights in the area at the time and the Carter Observatory has ruled out the possibility that it could be a meteorite or space junk.

While there’s no comment on whether the photos may be a hoax, the series of images would have required hours of work to pull off. Until further information comes to light, Northland’s unexplained flying object remains (officially) a UAP, or Unusual Aerial Phenomenon.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for other odd things in the sky…

Now, I’m not as certified space mad as our resident space cadet (you know who you are), but I do find space entirely fascinating, mysterious and enthralling. It’s the whole ‘unexplored expanse’ thing that gets me.

I still remember my dad (ever the adventurer) standing on the lawn with us in 1986 - I’d heaved my gumboots on to gaze skyward, neck aching, hoping to catch a glimpse of Haley’s Comet. To this day, I’m not sure I did actually see the comet (it might have been a smudgy star and it was a cloudy night), but it’s a great memory for what it’s worth. For those of you who share a curiosity about the universe, you’ll be rapt to hear that…

A lunar eclipse will be visible from New Zealand on August 28th!

A lunar eclipse is when the Earth passes between the sun and the moon. When this happens, the sun’s light can’t reach the moon’s surface and the moon enters the Earth’s shadow. Cool, eh? Keep your eyes skywards from around 8:51pm (the actual kick-off time is 7:52pm, but it won’t be visible until later) and stay tuned to the night sky between 9:52pm and 11:23pm, when the moon will be fully eclipsed. During this time, the moon will be a deep, coppery red, as the Earth’s atmosphere casts red light onto the moon’s surface. Take some time to ponder these lunar facts:

• Lunar eclipses can occur as many as three times in a year.
• If you were on the moon, the Earth would block the sun’s light and you’d see the dark Earth, ringed by light.
• Lunar eclipses last a maximum of 3 hours and 40 minutes, with a fully eclipsed time of 1 hour and 40 minutes.
• Lunar eclipses can be predicted using the Saros Cycle.
• Ancient civilizations feared eclipses and saw them as cosmic signs of famine and disease to come.
• Even today, some cultures are superstitious about eclipses (people in the Arctic turn over their utensils to prevent contamination and the Japanese cover their wells so they won’t be poisoned)

Oh, and Christopher Columbus predicted a lunar eclipse in 1504, to impress the native Jamaicans with his power and might, so why not play a trick on one of your more gullible friends? If you want to find out about other amazing things out there in space, visit our NZ astronomy category.

Kiwis in space? That’s the dream of space addict and entrepreneur, Mark Rocket, and the team at Rocket Lab.

As codirector, Rocket is right behind the developments of Rocket Lab, a private space company whose 5.5 metre sub-orbital rocket is due to be launched in September 2008. As well as this latest feather in his cap, Rocket is director and founder of NZS.com, and has a successful tourism directory and Web design company to his name.

Rocket Lab’s technical director, Peter Beck, has been hard at work developing rocket propulsion technology for more than a decade and yesterday unveiled Atea-01 (’atea’ means ’space’ in Te Reo Maori), a sub-orbital space rocket. Beck said the rocket “will be launched using systems designed to deliver high standards of environmental and public safety.” It will fly to a height of 150 kilometres and be available (at a going rate of between $50,000 and $100,000) for scientific testing and research into climate change, micro gravity and atmospheric conditions. Traveling at four times the speed of sound, the unmanned rocket will be powered by a specialised solid fuel, designed for minimal environmental impact.

What makes New Zealand such a great location for space technology development? Rocket says our clear air space and receptive regulatory environment make New Zealand the perfect location for space technology to flourish. Speaking this morning, Rocket is looking foward to a bright future. He has enjoyed “a superb response since Rocket Lab’s public launch yesterday” and is “very excited about the prospect of forming a space industry in New Zealand.”

Trevor Mallard, Minister of Economic Development, agrees. He has praised Rocket Lab’s creative vision and believes their innovative, low cost solutions will not only provide relatively affordable public access to space; they’ll also lead to the creation of an internationally respected sub-orbital space industry in New Zealand, with positive flow-on effects for our aviation and technology sectors. Mallard says Rocket Lab shows pioneering creativity, “leveraging off New Zealand’s unique geographical position and creating a specialist area of technical expertise.”

Stay tuned for further developments: Rocket claims space hotels, launch pads and space lines are all part of the private space industry’s current speedy development.