On Saturday 4th April, 2009 I attended my third and final night of Spring Moonwatch, organised by the West of London Astronomical Society at the Ruislip Lido. Given last nights experience of setting up in …

We’re currently in the midst of an annual UK astronomy event known as the spring moonwatch. It was originally conceived by the Society for Popular Astronomy in the UK and the event usually falls between 28th March to 5th April annually, because the moon will be best placed for observation from the UK. What is more, because the moon stays high above the horizon for a long time, it results in what astronomer called better “seeing” which essentially is a nice steady atmospheric condition usually resulting in a steady and sharp image of the moon when observing it through a telescope.

Here’s a cool thing to try out. You can actually see the International Space Station with the naked eye if you know where to look in the sky and at the correct time. What’s more, whilst you’re looking up in to the night sky, tracking the space station go above your head, you can listen in to the astronauts talking on the space station. I am not kidding. This is all really possible and it’s not very difficult to work out. Here how you do it.