Friday 15 February

Awoke to a nice dawn, little wind and later on pleasant sunshine. The mercury managed 8C / 46F this afternoon, which is quite good for the middle of February, and a value that we hadn't seen for a while.



Quite amazing images from Russia, which was at the receiving end of a meteorite. It appears that the sonic boom from the phenomenon caused a lot of damage and injury - nearly 1,000 were hurt through flying glass around Chelyabinsk, in the Ural Mountains. That other piece of space rock, 2012AD14, whizzed past at a close but safe distance of 17k miles. Still on space matters, a comet will approach the sun this autumn, and Ison will be brighter than the full moon. On its closest approach, the comet will be very close to the sun (only a degree away). During 2014, the comet, if it does not disintegrate on its passage by the sun, will fly away again, never to be seen again.