Paul Abel

Astronomer

Paul G Abel is the director of the British Astronomical Association’s Mercury and Venus section, and a theoretical physicist at the University of Leicester.

Recent articles by Paul Abel

Venus as a bright star in the evening twilight

Venus returns 6 ways to enjoy observing the Evening Star this season

A sketch of a dust storm over Argyre Planitia on Mars. Credit: Paul Abel

How to draw Mars at your telescope

Make the most of Mars at opposition in 2020. Find out how to see Mars tonight. Credit:Pete Lawrence

Observing guide See Mars as it approaches opposition

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How to observe variable stars

A multi-wavelength view of Supernova 1987A, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Angelich (NRAO/AUI/NSF); Hubble image: NASA, ESA, and R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation) Chandra image: NASA/CXC/Penn State/K. Frank et al. ALMA image: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) and R. Indebetouw (NRAO/AUI/NSF).

How to find and observe a supernova through your telescope

How to keep an astronomy log book. Credit: iStock

How to keep an astronomical log book

A mission to Uranus could teach us a lot, including about the early Solar System. Credit: Mark Garlick / Science Photo Library

Why we should send a spacecraft to explore Uranus

Paul's finished sketch of Jupiter. Credit: Paul Abel

How to draw Jupiter

Once the 9th planet in the Solar System, Pluto is now classified as a Kuiper Belt Object. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Astronomy explained Why is Pluto not a planet?

A crescent Venus. Credit: Pete Lawrence

Ashen light: the mystery of Venus’s dark-side glow

Maat Mons on Venus, as seen by the Magellan spacecraft. Simulated colour has been used. Credit: NASA/JPL

A guide to the mountains of Venus

Mag. -3.9 Venus appears 4.8° from a 6%-lit waxing crescent Mon on 28 December. Credit: Pete Lawrence

See Venus the ‘Evening Star’ in the night sky this month

An artist's illustration of New Horizons at Pluto. Credit: Image Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

What did New Horizons discover at Pluto?

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Observe and record the Geminid meteor shower

In this comparison image the photo at the top was taken by Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in 1995 and shows the spot at a diameter of just under 21 000km; the second down shows a 2009 WFC3 photo of the spot at a diameter of just under 18 000km; and the lowest shows the newest image from WFC3 taken in 2014 with the spot at its smallest yet, with diameter of just 16 000km.

How to measure Jupiter’s Great Red Spot