Astronomy & Natural Wonders
Tributes to the beauty of the universe ...
Click any picture to navigate to the page of interest for more information about this tartan or its associated day.
Full Moons
Designed by Carol A.L. Martin, this tartan was inspired by two full moons in 2009.
Jan 10
Lunar "Wolf Moon" Eclipse (2020)
Norwegian Night
This tartan was inspired by the Aurora Borealis in the night sky, frequently seen in Norway. The colours used are: red, blue and white from the Norwegian flag; yellow, white and black are for the Aurora Borealis in the night sky (polar light).
Jan 15
Winter Auroras
Aurora
This tartan, by designer Carol A.L. Martin, exhibits the beautiful diverse hues of the northern lights.
Mar 23
Spring Aurora Watch
Exploration of Titan
The colours in this tartan specifically represent the organic compounds and chemical processes studied on Saturn's moon Titan.
Mar 25
Titan Discovery Day
Distant Galaxy
This tartan, designed by Carol A.L. Martin, was inspired by the images seen through the Hubble telescope.
Apr 24
the Hubble Telescope Launch (1990)
Infra-Red
This tartan, by designer Carol A.L. Martin, was designed to illustrate the long wavelengths beyond visible light such as thermal radiation.
May 2
Astronomy Day (Spring)
New Star
This tartan, designed by Carol A.L. Martin, references the colours of the birthplace of new stars, huge, cold clouds of gas and dust, known as 'nebulas'.
May 2
Astronomy Day (Spring)
Star Trails
This tartan, designed by Carol A.L. Martin, illustrates the long-exposure photography of stars as they appear to move across the sky, leaving colourful trails.
May 2
Astronomy Day (Spring)
Sunspots
This tartan, designed by Carol A.L. Martin, explores the variation of colours exhibited by the active sun.
May 2
Astronomy Day (Spring)
Milky Way
This tartan, designed by Carol A.L. Martin, represents a view of the Milky Way with the light bands showing the concentration of stars located in the direction of the galactic plane along with the dark regions in the Zone of Avoidance where the light is blocked by interstellar dust. The red lines represent the cosmological red shift, due to the expansion of the universe.
May 10
Milky Way Viewing Season
Umbra
Designed by Carol A.L. Martin, this tartan uses amongst shades of black, white, and gray, a special color called "eclipse"!
May 26
Lunar Eclipse (2021)
Lunar
This tartan's colours emphasize the black, brown and grey from the lunar rock brought back to earth by the Apollo missions and the red for the rocket flame.
Jul 20
Moon Landing
Moon and Airless Bodies
This tartan was designed to celebrate robotic and human science, exploration and outreach activities associated with the Moon or other airless bodies including asteroids, comets, Kuiper Belt Objects or other objects.
Jul 20
Moon Day
NASA Apollo 11 Moon Landing and Moon Walk
This tartan's colours emphasize the black, brown and grey from the lunar rock brought back to earth by the Apollo missions and the red for the rocket flame.
Jul 20
Apollo 11 Moon Walk Day
Comet
By designer Carol A.L. Martin, this tartans uses colours that represent a comet as it reaches perihelion in the night sky.
Jul 28
Comet Day (2061)
Twinkle
This tartan, by Carol A.L. Martin, represents a twinkling star in a dark night sky.
Aug 11
The Dog Days of Summer & Perseids
Dark Island (Black Moon)
The blackest of black tartans! Find out how the tartan pattern is created with a single colour!
Aug 30
Black Moon (2019)
Flare
This fiery tartan by designer Carol A.L. Martin, replicates the hot colors of the sun against the black of empty space.
Sep 2
The Carrington Event of 1859
Astrobiology
The tartan colours were chosen specifically for the field of Astrobiology, the branch of biology concerned with the study of life on earth and in space.
Sep 26
Astronomy Day (Fall)
Sundog
This tartan, designed by Carol A.L. Martin, is representative of the little colourful spots on either side of the sun on cold days in winter.
Sep 26
Astronomy Day (Fall)
Aurora Borealis
This tartan, by designer Carol A.L. Martin, exhibits the beautiful diverse hues of the northern lights.
Sep 30
Fall Aurora Watch
Harvest Moon
By designer Carol A.L. Martin, this tartan was inspired by the colours of a bright Harvest Moon in the autumn night.
Oct 1
Harvest Moon
Willy Wonka
By designer Carol A.L. Martin, this tartan was inspired by the colours of a bright Harvest Moon in the autumn night.
Oct 1
Willy Wonka Day
Sol
By designer Carol A.L. Martin, this tartan reflects the muted yellows in autumn when the sun is low in the sky.
Oct 15
Indian Summer
Green Flash
Tartan design by Carol A.L. Martin
Oct 25
Ghosts & Phantoms Night
Blue Moon
This tartan was inspired by the shadows cast on the snow by the full moon.
Oct 31
Blue Moon (2020)
Planetary Transit
Designed by Arpin Pierre for the last transit of Venus which occurred in June 2012.
Nov 11
Planetary Transit of Mercury (2019)
Orion Nebula
The colours in this tartan represent the beautiful spectrum of light emitted from the Orion nebula, one of the most beautiful astronomical objects easily visible in the night sky.
Nov 26
Orion Nebula Day
Black Hole
Designed by Carol A.L. Martin, this tartan is designed to reflect the fundamentals of our universe - galaxies, black holes and quasars.
Nov 27
Black Hole Friday
Mars Exploration
The colours of this tartan include a red background depicting the surface of Mars; blue depicts the water-rich past of Mars and the presence of water, mainly as ice, on the planet today; the four green lines represent Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun.
Nov 28
Red Planet Day
Solar Eclipse
The solar eclipse tartan, by designer Carol A.L. Martin, was inspired by the partial solar eclipse of Jan. 4th, 2011, seen across Europe.
Dec 14
The Next Great Solar Eclipse (2020)
Dark Sky
This tartan was designed by Dale Stevenson for the Dark Sky Observatory in Dalmellington using colours that reflect the night sky.
Dec 21
The Winter Solstice
Moon Shadows
By designer Carol A.L. Martin, this tartan was inspired by the shadows of a full moon on a winter's night.
Dec 29
Full Moon (Cold Moon)
A Penumbral Eclipse
The moon, framed by ashes from the Mount Sinabung volcano, penumbral eclipse from Karo in North Sumatra province on August 8, 2017
Jan 10
Lunar "Wolf Moon" Eclipse (2020)
Aurora Borealis
Auroras are produced when the magnetosphere is sufficiently disturbed by the solar wind, which carries charged particles mainly in the form of electrons and protons, and precipitates them into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere), where their energy is lost.
Jan 15
Winter Auroras
Aurora on the Isle of Lewis
The aurora is caused by the interaction of solar wind - a stream of charged particles escaping the sun - and Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere.
Mar 23
Spring Aurora Watch
Titan's phases
Titan is the largest moon of Saturn. It is the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere, and the only object in space, other than Earth, where clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found.
Mar 25
Titan Discovery Day
Hubble Image
A giant cluster of about 3000 stars called Westerlund 2. The cluster resides in a raucous stellar breeding ground known as Gum 29, located 20 000 light-years away in the constellation Carina - photo: NASA
Apr 24
the Hubble Telescope Launch (1990)
Infra Red Photography
Long wavelengths, such as infra-red or radio waves can make it through the Earth's atmosphere without significant obstacles. In fact, radio telescopes can observe even on cloudy days.
May 2
Astronomy Day (Spring)
Serpens Cloud Core
According to our best available estimates, stars having about 90 percent of the sun's mass are just now starting to die in the globulars. These stars are most probably around 15 billion years old, but they could conceivably be as young as 12 billion years or as old as 18 billion years.
May 2
Astronomy Day (Spring)
Star trails
Photography by Lincoln Harrison - There are two methods popular with star photographers – using one very long exposure (long enough to register some noticeable star movement; at least 30 minutes) OR taking many shorter exposures and stacking those images in a way that shows sequential movement.
May 2
Astronomy Day (Spring)
Sunspots
Sunspots tend to appear in cycles of 11 years. Sunspots sometimes erupt into powerful solar storms that shoot streams of charged particles into space, occasionally in the direction of Earth. Some powerful solar storms can bombard Earth's magnetic field and disrupt power grids or knock out satellites in orbit around the planet.
May 2
Astronomy Day (Spring)
The Milky Way
In western culture, the name "Milky Way" for our view of our own galaxy is derived from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky. The term is a translation of the Classical Latin via lactea, in turn derived from the Hellenistic Greek for "milky circle". In Greek mythology, the Milky Way was supposedly made from the forceful suckling of Heracles, when Hera acted as a wet nurse for the hero.
May 10
Milky Way Viewing Season
The Earth's Umbra
This composite image uses successive pictures recorded during the eclipse from Athens, Greece to trace out a large part of the umbra's curved edge.
May 26
Lunar Eclipse (2021)
Lunar Walk
Panorama created from photos taken on the fourth crewed Moon mission, Apollo 15, which landed in August of 1971
Jul 20
Moon Landing
Craters on the Moon
Many features of the moon are named after famous individuals. Amongst others, several craters of the moon are named after Scottish scientists, including John Napier, and James Clerk Maxwell.
Jul 20
Moon Day
Moon Landing, July 21, 1969
Astronaut Neil Armstrong on the moon's surface
Jul 20
Apollo 11 Moon Walk Day
Comet Hale-Bopp, 1997
As a comet gets closer to the Sun, some of these frozen gases sublimate creating the coma – the envelope of atmosphere that surrounds a comet. These gases can reflect sunlight and turn our dark object into a bright, yellow-white body. One of the two tails a comet produces, the ion tail – a collection of charged particles pushed away by the solar wind – will begin to glow with a blue tint.
Jul 28
Comet Day (2061)
Perseids Meteor - Milky Way
The Dog Days of summer, generally reckoned to begin July 3rd and ending August 11th, coinciding with the rising of the Dog Star, Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major.
Aug 11
The Dog Days of Summer & Perseids
Almost a New Moon
The term black moon refers to an additional new moon that appears in a month or in a season. It may also refer to the absence of a full moon or of a new moon in a month.
Aug 30
Black Moon (2019)
Solar Flare
Massive solar flares are sometimes accompanied by coronal mass ejections which can trigger geomagnetic storms that have been known to disable satellites and knock out terrestrial electric power grids for extended periods of time.
Sep 2
The Carrington Event of 1859
Earth-bound and Extra-Terrestrial Life
Astrobiology is a branch of biology concerned with the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. Astrobiology considers the question of whether extraterrestrial life exists, and how humans can detect it if it does.
Sep 26
Astronomy Day (Fall)
Sundog in the Grand Tetons
A sun dog (or sundog) or mock sun, formally called a parhelion (plural parhelia) in meteorology, is an atmospheric optical phenomenon that consists of a bright spot to the left or right of the Sun. Two sun dogs often flank the Sun within a 22° halo.
Sep 26
Astronomy Day (Fall)
Aurora on the Isle of Lewis
The aurora is caused by the interaction of solar wind - a stream of charged particles escaping the sun - and Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere.
Sep 30
Fall Aurora Watch
Wheat in the Night
Harvest Moons often appear larger and more colourful than other moons of the year, aided by the tilt of the earth and reflections from the atmosphere.
Oct 1
Harvest Moon
Harvest Moons often appear larger and more colourful than other moons of the year, aided by the tilt of the earth and reflections from the atmosphere.
Oct 1
Willy Wonka Day
Indian Summer Hudson River
“Indian summer” is a phrase most North Americans use to describe an unseasonably warm and sunny patch of weather during autumn.
Oct 15
Indian Summer
Green Flash
Green flashes and green rays are rare optical phenomena that occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise, usually observed from a low altitude where there is an unobstructed view of the horizon, such as on the ocean.