In Search of Planet Vulcan:The Ghost in Newton’s Clockwork Universe by Richard Baum and William Sheehan June 26, 2007
Posted by webmaster in : Great Books of Science , 1 comment so farThere aren’t many good books on the history of observational astronomy out there. The public perception of the lone astronomer standing vigil at the eyepiece is rapidly vanishing into the past.
In Search of Planet Vulcan reads like a good mystery novel. (more…)
Childhoods’ End by Arthur C. Clarke June 21, 2007
Posted by webmaster in : Great Science Fiction Novels , 1 comment so farChildhoods’ End covers a broad swath of human history. Like Rendezvous with Rama it covers one of sci-fi’s most hollowed (or hackneyed?) themes; first contact with extraterrestials. (more…)
Viewing a Low Altitude Occultation
Posted by webmaster in : Real Science you can do , 5 comments
Daytime Moon & Venus. Photo by Author.
This past Thursday, I got an e-mail from Sky & Telescopes’ automated alert system; Monday, the 18th of June, there would be an occultation of Venus by the Moon visible from extreme northern New England and the Canadian Maritimes. This occultation would also span the Atlantic, Europe, and into Asia, but would be especially difficult to spot from the continental US (what we in the miltary refer to as ConUS) due to its extremely low elevation in the day time sky.