Trackbacks
-
[...] Astro Guyz Astro Guyz: …read [...]
The Sky is Waiting.
Search AstroGuyz
Custom Search
Advertise on Astroguyz!
 |
|
 |
 |
Pictured is a Delta IV rocket launch from Cape Canaveral on November 21st, 2010. The image is a 20 second exposure taken at dusk, shot from about 100 miles west of the launch site. The launch placed a classified payload in orbit for the United States Air Force.
Difficult but not impossible to catch against the dawn or dusk sky, spotting an extreme crescent moon can be a challenge. The slender crescent pictured was shot 30 minutes before sunrise when the Moon was less than 20 hours away from New.� A true feat of visual athletics to catch, a good pair of binoculars or a well aimed wide field telescopic view can help with the hunt.
The Sun is our nearest star, and goes through an 11-year cycle of activity. This image was taken via a properly filtered telescope, and shows the Sun as it appeared during its last maximum peak in 2003. This was during solar cycle #23, a period during which the Sun hurled several large flares Earthward. The next solar cycle is due to peak around 2013-14.
Located in the belt of the constellation Orion, Messier 42, also known as the Orion Nebula is one of the finest deep sky objects in the northern hemisphere sky. Just visible as a faint smudge to the naked eye on a clear dark night, the Orion Nebula is a sure star party favorite, as it shows tendrils of gas contrasted with bright stars. M42 is a large stellar nursery, a star forming region about 1,000 light years distant.
Orbiting the planet in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) every 90 minutes, many people fail to realize that you can see the International Space Station (ISS) from most of the planet on a near-weekly basis. In fact, the ISS has been known to make up to four visible passes over the same location in one night. The image pictured is from the Fourth of July, 2011 and is a 20 second exposure of a bright ISS pass.
�
Next to the Sun, the two brightest objects in the sky are the Moon and the planet Venus. In fact, when Venus is favorably placed next to the Moon, it might just be possible to spot the two in the daytime. Another intriguing effect known as earthshine or ashen light is also seen in the image on the night side of the Moon; this is caused by sunlight reflected back off of the Earth towards our only satellite.
A mosaic of three images taken during the total lunar eclipse of December 21st, 2010. The eclipse occurred the same day as the winter solstice. The curve and size of the Earth�s shadow is apparent in the image.
Ghosts of Eclipses Past
Trouvelot’s classic view of the 1878 eclipse over Wyoming.
Image in the Public Domain.
Are you ready?
There’s a great line from Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on the Three Stages of Sophistication which every civilization must pass: �1. How can we eat? 2. Why do we eat? And 3. Where shall we do lunch?�
This axiom also applies to the way we view and approach nature, including total solar eclipses.
Imagine you’re an average everyday citizen of human society, thousands of years ago. You live a typical, hard scrabble existence, consisting of three basic �commandments: don’t die today, find and consume more calories than you burn doing it, and oh, try to leave some offspring along the way.
And suddenly, in the midst of that daily routine of existence, the daytime sky goes dark.
What would you make of it?
Now, a total solar eclipse occurs, on average, over the same geographic locale once every 375 years. Maybe you’d heard stories of someone who knew someone from far away who had witnessed such a strange spectacle, or perhaps, you had heard tales of darkness at midday occurring long ago. Maybe such tales had merged into legends along with giants and unicorns and things old timers seemed to have just kicking around, but aren’t part of your everyday life today…
It always amazes us that ancient civilizations figured out the �how� in the cycle of eclipses. Lunar eclipses were probably key, as they are much more frequent, and you just have to be on the right hemisphere of the Earth to see one. Annular solar eclipses, for example, are much more subtle, unless the ring of fire Sun is filtered by clouds, fog or low to the horizon. I wonder how many court astrologers predicted a total solar eclipse which was actually annular, and were beheaded as a result.
With science and enlightenment came the ability to study and understand eclipses, and the �why� era was soon underway. By the mid-18th century, we’d harnessed the power of a total solar eclipse to do real science using it to discover everything from the element helium (which derives its name from the Greek word for Sun, helios) to revealing sungrazing comets hidden from view.
The upcoming Great American Eclipse spanning the contiguous United States may well be the most well-documented and recorded eclipse in history. And while there is still some science to be had, total solar eclipses have passed more into the realm of a purely aesthetic phenomena. We have reached the pinnacle of sophistication in eclipse viewing, no longer fearing its portent or unveiling its secrets, but instead hopping aboard our Learjet and asking ourselves, �Where shall we greet totality?�
Of course, it’s a grand thing, to see so many folks interested in space and astronomy. We’ll be at the PARI radio observatory in North Carolina, for a glorious 107 seconds of totality the afternoon of August 21st. Do make the effort to get to the path of totality on August 21st for the spectacle of a lifetime. Unless, of course, you’re actually a cloud, in which case, you’re not invited to the party…