Category: astronomical events

Friday Unrelated Information

Karen

1. Have you heard that astronomers were able to spot a star going supernova within hours of the explosion? It’s also one of the closest to Earth in “a generation,” at 21 million light years away.

The supernova is in the Pinwheel Galaxy, located in the Big Dipper, and it’s gaining brightness by the minute (as massive stellar explosions tend to do); in about two weeks astronomers say it should be visible with a pair of binoculars.

Read more at the Berkley Science Center Lab or from the Bad Astronomer.

2. It’s been hot here, but I can’t bring myself to wish for the weather to break and fall to come. I need to go to the farmers market and the pool and pretend it will be summer forever.

Friday Unrelated Information

Karen1 Comment

1. It was cloudy here for the super perigee moon last Saturday, which kind of made me feel like the girl who misses the sun shining on Venus in that Bradbury story. But then I read that another full moon that will be almost as bright will happen on May 6 next year. I guess its full phase will be pretty close to perigee–not coinciding perfectly with it like the one that just happened–but it made me feel better.

2. Dr. Sagan would be ashamed of me, but I’m going to say it anyway: I think the “super moon” wreaked emotional havoc over the last week and a half. At least, that’s what I’m blaming.

3. And finally, Toby’s garage explorations are getting a little out of hand:
All he wants to do is play on the Ford Kitty Gym–and of course I can’t say no to him. Spoiled Toby!

Friday Unrelated Information

Karen

1. If you’ve read more than one post I’ve written, you know I keep things pretty insular (solipsistic) here. So of course I haven’t talked about Japan, because what can you say about such destruction? What can you say about images like these? At least they have something left?

If I could be spared anything, I’d want it to be Toby. But what about those who weren’t spared anything?

2.Ruth Reichl has a way to live with that question. Mostly.

3. When things are upsetting, I like to think about space: This Saturday, a “super perigee moon”–the biggest in almost 20 years–will be out. According to NASA, that’s a full moon that coincides with being closest to Earth in its orbit. But that doesn’t fully explain why it will look so huge:
“For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, low-hanging Moons look unnaturally large when they beam through trees, buildings and other foreground objects.”

There. All it takes is some mystery (not of the “why all this misery?” kind but of the “something incredible is waiting to be known”) and I feel better.

Get Out Your Druid Robes

Karen

Not only is tonight the winter solstice, but there is a full lunar eclipse, too! The last full moon on the solstice was 20 years ago; the last full lunar eclipse on the solstice was December 21, 1638.

Start here on the NASA site to read up about it–they’ll even have a live web cam (!). The eclipse should start about 11:30 p.m. tonight, with totality starting Tuesday morning at 12:41 a.m. and ending at 1:53 a.m. The whole thing will be happening in the western sky. I hope it’s not cloudy!

(Bonus activity: sing “Total Eclipse of the Moon” to the Bonnie Tyler tune. You’re welcome.)

Happy Summer Solstice

Karen

I am telling myself that it is the first day of summer, not the beginning of the end of long days and warm weather. Here’s a Longfellow quote to fool yourself with:

Then followed that beautiful season… Summer….
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.

Another Reason To Visit The Cook Islands

Karen

If I did, I’d get to see the stars from the Southern Hemisphere. The Astronomy Picture of the Day site had a photo last week demonstrating just that:


On the left the outlines show Orion seen from a beach off Tasmania, and on the right you can see it in the Northern Hemisphere, from the Alborz Mountains in Iran. (See more details and a bigger picture on the APOD site.)

That’s just very cool. My sister-in-law is going to South Africa in the spring and I am jealous!

The Worst Is Over

Karen

Today is the winter solstice, marking the official beginning of winter. But since it also marks the shortest day of the year, I like to think of it as the turning point: It can only get lighter and warmer from here.

Let’s celebrate with a light-hearted comic about science (click for big).


Maybe I should have made some gingerbread Carl Sagans this year!

Happy Fall

Karen

190 years and three days ago, John Keats wrote his “Ode to Autumn,” and, while the astronomical equinox isn’t until tomorrow, it’s a nice way to start the week. Here’s the first stanza; you can read the rest of it here.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

Friday Unrelated Information

Karen

1. Today is the Vernal Equinox. We made it! Here are some science facts (sciiiiience!):

  • The fall and spring equinoxes are the only two times during the year when the sun rises due east and sets due west.
  • The equinoxes are also the only days of the year when a person standing on the Equator can see the sun passing directly overhead.
  • On the Northern Hemisphere’s vernal equinox day, a person at the North Pole would see the sun skimming across the horizon, beginning six months of uninterrupted daylight.
  • A person at the South Pole would also see the sun skim the horizon, but it would signal the start of six months of darkness.

2. The Obamas are planting a kitchen garden at the White House–it’s the first time there’s been a garden on the grounds since WWII, when there was a Victory Garden.

We Made It

Karen

Yesterday marked the Winter Solstice, so at least we can have more light as we fight “the depressive psychological effects of winter on individuals and societies,” which Wikipedia defines as “coldness, tiredness, malaise, and inactivity.”

I’ve mostly escaped malaise and Mr. Isbell and I have been pretty good about staying active, but the coldness this year has been getting to me. My fingers and toes are ALWAYS cold, and Toby and I are in front of the space heater like it’s a roaring fire. (If only it were.)

But at least December is almost over, then there’s just January and February. We can do it, right?