Do you know your constellations?
It's always amazing to me how many people don't know their constellations! Such a ubiquitous thing, the night sky, but so many only know maybe the Big Dipper-- and that's only an asterism, not a true constellation!
It's so easy to familiarize yourself with the sky, it's basically connecting the dots-- it's like a familiar roadmap that only changes 4 minutes a day really! (24 hrs/365 days = 4 minutes a day).
I love to watch the night sky, connecting the dots, trying to figure out how the constellations are oriented on a night without looking at a star chart. Like driving without a road map.
The other night I was looking to the east thinking that the bright object I was observing was a planet-- it HAD to be-- it wasn't twinkling. But after thinking about it, I realized that the ecliptic (the what you say?) was further south and east than this "planet"-- it had to be part of the stars around it. Sure enough, I eventually recognized Auriga (who?) through the light pollution-- the "planet" was the star Cappella.
People (and I mean the general non-astronomical public) seem so amazed when you point out a planet or a star to them. It's like being amazed that someone knows that the Starbucks is at the corner of Main and 1st.
But that's just me I guess-- it's not like astronomy HAS to be something left only for physics majors and nerds behind telescopes. Astronomy really and truly affects our daily lives (unlike it's evil twin, Astrology).
Think about your seasons-- astronomy. Your tides-- astronomy. Your moon phase, your sunset, your blue sky, your satellites, your aurorae, your winter, your summer, your weather, your UV radiation, your north and even your south are all affected by astronomy. Shoot-- I forgot our 24.25 hours a day, which is slowly getting longer-- all astronomy.
Ok-- so I've gone off the deep end. Maybe it just amazes me how many folks are completely unaware of their surroundings to even notice that the moon is visible during the day, that the sun is NEVER directly above in North America (we're too far north of the Tropic of Cancer) and that which is the greatest ignorance of them all : THE SEASONS ARE REVERSED WHEN YOU CROSS THE EQUATOR.
I'm from Argentina, and MANY, MANY times I would get amazed faces when I mentioned that my summer vacation in Argentina was spent in cold, winter weather. Are we not aware of this spaceship earth? Do we only know that the earth is round because Columbus discovered it? (He didn't, of course, a spherical earth was well established when he "sailed the ocean blue". He only thought it was 1/3 smaller than it truly was. Thus the erroneous "West Indies".)
I guess the public response is "So what?". So what that we are moving on an earth that is traveling 70,000 miles per hour around the sun. So what the the moon is moving away from us 4 cm every year thanks to increased orbital energy we impart thanks to tidal locking. So what that we have 2 tides per day thanks to the moon-- and so what that the moon itself is responsible for the earth having such a stable 23.5 degree tilt as to keep a cycle of seasons that is suitable for life on this remote 3rd rock from the sun.
So what I say! Maybe we need to ignore all that occurs outside our atmosphere and first fix all of the problems inside of it. Spend no time gazing at the stars, taking pictures of the moon, sending robots to other planets, take no time learning the structure of comets, asteroids, stars, rings, space, solar wind, or black holes. Let's have none of it! It's all hogwash I say!
Remember that the same has been said of philosophy and art, of poetry and theatre, and in general of human learning and exploration. Why do we bother to study history, geology, paleontology, since they don't give us anything of advantage?
Because, if we don't understand ourselves and where we came from, or at least our place in the universe, we can't hope to put our gains and lives in perspective.
Getting off my soapbox, bare minimum I think astronomy could have a direct impact in preventing some future NEA (near earth asteriod) from making all of our problems seem minute.
Just my take.
Anyway, where was I ? Constellations?
So check out this cool website where you can get PDFs to print out of the night sky for every month of the year: http://www.skymaps.com/
Then go outside and take a gander.
It's about time.
Good night,
Dan
It's so easy to familiarize yourself with the sky, it's basically connecting the dots-- it's like a familiar roadmap that only changes 4 minutes a day really! (24 hrs/365 days = 4 minutes a day).
I love to watch the night sky, connecting the dots, trying to figure out how the constellations are oriented on a night without looking at a star chart. Like driving without a road map.
The other night I was looking to the east thinking that the bright object I was observing was a planet-- it HAD to be-- it wasn't twinkling. But after thinking about it, I realized that the ecliptic (the what you say?) was further south and east than this "planet"-- it had to be part of the stars around it. Sure enough, I eventually recognized Auriga (who?) through the light pollution-- the "planet" was the star Cappella.
People (and I mean the general non-astronomical public) seem so amazed when you point out a planet or a star to them. It's like being amazed that someone knows that the Starbucks is at the corner of Main and 1st.
But that's just me I guess-- it's not like astronomy HAS to be something left only for physics majors and nerds behind telescopes. Astronomy really and truly affects our daily lives (unlike it's evil twin, Astrology).
Think about your seasons-- astronomy. Your tides-- astronomy. Your moon phase, your sunset, your blue sky, your satellites, your aurorae, your winter, your summer, your weather, your UV radiation, your north and even your south are all affected by astronomy. Shoot-- I forgot our 24.25 hours a day, which is slowly getting longer-- all astronomy.
Ok-- so I've gone off the deep end. Maybe it just amazes me how many folks are completely unaware of their surroundings to even notice that the moon is visible during the day, that the sun is NEVER directly above in North America (we're too far north of the Tropic of Cancer) and that which is the greatest ignorance of them all : THE SEASONS ARE REVERSED WHEN YOU CROSS THE EQUATOR.
I'm from Argentina, and MANY, MANY times I would get amazed faces when I mentioned that my summer vacation in Argentina was spent in cold, winter weather. Are we not aware of this spaceship earth? Do we only know that the earth is round because Columbus discovered it? (He didn't, of course, a spherical earth was well established when he "sailed the ocean blue". He only thought it was 1/3 smaller than it truly was. Thus the erroneous "West Indies".)
I guess the public response is "So what?". So what that we are moving on an earth that is traveling 70,000 miles per hour around the sun. So what the the moon is moving away from us 4 cm every year thanks to increased orbital energy we impart thanks to tidal locking. So what that we have 2 tides per day thanks to the moon-- and so what that the moon itself is responsible for the earth having such a stable 23.5 degree tilt as to keep a cycle of seasons that is suitable for life on this remote 3rd rock from the sun.
So what I say! Maybe we need to ignore all that occurs outside our atmosphere and first fix all of the problems inside of it. Spend no time gazing at the stars, taking pictures of the moon, sending robots to other planets, take no time learning the structure of comets, asteroids, stars, rings, space, solar wind, or black holes. Let's have none of it! It's all hogwash I say!
Remember that the same has been said of philosophy and art, of poetry and theatre, and in general of human learning and exploration. Why do we bother to study history, geology, paleontology, since they don't give us anything of advantage?
Because, if we don't understand ourselves and where we came from, or at least our place in the universe, we can't hope to put our gains and lives in perspective.
Getting off my soapbox, bare minimum I think astronomy could have a direct impact in preventing some future NEA (near earth asteriod) from making all of our problems seem minute.
Just my take.
Anyway, where was I ? Constellations?
So check out this cool website where you can get PDFs to print out of the night sky for every month of the year: http://www.skymaps.com/
Then go outside and take a gander.
It's about time.
Good night,
Dan
posted by Dan at 10:10 PM
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