Archive for the 'Astronomy' Category

Mars (dis)information

Another August is here, and that means it’s time for the Mars/Moon emails to start going around again.
If you haven’t received one, they go something like this:
Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August!
It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will cultivate on Aug. [...]

Awed and bummed

In the years BK (before kids), the wife and I used to chase eclipses. Nothing — and I mean NOTHING – is more mind-blowing than standing in the shadow of the Moon.
So I’ve been pretty bummed the past few years, as family responsibilities have kept me from seeing the past few eclipses. Especially when I [...]

Pre-space age art (repost)

In this era of space telescopes, satellites, and Photoshop, it’s easy to forget that only a few decades ago, we had no idea of what space actually looked like. The task of communicating the wonders of space was left to the dreamers and artists, and we depended on them to stir our imaginations and passion [...]

Virtual memorial

So, last week the blogosphere had this thing honoring Carl Sagan on the 10th anniversary of his death. I’m bringing up the rear, here, but wanted to throw my two Abe’s worth in.
One of my fondest memories was watching Cosmos as a preadolescent and feeling for the first time the Sirenic-call from astronomy and physics [...]

Springtime on Mars

Ever wonder what happens to all of those probes that crash on Mars?

HT: nickjsky

Mercury transit today

I’m a bit late on this month’s What’s Up article, where I usually detail events like this, but I wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of today’s transit of Mercury.
A transit occurs when a planet interior to our own (Mercury or Venus) crosses directly in between the Earth and the Sun. What we [...]

Hubble reprieved

There once was a spacecraft named Hubble,
whose finances fell into trouble.
When its budget runs dry,
it will fall from the sky
and break up into nothing but rubble.
But it won’t happen anytime soon…




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