Monthly Archives: January 2013

Just what exactly can we call “big”?

Posted on January 26, 2013 by surujdeka

The Universe is almost like a magician in a way. Just when us puny humans seem to grasp an aspect of its nature (or pretend to anyway), it laughs at us and shows us a glimpse of something that leaves us in awe of its vastness. Take a look at this picture above you. Only […] Continue reading →

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Feeling a Bit Slow?

Posted on January 25, 2013 by ndtidol

Look in any physics textbook and the speed of light will be listed: approximately 300,000,000 meters per second. That’s a big number, but what exactly does it mean? Well, to […] Continue reading →

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Near Speed of Light Travel in the Atmosphere

Posted on January 25, 2013 by fathomingthestars

When physics classes learn about relativity, typical problems involve calculating relative velocities, masses, or distances for objects moving near the speed of light, 3 * 10^8 m/s.  These objects might be objects like spaceships, travelling in outer space, but they are often more common objects like cars and trains, or even baseballs.  The two different […] Continue reading →

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Once in a Blue Moon

Posted on January 25, 2013 by a2megal

Ok, so literally a blue moon is actually when two full moons are seen in a single calendar month, but what I am talking about today isn’t totally off topic because it is something that really is pretty rare: eclipses. As we learned recently that there are two general types of eclipses, a solar and […] Continue reading →

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So about those New Year’s resolutions…

Posted on January 25, 2013 by a2megal

Right we are about a month into the New Year. Actually by now you have probably already given up on those New Year’s resolutions that you set with such fervor just 25 short days ago. And despite what us seniors may think—no matter how many things are left on our Vandy bucket list—the world does […] Continue reading →

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Lunar Phases

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Megan C

While searching for a good astronomy application to blog about, I found a lot of interesting moon apps, but I think the most helpful app for this class would have to be Lunar Phase. It’s a free app available for Android that not only shows you the current phase of the moon and the moon […] Continue reading →

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The Cosmic Calendar

Posted on January 24, 2013 by gerretyc

Although I doubt it will ever be entirely possible to comprehend the enormity of an amount of time as great as 13.7 billion years, I’ve found the Cosmic Calendar to be […] Continue reading →

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Astronomy Smartphone Apps

Posted on January 24, 2013 by eaangel

This image comes from the Star Chart App for smartphones.  This app is really cool because it tells you the location of stars, planets, and constellations, etc.  It has charts of what the night sky will look like all over … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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The Cosmic Calendar

Posted on January 24, 2013 by eaangel

This image was taken from the personal blog of Michael Arney.  It is an image of the explanation that the famous astronomer Carl Sagan gave to enable the public to grasp “the immensity of time” and the Cosmic Calendar.  In … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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App-stronomy

Posted on January 24, 2013 by staunesm

I downloaded the app “Distant Suns” on my i-phone after reading about cool astronomy apps online.  “Distant Suns” is an app that uses your location to show you the night sky right above your head.  It has labeled constellations, planets, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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