Daily Archives: January 27, 2014

2500 light years away

Posted on January 27, 2014 by reidrcreviston

One day this week I was checking a weather website to see what the temperature was for the day and I came across an interesting article.  The article talked about how scientists had found a planet in the star cluster messier 67 that was orbiting a star which they called a “twin Star” to our […] Continue reading →

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Lunar Eclipses Explained

Posted on January 27, 2014 by joshkip

After reading chapter 2 of our textbook, one of things that surprised me was the distinction between solar and lunar eclipses, and how – on an everyday basis – we seem to use the term “eclipse” only when it refers … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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The “World” in Which We Live

Posted on January 27, 2014 by joshkip

Throughout the first few weeks of class, what I’ve found to be extraordinarily interesting in the field of astronomy is not so much the scientific discoveries we have come to understand, but rather what these findings can teach us in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Before Telescopes and Stuff

Posted on January 27, 2014 by ilman

Today, we know a lot about the stuff out there: stars, galaxies, supernovae, black holes, and such. We probably know more about outer space than our own ocean depths. We owe most of the knowledge to the technologies developed through centuries after centuries of hard work and perseverance. Various observatories on mountains, the Hubble Space […] Continue reading →

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Faster than you can say, “3.0 times ten to the eighth meters per second”

Posted on January 27, 2014 by thegarrettnondorf

  photo from here When I was young, I read a biography of Einstein’s life. (If he wasn’t so brilliant, we might know him as Honest Al). In this book, a story was told about young Albert at the ship docks. A worker had Al stand 50 yards away from him and swung a hammer at … Continue reading Faster than you can say, “3.0 times ten to the eighth meters per second” → Continue reading →

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Technology that Helps

Posted on January 27, 2014 by blankster22

While simply looking up at the night sky is an enjoyable experience on its own, sometimes it can tremendously add to the experience to know what you’re looking up at. I’ve come across a few programs that I think are awesome for doing just this. The first is Stellarium. This program is incredible. It allows […] Continue reading →

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So Big…

Posted on January 27, 2014 by blankster22

Possibly my favorite thing to think about when I look up at the stars is simply how far away they are. Even though I know the measurements we have come up for for several of these stars, the actual distances … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Observing the Sky: Star Parties

Posted on January 27, 2014 by eschellhase

“The tires crunched on the gravelly road. ‘How do I know where it is?’ said Mrs. Kelly. ‘It’s so dark.’ ‘Look for the red lights,’ said Mi-Su. . . . Up ahead–spots of red. ‘Lights out,’ said Mi-Su. The headlights went out. Only the red spots were visible now. Some moving, some still. ‘Back at […] Continue reading →

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The Vast Universe

Posted on January 27, 2014 by eschellhase

The Universe is immense. When we look up into the sky at night we can see about 2000 stars. These stars are all native to the Milky Way Galaxy. Our galaxy in and of itself contains 300 billion stars. If we use a telescope we  see more stars in our own galaxy and  beyond the […] Continue reading →

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Stellarium

Posted on January 27, 2014 by mariah0407

Learning about and using Stellarium has been great fun! I have always enjoyed looking at the stars.  As a child, I used to go to the planetarium numerous times a year.  Additionally, one year for my birthday, my brother got me a star through the International Star Registry.  Now that I have learned how to […] Continue reading →

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