Daily Archives: February 7, 2016

kepler’s Discoveries in Context

Posted on February 7, 2016 by chasejaeger

Johannes Kepler was born on December 27th, 1571 and died on November 15th, 1630. Kepler was important to astronomy primarily because of his development of the  laws of planetary motion. In short, these laws state that all planets’ orbits are ellipses, show that a planet’s orbital speed is inversely proportional to its distance from the body it orbits, and give […] Continue reading →

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 7, 2016 by alecsolarsystem

Nicholas Copernicus (2/19/1473 – 5/24/1543) played a massive role in laying down the foundation for modern day astronomy. He came up with the heliocentric model of the solar system where the Sun was at the center, as opposed to the Earth as everyone had previously thought. This sparked the Copernican Revolution where a lot of new information […] Continue reading →

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Learning the Planets

Posted on February 7, 2016 by hallesolar

We all remember trying to learn the names and order of the planets in our Solar System in grade school. Some of us got pretty thrown off by the removal and addition of Pluto on the list. For me, the Blue’s Clues Planet Song we the best way to remember the planets and a fun […] Continue reading →

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Want to Buy a Telescope?

Posted on February 7, 2016 by hallesolar

If you would love to see deeper into space from your own home, you may be interested in buying your very own telescope! Fortunately, Sky & Telescope has some guidelines to help you make this big purchase, as described by Kelly Beatty in her recent article, “How to Choose Your First Telescope.”  Here are some highlights […] Continue reading →

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 7, 2016 by hallesolar

My chosen astronomer is Johannes Kepler, who lived from 12/27/1571 – 11/15/1630. Kepler helped us understand orbits. He developed three rules, the first of which tells us that things orbit in elliptical shapes. His second rule tells us that when something is in orbit, it sweeps equal areas in equal time. His third rule shows us a […] Continue reading →

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