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Monthly Archives: February 2017
Zero Gravity
For most children, at some point in time, the only logical career path in the entire world is astronaut. They usually say it with reverence, for the word is akin to something half way in between magician and alien, full of all the magic and surprises that only someone who hurdles through the final frontier … More Zero Gravity
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Tale of The Noseless Man
It is hard trudging through the development of astronomy throughout the decades without having controversies here and there. The astronomy world has many vivid figures, but nobody quite dramatic like Tycho Brahe. The man known to be genius but eccentric, wealthy but weak mathematics-wise. He was about two when he was taken away from his parents … Continue reading Tale of The Noseless Man
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Celestial Navigation: The Sea Astrolabe
The sea astrolabe was a brass tool constructed and used for the purpose of determining one’s latitude. Most commonly, it was used on long marine voyages that required knowledge of the ship’s exact whereabouts in order to continue in the correct direction. The astrolabe measures the altitude of the sun at noontime or the meridian… Continue reading Celestial Navigation: The Sea Astrolabe
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Celestial Navigation 101: The Sextant
The purpose of the sextant is to measure the angle between an astronomical object and the horizon, and ultimately get … More
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Posted in Instruments, Sun
Tagged astro2110, blog2
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Galileo’s Telescope
Most people credit Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) with building the first telescope. He did not, but he made great improvements and ingenious use of the instrument. Before the telescope were lenses. In the 13th century, Italian artisans created lenses for glasses to be worn by scholars with failing eyesight. The process of making glass was difficult, as unrefined … Continue reading Galileo’s Telescope
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The Power of the Powers of Ten
The Powers of Ten is a 1977 short film that puts the immensity (and smallness) of the universe into perspective by zooming out from a couple’s picnic in Michigan at a distance of 1 meter to a vast view of galaxy clusters at a distance of 10^24 meters. By watching this journey from small to […]
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iPhone App: Sky Guide
Fifth Star Labs website An application on the app store called “Sky Guide: View Stars Night or Day” allows its users to “study thousands of stars, comets, and satellites” (according to the App Store). Created by Fifth Star Labs LLC, the app turns the iPhone into a telescope of sorts, highlighting interesting constellations, planets, and… Continue reading iPhone App: Sky Guide
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Archaeoastronomy: The Anthropology of Astronomy
On the Center for Archaeoastrony’s website, they differentiate their science as “the anthropology of astronomy” rather than “the history of astronomy.” By studying the influences that astronomy has had (frequently, it seems, through the study of archaeological sites) on the humans and cultures who were studying the stars and attempting to reason with that which … More Archaeoastronomy: The Anthropology of Astronomy
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Powers of Ten–Our Big Universe
In 1977, Charles and Ray Eames produced a documentary about the scale of the universe. This documentary, Powers of Ten: A Film Dealing with the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effect of Adding Another Zero, compared the relative sizes of people, locations, planets, and galaxies in our universe. The film achieved this comparison by … Continue reading Powers of Ten–Our Big Universe
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Archaeoastronomy
The study of the astronomical knowledge and achievements of these prehistoric cultures is called archaeoastronomy.
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Posted in Class, Historical, Observables
Tagged archaeoastronomy, astro2110, blog2, stonehenge, Time
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