Author Archives: Michael

Satellites and Telescopes

For this post I wanted to discuss the effect that satellites have on astronomical observations. There are many problems that limit our ability to make observations, such as light pollution, the diffraction limit, and technological limitations. Despite this, astronomers have steadily been improving their equipment and building new complex telescopes to overcome these limitations. However, […] Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Tycho Brahe: 12/14/1546 – 10/14/1601 Brahe has been described as the greatest astronomer before the invention of the telescope. He was devoted towards building new measurement instruments with unprecedented levels of accuracy, which were necessary for his discoveries. A few of his most notable observations include the annual variation in the orbital speed of the […] Continue reading

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Blog 1: Cosmic Calendar and Biology

When we learned about the cosmic calendar in this class, I was immediately reminded of something I had learned two years ago in BSCI 1511 here at Vanderbilt, which was the biological timescale clock. I remember seeing this diagram and being really surprised by how recent humans, or even multicellular organisms, are in the history […] Continue reading

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Introduction

This is a picture I took while backpacking the Appalachin trail a few weeks ago. I stayed in PATC shelters while doing that. Continue reading

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