Category Archives: Class

Moving in Circles: Apparent Retrograde Motion

Posted on February 12, 2019 by Sam Bianco

Over a single night, the planets behave much like the stars; they appear to rise in the east and set in the west. However, over the course of many nights, one will recognize that the movement of planets among the stars is quite intricate. The speeds and brightnesses of the planets fluctuate significantly, and while … Continue reading Moving in Circles: Apparent Retrograde Motion → Continue reading →

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Archeoastronomy

Posted on February 11, 2019 by alexdickey18

Located in Southeast Mexico, Chichen Itza served as the home to one of the largest Mayan cities and possesses pristine examples of complex archeoastronomy. Perhaps the most interesting structure is the pyamid El Castillo which translates to “the castle.” This pyramid serves as a prime example due to its complex engineering and design that highlights … Continue reading Archeoastronomy → Continue reading →

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Understanding Redshift

Posted on February 11, 2019 by jacksonhubble2904

My blog this spring is devoted to aspects of the Hubble telescope’s mission and operation. This submission, I hope to provide a basic understanding of redshift: the tendency of light’s wavelength to elongate as it travels through the universe. Hubble was launched to gain a better understanding of faraway stars that enjoyed prior obscurity from … Continue reading Understanding Redshift → Continue reading →

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A down-to-earth explanation of zero-gravity

Posted on February 11, 2019 by jiayu

Astronauts floating against a starry backdrop. Food suspended in a spacecraft. These images are what have constructed our cultural understanding of space as a place where the… Read more “A down-to-earth explanation of zero-gravity” Continue reading →

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Celestial Navigation

Posted on February 11, 2019 by bobbyc

Celestial navigation is the practice of navigating from one place to another using celestial bodies as a guide. Prior to the invention of GPS, people would use the position of the stars in relation to themselves as a method of orienting oneself to their destination. The process is simple in concept – the navigator uses … Continue reading Celestial Navigation Continue reading →

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Transgressing the Boundaries: A Look at the Sokal Affair

Posted on February 11, 2019 by jpeilbert

I’ve been lucky to be able to study across very different academic fields in my undergraduate curriculum. This breadth of academic focus has made apparent to me the differences between how scholars in certain fields practice their craft. These differences contribute to the not-so-friendly rivalry between the so-called ‘hard’ sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, etc.) … Continue reading Transgressing the Boundaries: A Look at the Sokal Affair → Continue reading →

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Retrograde Motion simplified.

Posted on February 11, 2019 by alfredprah

The path of Mars, as viewed from the Earth.          Retrograde motion is the apparent backward motion of a planet caused by its being lapped by another planet, or vice-versa.1  These two planets are usually on two different orbits, a larger one and a smaller one, and they move around the sun … Continue reading Retrograde Motion simplified. → Continue reading →

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Antipodal Tides

Posted on February 11, 2019 by peytonbrown4560

It makes sense that the tide comes in as the Moon approaches that side of the Earth. The gravitational pull attracts the water away from the Earth. It would seem them that logically a low tide would happen at a location farthest from the Moon. But that is not the case. image link In the … Continue reading Antipodal Tides Continue reading →

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Why is the Sky Blue?

Posted on February 11, 2019 by JSpin

Some Background In the image above, a beam of light passes through a medium. The medium slows down the light and causes it to refract. And the degree of refraction is dependent on the wavelength of light: shorter wavelength light will slow down more and therefore have a greater angle of refraction. See Cauchy’s equation … Continue reading Why is the Sky Blue? → Continue reading →

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Archeoastronomy

Posted on February 10, 2019 by haivilo

Archeoastronomy is the study of how ancient civilizations understood astronomy. It examines past people’s cultures, religions, and lore and observes how it affected their art and architecture. There are many examples of this throughout history and through archeoastronomy, we can learn about the development of astronomical thought around the world. (Source) Archeoastronomy was developed through … Continue reading Archeoastronomy → Continue reading →

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