Category Archives: Historical

Nicolaus Copernicus under Historical Context

BBC Sky at Night Magazine Nicolaus Copernicus’ (Feb. 19, 1473 – May 24, 1543) contributions to the field of astronomy are best summarized as the “Copernican Revolution”, where he rejected the long-held theory of a geocentric model of the solar system, meaning that Earth was stationary at the center while celestial objects orbited around it. […] Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context -Cameron Klein

The astronomer that I have selected to look into is Tycho Brahe. Tycho Brahe was born on December 14th, 1546 and died on October 24th, 1601. Tycho Brahe was known as the best naked-eye observer of all time. During his childhood in Denmark, Brahe became entranced with the thought of astronomy when he witnessed a […] Continue reading

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Johannes Kepler in Context

Johannes Kepler was born on December 27th, 1571 and died on November 15th, 1630. He is considered to be a pioneer in astronomy because of his three laws of planetary motion. His first law states that orbits are ellipses, so their motion follows conic sections. His second law states that in an orbit, equal areas […] Continue reading

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THE COSMIC CALENDAR

The Evolution of the Universe from the Big Bang to Modern Day Humans     When I first started this course, I knew that our universe was very old, however, I didn’t understand the depth to how long it really was. Our universe has evolved significantly from the original Big Bang that occurred approximately 14 billion […] Continue reading

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Celestial Navigation – Blog 1

People have used the stars to navigate for millennia, with expert sailors learning the geography of the sky above and using it as a very powerful tool. Though much less necessary in the modern day, given our access to GPS, people still take an interest to learn how to navigate using celestial bodies. These people often can […] Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Challenges in business are a given, but it’s our response to them that defines our trajectory. Looking beyond the immediate obstacle, there lies a realm of opportunity and learning. Continue reading

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Stars of Revelation

Throughout the Bible, celestial bodies are mentioned. Jesus is “The Morning Star.” Abraham would have as many offspring as stars in the sky. Another example many people are familiar is the Book of Revelation in the Bible. It was also mentioned in my discussion of the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In Chapter 12, […] Continue reading

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Variable Stars and change in the Night Sky

Image of Omicron Ceti (Mira) Source: Digitized Sky Survey 2 Looking up at the night sky it may seem that while the stars do move around, they remain the same brightness all year round. This was a common belief pushed by philosophers like Aristotle, believing that stars are eternal and invariable. However in 1638 Johannes […] Continue reading

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The Drake Equation

The idea of life on other planets has always been a hot topic. An entire genre has been developed to showcase aliens stemming from human imagination. This is usually pseudoscience, but it does beg the question: are aliens real? While we have never contacted or found evidence of other civilizations, there is a way to […] Continue reading

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Blog #5: Pluto

The above photo was captured by the New Horizons Spacecraft and enhanced by NASA in 2015. Pluto is classified as a dwarf planet and is located in the Kuiper Belt in the far reaches of the Solar System. The average surface temperature on Pluto is around -233°C. This is because Pluto receives very little sunlight […] Continue reading

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