Category Archives: Historical

Interferometry: Viewing the Minute

Saying the universe is incomprehensibly massive, so much so only the brightest and closest objects and phenomena are visible to the naked eye. Throughout history people have had work arounds, be it using devices to mark inclination of stars to focusing light through telescopes to make the faintest bodies visible. One of the most interesting […] Continue reading

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Did we really land on the Moon?

July 20th, 1969. We landed on the moon. But did we really? There are many conspiracies on if we really landed on the moon or not. People claim many reasons which prove that the moon landing never actually occurred. Shadows in the moon landing photos are not parallel which shows that they were fake. The […] Continue reading

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Halley’s Comet

I used measurements from Halley’s Comet for the impact homework, so I wanted to learn more about it. It certainly has name recognition, but I wanted to learn more about it. I found some great information from NASA that I figured I would share. Halley’s Comet is named after an astronomer by the name of […] Continue reading

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The Kuiper Belt: Exploring New Horizons

Hello (again), and welcome (back) to my Astronomy Blog! Today’s post is about the Kuiper Belt and its objects.  What is the Kuiper Belt?  The Kuiper (Kai-per) Belt is a donut-shaped region beyond the orbit of Neptune. Within the Kuiper Belt, it is estimated that millions of icy objects (or even trillions of these objects, […] Continue reading

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The Planets Inspiring Art

Planets have always been a large source of inspiration for classical music composers, and there is probably no larger example than Gustav Holst’s Planets Suite. This work’s popularity has also reached the masses, and his music is known to have significantly influenced John Williams in his compositions for his film scores. What I find interesting […] Continue reading

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Tycho’s Supernova Shifting World Views

Tycho Brahe, quite a prominent astronomer in the 16th century, is one of the most well known individuals to have sighted a new light filling the night sky. This strange appearance is now known as SN-1572 or more colloquially Tycho’s Supernova, and is revolutionary towards how we view the night sky. Historically speaking, this change […] Continue reading

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All About Aurorae

As the title suggests, our topic for today is Earth’s aurorae (pronounced auh-ror-eye). These stunning displays generally occur in two symmetrical oval rings about the planet’s far northern and southern regions–Earth’s magnetic north and south poles. When they happen in the north, aurorae are often referred to as the northern lights or Aurora Borealis. Likewise, […] Continue reading

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M45 – The Seven Sisters

Hey, y’all, and welcome back!  Today, we’re taking a quick jaunt outside our solar system to visit the Pleiades. This grouping of stars–commonly referred to as Messier 45 (M45)–is one of my favorite observables and can be best viewed in January–but the cluster is easily visible from late fall through the winter. The cluster is […] Continue reading

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Solar Flares and the Carrington Event

We heard a little bit about the Carrington Event in class, and I wanted to know more about it. A solar flare is essentially a burst of energy on the Sun which sends electrified gas and subatomic particles toward Earth. In 1859, there was an abnormally large solar flare caused two geomagnetic storms known as […] Continue reading

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The Tools of Discovery

For my second blog post, I’ve decided to provide an overview of a few of the most advanced telescopes both on and around the world which have allowed astronomers to peer into the distant mysteries of our universe and uncover more about its nature. First, we will examine some of the most advance ground based […] Continue reading

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