Category Archives: Observables

things we can see from Earth using our eyeballs or telescopes

Saving the Appearances

Posted on March 12, 2019 by reallyroyalqueen

Strict Aristotelian cosmology follows that all bodies are made of the four elements: earth, water, air, and fire. These four exist in the terrestrial realm and the stars exist in the celestial realm. A fifth element, aether, exists there and that is what heavenly bodies are composed of. Aristotle provided the basics of the physics … Continue reading Saving the Appearances → Continue reading →

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A New Non-Aurora!

Posted on March 12, 2019 by jiayu

Photographers had known about it for decades, but scientists didn’t get wind of it until 2016. It’s a streak, purple or white, across the night sky. It… Read more “A New Non-Aurora!” Continue reading →

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You Honestly Believe We Live On A Ball?

Posted on March 12, 2019 by josiahgray12

The Earth is flat, and if you disagree you are blinded by science… In this blog post I’m going to unpack some of the most convincing arguments for a flat Earth, and provide a hopefully reasonable scientific response to these questions. Look with your own eyes, look off into the horizon, if the earth is … Continue reading You Honestly Believe We Live On A Ball? → Continue reading →

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History of Constellations

Posted on March 12, 2019 by richardtli

Long before history has been recorded, humans have studied the stars in the night sky. Although we have looked at stars for thousands of years, it wasn’t until 1930 that the 88 constellations were officially named by the International Astronomical Union. 48 of these constellations were named by Ptolemy in his book The Almagest in … Continue reading History of Constellations → Continue reading →

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Gravity Waves

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Jonathan Roberts

Venus is the unfortunate victim of a runaway greenhouse effect. Not only does this make the planet uninhabitable, it also causes a tremendous degree of difficulty in observing the planet’s surface. However, there are many interesting things to gain from Venus by just looking at the atmosphere, including a massive gravity wave. Gravity waves in … Continue reading Gravity Waves → Continue reading →

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How to Find Orion in the Night Sky

Posted on March 8, 2019 by Jiayu Kang

One of the most famous and recognizable constellations, Orion is most visible in the evening sky, winter in the Northern Hemisphere. It was named after a hunter in Greek Mythology, Orion. Rigel, a blue-white supergiant, and Betelgeuse, a red supergiant, are the brightest stars in Orion. Thousands of newly formed stars can be found in … Continue reading How to Find Orion in the Night Sky → Continue reading →

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Celestial Navigation: How Our Ancestors Used to Travel

Posted on February 11, 2019 by kierannaughton5896

Before the time of GPS, and all the modern forms of navigation we use today, people used to travel with the stars. Through the use of angular measurements, the sun, moon, planets, and stars could be used to find a position on earth. By looking at the angles between these celestial bodies the horizon, and … Continue reading Celestial Navigation: How Our Ancestors Used to Travel → 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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Apparent Retrograde Motion: what it is, and what it isn’t

Posted on February 10, 2019 by luanaisaac1125

One thing that must be said right away: retrograde motion is not the same thing as apparent retrograde motion. Retrograde motion generally denotes ‘backwards’ motion, and the specifics depend on how the term is being used. A retrograde orbit refers to an object orbiting in the opposite direction that the thing it orbits around is … Continue reading Apparent Retrograde Motion: what it is, and what it isn’t → Continue reading →

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Retrograde motion probably isn’t ruining your life

Posted on February 10, 2019 by victoriayaden

It seems that anytime Mercury enters its period of retrograde motion, the Internet starts freaking out because according to astrologers, Mercury retrograde is bad for communication. Although this is a nice scapegoat for any misfortune one might encounter, there is no scientific evidence that this phenomenon has an effect on your day-to-day life. So what […] Continue reading →

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