Tag Archives: blog1

Up Above The World So High

Posted on January 22, 2023 by reachforthestarsbysam

A blog about observing the night sky over and over. Wanna read more on this long-exposure picture? Click here! Through reading the textbook this past week, I was enlightened about what it would be like to observe the night sky hour after hour, night after night, and year after year. Before taking this course (and one […] Continue reading →

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Eclipses & Wildlife

Posted on January 22, 2023 by brandodan

During our discussion of solar eclipses in last Thursday’s lecture, we focused mostly on the astronomical concepts behind how and why they occur. As well, there was a brief discussion on what one would experience inside the path of totality for those short 7 or so minutes during a total solar eclipse. Following this lecture, […] Continue reading →

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Blog 1 – The “Great American Eclipse” Experience

Posted on January 22, 2023 by constellationsarentreal

Back in 2017, my school allotted class time for observing the total solar eclipse that (conveniently) passed through Nashville. Many of my classmates (including me) didn’t fully realize how significant this was until our observation. The brief two and a half minutes of totality was awe inspiring. What struck me most was the terrestrial reaction […] Continue reading →

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The Scale of the Universe and Us

Posted on January 22, 2023 by cuia2

     Reading the graphic in the textbook called “Our Cosmic Address”, I got a sense for the first time of how small of a planet we live on. Earth is a typical planet rotating by a typical star we call the Sun which is only one of billions of stars in the Milky Way which is […] Continue reading →

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Minutes and seconds of arc

Posted on January 22, 2023 by Andrew Cascio

Similar to a light-year, an arcminute can be mistaken for a unit of time. An arcminute is 1/60th of a degree and an arcsecond is 1/60th of an arcminute. For example, “12 degrees, 50 arcminutes, and 29 arcseconds” is written as 12° 50′ 29”. As units of angular measurement, arcminutes and arcseconds allow for more […] Continue reading →

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Blog1: Chinese summer solstice

Posted on January 22, 2023 by lucasliu6

The summer solstice occurs when one of Earth’s poles has its maximum tilt toward the sun. Since prehistory, the summer solstice has been viewed as a significant time of year in lots of cultures, and has been marked by festivals and rituals. About the Chinese summer solstice: In ancient China, this was the time for […] Continue reading →

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Happy New Year!

Posted on January 22, 2023 by Trevor Pillow

Today marks the start of a new lunar year! There are several key differences between a solar new year and a lunar new year. The most common calendar system in the West, the Gregorian calendar, is based on the Earth’s orbit around the sun. Every New Year, the Earth is more or less in the […] Continue reading →

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Blog 1 – Solstices/Equinoxes

Posted on January 22, 2023 by kevkoppa123

There are 2 solstices: the June and December Solstice. The June Solstice is the point on the celestial sphere where the ecliptic is farthest north of the celestial equator. Similarly, the December solstice is the point on the celestial sphere where the ecliptic is farthest south of the celestial equator. The June and December Solstice […] Continue reading →

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About eclipses

Posted on January 22, 2023 by xingqiaowang

Eclipses are awesome, beautiful, and rare celestial event.As we talked in the class, there are four types of solar eclipse, including total solar eclipse, annular solar eclipse, partial solar eclipse and total annular eclipse. Because of my interest, I started looking for relevant information on the Internet. In the process, I found a website published […] Continue reading →

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Tidal Locking

Posted on January 22, 2023 by aaronxu041009

Earth’s Moon is in a synchronous orbit, meaning that people on Earth can only see the near side of the Moon. But what keeps the Moon locked in this synchronous orbit? The answer is tidal locking. Early in the history of the Solar System, a Mars-sized object collided with prehistoric Earth, and the debris from […] Continue reading →

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