Author Archives: drgrundstrom

<note to students: I went farther than you need to because no one can use Hypatia as their historical figure> Hypatia was the first woman KNOWN to contribute to mathematics and science.  Her father, Theon of Alexandria, was a well-known academic and taught his daughter to follow in his footsteps.  Remarkably, she was the head […] Continue reading →

Here are some of my favorite sites for learning about eclipses (including the upcoming Great American Eclipse!): Mr. Eclipse (the guy NASA uses) NASA Eclipse Web Site eclipse2017.org (make sure to check out the AMAZING interactive Google map!) timeanddate.com (and their eclipse list) Of course, one can certainly use the Wikipedia article on Eclipses (you can […] Continue reading →

As described in class, here are my two favorite articles about this alignment: Get Up Early, See Five Planets at Once! from Sky and Telescope How to View Five Planets Aligning in a Celestial Spectacle from The New York Times I happen to adore the NYT diagram because it shows the Solar System view as […] Continue reading →

Caltech Researchers Find Evidence of a Real Ninth Planet This is legit folks!  For those who are at a university (like Vanderbilt), this press release has a link to the actual research article in the Astronomical Journal.  It’s a bit heavy at times but well done. There’s also a pretty good article on Wired: This […] Continue reading →

If you’re in my 2016 Solar System class, please put a comment here showing that you’ve found my blog and that you’re following it 🙂  Please include your first name and last name initial.  Note that you MUST be logged in to your own WordPress blog when commenting or else you’re doing it wrong! Also […] Continue reading →

So whilst finding out some information about Saturn’s orbiter Cassini, I came across this story: Cassini Catches Titan Naked in the Solar Wind.  We’ve been talking a lot about magnetospheres when we discuss the giant worlds so this whole thing is really interesting! The space probe Cassini was going by Titan in 2013 when a big […] Continue reading →

DIFFERENTIALS!! 🙂 During class today, I talked about tides and how there is a great deal of misinformation out there. My favorite websites for the astronomical explanation of tides are: A rigorously correct but a tiny bit snarky treatment – it’s my favorite: Tidal Misconceptions by Dr. Donald E. Simanek One of the links from […] Continue reading →

If you’re in my 2015 Solar System class, please put a comment here showing that you’ve found my blog and that you’re following it 🙂  Please include your first name and last name initial.  Note that you MUST be logged in to your own WordPress blog when commenting or else you’re doing it wrong! Also […] Continue reading →

In class yesterday we talked about eclipses and so here’s the post about it! The totally awesome (and very dedicated) Mr. Eclipse (i.e., The Ultimate Resource for Eclipse Photography) is a favorite of NASA so they use his diagrams on their eclipse website. The foremost resource for the 2017 eclipse is eclipse2017.org.  The Interactive Google […] Continue reading →