Pages Tagged “Astronomy”
Reviews
- The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)
★★★★★
Katie Mack
An engaging read for the general audience about what we currently know about the history and structure of the universe and what that knowledge – and the pieces we don’t know – might mean for its future and eventual end. - Under Alien Skies
★★★★★
Philip Plait
A fun look at what it would be like to visit other planets or star systems, weaving together sci-fi scenarios, the science behind them, and the history of how those discoveries were made.
Blog Posts
- Plural of Eclipse
Yes, it turns out a colander *does* make a fun instrument for observing a solar eclipse! Also, thinking about how common eclipses actually are.
- A Great Eye, Lidless, Wreathed in Flame
How cool is it that we now have an actual image of the event horizon of a black hole! More precisely: it’s the glowing accretion disc of matter falling into the black hole, and the event horizon’s silhouette. The Event Horizon Telescope, actually a worldwide array of telescopes, used interferometry to effectively create a planet-sized […]
- Lunar Eclipse = Front-Yard Astronomy (Photos)
One of the nice things about lunar eclipses is how easy they are to watch. No special equipment needed, just a clear view, even from the city.
- Missed Transit
No luck catching the transit of Venus, but hey, at least I got to see the eclipse last month!
- Photos: Solar Eclipse from Los Angeles (May 2012)
I went up into the hills to view the eclipse and ran into dozens of other people with the same idea…and got to look through their telescopes, welding helmets and more.
- Look to the Western Sky after Sunset
In a world full of airplanes and helicopters, why do people jump past mundane explanations when they see a light in the night sky and assume it’s aliens?
- Galaxy and a Twist
Awesome, indeed! @BadAstronomer says: Awesome awesome AWESOME pic of the Milky Way’s heart, by 3 magnificent observatories. Meanwhile, in a brilliant move, I have just twisted my shoulder funny 5 minutes before driving home. At least it’s the left shoulder. Still: Ow!
- Mad Science: The Science Behind Science-Fiction – Fringe, Eureka! and Caprica
Sci-Fi show reps talk about horror, space, killer robots, undead legal testimony, and the implied “don’t try this at home” factor with Walter Bishop.
- Leo, Saturn… and Comet Lulin?
I figured I’d try spotting Comet Lulin from my back yard. I found Leo and Saturn easily enough, but just couldn’t see anything that looked like a comet. It should be a little to the right of Saturn, going by Sky & Telescope’s chart. Too much light pollution, I guess. And unlike the Bad Astronomer, […]
- Waitaminute
Listening to “Into the West” (end credits song from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King). Lyric, “Across the sea a pale moon rises.” It’s all about crossing the sea into the west to go to elf heaven. Presumably the speaker is standing at the Grey Havens, waiting for the ships to arrive and […]
- Green Lots & Venus
Walking to lunch. Vacant lots are actually green! Spotted Venus at 1 in the afternoon! Thanks, Sky Map app!
- Exoplanets: Say Cheese!
I remember being bowled over when astronomers first detected planets around other stars. Now they’ve actually managed to get pictures! Of course, they’re about as detailed as pictures of the stars at a science-fiction convention panel taken from the back of the room, or the band on stage from the upper-top-fifth-tier seating (see! that dot […]
- Look! Up in the Sky!
On Sunday, I participated in the Great World Wide Star Count. The idea is to track light pollution and get people (especially kids) stargazing. They ask you to look at either Cygnus (northern hemisphere) or Sagittarius (southern hemisphere) about an hour of two after sunset, and match what you can see against a set of […]
- Lunar Eclipse pics
I decided to go for it, and set my alarm for 2:30 AM (ick) to see the eclipse. The moon was nearing totality at that point, with a too-shallow crescent near the bottom and the rest in slightly reddish shadow. My original plan was to lie down on the balcony and watch, but it turned […]
- Lunar Indecision
I’m still trying to decide whether I should set an alarm to wake myself up at ski-o’clock in the morning to see tonight’s/tomorrow’s lunar eclipse. I mean, I skipped the Perseid meteor shower a few weeks ago, but that would have required not only getting up in the wee hours of the night, but driving […]
- Pumpkin Moon
We were driving home from visiting relatives this evening, and noticed a dull orange ellipse on the horizon, appearing and disappearing between trees. It didn’t take long to realize it was the moon, just beginning to rise. As the freeway twisted and turned, and we went through areas full of houses, retail centers, and trees, […]
- Deja View
Follow-ups to two past blog entries. First, remember on our most recent trip to Las Vegas (last March) we repeatedly encountered a slow-moving, hand-painted truck labeled “Henry’s Moving” on the drive out. Well, after a trip to Fry’s this past Sunday, we spotted it again. Second, for the first time in 1½ years, I managed […]
- Crescent moon and Venus
I walked out the front door last night around 5:50 to pick up the mail, and immediately walked back in to get the camera, because this is what I saw: My parents gave me a flexible mini-tripod for Christmas, and it proved very helpful here, as there was nowhere flat where I could set the […]
- Daytime… Comet?
Well, I tried again at lunch to see if I could spot Comet McNaughton during the day, just in case it was still bright enough. No luck, but I set my camera on max zoom and took a set of pictures in roughly the right area, just to see if I could spot something. And, […]
- Comet!
The skies were surprisingly clear today. Four of us at work walked outside after sunset to a bridge near the office, and saw Comet McNaught. It was visible from ~5:10/5:15 to 5:28, at which point it slipped below the line of hills to the west. We saw it against the red sky, slowly dropping through […]
- Pluto Needs Rocks
A bit of astronomy humor from WorldCon: Help donate rocks to Pluto so it can increase its mass, clear its orbit, and once again qualify as a planet!
- Mauna Kea Star Trails
Today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day is an incredible long-exposure picture of star trails above Mauna Kea: I think the picture says it all.
- Daystar!
I saw the planet Venus four times on my walk to and from lunch today! Yes, in broad daylight! Someone on Slashdot mentioned it was possible last week. I took it seriously because back in high school, I used to watch Venus fade into the brightening sky on winter mornings. Often I could still find […]
- Venus Shadows
Venus is apparently so bright this month that it’s casting visible shadows. Now that’s cool! Unfortunately, while I can see Venus perfectly well, there’s way too much light around to see anything resembling a Venusian shadow. I don’t think I’ll have a chance to drive out into the desert by sunset in the next few […]
- The Moon and Venus, sitting in a tree
This view of the Moon and Venus was taken from our apartment balcony earlier this evening. I also took a picture yesterday, from the top of a parking structure near John Wayne Airport (we went to a show at UCI later that evening.) You can see the red trail an airplane left as it crossed […]
- That Belt of Venus Thing
About a month ago I posted about noticing the Belt of Venus—the red band that circles the entire horizon just after sunset—and the Earth’s shadow on the sky. I snapped this picture on the drive home this evening. This is looking east, away from the setting sun. If you look at the right edge of […]
- Look, up in the sky!
A few nights ago I was walking around sunset, and decided to look for something that had been mentioned last week on the Astronomy Picture of the Day: the Belt of Venus. Somehow I’d never noticed that after sunset, the band of red encircles the entire sky at the horizon. Even more amazing, if you […]