Be careful if you ever find yourself on Mars’ moon Deimos. One misstep and you could wind up in outer space.

XKCD: Gravity Wells

XKCD: Gravity Wells

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cosmos · gravity · Science · space

Photograph ccdoh1

Residents of Maine town want to keep stars in their eyes
David Filipov, The Boston Globe, November 28, 2008

Good for you, Bar Harbor, Maine. I’d like to see the Milky Way some day. So turn those lights down and only point them where the light needs to be. Some of us enjoy gazing at the galaxies.

On the densely populated East Coast, Mount Desert Island is one of the last inhabited places where the naked eye can still clearly observe the heavenly wonders that have inspired religion, mythology, science, and culture.

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bar harbor · boston globe · cosmos · galaxy · jim richardson · light pollution · maine · milky way · national geographic · space · stars

brentdanley

Tonight I drove out to the Lake Afton Public Observatory. When I arrived the 16-inch telescope was pointed toward and focused on the planet Venus.  It looked like a very small very bright dot.  Then I went outside.

What I wanted to do was try out the new 15×70 binoculars Kirsten gave me and maybe take a few pictures. Behind the observatory is a concrete pad with about a dozen stands for observers to rest as they view the sky through binoculars. It was dark and I couldn’t see well. Before my eyes had adjusted to the extremely limited amount of available light a gentleman approached me and introduced himself. I had not noticed him before and he was just a few yards away.  Chris didn’t have a simple tripod setup like mine but a 10-inch diameter telescope, laptop computer running star chart software, cooler, a table, and two chairs. He was very knowledgable and experienced and showed me many stellar objects that took my breath away. We saw the Orion Nebula, Saturn with her rings and four of her moons, and many nebulae, double-stars, and star clusters. It was a tremendous treat for me. I was awed and inspired.

Using the new binoculars I was easily able to see the impressive Orion Nebula. It was cool to see the many stars visible through the binos that I couldn’t see without them. One of the highlights of the evening was watching a bright artificial satellite fall steadily across the night sky and pass through the constellation Orion.

Star gazing is for me a very spiritual experience. The vastness of space is incomprehensible yet I can see a tiny portion of it by simply looking up.

astronomy · cosmos · Science · space

NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Last week I read Carl Sagan’s new book, The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God, which kindled my interest in astronomy. I plan to write a review of Carl’s book for The Rhetoric in the next few days.

I picked up a brochure at WSU this week about the Lake Afton Public Observatory. One night each month photographers can bring their cameras and shoot celestial bodies and phenomena using the huge telescope. I though it would be fun to take the girls to see what the observatory was like before I take my camera in a few weeks. We all went tonight and had a blast! They pointed the 16″ telescope toward the relatively small rectangle of night sky visible through a giant slit in the observatory dome. The first object we saw was the Orion Nebula, followed by Betelgeuse (pronounced beetlejuice), Saturn, and the craters of the moon.

The two staff persons at the observatory were excellent! They thoroughly explained what we were viewing and competently answered all our questions. While other visitors were looking at the moon through the telescope I did a self-paced presentation at one of the several computers in the exhibit. In the middle of the presentation one of the staff members approached me and asked if I had any questions. We discussed light pollution, nebulas, and native American astronomers and culture. He then took me outside and gave me a personal tour of the night sky. His knowledge of and enthusiasm for the heavens was inspiring. My appreciation for the cosmos was increased tonight by orders of magnitude. It was a night I will not soon forget.

astronomy · Science · space · technology · wichita · wsu