Category Archives: Observables

things we can see from Earth using our eyeballs or telescopes

Blog #B4 X-Ray Vision?

Posted on February 14, 2013 by hannahladendorf13

      Above is a photo of the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (NASA IRTF) located in Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawai’i.    The size of the telescope is 3 meters which is a very large viewing field for astronomers to look into … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Light-Years: The Key to the Past

Posted on January 28, 2013 by werdercj

Speed of light: 300,000 km/second One topic I’ve found particularly interesting to read and think about is the speed of light and its implications.  We’ve learned that light travels at about 300,000 km/second; first off, this number alone is unfathomably large to me.  When I thought about how fast light travels, and then learned that […] Continue reading →

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The Million Star Falsehood

Posted on January 28, 2013 by marknshirleyvu

I was only a little bit surprised when I learned recently that there were not a million stars visible in our night sky.  One million is a huge number, and as small as stars are, I never believed there was nearly enough space in our sky for one million of them to be visible.  However, […] Continue reading →

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Party Planning– for a solar eclipse!

Posted on January 28, 2013 by sharpew

On May 20, 2012 an Annular eclipse was visible in the continental US. This eclipse marked the first annular eclipse visible for the US in EIGHTEEN years! That’s almost my entire life span! For additional information on this eclipse, click here. The eclipse was visible in several locations in California, Utah and New Mexico. Being an East coast girl, I […] Continue reading →

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The Universe is More Observable Than What Meets The Eye

Posted on January 28, 2013 by jacksonlangham

In class we talked about how the observable universe is 13.7 billion light years. The reason for this is because the universe is 13.7 billion years old so we therefore […] Continue reading →

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The 13th Sign of the Zodiac

Posted on January 28, 2013 by JT McJunkins

The zodiac system was first developed roughly 2,500 years ago in ancient Babylonia. Unfortunately, the astronomers who first developed the system did not know about the precession of the Earth’s axial tilt. Even after this precession was known, W… Continue reading →

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NASA meteor counter

Posted on January 27, 2013 by indianwm

  NASA has released an iPhone app that encourages people to go outside and observe the nights sky, particularly meteors. Not only does this app benefit the people using it, but it also helps NASA research with meteors and meteor showers. This app was initially developed to be a fun way for people to explore […] Continue reading →

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Moon App!

Posted on January 27, 2013 by juliettealper

Apple has an application for your iPod and iPad that helps you easily learn everything you would want to know about the moon. It is kind of like Stellarium for your phone! Whether you want to know the phase the moon is currently in, its Azimuth or altitude, this app can tell you. I think […] Continue reading →

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Astronomically, it IS an early spring!!

Posted on March 20, 2012 by drgrundstrom

So I read this article and I had to share it with you – I think it’s very good :) Article:  Spring Arrives With Equinox Tuesday, Earliest in Over a Century by Joe Rao, SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist As an introduction, here in Nashville, we’ve been experiencing a really mild spring – personally, I’m pretty happy […] Continue reading →

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Go outside on March 12 and 13!!

Posted on March 5, 2012 by drgrundstrom

Right when we come back from Spring Break, we will be able to see a planetary conjunction!  You will be able to see Jupiter and Venus be within three degrees of each other and that’s an especially close separation and will be especially brilliant due to the biology of your eyeball – they will be […] Continue reading →

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