Tag Archives: astro201

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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The Size of the Universe

Posted on January 28, 2013 by theskyisbeautifultonight

How to conceptualize the size of the universe?  I think we find it so hard to do it because astronomical numbers dwarf anything we use in day to day life and on some level, our brains can’t process them.  It’s like trying to visualize the national debt.  What’s a couple more zeros here and there […] 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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Things to know about Zodiacs

Posted on January 28, 2013 by eloisechen

According to our birthday, we know our Sun Sign or zodiac. What does it actually mean? I personally love sun sign astrology, but didn’t know its true meaning before I begin this class. The star sign is the constellation in or near which the Sun appears at the night of a given day. If we […] Continue reading →

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SkyView?

Posted on January 28, 2013 by zoodrey

SkyView gives you the entire sky at your palm… and for only $1.99! By pointing your Iphone camera anywhere in the sky, SkyView will show you constellations, stars, planets, and satellites that you can tap and zoom in on to learn more. It provides you with a search interface that will tell you exactly where … Continue reading » Continue reading →

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Sunsets

Posted on January 28, 2013 by zoodrey

Sunsets baffle me. My favorite part about living in Virginia Beach, VA is that I live on the bay and walk in the opposite direction not even half a mile and land on the beach. I’m lucky enough to get incredible photo shots of the sun rising in the East over the ocean and setting … Continue reading » Continue reading →

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Precession Is All But Precision

Posted on January 28, 2013 by jacksonlangham

The earth has an axis of tilt of about 23.5 degrees, and precession, a gradual wobble that alters the orientation of Earth’s axis, does not change the amount of axis […] Continue reading →

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The Cosmic Calendar

Posted on January 28, 2013 by williamrmccormick

The idea behind the cosmic calendar is to put the timeline of the entire universe into the perspective of one calendar year. Below is a picture of the calendar. This calendar really puts into reality how short humans have really been around. It takes until 11:54 on December 31 for modern humans to appear on […] 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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