Tag Archives: blog2

The Era of Long Refractors

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Nick Belsten

Telescopes focus light down to a point to increase the light gathering capacity of the astronomer’s eye. The optimal shape for such focus is a parabola, either a parabolic mirror, or a refracting lens of parabolic shape. Unfortunately, parabolic lenses do not have the same curvature everywhere the way spherical lenses do, making their construction … Continue reading The Era of Long Refractors → Continue reading →

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Looking Through a Historical Lens

Posted on February 14, 2017 by ritam216

Much of science is the act of investigating phenomena and elaborating on such investigations done by others. This is an incredibly difficult task to accomplish with modern technology. Incredibly though, there is a great source of proof to show that many peoples of the past were able to make some form of astronomical discoveries and […] Continue reading →

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The successor to the Hubble Space Telescope

Posted on February 14, 2017 by astromalhotra

The Hubble Space Telescope has been delivering high-quality, in-depth images of the universe for almost three decades and has been critical in several astronomy discoveries, such as the rate of expansion of the universe. However, NASA is now planning to fully launch the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018 as the scientific successor to the […] Continue reading →

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Finding the Way with the Stars

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Haley's Comet

    It is amazing for me to think about the human race finding their way before the invention of the modern GPS. While Google Maps and Waze are modern conveniences accessible to all with a smartphone, the sky has a long standing tradition of helping people find their way. In ancient times, sailors would… Continue reading Finding the Way with the Stars Continue reading →

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Fun Facts about Telescopes

Posted on February 13, 2017 by xiangyunastr2110

FUN FACT 1: Galileo is often created as the inventor of the telescope when in fact he was simply the first to use it to study the night sky. The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s, by using glass lenses. They found use in both terrestrial […] Continue reading →

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Gravity in Space?

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Matt Machado

Videos of astronauts floating around inside space shuttles have led many to believe that gravity does not exist in space. However, this is simply not true. While the force of gravity affects, for example, astronauts who are orbiting the Earth in the International Space Station differently than it affects us, it still exists in space, […] Continue reading →

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Light Cones

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Natalie

We all know that light travels really fast. It can appear instantaneous to us on earth, but when you look out … More Continue reading →

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Blog #2: Solar Tides

Posted on February 13, 2017 by andrewsolarsystem

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about tides is the lunar tides that create 2 high and low tides each day. This is due to daily rotation of the Earth, which causes the Moon to effectively move around the Earth every day. The Moon’s gravitational force pulls the water from the sides […] Continue reading →

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Blog 2: Archaeoastronomy

Posted on February 13, 2017 by vandyastro

Archaeoastronomy:” The branch of archaeology that deals with the apparent use by prehistoric civilizations of astronomical techniques to establish the seasons or the cycle of the year, especially as evidenced in the construction of megaliths and other ritual structures.” (definition from dictonary.com) Archaeoastronomy: “The study of the astronomical practices, celestial lore, mythologies, religions and world-views of all ancient cultures” (definition […] Continue reading →

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Gravitational Waves

Posted on February 13, 2017 by brandonandthesolarsystem

Up until about two years ago, gravitational waves were rarely discussed outside of the scientists who based their careers on its discovery. To the public, the entire phenomena was unknown. However, that quickly changed on September 14, 2015 when the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave observatory directly detected gravitational waves. As this news spread across the globe, […] Continue reading →

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