Tag Archives: blog2

Total Solar Eclipse

Posted on January 19, 2015 by pgolemanska

People have been fascinated with total solar eclipses. Part of that fascination comes from how rare they are. Solar eclipses occur every 18 months on average, but what makes them so rare is that they are visible from limited number of locations on Earth. It ends up being that a particular location would observe a […] Continue reading →

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Observing and Reddit

Posted on April 29, 2014 by thegarrettnondorf

Interested in learning more about Astronomy or finding a community of people who love astronomy? Try the Astronomy subreddit on the website Reddit.com. They have monthly observing challenges and ask/answer all kinds of questions about astronomy. Some examples – “I want to spend my dying years observing the unknown universe from my roof. What’s the … Continue reading Observing and Reddit → Continue reading →

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Observing the Night Sky

Posted on March 19, 2014 by karapetros

The website Sky and Telescope is very cool! It shows an easy to understand layout of what planets, stars, etc. you will be viewing in the night sky and where they will be moving throughout the night and week. It also gives you categories of different celestial objects you can try to search for in … Continue reading Observing the Night Sky → Continue reading →

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Solar Eclipse Myths

Posted on January 28, 2014 by forestcsharp

via National Geographic As astounding and rare as they are, it’s no surprise that many cultures possess their own mythology regarding solar eclipses. Imagine an ancient civilization watching in awe as the warmth and light of the sun are blocked … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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The magic of Stellarium

Posted on January 27, 2014 by asadpabani

Have you ever accidentally stumbled upon something amazing? Like that burger joint you stumbled into when you were out late on Friday night and found out they served the most amazing cheeseburger? Finding out about Stellarium last semester had something of a similar effect on me. While previously I was left swooning over magnificent pictures […] Continue reading →

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The Precession of Earth’s Axis

Posted on January 27, 2014 by gradytlynch

I’m a very visual learner, so when trying to understand the phenomenon of axial precession, I sought out a visual representation of what exactly is going on. This video perfectly explains (for this level class) the causes and implications of axial precession. It leaves us with an advanced understanding of how axial precession affects our […] Continue reading →

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SkyCube: A Personal Satellite

Posted on January 27, 2014 by almetetj

Project Explanation Video: SkyCube Project Overview While skimming through a list of start up projects on Kickstarter.com, I noticed a project that peaked my interest a while back, the SkyCube. This project gave “backers” the opportunity to control the soon to  be launched satellite, effectively becoming the  first crowd source funded satellite intended for crowd-sourced […] Continue reading →

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Stellarium

Posted on January 27, 2014 by Leigh

I found the program Stellarium to be incredibly interesting and also very informative. The benefit of Stellarium is that it creates a visual and interactive representative of what can only be demonstrated through words and images in the textbook. Because … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Thinking and Observing

Posted on January 27, 2014 by paanvaannd

I think it’s fun to simply look up at the stars sometimes and think about what might be out there. There’s so much we don’t yet know, so much to be discovered. We thought we had conquered the final frontier when Amundsen had finally reached the South Pole at the beginning of the 20th century, … Continue reading Thinking and Observing → Continue reading →

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Blurry Telescope

Posted on January 27, 2014 by dhbrett

This is a picture captured by the famous Hubble space telescope. It looks blurry, because the team that designed the giant main lens didn’t properly account for the effects of gravity, causing the light to be refracted improperly. It took many years and many expensive maintenance trips to fix this error, but in the meantime, … Continue reading Blurry Telescope → Continue reading →

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