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By Ben, on August 24th, 2010
The moon goes by many different names. Here are the moon names for August according to MoonPhase, one of my favorite lunar apps for my iPod (and iPad, but I’m consulting the iPod version because Someone Who Shall Remain Nameless drained the battery last night and didn’t plug it in so it’s recharging from the wall charger):
August (Calendar Month)
Dog Days (in Colonial American parlance)
Sturgeon (Algonquin, which was the basis for the Farmers’ Almanac moon names)
Grain (English)
Dispute (Celtic)
Wyrt (Medieval wiccan)
Lightning (Neo pagan).
Whatever you call it, it happens today at 1:05 p.m. EDT. And as you may recall from previous full moon [...]
By Ben, on July 26th, 2010
Since I work from home again, my observatory is right outside my office door, and I can run out between emails and phone calls and see what the sun is doing. Today, there is a sunspot grouping called AR11089 (AR=active region; this numbering scheme was started by NOAA in 1972) that is visible enough for me to focus on with my P&S camera through the spotting scope:
The image itself isn’t all that spectacular, is it? Even when I blow up the region itself, it leaves a little to be desired:
White-light imaging through a homemade Baader filter without even a parasol [...]
By Ben, on July 25th, 2010
It’s been said so often, and not just by those who dabble in astronomy, but perhaps especially often among those who do: patience is a virtue. After waiting up two hours past my normal bedtime for the summer moon to come out from behind the clouds, she finally did:
Last night’s insurance photo, all warm and fuzzy as it is, really isn’t in the same league. Part of the issue, I’m convinced, is that if I’ve already been asleep, I have a much harder time coaxing focus into my eyes. And on a difficult subject like the full moon through a [...]
By Ben, on July 25th, 2010
This morning at 2 a.m. it was still over 80 degrees outside, and, it being 2 a.m. and all, I found it hard to focus. Not just mentally. Literally. See the picture below if you doubt me.
Summer Moon, 25 July, 2010, 2:10 a.m. EDT.
What we have here is a fuzzy shot of the Summer Moon, taken on a warm and sleepless night here in south Florida. I only took the shot because I couldn’t get back to sleep after giving Eric his middle-night bottle (he’s sick. again. and needs his comfort food), for fear that tonight’s Summer Moon (9:35 [...]
By Ben, on July 4th, 2010
Tonight at approximately 11 p.m. EDT, the Earth reaches aphelion, that point in its orbit when it is furthest from the Sun. Being July, one might wonder why it’s so dang hot (at least in the Northern Hemisphere, where the majority of Earth’s population resides on the majority of Earth’s land mass) if we’re farther from the sun than we are at any other time of the year.
The answer, as many of you know, is that Earth’s seasons are not caused by its distance from the Sun. Instead, they are caused by the tilt of its axis. It’s easiest to [...]
By Ben, on June 28th, 2010
Friday night/Saturday morning, I decided to put my 2 a.m. wakeup call* to good use and get a shot of the moon at close to full. Backyard astronomy at its best!
The house is nice and cool these days, thanks to the a/c man and my suddenly light bank account, and the contrast between the cool and dry indoors and the hot and muggy out of doors was intense, even at 2:25 a.m. I thought I’d entered a sauna just by opening the door to the Florida room! There was a deep mist in the air, but not too dense; a [...]
By Ben, on June 27th, 2010
Here at long last is last month’s shot of the near full moon. Time, weather, and energy permitting, I’m still committed to posting at least one shot of each month’s full moon in 2010.
Depending on your browser, you can either click on the image, or mouse over the area to the right of the image, in order to see the caption/description. (In my browser, Safari for Mac, clicking on the image brings up a new window with a “full size” version. Full size in quotes, because I reduced it to 1200 pixels wide just to make it easy to upload.) [...]
By Ben, on June 21st, 2010
Today is the June solstice. That means that today, at 7:28 a.m. EDT, the Sun’s apparent motion in the sky will stop moving north, and start heading south. This is because we are at that point in our orbit around the Sun where the following image takes place:
Earth's rotation axis relative to our orbital plane (image from NASA, http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Sseason.htm)
As you can see, the northern hemisphere is receiving the majority of the Sun’s rays today. The further south you go, the shorter your day length will be, as this comparison between Boston and Boca Raton illustrates:
June Solstice, Boca and Boston
Event
Boca [...]
By Ben, on May 26th, 2010
I’ve been fascinated by the chain of thought elaborated by Scott Sampson over at the Whirlpool of Life; his latest post continues his theme of linking scientific knowledge with storytelling in a way that might help overcome the dogmatism of certain elements of our society that seem content to have us toil in mediocrity. It also links one of my interests, acquired far too long after graduate school—the history of life on our planet—with another of my interests—astronomy—that I also acquired while I was putting the finishing touches on my grad school career in literature.
The evolution of the universe and the [...]
By Ben, on May 2nd, 2010
Here is the best shot of a brief series I took before one of my many business trips last month (in case you were wondering why I haven’t been updating the blog very frequently):
[Show as slideshow]
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