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Category Archives: Astronomy

The So-Called "Primitive" Astronomy of the Ancients: Nabta Playa, the Egyptian Stonehenge – Video

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The So-Called "Primitive" Astronomy of the Ancients: Nabta Playa, the Egyptian Stonehenge
The Nabta Playa Complex was discovered in 1974 and predates the early Egyptian dynasties. It contains a megalithic stone structure, which served as a star ob...

By: The Mystic Trance

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The So-Called "Primitive" Astronomy of the Ancients: Nabta Playa, the Egyptian Stonehenge - Video

April a month packed with notable astronomy events

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On April 12, 1961 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human to make the daring journey into outer space. On this day he bravely completed an orbit of the earth in the Vostok 3KA spacecraft achieving the celebrated status as the first human to enter outer space and the first orbital flight of a manned vehicle. Stardome is celebrating this important day in space flight (NASA launched Space Shuttle Columbia on the same date in 1981), named International Day of Human Space Flight and Yuris Night by screening a special planetarium show about the Google Lunar XPRIZE, Back To The Moon For Good and a presentation on Gagarin. Learn more about the man and the adventure!

David Britten, Astronomy Educator at Stardome says "It is interesting that the first man in outer space was selected based on his ancestry, and stature - there was no room in the space craft for someone of large build. Gagarin orbited earth once, which took just 108 minutes but his legacy of adventure and bravery is still celebrated today."

Mars Up Close

Just a couple of days later on April 14, Mars - our nearest, potentially habitable planet - will be at closest approach, giving Earth dwellers an opportunity to view the red planet in extra detail.

In 2014 Mars reaches opposition on 8 April as Earth overtakes it in its orbit, although it is actually closest to Earth six days later on 14 April, putting Mars just 93 million kilometres away. While it will be even closer in 2018, this is the closest to Earth it has been since 2003. The term at opposition means that the object (in this case, Mars) Earth and the Sun are 180 degrees apart on the sky, so the object rises as the Sun sets.

The best time for viewing Mars through a telescope is in April, after which it will get significantly smaller as Earth leaves it behind. To the naked eye, Mars will be very bright and noticeably reddish in colour. Through a good telescope, you may see distinctive dark markings. While these markings have been noted for centuries, it is only in the last 40 years, since the Mariner 4 expedition, that the markings have been understood as sporadic global dust storms and seasonal changes in polar ice coverage.

David Britten, Astronomy Educator at Stardome, says "Although tiny Mars is at its closest, a clear view even with a good sized telescope can be rather difficult. A steady tripod is essential, and you need to be patient and wait for the local cloud and atmospheric conditions to settle. The surface is clear at present, but there could be a massive Martian dust storm that clouds the atmosphere and blocks the view of the entire surface for months. Keep your fingers crossed for favourable Mars and Earth weather conditions!"

Lunar Eclipse

April 15 brings the first of two lunar eclipses for 2014. This eclipse will be special because it starts soon after the sun sets and from a high vantage point looking east you will be able to see the Moon rise from 6.00pm and move within the Earths shadow to be completely eclipsed by 7.08pm. This marks the start of totality and at this time the Moon will be 15 degrees above a flat horizon - less if there are hills. Maximum eclipse is at 7.46pm and totality ends at 8.23pm at which point the Moon will be 30 degrees above the eastern horizon. The Moon will be completely out of the umbra by 9.32pm. It will look a bit dim because it will still be within the penumbral shadow until 10.36pm, when the eclipse finally ends.

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April a month packed with notable astronomy events

Astronomy – Measuring Distance, Size, and Luminosity (3 of 30) The Size of the Moon – Video

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Astronomy - Measuring Distance, Size, and Luminosity (3 of 30) The Size of the Moon
Visit http://ilectureonline.com for more math and science lectures! In this video I will explain how Aristarchus calculated the size of our Moon around 200 B.C..

By: Michel van Biezen

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Astronomy - Measuring Distance, Size, and Luminosity (3 of 30) The Size of the Moon - Video

Astronomy apps: Planets v Star Walk

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Comprehensive: A screenshot of the Star Walk app.

Before you look to the skies it pays to glance at your smartphone.

The night sky is so vast it is easy for budding astronomers to become overwhelmed. An astronomy app on your smartphone is a great place to start, making it easier to dip your toe into the vast ocean that is the cosmos.

As the name suggests, Planets' primary goal is to help you find planets in the night sky. The moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn are visible from the suburbs through even a modest telescope or binoculars.

Better for beginners: A screenshot of the Planets app.

Planets offers an easy-to-read list of when the sun, moon and planets rise and set each day. To help you find them there are 2D maps to point you in the right direction and 3D maps that show the planets' positions in the sky against the constellations. The 3D map even moves as you turn around and lift your arms, so it's always displaying what is in front of you.

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Star Walk's maps also move as you turn around, but they offer a lot more detail - making it more daunting for beginners but more useful once you know your way around the night sky.

It includes extra information on stars, galaxies and nebulas, along with the real-time position of dwarf planets, comets, asteroids and man-made satellites.

Star Walk also makes it easier to plan your astronomical adventures in advance. You can check rise and set times in the future, fast-forward and rewind through the night and see extra details such as the phases of the moon. There is a calendar of events but it has a northern hemisphere bias, listing the summer solstice in June.

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Astronomy apps: Planets v Star Walk

Mumbai prepares for Global Astronomy Month 2014

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Gearing for Global Astronomy Month? Check out the astronomy action around the world and in Mumbai with Pooja Bhula

Astronomers Without Borders, based in the US, organises Global Astronomy Month in April every year to bring together enthusiasts from across the globe and share new ideas and opportunites. This year's schedule boasts over 20 events. There's a photography contest (last year's winning photos were widely broadcast by National Geographic, Sky and Telescope, Huffington Post, NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day and others), a poetry contest, a special asteroid search campaignstudents get to make original discoveries, a Global Star Party, a Cosmic Concert by an Italian pianist and even a live audio-visual transmission performance between the earth and the moonradio signals will be used to send images to the moon and these signals will bounce off the moon and return to earth to be picked up by the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope. Moon-bounced images will be presented in real time. For the detailed schedule visit: http://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org.

Astronomy on the sidewalk If you plan to stroll on the sidewalks of Nariman Point, Worli Seaface, Shivaji Park, Dadar, Carter Road in Mumbai or a few locations in Thane, you can do much more than just walking. Keeping with the spirit of Global Astronomy Month several amateur astronomers, who have built their telescopes at Nehru Planetarium, plan to lend them to passers-by to view the treasures of the sky from 7 pm to 9 pm. Detailed information and updates are available on their Facebook Page: Sidewalk Astronomy Mumbai.

Evening Sky Show On all the weekends of April, you can have a heavenly time with celestial bodies. Nehru Planetarium plans to run free sky observation sessions, between 7 pm and 8.30 pm, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday; you can expect to see the moon, Jupiter and more, interact with astronomy buffs and query with the planetarium's staff too.

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Mumbai prepares for Global Astronomy Month 2014

Africa: Why the EU and Africa Must Cooperate On Astronomy Research

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When the heads of states of the European Union and Africa meet in Brussels this week (2-3 April) to work out their future cooperation, they will have input from a series of expert meetings held in the run-up to the main event.

One piece of advice, courtesy of the African European Radio Astronomy Platform (AERAP), is that collaboration on radio astronomy research can bring societal benefits, both directly and through building capacity for other types of research and data handling.

This advice was fleshed out by speakers from science, industry and the EU at an industry and Africa-EU science capacity building round-table seminar organised by AERAP in Brussels yesterday.

Collaboration with Africa is essential from a scientific point of view to obtain a complete picture of the sky, said Ricardo Genova of the Astrophysics Institute of the Canary Islands, Spain. But apart from pushing back the frontiers of science, he explained that planned cross-continent initiatives promise training for South Africa's scientists and engineers.

Ian Jones, of the Goonhilly Earth Station in the United Kingdom, added that the skills needed for radio astronomy research are transferable to a whole range of fields, from processing big data to telemedicine and tele-education projects inspired by the work of AERAP and SKA (Square Kilometre Array), a new radio astronomy project partly based in South Africa.

Better connectivity

The communication networks required to transfer the huge amounts of data that will be generated between observatories in the northern and southern hemispheres offer a key opportunity for developments in several sectors.

"The data needs to be transported out of Africa somehow," said Gerlinde Bedoe, from Coriant, a telecommunications company based in Germany, pointing to high-resolution images collected by radio astronomy dishes in Africa that need to be sent to scientists around the world for analysis.

The recently developed underwater internet cables that relay research information from South Africa to Europe could further improve as demand for bigger data and better connectivity is driven by radio astronomy.

Eventually, this internet infrastructure could be used to provide broadband to the general public, ensuring more peaceful and prosperous societies, the meeting heard.

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Africa: Why the EU and Africa Must Cooperate On Astronomy Research

High Bridge resident and RVCC official chosen to participate in NASA program for educators

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HIGH BRIDGE - Borough resident Theresa Moody from the New Jersey Astronomy Center (NJACE) at Raritan Valley Community College has been selected for a special NASA program for educators.

The Astronomy Educator/Program Manager will participate in NASAs Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), which will become a flying classroom for educators in the next few months.

As a SOFIA Airborne Astronomy Ambassador, Moody will join one of 12 two-person teams representing educators from 10 states. Each will be paired with a professional astronomer to observe first-hand how airborne infrared astronomy is conducted. After their flight opportunities, Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors will take what they learn back to their classrooms and into their communities to promote science literacy.

SOFIA is a highly modified Boeing 747SP jetliner fitted with a 100-inch effective diameter telescope.

The aircraft flies at altitudes between 39,000 and 45,000 feet above the water vapor in the Earths atmosphere, and collects data in the infrared spectrum.

Moody and her teacher partner, Margaret Holzer of Chatham High School, will participate in the SOFIA flight during the week of May 10.

Holzer and Moody will co-design a variety of investigations on Light and the electromagnetic spectrum.

These investigations will be designed to integrate the new Science and engineering practices as described in Next Generation Science Standards and will draw on existing NASA resources and investigations.

Once designed, Holzer will implement these new investigations into her high school classroom and Moody will include them in workshops offered at NJACEs Science Education Institute.

SOFIA offers educator teams unprecedented access to infrared astronomers and the unique capabilities of an airborne observatory, said John Gagosian, SOFIA program executive at NASA Headquarters. Previous Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors teams have witnessed SOFIAs world-class astronomical science and have used this experience in hundreds of science, technology, engineering and math teaching opportunities throughout the United States.

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High Bridge resident and RVCC official chosen to participate in NASA program for educators

Changing The Face Of Astronomy Research

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hide captionStudents from CUNY's AstroCom NYC program meet for a weekly class at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Dennis Robbins, an associate professor of science education at CUNY's Hunter College, teaches Betsy Hernandez (from left), Jaquelin Erazo, Ariel Diaz and Mario Martin.

Students from CUNY's AstroCom NYC program meet for a weekly class at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Dennis Robbins, an associate professor of science education at CUNY's Hunter College, teaches Betsy Hernandez (from left), Jaquelin Erazo, Ariel Diaz and Mario Martin.

Shooting for the stars is expensive.

Advanced sciences like astronomy require years of study and graduate degrees. And the soaring cost of college can be a heavy obstacle for low-income and minority students hoping to break into those fields.

A program at the City University of New York hopes to lift that burden by providing scholarships and one-on-one mentoring to underrepresented students.

AstroCom NYC is designed for CUNY scholars like Ariel Diaz, who first felt the pull of astronomy when he was a Marine stationed in North Carolina. Diaz was miserable at the time; he missed his friends and family back in New York City.

"I would go to the beach with my friend," he says. "We would just go to the beach, have a beer and just look at the stars, and everything was OK."

Diaz finished his service three years ago and came home, enrolling in a CUNY community college. When it was time to take a science class, he thought about that time on the beach.

"I like stars ... let me take an easy course," he remembers thinking. "Let me take an easy astronomy course."

Diaz laughs now, because it wasn't easy. As any Astronomy 101 student can tell you, it's far more physics and math than stargazing. Diaz needed help passing calculus. But he says it was worth it to learn about stars and galaxies.

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Changing The Face Of Astronomy Research

See a comet up close on Astronomy Day

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This Saturday, at our annual Carroll College Astronomy Day event, well have observatory tours, well look for sunspots with our solar telescope and, best of all, youll get a chance to watch us build a model comet, right in front of your eyes. I love watching the kids laugh with delight as we shape the steaming, stinking, ice-cold mass and hold it up for all to see. So, what is a comet? And how can we build one?

For thousands of years, most people around the world saw comets as frightening mysteries. The sun, the moon and the stars go through their cycles regularly and predictably. But then suddenly a comet would appear in the sky for a few weeks or months. People thought they were bad omens, warnings of war, plague and the death of kings. And then science was born.

Today, we know that comets are something like dirty snowballs, typically a few miles across, roughly the size of a mountain. They spend most of their time far from the sun in the outer reaches of our solar system, where its cold and dark, living in Plutos neighborhood. However, a comet will occasionally fall in close to the sun, and then things get interesting. The suns heat melts the comets outer layers, causing them to spew out an enormous cloud of gas and dust, thousands or millions of miles across. This gas ball, called the coma, is usually the first thing that we can see from here on Earth. Then, the suns wind and radiation begin pushing the comets gas away, giving the comet a tail which can stretch for a hundred million miles across space.

The comet that we build on Saturday will be a lot smaller, but the ingredients will be scientifically correct. Well begin with a big chunk of dry ice, frozen carbon dioxide. Normally, carbon dioxide is a gas, part of the air around us. However, when cooled to a temperature of minus 109 degrees, carbon dioxide becomes solid. Well smash up our dry ice with a hammer then mix in a bunch of water and ammonia, just like a real comet. The dry ice will freeze them together into a big steaming icy ball, with a horrible smell from the ammonia. As we combine them, well mix in some sand and dirt: Real comets leave a trail of dust and gravel behind them as they move through space. Comets also contain a mix of complex organic molecules, so well stir in a dash of dark corn syrup for good measure. Our final result will be spewing out a stinking dry ice fog as it drips and melts its way to oblivion.

Our annual astronomy day event will run from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 5, in Simperman Hall Room 114 on the Carroll College campus. Comet building will begin at 1 p.m., so please stop by and see for yourself what a comet looks like up close!

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See a comet up close on Astronomy Day


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