Yes, Daylight Saving Time is upon us. For most of the United States, on March 14, 1:59 a.m. will be followed by 3:00 a.m. as clocks are officially set forward one hour. So, March 14 will only be 23 hours long. Of course, Earth’s rotation knows nothing of this timepiece manipulation, so observers will note [...]
Most mornings at 6:05 a.m. you’ll find me standing at a bus stop, patiently awaiting the arrival of the bus that brings me to work. Not a bad ride, actually. What would normally be a 25 minute drive is a 45 minute trip, during which I have the freedom to read a book, be online [...]
Groundhog Day is February 2nd each year, and has its roots in Astronomy. It is a crossquarter day, marking the midpoint between the winter solstice in December and the spring equinox in March. Although we celebrate the beginning of spring around March 21st, we begin to sense an end of winter, and anticipate the arrival of [...]
To me, Mars has not been a very interesting planet to observe in the night time sky. Ok, it’s red–really red. But even through a backyard telescope, Mars is just a small red ball. Well, this month (January, 2010) Mars is much more interesting.
Mars reaches opposition on January 29th. At that time, Mars will be on [...]
The New Horizons spacecraft is on its way to Pluto. It left Earth back in January 2006. Now it is almost halfway between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus. When will it reach Pluto? Not until July 2015. Why so long? Pluto is “out there.” How “out there” is it? A scale model can help.
On Saturday, January 2nd, 2010, the Earth was only 147,098,000 kilometers away from the Sun. But don’t worry. Earth is not spiraling down to the Sun for an eventual collision. This is an annually recurring event known as perihelion.
Earth perihelion occurs every year in early January, and marks the minimum distance between Sun and Earth [...]
The winter solstice occurs on Monday, December 21st, 2009, at 10:47 am, MST.
Solstice means sun stationary. This event marks the time when the sun is at its furthest point south of the celestial equator. The celestial equator is simply a projection of Earth’s equator out into space, and divides the sky into the northern celestial [...]
There are two full moons in December. By modern convention, the second full moon in a calendar month is called a blue moon. So, New Year’s Eve party goers can celebrate a blue moon followed by a New Year. However, this definition of a blue moon results from a mistake made in an article published [...]
The Geminid Meteor Shower peaks at 10:00 pm, MST, on Sunday, December 13th; with a predicted peak rate of 120 meteors per hour.
With New Moon on the 16th, there will be no moonlight to wash out the sky, making this year’s Geminids a shower worth watching Sunday night.
The Geminid shower does not originate from a [...]
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