Comments for Clark Planetarium

Comment on Doughnuts vs. THE END OF THE WORLD by Dani Weigand

Dani Weigand — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:15:43 +0000

I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying out layout!

We are using WordPress as the blog software for our site. We worked closely with our advertising agency, Riester, to develop the design. If you have specific questions, let me know and I’ll try to help out.

Comment on Doughnuts vs. THE END OF THE WORLD by Zane Mcatee

Zane Mcatee — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:35:32 +0000

I need some advice for my blog….I like your layout. Can you help me?

Comment on Mapping the ecliptic by Richard

Richard — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:56:11 +0000

Sorry, no eclipse. A lunar eclipse must coincide with the Full Moon, which was on February 28th, and did not have an eclipse either. There will be a partial lunar eclipse in June and a total lunar eclipse in December.

Happy Birthday!

Comment on Mapping the ecliptic by nikita Vladik

nikita Vladik — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:13:19 +0000

on March 3rd was there a lunar Eclipse? and My Bday is this month

Comment on Why are planets spherical? by Dani Weigand

Dani Weigand — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:52:40 +0000

Thanks! We love hearing that kind of feedback.

Comment on Why are planets spherical? by Danielle

Danielle — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:11:39 +0000

love the web site. going to tell my astronomy teacher about this website. AWESOME LAYOUT

Comment on Love the sunset? Watch the Moon rise, too. by Richard

Richard — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:35:31 +0000

Thanks for your question, Scott. Let me answer it in two different ways:
1) Yes, there are tables all over the internet for sunrise/sunset & moon rise/set times. Personally, I like the US Naval Observatory’s Astronomical Applications site. You can input your city and state and get this information very easily (http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications).
2) Note in my blogpost that the physical configuration of the Sun, Earth and Moon is what determines Full Moon. By default of this physical arrangement, the Full Moon will rise as the Sun sets. Timing may not be precise because of your location and your horizon, which is why I suggest doing this a day or even two before the night of the Full Moon. Full Moon dates are usually a part of any calendar, and sunrise/sunset times are usually noted in your local tv weather report.

Happy observing,
Richard.

Comment on Why are planets spherical? by Seth Jarvis

Seth Jarvis — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:24:09 +0000

Bence, spheres are nature’s way of evenly distributing gravitational attraction. Every part of a sphere at any given distance from the sphere’s center experiences exactly the same gravitational attraction as any other part of the sphere at that same distance. Think of any shape other than a sphere and you’ll quickly see lots of places on the objects surface are signifcantly different in their distance from the object’s center of mass. That’s fine for small objects like asteroids, comets and spaceships, but for anything that’s more than a couple of hundred miles in diameter the gravitational forces will just naturally pull the mass into a spherical shape in order to evenly distribute the mass around the center of gravity. I hope that helps – Seth

Comment on Love the sunset? Watch the Moon rise, too. by Scott

Scott — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:10:48 +0000

You know I have been wondering about when these alignments occur for some time. I am interested in finding out if there is a table that shows when sunrise and moonsets or sunsets and moonrises coincide but haven’t been able to find a website that calculates those sort of things. Does Clark happen to have this data? (doubly interested in when moon phase is full)

Scott

Comment on Why are planets spherical? by Bence

Bence — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:23:31 +0000

I also need more info on why are they actually spherical, but anyhow I cant complain as I enjoyed your piece of knowledge.