It's The End of the World As We Know It...

...and I feel fine!

Actually, I seem to have caught the delightful virus that's been making the rounds here in southeast Virginia.  On week 2 of the darn thing and I am ready to be done with it.  But back to the matter at hand...

Holy cow!  The world is coming to an end this Friday!  The Mayan Long Count calendar says so!

The Seven-Day Forecast for this week.  Found on Facebook by my friend Jim Drummond.

Actually, it doesn't say anything of the kind.  It's a calendar.  All calendars end...that's how the calendar companies stay in business.  In all seriousness, when the calendar we use today, the Gregorian calendar, comes to the end of a cycle, no one worries that the world will end too...they just go buy a new calendar.  The Mayan Long Count calendar is no different - a new long count cycle will begin on Saturday, and life will go on.

Doomsday predictions and fears have been a common theme in humanity's long history.   It is not, by any means, a modern thing.  In fact, the first known "prediction" for the end of the world dates back to 2800 BC!  An Assyrian clay tablet dating to those times was found with the inscription "Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end. Bribery and corruption are common."  Just in case you thought that bribery and corruption were something invented in the modern era as well...clearly, we've always been good at those things.  Perceived degeneration of morals has long been seen as an indication of the coming end of the world.

There's a long tradition of apocalyptic destruction coming from space as well.  One of the earliest space-related predictions for the end of the world was made in the 1180s, when John of Toledo circulated a letter stating that the coming planetary alignment in Libra on September 23, 1186 would signal the end of the world, and only a very few people would survive.

Comets have long been seen as harbingers of doom.  One of the first comets to be directly associated with the coming end of the world was seen in 1532.  The prediction was made by a Viennese bishop, Frederick Nausea (!), after he heard numerous reports of bizarre occurrences, including bloody crosses being seen in the sky alongside the comet.  One wonders if this is the origin of our use of the word nausea today.

"Astronomical Chart of the path of the Comet of 1532", artist unknown.  From the Gedden Museum.

Sometimes the astronomical predictions get really exciting.  Tomasso Campanella, a Dominican monk, predicted that the Sun would collide with the Earth in 1603.  You'd think we'd have seen that one coming.

Obviously, none of these doomsday predictions came true.  But the long history of man's fascination with the end of the world is, in itself, quite fascinating!  Not being a psychologist, I can't really say why we are so fascinated with the concept of the end of the world.  But I wonder if it doesn't indicate a desire on our part to be involved in something greater than ourselves.  Even if that something gets a little scary at times.

So all in all, Friday should boil down to little more than Mayan New Year.  And you know what New Year's means...it's time for a party!  We're having an End of the World Party at the Virginia Living Museum, and everyone is invited!  We'll be scanning the skies with our telescopes, searching for any killer asteroids (weather and disasters permitting), plus we'll have some fun activities and games going on in the Wason Education Center.  Activities and observing are FREE!  Plus, we'll be having some fun in the cafe, and you can grab a last meal, snack, or even some beer or wine.  In the planetarium, we'll have shows throughout the evening, including Star of Wonder: Mystery of the Christmas Star (6pm), Laser Holidays (7pm), 2012: The End of the World? NOT! (8 & 10pm) and Lasers at the End of the World (9 & 11pm).  Shows are $6 each, or two for $10.  Make it an End of the World Combo: any 2 shows and a $5 cafe gift certificate for $12!  Members always pay half price!  Stick around until midnight and help us end the world with a bang...or ring in Mayan New Year...whichever comes first.

As this will be my last entry of 2012, let me take a moment to wish all of you a wonderful holiday season, a Merry Christmas, and a joyous and blessing-filled 2013.

Carpe noctem!
See you in 2013,
Kelly

There's 104 days of summer vacation...

...and it all officially began yesterday!

Wait...what?

Yesterday was the official first day of summer, with the season truly beginning at precisely 7:09pm.  More significantly, perhaps, yesterday, June 20, was the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere.

By rights, I should have posted yesterday, but the day conspired against me.  You see, I'm teaching summer camps again, and yesterday was the Virginia Living Museum's annual meeting, so I was tied up all day and...

Oh, what?  You're confused...you thought it was today, didn't you? 

Let me explain.

Most years, the equinoxes and solstices fall on the 21st of the months they occur in.  So usually, summer begins on June 21.  But this year is a leap year...meaning there was an extra day to count in February.  That extra day in February is something we humans add to the calendar...the Earth doesn't care what day it is on the calendar.  It just keeps on moving and doing its thing.  So this year, because of the extra day in February, the solstice arrived on June 20.

Sunrise at Stonehenge on the Summer Solstice.  This image was take in 2005.  Courtesy Wikipedia.

So happy summer.  Go outside, if you can stand the heat, and have yourself a double dip ice cream cone to celebrate.  Heck, with these temperatures, make it a triple.

I'm super crazy busy with summer camps, so I'm going to keep this one short.  See you in (about) two weeks!

Carpe noctem (what little there is of it!)
Kelly

COSMIC STRINGS ALERT: Transit of Venus!

Red alert!  Red alert!  All hands to battle stations!

Hee hee, I've always wanted to say that.

Okay, seriously...I'm posting a special update to make sure all of you out there in internet land are aware of the incredible astronomical event taking place next Tuesday.  On the late afternoon/early evening of June 5, we have our last opportunity to witness Venus cross directly in front of the Sun.  Such events are called transits of a planet, and this will be the last one Venus will consent to do in our lifetimes...unless any of us plan on living 105 more years (Adam Savage excepted, of course).

So what is it we are going to see on June 5th?

The 2004 Transit of Venus.  Photo by Jay M. Pasachoff.

Venus orbits the Sun closer in than we do.  It's the second planet from the Sun...we're the third.  So on June 5th everything is going to line up just right to allow us from here on Earth to see Venus silhouetted against the solar surface.  Normally, this doesn't happen.  The solar system is not perfectly aligned - everybody is just slightly off kilter - and so usually Venus passes above or below the visible surface of the Sun from our perspective.  Mercury can do this too - it's the closest planet to the Sun, and moves faster than Venus, so the alignment works more often.  But Mercury is much smaller than Venus (and in fact, smaller than several of the larger moons of the solar system), making it much more difficult to see against the solar surface.  Venus is bigger and closer to us, so the perfectly round black dot of Venus will visible to the unaided (BUT NOT UNPROTECTED!!!) eye.

Notice the yelling up there?  Please, please, do not attempt to Venus the transit of Venus without proper eye protection.  This can result in PERMANENT eye damage.  Sunglasses are not enough, nor is it safe to look at the solar surface during sunset when the Sun is red.  The only safe ways to view the transit are by projecting an image of the Sun, protecting your eyes with solar eclipse glasses or shade #14 arc welder's glass, or using an endcap solar filter on your telescope.  Any other method can be terribly dangerous, so please don't attempt it.  If you're not sure if you have the right equipment to safely view the Sun, contact us at the museum.  We can help.

Okay, so what's the big deal?  A dot on the solar surface.  So what?

So what!!!???!  It's AWESOME!  You're watching a planet cross in front of its star!  WOOT!  That would be the geek explanation of why this is so cool.

Historically, transits of Venus gave us a yardstick by which to measure the sizes and distances of our own solar system.  If you can measure the size of the disk of Venus against the size of the disk of the Sun, and measure how long it takes for Venus to cross the disk of the Sun, you can use that information to calculate a whole bunch of things...most importantly, the distance between the Earth and the Sun.  Since getting out your tape measure and walking to the Sun is...well...highly problematic...transits of Venus gave us the best way of measuring distances in the solar system prior to spaceflight capabilities.

In the 21st century, we've become very interested in planet transits...around other stars.  The Kepler telescope looks for the tell-tale drop in brightness from stars that have planets crossing in front of them, as the planet prevents some of the light from the star from reaching the telescope.  The transit method has allowed us to discover numerous other solar systems in our galaxy...and perhaps one day will aid in us finding another Earth-like planet somewhere out there.

NASA's Kepler Mission.  Courtesy NASA.

If you're looking for some help in viewing the transit, we've got you covered.  We're hosting a special "Dinner with Venus" event, as the transit will begin around 6pm and continue well past sunset (of course, we won't be able to see the Sun after that, so our viewing will be over).  Tickets are $30 per person and include an all-you-can-eat dinner buffet at the Wild Side Cafe, eclipse glasses, telescope viewing of the transit (or internet viewing if the weather goes bad), prize drawings and more.  Space is limited, so contact us today to reserve your spot.  And if you can't get here - get outside on June 5 and watch the sunset with PROTECTED eyes - you'll get a bit more than you bargained for!

Carpe diem et noctem!
Kelly

Smoke on the Water and Fire in the Sky

Well, I don't know about the smoke on the water part, but last Sunday in Nevada and California there was definitely some fire in the sky.

It's now fairly certain that the explosion reported by so many folks in those two states was a bolide, or a fireball.  Fireballs are large meteors that are generally very bright, and are usually accompanied by a good deal of noise.  Most often they explode in the air - a result of the stress of passing through the Earth's atmosphere.  But what is a bolide, really?

Simply put, it's a shooting star.  A very impressive one.

Shooting stars are not actually stars.  They are meteors - rocks from space which enter the Earth's atmosphere.  Most are extremely tiny - like grains of sand or dust.  The friction caused by all that air rubbing against the rock actually makes the air glow - that's the streak of light we see and call a shooting star.  Tiny dust-fragments never get that far - they disintegrate and are gone before they can heat up enough air for us to see.  Larger chunks make a distinct streak of light, but they actually don't make it very far into our atmosphere either before they too are destroyed.  Big chunks, though, can do some amazing things.

A map showing the location of the April 22nd fireball.  Courtesy spaceweather.com

The fireball this weekend was clearly seen in daylight.  When the meteor finally burst apart from the stress, it was pretty close to the ground - maybe about 5 miles up.  If it had been higher up, there would not have been so many reports of loud booms.  Based on information gathered from eye witnesses, it's likely that the meteor which caused all the excitement was about the size of a minivan when it entered the atmosphere.  The energy of the explosion has been estimated at about 3.8 kilotons of TNT, so this was a pretty big deal.  Since it exploded above the ground, there was little actual damage, but it's possible some pieces of the meteor may now rest on the ground.  If these meteorites can be found, they would be quite special, as it is rare to be able to so accurately pinpoint the event that a meteorite came from.

A picture of the Nevada/California fireball of April 22.  Credit: Lisa Warren

So don't forget to keep looking up, even in daylight.  You never know just what you might see!
Carpe noctem et diem!
Kelly

2012: A Year of Astronomical Proportions

Happy New Year everyone!  Once again, I shall ride the current bandwagon, and this post will feature a list of things coming in 2012 that, if at all possible, you should not miss.  Mark these five dates on your calendar now!

March 3, 2012: The Opposition of Mars
No, this has nothing to do with us declaring war on the Martians.  A planetary opposition occurs when a planet is seen exactly opposite the Sun from the Earth, meaning that the planet will rise at sunset and set at sunrise, remaining visible in the sky all night long.  This also means the planet is generally closer to the Earth, as it is on the same side of the solar system as we are.  For Mars, this is a wonderful thing.  Mars has a highly elliptical orbit, and that means that opposition brings our little red neighbor (Mars is only half the diameter of Earth) close enough that details can be seen on the surface with a good telescope.  With a really big telescope...well...you can just imagine.

Mars during the 1997 opposition.  Courtesy NASA, HST & STSci.

This year's opposition is a poor one - even at close approach, Mars will not be as close as it has been in years past - and future oppositions will be better than this one too.  But it's worth seeing the planet nonetheless, even if you don't have a telescope.  Mars is usually a dull orange-ish star in our sky, and not very noteworthy.  But during opposition, Mars will rival Sirius, the brightest star in the nighttime sky, in brightness - a stirring sight for sure.  Right now, Mars rises late in the evening and is visible high in the south around sunrise.  As the year progress, watch for it to rise earlier and earlier in the evening, making viewing this beautiful planet a pretty simple feat even for those who don't like staying up late.  Want to see Mars through a telescope?  Come visit us for our monthly Star Party & Laser Light Night on March 10th.  Mars will be a week past opposition, but still looking great!  Don't miss it!

May 20, 2012: An Annular Solar Eclipse
This one is especially for any readers I might have in California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.  On May 20th, as the Sun is setting across those states, the Moon will glide in front of the Sun.  But the Moon will be too far away to cover the entire disk of the Sun, resulting in what is called an annular solar eclipse.  Most of the Sun's disk will be covered, with only a ring of solar surface visible around the Moon.

The Sun during the annular solar eclipse of January 15, 2010 by Mikael Svalgaard.  Courtesy Astronomy Picture of the Day.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Do NOT attempt to view the eclipse without proper eye protection!  Doing so can result in serious damage to your eyes, even blindness.  The Sun's surface, even only a small portion of it, is incredibly bright.  Never look at the Sun with unprotected eyes.  GOOD NEWS: You don't need a telescope to view this amazing event!  The best thing to get is a pair of eclipse glasses - they'll likely be available at your .local science center as the eclipses gets closer, or you can order them online.  Or, for a quick, inexpensive solution - buy a piece of Shade #14 Arc Welder's Glass from a local hardware store, and look at the Sun through that.  Make sure you get Shade #14 - no other shade will work.  Once you've protected your eyes - go outside about an hour before sunset (check your local paper for exact times for your area!) and watch the Sun as it goes down.  It will be an amazing view.

June 5, 2012: The Transit of Venus
Okay folks, this is the big one.  If you see no other astronomical event this year - see this one.  Why?  Because, quite literally, you will not have another chance to do so in your lifetime.  There will not be another transit of Venus for 105 years - so this is your one and only chance.

A transit is kind of the opposite of opposition - in this case, a planet is crossing in front of the disk of the Sun as seen from the Earth.  Naturally, we can only see transits of Mercury and Venus - the only two planets which lie closer to the Sun than we are.  You'd think these would happen all the time, but like eclipses, the geometry doesn't always work out.  Most times a planet passes above or below the Sun from our perspective.  But every so often the geometry is perfect, and we get to see a planet silhouetted against the brilliant face of the Sun.

The 2004 Transit of Venus photographed by Stefan Seip.  Courtesy Astronomy Picture of the Day.

The transit of Venus this June will occur close to sunset for us, and you can bet we'll be watching here at the Virginia Living Museum!  Stay tuned for more information on our Transit of Venus event.  While the transit will be visible unmagnified with suitable eye protection (remember the warning above!), it will be better through a telescope.  If you're local to Hampton Roads, plan to come join us!

December 13, 2012: The Geminid Meteor Shower
Meteor showers are always fun, and there are usually a couple good ones each year.  But if you're only going to bundle up and sit outside for several hours once in 2012, wait until the December Geminids.  The Moon will be new, making this a perfect night for stargazing in general.  The shower will peak around 7pm local time, meaning you don't have to go outside in the middle of the night to enjoy a good view.  Simply find a dark location (the fewer lights the better!), set up a comfortable lawn chair (laying back so you can see a lot of the sky without straining your neck is best), pile on some blankets and enjoy the show.  The meteors will seem to come from the constellation Gemini the Twins, so if you can place those stars at your back, so much the better.  You can watch until the wee hours of the morning if you like...2am is often a good time to see meteors as our part of the Earth will be turning into our direction of motion, making for good meteors!

A 2011 Geminid meteor over Iran photographed by Arman Golestaneh.  Courtesy Astronomy Picture of the Day.

December 21, 2012: The End of the World
Okay, this one really isn't an astronomical event.  In fact, it's not really an event at all.  Well, it is the Winter Solstice, but you can't really "watch" that event unless you plan on setting up a camera and waiting a year.

 The Analemma over the Porch of Maidens in Athens, Greece as photographed by Anthony Ayiomamitis.  Courtesy Astronomy Picture of the Day.  The Winter Solstice is the Sun's lowest point in the sky. 

But you're probably aware of the numerous predictions of doom and gloom for our planet surrounding this date.  I always love it when such things come up, because it gives us a great opportunity to educate folks about science and how it works...and how it doesn't.  Want a primer on what all the fuss is about?  Join us for 2012: The End of the World? NOT!, a brand-new planetarium show which will be featured all year at the Abbitt Planetarium.  And stay tuned for more information about our End of the World Party, currently in the planning stages. 

So there it is - what not to miss in 2012.  May it be a year of astronomical proportions for all of us!
Carpe noctem!
Kelly