Remembrance

Greetings, friends.

Forgive me, but today, as a native New Yorker, I find it difficult to write a substantive post.  So I shall share with you instead two photographs.

This is how I will always remember the World Trade Center:

The World Trade Center on March 1, 2001.  Courtesy Wikipedia.

And this is our home.  The only one we have.  Here's hoping we can find a way to live in it together.

The Earth as photographed by the astronauts of Apollo 17.  Courtesy NASA.

If you are in the area, please do come join us at the Virginia Living Museum this Saturday for our monthly Star Party and Laser Light Night.  We're hoping for fine weather so we can really enjoy the sky.

Until next time,
Carpe Noctem,
Kelly

I'm Sorry I'm Confused...

Well, hello!

Sorry about the lack of a post two weeks ago...I wrote one, but for some reason Blogger never posted it.  I've gotten so used to this thing working so well, I never thought to check to see if the scheduled post properly popped up!  I'll have to be more diligent with this thing in future.

I am smack dab in the middle of summer camps this week.  I'm currently teaching rising first and second graders about the planets - and it's TONS of fun!  I love working with kids...they always seem to know way more than I think they will.  It's awesome.

Anyway, since I've got planets on the brain, I thought I'd share a few tidbits about planets that my kids know...but maybe some of our grownups out there don't!  Enjoy!

Did you know...

...Mercury has a thin "borrowed" atmosphere of solar wind surrounding it.  The gases streaming away from the Sun will wrap around Mercury for a little while before continuing their journey through space.  It's not a very nice hug, however...the impact of the gaseous material can blast sodium ions off the surface of the planet!

...Venus rotates backward.  Something quite traumatic must have happened to our neighbor in its early history, as the planet appears to have been tipped completely over by a massive impact.  This same event massively slowed Venus' rotation as well, leaving it with a day which is longer than its year!

...Earth has been visited by spacecraft more times than any other planet.  Indeed, the majority of the spacecraft launched by the various space agencies around the world have been placed in orbit around our home planet for a wide variety of purposes, including scientific study.

...Mars is only half the diameter of Earth.  The much-maligned Red Planet - long considered the home of aliens bent on taking over the Earth to gain its vast supply of precious water - actually boasts several geologic superlatives despite its small size.  Mars is home to one of the largest canyons in the solar system (the Valles Marineris - large enough to stretch from New York City to Los Angeles if placed here on Earth!) as well as the largest volcano in the solar system (Olympus Mons - standing two and a half times the height of Mt. Everest and with a base as large as the state of Virginia!).

...Jupiter has the longest-lived cyclonic storm ever seen.  The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is actually a storm that has been raging in the atmosphere of the giant planet for more than 400 years - at a minimum!  Galileo Galilei first noted the presence of the storm in 1609 when he observed the giant planet through his simple telescope...but of course, since he was the first person ever to see Jupiter in that way, we have no idea how long the storm had been there before he saw it.  The Great Red Spot continues to fascinate amateur and professional astronomers alike to this day.

...Saturn has such a low density that you could float it in a bathtub...if you could find one big enough!  Though the second largest planet in the solar system, Saturn is less dense than water.  So if we could get enough water together, Saturn could float in it.

...Uranus rotates on its side!  Like Venus, it appears this planet also suffered a major whack early on...resulting in an orbital tilt of 98 degrees.  So the moons and rings of Uranus appear vertically around the planet, rather than the horizontal aspect we might expect.

Uranus - the Sideways Planet!  Courtesy NASA.

...Neptune used to have an enormous hurricane too...but now it's gone!  When seen by the Voyager spacecraft in 1989, Neptune boasted the Great Dark Spot, an atmospheric storm of some kind that appeared as a darker blue splotch on the planet.  In 1995, Hubble was aimed at the 8th planet, hoping to get a another look at the dark spot - but it was nowhere to be seen.  Unlike Jupiter, Neptune's storms seem to be short-lived things.

And we really can't finish out a post about planets without mentioning the dwarf planets!  There are officially five dwarf planets in the solar system these days - Ceres, the largest of the asteroids, and 4 Kuiper Belt objects - Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.

Pluto now boasts five moons of its own - and they all finally have official names!  Recently, the International Astronomical Union officially named the two moons discovered in 2011 and 2012...so Pluto is now attended by Charon, Hydra, Nix, Kerberos, and Styx.  Not bad for the premiere dwarf planet of the solar system!

Pluto, now a virtual mini solar system of its own.  Courtesy NASA.

Well, that's about all I have time for just now.  Hope you discovered a little something new about the solar system in which you live!  See you in two weeks...assuming Blogger doesn't go crazy on me again.

Until then...Carpe Noctem!
Kelly

And Now for Something Completely Different...

...a man with a tape recorder up his nose.

Monty Python's Michael Palin as The Man with a Tape Recorder Up his Nose

I absolutely love Monty Python.  I can't help it.  I'm one of those bizarre people who finds British humor positively hysterical.  Human beings seem to come in two flavors: those that flip for British humor, and those that can't stand it.  And you don't get wafers with either variety.

Perhaps my favorite thing about Monty Python, however, is the fact that the members of the troupe are very well educated and inject that into their brilliant comedy.  There's something wonderful about that.  I mean, how else does one conceive of a comedy bit where a Roman centurion vehemently corrects a Jewish ne'er-do-well on the grammar of his Latin graffiti?  Romans you go the house?  It's still one of my favorite bits from Life of Brian.

Astronomy is not neglected by the Pythons either.  If you've ever see The Meaning of Life, you'll certainly remember The Galaxy Song, a jaunty little ditty written and sung by Eric Idle to convince an ordinary British housewife to donate her organs (and right now please).  The words are as follows:

Monty Python's Terry Jones as Mrs. Brown and Eric Idle performing "The Galaxy Song" in "The Meaning of Life"

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.

It's a brilliant song, all the more so because it's pretty much 100% accurate.  We'll forgive Eric the use of the word "revolving" when he really meant "rotating"...after all, it's a very common mistake.  But beyond that one slip in lexicon, the song is spot on. 

Our Earth really does rotate, on average, at 900 miles per hour.  Think about that.  Right now, as you sit reading this, you are IN MOTION at almost 1000 mph.  And that's just the Earth's rotation.  Our revolution around the Sun, at 19 miles a second, clocks in at over 68,000 mph.  Comparatively, the entire solar system trundles along at only 40,000 mph as it moves around the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

A second error, if you want to call it that, occurs here.  We now believe that our galaxy probably contains 200 billion stars...but of course, it depends a little on who you ask.  100 billion as an estimate back when the song was written would be perfectly acceptable.  All of the other measures concerning our galaxy are quite correct.

So the next time someone complains about you just sitting on the couch, watching TV, you can explain to them just how fast you're really moving when you do that.  No wonder you need to sit down!

Until next time,
Carpe noctem!
Kelly

So...why are you here?

I get asked that question a lot.

Well, okay, not really.  Most people are not so bold as to ask that question directly.  They tend to come at the idea with comments like "Oh...I had no idea there was a planetarium at this museum."  Or perhaps, "Wow, when did you guys build this?"  Or the ever-popular "How long has this been here?"

But the looks on their faces and the tone of their voices say "What's a space science thing doing at an animal museum?"

We do have a lot of animals.  They are awesome and amazing, and I completely understand why people love them, because I do too!  (personal favorites: the bobcat and the otters)  But the Virginia Living Museum is about more than just adorable animals.  We are a nature and science center.  We aim to showcase the natural wonders of Virginia - all of them.  Plants, animals, mountains, trees...and yes, even the sky.

More than this, we are hoping to inspire in our guests a passion for the world that surrounds them.  It's a world worth saving.  Not only the playful otters and the majestic bobcat, but also the brilliant stars of night, the delicate flowers, and so very much more.  And even more than this...none of what makes Virginia the incredible place it is exists separate from the planet on which we find ourselves.  And our wondrous Earth cannot exist without the solar system of which it is a part.  And that solar system resides in the Milky Way galaxy...an island universe within a vast cosmos...all of which makes up "our environment."  To understand our own little world, we must understand the universe.

We as humans like to compartmentalize things.  We categorize, sort, subdivide and organize.  This helps us to understand where we are in the universe, and to deal with the mundane aspects of daily life.  But we forget at our peril that we are all citizens of the cosmos.  Ask anyone who has had the great privilege to see the Earth from space.  They understand.

Our wonderful planet as seen from Apollo 17.  Courtesy NASA.

I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of 100,000 miles their outlook could be fundamentally changed. That all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions, presenting a unified façade that would cry out for unified understanding, for homogeneous treatment. The earth must become as it appears: blue and white, not capitalist or Communist; blue and white, not rich or poor; blue and white, not envious or envied.

— Michael Collins, Gemini 10 & Apollo 11 astronaut

That's why we're here.  To transport you, even for just 30 minutes or so, into the cosmos and show you just how precious and wonderful is your environment.

Until next time,
Carpe noctem!
Kelly

The Ultimate in Star-Power

Did you have trouble with the radio in your car this past Monday?  Did the GPS in your phone suddenly go on the fritz?  If so, then you've experienced the power of the Sun.

The Sun cracked off a wicked little flare which impacted us this past Monday, disrupting some radio and GPS signals.  Many people don't realize just how much the Sun impacts us.  Sure, we all know it gives us light and heat, but did you know it can cause power outages, disrupt communications, and is responsible for the auroras?  There's an entire industry devoted to predicting what the Sun is going to be doing...it's called space weather.

The area of the Sun which unleashed Monday's solar flare in several different types of light.  The bright spot on each of the pictures is where the flare originated, except on the magnetogram (there the spot appears dark).  Courtesy NASA.

The Sun is a massive ball of plasma - a highly electrically charged state of matter that has similarities to both gases and liquids.  Material comes streaming out of the Sun almost all the time.  But sometimes, the Sun gets pretty stirred up, and it can unleash an extra burst of material on out into space.  If that material happens to be headed in the direction of Earth, we may experience a variety of effects, from the merely beautiful to the highly dangerous.

The most common effect of solar activity is the Northern Lights, or the Aurora Borealis.  These shimmering colored lights are most easily seen in the extreme north (or, if you're living down under, you can see the Aurora Australis in the extreme south), and occur when charged particles from the Sun strike particles in our atmosphere and excite them.  Eventually the particles give up the extra energy they've received from the Sun and produce a variety of colored lights that seem to dance through the sky.  Auroras are amazingly beautiful, and completely harmless.

Red and green auroras over White Dome Geyser in Yellowstone National Park this month.  Picture by Robert Howell.  Courtesy Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Sometimes, when the Sun is really agitated, those particles come in towards the Earth at speeds sufficient enough to allow them to punch down into the lower atmosphere and affect high-voltage power lines.  Since the particles from the Sun are themselves charged...well...this can do very nasty things to equipment designed to send charged particles in only one direction.  We've been able to trace the causes of several wide-scale blackouts back to the impact of solar material.

The flare that disrupted radio and GPS on Monday was not all that intensive.  Scientists track what happens on the Sun so companies with satellites in orbit and power companies can be made aware of when solar material might be on the way.  We expect an uptick in solar events over the next year, as the Sun reaches the peak of its 11-year activity cycle in 2013.  Want to stay up to date on space weather happenings?  Check out spaceweather.com for the latest on solar events.

Until next time, enjoy the sunshine...
Carpe noctem!
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

How to Have an Astronomical Vacation

It's easy!  Just look up!

Okay, I'll stop being a smart aleck.  But truly, it is easy to make any vacation astronomical...and looking up really is the key.

We're in vacation mode in my house these days.  Spring Break for my daughter's school is next week, and our family is spending that week in Disneyworld!  It was my Dad's favorite place to go with his granddaughter (and her parents could come too, as long as they didn't try to set any ground rules!), and being there always reminds me of him.  But what has this got to do with astronomy, you're thinking.

If you're already an astronomy buff, you probably know that the sky looks different depending on where you are on the surface of the Earth.  To many folks, this is an incredible revelation.  We don't often think about it, but where you are standing on the Earth can completely change your perspective.

I was asked once after a live sky show in the planetarium how many moons the Earth had.  Since the question came from an adult, I was a bit surprised.  But the lady asking seemed very sincere, so I told her that Earth has only one moon, with the rather unimpressive name The Moon.  She seemed disappointed and told me of her recent trip to Australia, where she saw a large, bright object in the sky, which she thought was the Moon at first.  But something about it didn't look right.  So she thought maybe the Earth had another moon, one that could only be seen from the Southern Hemisphere.

What she was seeing was the regular good ol' Moon...it was just upside-down.

She looked at me like I had 5 heads.

The Moon as seen from both hemispheres of the Earth.  Images of the Moon from Scientific American (left) and Wunderground (right).  Text and compositing by Kelly Herbst.

But think about it.  The Earth is a sphere, and wherever you go on it, you are standing on the outside of the sphere.  When you travel to the Southern Hemisphere, you have essentially turned yourself upside-down compared to when you are in the Northern Hemisphere.  So things you see in the sky will look upside-down to you!  The lady who had seen the upside-down Moon was amazed...and realized at that point that she had been seeing some familiar constellations, like Orion, upside-down too.

People standing on the Earth.  Notice that someone in the Southern Hemisphere would see things in the sky inverted from the way they would see them in the Norther Hemisphere.  Credit: Kelly Herbst

Now, in Florida, nothing will appear upside-down for us, or even substantially different.  Since we'll be further south than we are in Virginia, we'll see some things on the southern horizon that normally we don't, and the northern horizon will be a bit more hidden from our view.  But even that small change can be worth examining...after all, you never know just what you'll see when you take the time to look up.

So next time you're on vacation, whether near or far from home, spend an evening looking at the sky.  Sometimes a new perspective is just what you need.

Have a great Spring Break!
Carpe noctem!
Kelly

Four Small Orbits for the Earth, One Giant Leap Day for Mankind

Happy Leap Day!  It's February 29th, a day that comes only once every four years.  Well, almost once every four years.  Sometimes we skip it.  Do you know the rule for Leap Years?  It gets pretty complicated.  Let's pick it apart, shall we?

Leap Year Rule, Part I: If the year is evenly divisible by four, add one day to the end of February.

Why would we need any kind of rule at all?  Everyone knows that a year is 365 days, right?

Except it's not.

We use a calendar which has 365 days, because that is the number of days it takes the Earth to make one complete trip around the Sun.  But unfortunately, the Earth doesn't quite complete a revolution in 365 days.  In order for the Earth to return to exactly the same spot in its orbit around the Sun, the Earth actually moves for 365 and 1/4 days.  Our calendar ignores this quarter-day, so every 4 years, we need to add a day to our calendar to keep everything lined up correctly.  If we didn't add this day, over time, the extra days would build up, and we'd find ourselves celebrating New Year's in the middle of summer.  So adding a day once every four years helps to keep our calendar days in synch with the seasons as we expect them.

The reason why we need Leap Day.  Credit: Kelly Herbst

Leap Year Rule, Part II: If the year is evenly divisible by four, add one day to the end of February, unless the year is divisible by 100, then don't add a Leap Day.

Okay, so we had a nice simple rule.  Why add this extra bit?  Well, because once again, our math is slightly off.  That extra bit of time it takes for the Earth to truly complete one revolution?  It's not really exactly one quarter of a day.  A year is actually about 365.24 days long...almost one-quarter day but not quite.  So every four years we're adding just a little too much to the calendar.  Over a long period of time, this drift begins to add up again, and your seasons start getting out of synch.  So by the time you've been following the part one rule for about 100 years, you've added about one whole extra day to the calendar that you didn't need.  So skip Leap Day in years that are divisible by 100.

Leap Year Rule, Part III: If the year is evenly divisible by four, add one day to the end of February, unless the year is divisible by 100, then don't add a Leap Day, unless the year is also divisible by 400, then keep the Leap Day.


Okay, now things are just getting silly.  Another adjustment?  Yep, sorry to say it, but 365.24 days isn't the exact time for the Earth to revolve around the Sun once either.  The actual length of a year is really about 365.2425 years.  So if you've been following the part two rule for about 400 years, you've subtracted off one too many leap days and you have to add one back in again to keep the calendar in synch with the seasons.

Notice I said "about 354.2425 years"?  Yes, someday, the leap day rule may grow even more.  The problem here really lies in the fact that we are able to make more and more precise measurements of the actual length of a year.  The basic "once every four years we need an extra day rule" was well-known to the ancient Romans.  In about 45BC, this idea was codified into the Julian calendar, and the concept of the regular Leap Day was first put into practice.  But by 325AD, the Council of Nicaea was already wrestling with the problem that the celebration of Easter was drifting from the season where the church had determined it should be celebrated.  But calendar reform is not easy, and it took another 1300 years before Pope Gregory XIII was able to get the majority of the world to agree to shift to a new calendar, one that included both parts II and III of the leap year rule.  We use this Gregorian calendar today, and even this modern calendar accumulates one day of error in 8000 years.

Pope Gregory XII.  Source: Wikipedia

Will the year 8000AD see another adjustment to our leap year system?  Maybe.  Because something else is happening that we haven't discussed - the length of Earth's year is not constant.  It changes ever so slightly over time.  So by the time we get to 8000AD, we might not need to make any adjustment at all!  Or...we might need to adjust things in the other direction!  But whatever happens, don't worry about it.  Just enjoy this extra day in February - take the opportunity to do something fun!  Subway is giving away free cookies today...sounds like a fun thing to me!

And a special Happy Birthday to my friend Eric, who turns 6 (24) today!  Happy Leap Day everyone!
Until next time,
Carpe noctem!
Kelly

It's...GROUNDHOG DAY!

Okay, okay...not quite.  But it is Groundhog Day tomorrow.  And the Bill Murray movie is great fun, so it deserved a shout-out.

Have you ever thought about Groundhog Day?  What a funny little holiday.  We wait to see if a little critter pops out of his hole...and then pops back in again, or hangs around looking for food.  What a strange thing to celebrate!

A groundhog.  Courtesy Wikipedia.

There are many potential origins for the celebration of Groundhog Day.  One of the most commonly cited is the Celtic festival of Imbolc.  February 2nd is a cross-quarter day, or a day that falls in between a solstice and an equinox.  In particular, Imbolc falls between the Winter Solstice (December 21) and the Spring Equinox (March 21).  In ancient times, this would have been a celebration of the coming of Spring, the start of the agricultural season, and the return of numerous critters like snakes and badgers.  The origin of the word Imbolc seems to refer to the birth of the first spring lambs, another sign that soon life will abound on the Earth again, after a long, cold winter.

In the New World, the groundhog exhibited the required behavior...staying below ground all winter long, and coming out only when the weather began to warm to forage for food.  Tradition holds that if the groundhog sees his shadow, the weather is too clear and cold and little food will be available.  Down the hole he goes, to wait a bit longer before checking for food again.  If the skies are overcast, the spring rains are on the way, and food will be abundant.  The groundhog stays out and begins to search for food.  Over the years, this has become associated with a prediction for either 6 more weeks of winter weather, or the arrival of an early spring.

In reality, no matter what Punxsutawney Phil (or any other groundhog, for that matter) sees tomorrow morning, there will still be 6 more weeks of winter.  Spring will arrive for us, as it always does, around March 21, when the Earth's northern hemisphere is tilted neither towards nor away from the Sun, and day and night are of equal length.

The Spring Equinox.  Courtesy timeanddate.com

Hmmm...I wonder if that means that in the southern hemisphere on February 2nd, they watch for some critter to predict if there will be 6 more weeks of summer.

Whether you think Groundhog Day is a silly holdover or a fine ancient tradition, it is an excellent time to learn about critters that hibernate and how the Earth gets its seasons.  And participate in some uniquely Groundhog Day fun to boot!  If you're in the area, come out to the Virginia Living Museum tomorrow for two great opportunities to celebrate the day.  If you're available around noon, join us in the museum's Wason Amphitheatre for a proper Groundhog Day celebration with a real live groundhog and WAVY-TV 10's Jeremy Wheeler.  Can't make it during the day?  Come by at 6:30pm for a Groundhog Night celebration where you can meet the museum's groundhog and take in a planetarium show starring our groundhog buddy (also called a woodchuck, whistle pig, or land-beaver) which will teach you all about the Earth's relationship with the Sun and Moon.  A guaranteed great time for all!  Daytime event included with museum admission; Evening event $5 adults $4 kids (planetarium show $2 extra).  Members save $1 on the evening event!  Get more information at our website. 

However you decide to celebrate, have a wonderful Groundhog Day!
Until next time,
Carpe Noctem!
Kelly

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Oh yes indeed.  Halloween is this coming Monday.  If you have little kids in your house, like I do, your days are filled with costume prep, costume changes, plans to meet friends and trick-or-treat the best neighborhoods (the ones where you can get the most candy!) and hiding the candy you're supposed to give out from your husband.

You might not think of Halloween as a particularly astronomical holiday...but hey, my tag line up at the top says "Connecting astronomy and space science to...well...just about everything."  So...let's look for some spacey Halloween fun.

The celebration of Halloween is often linked back to a Celtic festival held around this time of year called Samhain, which literally means "summer's end."  As the days begin to shorten and the nights lengthen thanks to the tilt of Earth as we orbit the Sun, the residents of the British Isles (and many other places around the world) would hold a final party as the harvest came to an end, and preparations for the coming long winter ended.  During the winter, travel would be difficult, if not impossible, and this last celebration before the months that many people would spend shut in the their homes against the poor weather was a special one.  So astronomy comes into play right from the beginning of this spooky holiday.

But surely there isn't anything spooky about space itself, right?  Well...think again.  Space is filled with creepy and crazy things...mostly hidden in nebulae, those enigmatic clouds of gas and dust found throughout our galaxy (and indeed, all others).  In reality, these clouds are either leftovers from the deaths of stars, or stellar nurseries, where new stars are being formed.  But sometimes, we can't help but see something else in them.  For example, can you see the cackling face in this nebula?

The Witch Head Nebula.  Courtesy NASA.

This is the Witch Head Nebula, and the resemblance is truly striking!  I certainly wouldn't want to see that laughing at me through my eyepiece...well, actually, that would be kind of cool!

Not afraid of wicked witches?  Try this one on for a scare.

The Ghost Nebula.  Courtesy NASA.

This one is called the Ghost Nebula, and those wispy tendrils truly do make it seem as if something is swooping down towards us.  An apparition worthy of a Hollywood movie...except this is the real thing, and located in the Pleiades star cluster, which will soon be gracing our winter evening skies.  Still not convinced space is spooky?  How about one more?

The DR 6 Star Forming Region.  Courtesy NASA.

Now that is one creepy face.  Bearing a striking resemblance to a human skull, this nebula has the unimaginative name of DR 6.  I think the Skull Nebula suits it far better, however.  It sometimes called the Galactic Ghoul...which is pretty darn creepy, if you ask me.

All right, you got me.  Space isn't really creepy...it's our own active imaginations that see spectres and spooks in the skies.  But it certainly is fun, isn't it?  Speaking of fun, I hope you'll join us this Saturday October 29th at the Abbitt Planetarium for some fun in the planetarium as we run Fright Light, our Halloween Laser Spook-tacular.  Showtimes at 7pm, 8:30pm, and 10pm.  Come on down for some terrifyingly awesome music, wicked cool laser lights, and even some sweet treats. 

However you decide to celebrate, have a safe, fun, and spooky Halloween!
Until next time,
Carpe noctem,
Kelly

So, What Do You Think?

Hello all!

Third post, and already I'm asking for your help.

I'm writing this tonight from a conference I attend every year for planetaria who own a system like the one we have at the Abbitt Planetarium.  We all get together and share techniques, ideas, and learn new ways to make our shows better.  We also watch a lot of trailers for new shows, and sometimes get to watch an entire show, so we can make informed decisions about what programs we'd like to bring to our theaters.

So my question for you, my readers, is this:

What topic would you like to see in a new planetarium show?

At the conference so far I've seen shows on the history of the universe, the history of life on Earth, the history of the Earth for kids, the history of the Earth for adults, the lifecycles of stars, black holes, and Charles Darwin and his theories.  Keep in mind that this list is a tiny portion of the shows available, so feel free to go off the board and suggest any topic that interests you, even if it has only a very loose connection to astronomy or space science.  I'd really love to know what you think, so please leave your ideas in the comments section.  I tried to make it a poll, but the system is fighting me and making the thing unreadable.  So please, comment away!

I'll write a longer post when I get home again and digest all the new information I've learned - and believe me I'll need two weeks for that!  But my tip for you this week - wake up early Thursday morning and watch the final landing of a Space Shuttle.  Atlantis is scheduled to return to Earth at 5:56am on Thursday morning, July 21st.  It's your last chance to watch one, so be sure to tune in.  American human spaceflight is coming to an end, and I for one will sorely miss it. 

The crew of Apollo 1.  NASA

The last crew of Challenger.  NASA

The last crew of Columbia.  NASA

In memory of those who gave their lives in pursuit of knowledge of the universe...

Carpe Noctem,

Kelly