Mon Mar 21, 2022 WILLIAM CHALONER – EXECUTED BY NEWTON
On March 16th, 1699 William Chaloner was executed at Tyburn Tree in London. Before his gruesome death, he wrote a letter to Sir Isaac Newton, begging for his life. “O dear sir, no body can save me but you,” he wrote, “I shall be murdered unless you save me.” Newton, England’s greatest scientist, had recently become the warden of the mint, and was responsible for the coining of English currency. This included catching counterfeiters. Chaloner accused Newton of incompetence and corruption. This did not please Newton, and he set out to catch the great counterfeiter. Like a 17th century Sherlock Holmes, Sir Isaac used informers and even went about in disguise to find out what Chaloner was up to. In this way, the man who gave us the laws of gravity and motion was able to gather enough evidence to send Chaloner to the gallows.
Tue Mar 22, 2022 SEASONS MYTH
The 23 and half degree tilt of the earth as it rotates and revolves about the sun causes the sun’s daily path to slowly change through the year. In Greek myth, Persephone, the daughter of the earth goddess Demeter, was stolen by the underworld god Hades. In her sorrow, Demeter neglected the earth - the crops died, the air grew cold, and winter came to the land. When Persephone was rescued, Demeter caused the earth to bloom, and spring returned. But Persephone had eaten six pomegranate seeds while she was with Hades, so had to return to the underworld for six months of the year; then autumn and winter start again. The constellation Virgo the maiden represents Demeter, and the bright star Spica that shines in the southeast after sunset, is a spike of wheat she holds in her hand.
Wed Mar 23, 2022 INDIAN STARS OF THE EARLY SPRING
Native American Indians had different names for the constellations in the sky. Orion the Hunter was called Long Sash by the Tewa Pueblo Indians of the American southwest. The bright stars of Gemini - Castor and Pollux, were his place of decision, which led to the long journey up into the sky country. The Praesepe star cluster in the constellation Cancer the Crab, was the headdress of Long Sash. The bright star Arcturus in Boötes was a constellation all by itself, the hero Waupee of the Shawnee tribe. But the Great Bear, Ursa Major, the most distinctive part of which we recognize as the Big Dipper today, was also seen by the Senecas and other members of the Iroquois nation as a great bear, Nyah-gwaheh, although with a short tail, unlike that of Greek mythology.
Thu Mar 24, 2022 DARKNESS WASTING TIME
By now most of us have recovered from the semiannual trauma of converting from Standard Time to Daylight saving Time. We’ve run our clocks ahead an hour to compensate for the extra daylight we get early in the morning, thanks to the longer path our sun travels through the sky as we approach summer. This may be a great idea for most folks, but astronomers now have to wait an extra hour for the sun to set, and we call it darkness wasting time. There has been some talk lately of either abolishing daylight saving time, or abolishing standard time. An article in the Washington Post favored getting rid of Standard Time altogether. That was actually tried back in January 1974; but the extended early morning darkness resulted in a 17% increase in early morning traffic fatalities - so we went back to Standard Time.
Fri Mar 25, 2022 SUN, SOLAR YEAR AND ECLIPTIC
Watch the sun and you’ll discover it gets around. But of course you can’t watch the sun - it’s too bright to look at without hurting your eyes. Assuming you could see the sun and stars at the same time, you’d notice the sun drifts against the background of the stars. If we think of the stars as being laid out on an invisible sphere, and there are 360 degrees of angle on a line inscribed on that sphere, then the sun moves along that line almost 1 degree a day. After 365 days, the sun would be back where it started. A solar year, then is the amount of time it takes the sun to go once around the heavens, and that invisible line that traces out its path is called the ecliptic. The constellations through which the sun passes each year make up the zodiac, and the ecliptic is its central line.
