Mon Jan 17, 2022 JANUARY FULL MOON
The moon is full today, rising out of the east at sunset. To ancient Celts, January’s full moon was the Storm Moon, because they believed that storms raged both before and after its appearance in the sky. To the Passamaquoddy Indians, this is the Wolf Moon, a time of year when wolves that normally avoided humans, would be forced by winter famine to scavenge from the villages. Wolves were seen more frequently, especially at night when the moon was full and bright. To the Sioux, this is the Moon of Strong Cold; the Zuni know it as the Moon When the Limbs of Trees are Broken by Snow. The Tewa Pueblo peoples call it the Ice Moon, the Cherokee the Windy Moon. And to the Omaha Indians, it is the Moon When the Snow Drifts into the Tepees.
Tue Jan 18, 2022 EDGAR ALLAN POE AND THE EVENING STAR
The American writer Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 18th in the year 1809. Most of us are familiar with his stories, such as, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Raven,” and “The Pit and the Pendulum,” which have even been made into movies. But in 1848, the last big work that Poe wrote before his untimely death was something called, Eureka, in which he discussed astronomy and the universe. While Poe was no professional astronomer, he kept up with the latest discoveries and theories, and in Eureka he suggests that the Universe is expanding, which was confirmed over 70 years after his death. And in his poem, “Evening Star,” he compares the cold, heartless light of the moon to the warm light of Venus appearing in the western twilight (always makes me think of that bit of poetry at the end of the Moody Blues album, Knights in White Satin: “Cold hearted orb that rules the night…”
We
d Jan 19, 2022 JOHANNE BODE AND BODE’S LAW
Johanne Bode was born on January 19, 1747. In 1772 he advanced a mathematical theory which suggested the presence of additional planets, beyond the seven that were known of at that time. Start at zero, then skip to 3, then 6, and now keep on doubling the number. Then add 4 to each of those numbers and finally, divide by ten, giving you .4, .7, 1, 1.6, 2.4, 4.8, and 9.6. Those are roughly the spacings between the planets, expressed as astronomical units, the average earth-sun distance. This theory, called Bode’s Law, is quasi-scientific. It doesn’t work every time, and it’s not particularly exact, but it did point to a gap between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Astronomers began the search for the proposed missing planet, and on January 1st, 1801, the Sicilian astronomer Father Giuseppe Piazzi used a telescope to discover 500 mile-wide Ceres, the largest rock in the asteroid belt.
Thu Jan 20, 2022 ROBERT FROST AND CANIS MAJOR
The American poet Robert Frost was a keen observer of the world and nature, capturing the simple majesty of the Universe. In his poem, The Star Splitter, he begins, “You know Orion always comes up sideways,” as indeed he does, first the forward shoulder and leg, then the hunter’s belt, and lastly the trailing shoulder and knee. Orion can be found in the southeast sky after sunset. If you trace the stars of his belt downward, you will find the star Sirius in the constellation of the Big Dog, Canis Major, and Frost wrote a poem about this too, placing Sirius in the dog’s eye: “The great Overdog That heavenly beast With a star in one eye Gives a leap in the east. He dances upright All the way to the west And never once drops On his forefeet to rest.” Because of the earth’s rotation, Canis Major does move across the sky just the way Frost describes it.
Fri Jan 21, 2022 STEAM TALK: STAR CHEMISTRY
There will be a free lecture tomorrow night – that’s Saturday, January 22nd, at 6 pm. The talk will be held at IRSC’s Hallstrom Planetarium, and it will feature a discussion about outer space chemistry. Dr. Paul Horton, who teaches chemistry at Indian River State College, will talk about all those elements in the Universe and how they work together. I think he’s even planning on building a comet, so that’s going to be fun! The lecture’s about 45 minutes in length, and following it, I’ll do a star talk about the current evening sky. And after the talks, telescopes will be set up, weather permitting, to look at the planets Jupiter and Saturn. Again, no tickets needed, just get to the Planetarium before 6 pm tomorrow night.
