Mon Feb 14, 2022 CELESTIAL LOVE
In recognition of Valentine’s Day, go outside tonight and look for some of the world’s greatest love stories, displayed in the starry heavens above. Well-placed in the south is the constellation Orion the Hunter, who loved the Princess Merope - one of the stars in the Pleiades star cluster overhead - but he was blinded by her disapproving father. When Orion regained his sight, he fell in love with Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and of the moon. Above and to the west of Orion is Taurus, which in mythology represents the king of the gods, Zeus, who turned himself into a bull to carry the lady Europa on his back across the ocean to Crete. Above Taurus is Perseus, the hero who for the sake of love, risked his life to rescue the princess Andromeda who can be found in the western sky. And south of Andromeda is the constellation of Pisces, two fish which represent the goddess of love, Aphrodite or Venus, and her son Cupid, an avatar of Valentine’s Day.
Tue Feb 15, 2022 GALILEO’S BIRTHDAY
The astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei was born on February 15 in the year 1564. Galileo did not invent the telescope, but when he heard of its invention, he built his own, and like other astronomers of the 17th century, Galileo aimed his telescope at the sky and made some amazing discoveries. He saw the moon’s mountains and craters, which suggested that it was another world in space. He discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter, named the Galilean satellites in his honor. Using safe projection methods, he observed the sun and saw dark spots on its face – sunspots. He saw that the planet Venus went through phases like the moon, which showed that it orbited the sun and not the earth. And he saw the myriad stars of the Milky Way - more stars than could be seen by the unaided eye alone.
Wed Feb 16, 2022 FEBRUARY FULL MOON
On February 16, the moon is full. The Celts called the full moon of February the “Moon of Ice,” well-named I’d say. To the Algonquin Indians of North America, this is the Hunger Moon; it appeared at a time of year when, deep in the cold of winter, food was scarce. Other names for this moon include the Kutenai Indians’ Black Bear Moon, or the Sioux Indians’ Raccoon Moon. The San Ildefonso peoples call this the Wind Moon, while to the Winnebago tribes it is the Fish-Running Moon. The Tewa Pueblos knew this as the Moon of Cedar Dust Wind, while the San Juan Indians call this, Moon When the Coyotes are Frightened. Tonight’s full moon is within the borders of the constellation Leo the Lion, right above its brightest star, Regulus, which marks the lion’s heart. Regulus is bright, but the full moon is much brighter, making it difficult to see Regulus!
Thu Feb 17, 2022 INTERSTELLAR VS. INTERGALACTIC
In old science fiction movies, the distances that aliens traveled to reach our world started out small; in the 1950’s classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still, the alien Klatuu said he traveled 200 million miles. Well, that one’s easy, it can only be Mars. Klaatu claimed to represent a great many civilizations from other stars in our galaxy. Now the correct term for this is “interstellar,” literally, “between the stars.” But what bad science fiction movies often say is “intergalactic,” meaning, “between galaxies.” And the aliens say things like, “We traveled hundreds of light years from another galaxy so that we could take all your chocolate.” But hundreds of light years still puts you inside our own Milky Way, which is simply immense, 100,000 light years across. To come from another galaxy would be to travel a distance of millions of light years. So let’s forget “intergalactic,” and bring back good old, “interstellar.” And maybe we should hide the chocolate too, just in case.
Fri Feb 18, 2022 NICOLAUS COPERNICUS
The astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Poland on February 19th, 1473. He advocated the heliocentric theory, which placed the sun in the center of the solar system, with the earth and other planets revolving about it. Copernicus received praise and encouragement from the Bishop of Kulm and the Archbishop of Capua and some scholars, but his ideas were also ridiculed by others including Martin Luther, who once said, “This fool wants to turn the whole art of astronomy upside down!”. Until the middle of the 17th century, the teachings of ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle were considered the final word on matters scientific, and Copernicus’ new system wasn’t any more accurate than the old geocentric, or earth-centered model. But the heliocentric or Copernican model eventually simplified and explained the motions of the planets better than the geocentric system.
