Mon Sep 4, 2023 MOON AND JUPITER TOGETHER
The brightest thing in the nighttime sky, not counting the occasional fireball, is the moon. After that comes the planet Venus, which was our bright evening star all through the winter and spring. The next brightest thing up there is the planet Jupiter. At this point in time, Venus is no longer shining in our evening sky, but has instead become a morning star, appearing above the eastern horizon shortly before sunrise. But now Jupiter is starting to make its appearance in our skies before midnight, and tonight you will find it nearby the old gibbous moon – that’s the kind of moon phase where the moon looks lopsided, like an egg. Both the old gibbous moon and Jupiter will rise out of the east in mid-evening. Jupiter will appear as a very bright, star-like object just to the north of the moon.
Tue Sep 5, 2023 SCHOOL SHOWS
We’re getting ready for another season of planetarium shows at Indian River State College. There will be a free open house on Saturday, September 23rd, followed by shows about the earth’s oceans as well as the great ocean of space throughout the fall. And we are now accepting reservations from area school teachers who want to bring their classes to the Hallstrom Planetarium. IRSC offers field trips to all public private and home school groups on the Treasure Coast. Programs cover a variety of astronomy topics, like stars and constellations, trips through the solar system, and even the exploration of distant galaxies and quasars nearly fifteen billion light years away. If you’re a teacher and want to bring your class to see the stars, call Indian River State College at 772 462-7503 to make a reservation.
Wed Sep 6, 2023 MARDUK BRINGS ORDER OUT OF CHAOS
In ancient Babylon, the story was told of how the Universe began with the watery chaos, known as Mammu. Out of Mammu came a monstrous dragon named Tiamat. Tiamat then spawned the Babylonian gods, but in time she decided to destroy them. But her grandson Marduk fought and defeated her and made her body into the framework for the cosmos. Half of her became the sky, where Marduk set the god Anu; the other half was made into the foundations of the earth, and Marduk made Ea its god. Marduk became the principle sky god, like Zeus in ancient Greece, and gave other gods responsibilities for the southern and northern skies and their constellations, while Marduk reserved the planets and stars of the zodiac for himself. And old Tiamat? You can see a vestige of her in the constellation Draco the Dragon, winding between the Big and Little Dippers tonight.
Thu Sep 7, 2023 YOUR WEIGHT ON OTHER WORLDS
The terms, “mass,” and, “weight,” are often used interchangeably. But this only works on the planet Earth, because while mass measures the amount of matter, or stuff, that the object contains, weight very much depends on how much gravity is exerted on that mass. Go to another planet or moon or asteroid, and while your mass remains the same, your weight changes, depending on how much gravity that other world possesses. The moon has 1/6th the Earth’s gravitational pull, so you weigh 1/6th what you’d weigh on Earth. If you weigh 180 pounds, then on the moon you’d weigh a mere 30 pounds – just divide your earth weight by six, and that’s all there is to it. You’d weigh about 10% less on Venus, but 3 times more in the high cloud tops of Jupiter. And on tiny Deimos, a Martian moon, you could launch yourself into a low orbit just by running and jumping!
Fri Sep 8, 2023 STAR TREK
The TV show Star Trek first aired on September 8, 1966. I saw that first episode, which was about an alien that would suck the salt out of you when you weren’t looking. So of course, like many young space enthusiasts, I was immediately captivated. I liked the show’s vision of a promising future (not counting the part where you get the salt sucked out of you,) and the portrayal of humans as daring explorers of the galaxy, curious about what they would find out there. The science and astronomy in it showcased the beauty and vastness of outer space – grand nebulas, lush planets, exotic moons. The writers built on the best of classic science fiction, and the science was, for the most part, well-researched. The writers confined the action to our Milky Way galaxy, which at 100,000 light years across, was big enough to contain us. For now, anyway.
