Mon Oct 21, 2024 ORIONID METEOR SHOWER
One of the year's most reliable meteor showers, the Orionids are expected to peak on the night of October 21 into the morning of October 22. With up to 20 meteors per hour at its peak, this shower is caused by debris from Halley's Comet. The bright light of the moon, just past full, will “wash out” many of these “shooting stars” however. Best views will be in the late evening before moonrise, away from bright lights. Dress warmly, protect against bugs, face toward the east and look upwards toward the top of the sky, and take a lounge chair so that you can recline and get the most comfortable views of these momentary streaks of light in the night sky. Cloud cover can of course keep you from seeing this meteor shower. Telescopes or binoculars are not needed for this sky event.
Tue Oct 22, 2024 CHANDRASEKHAR AND BLACK HOLES
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, born on October 19th, 1910, was the astronomer who figured out just how massive a star had to be in order to turn into a black hole. If a star is one and a half to almost two and a half times more massive than our sun, when it dies, it explodes and becomes a supernova, then collapses to become a neutron star. But if a star has over 2.4 times the sun’s mass, the final gravitational collapse is so powerful that the star doesn’t blow up – it blows in to become a black hole! The imploding star shrinks down to a singularity, a point of ridiculously high density. We can’t see black holes directly, but we know that they are out there, because as their gravity pulls matter in, x-rays are released, which escape the hole’s event horizon, the point of no return.
Wed Oct 23, 2024 HURRICANE MILTON AND BEN FRANKLIN
Two weeks ago when hurricane Milton was making a mess of things, I made some basic observations that had also been done centuries ago by Ben Franklin. On October 21st, 1743 in Philadelphia, a big storm came in from the northeast. But his brother up in the northeast in Boston told him that they got the storm later. The storm hit Philadelphia first? Franklin gathered a lot of weather reports and found that the storm had moved up the Atlantic seaboard, moving counter to the local surface winds. And so Ben Franklin discovered the cyclonic nature of a hurricane. Two weeks ago, the winds over my house in Fort Pierce blew hard from the south on Wednesday evening, then changed directions, coming from the west, and finally shifted again to the north as Milton approached us from the south and then breezed by us as it moved north and east.
Thu Oct 24, 2024 LASER SHOWS
After I graduated from college, I was able to get an internship at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium. My first public shows that I did were about the planets of the solar system. The other public show was called, “Laser Rock,” which featured the music of a lot of different bands set to lasers playing on the planetarium’s domed ceiling. Now for the first time here at the Hallstrom Planetarium, we will be doing laser shows over the next two weekends, beginning tonight, October 24th. There’s a family laser show at 7 pm, Led Zeppelin at 8:30, the Grateful Dead at 10 and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon at 11:30 pm. You can get tickets at Indian River State College’s Box Office or at the Planetarium – call 772 462 4750. Come and see the laser light!
Fri Oct 25, 2024 LASER SHOWS 2
Since the 1920’s when planetarium theaters were first built and open to the public, we have shown our audiences the starry sky and its constellations on our domed ceilings. We’ve carried visitors past the moon, across the solar system and out into deep space, to the far reaches of the universe. Planets, stars, black holes, supernovas, galaxies, and space travel – we’ve done it all. In the 1970’s planetariums began to offer entertaining laser light shows too, featuring classical, jazz, and rock and roll music all choreographed to our special effects and laser systems. For the next two weekends Indian River State College’s Hallstrom Planetarium will be presenting laser shows. Family shows at 7 pm, Led Zeppelin at 8:30, the Grateful Dead at 10 and of course, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon at 11:30 pm. Come to the Hallstrom Planetarium tonight and tomorrow, and see and hear the laser light!
