Mon Dec 23, 2024 ORION’S RETURN
The ancient constellation Orion the Hunter has returned to our evening skies. He rises out of the east around 8 o’clock tonight. In Robert Frost's "The Star Splitter," the poet begins by saying, "You know Orion always comes up sideways. Throwing a leg up over our fence of mountains, And rising on his hands, he looks in on me Busy outdoors by lantern-light." Orion does come up sideways, first his left shoulder, the star Bellatrix, and the hunter's knee, the star Rigel; then three bright stars in a row which form his belt, followed by Betelgeuse in Orion's right shoulder, and finally his right leg, the star Saiph. When I was young, I saw Orion, looking just as he does now, as did my grandparents, and their grandparents, and so on back for thousands of years.
Tue Dec 24, 2024 GIOTTO AND THE STAR OF WONDER
In the year 1301, the artist Giotto saw a bright comet. Centuries later it would be called Halley’s comet, named for Edmond Halley, who calculated its regular return every 76 years. In 1305, Giotto painted a beautiful fresco called, “the Adoration of the Magi,” which can still be viewed in the Arena Chapel in Padua, Italy. Above the Creche, Giotto painted Halley’s comet, portraying it as the nativity star. Could the comet have been the star? Astronomy is a science which is predictive in nature, and we’ve calculated that this comet was visible in the sky in the year 12 BC, but this is far too early for the comet to be considered as a good candidate for the Nativity Star. We will need to continue our search.
Wed Dec 25, 2024 THE MAGI
Who were the Magi? We think they were Babylonian astrologers who may have witnessed a triple conjunction, three separate passings of the planet Jupiter and the star Regulus, that took place during 3 and 2 BC. Jupiter wanders against the background of constellations over time, caused by the combined motions of Jupiter and the earth as they orbit the sun. Regulus, in the constellation Leo the Lion, was the signal star of the Babylonian king. Jupiter’s appearance near Regulus may have set the Magi on their course toward Bethlehem to seek out a new king. Tonight, Jupiter is a bright star-like object high in the eastern sky after sunset while Venus is even more brilliant, shining well up in the west.
Thu Dec 26, 2024 TELESCOPE HELP
If on Christmas Day you found a telescope under your tree, and by now you still haven't figured out how to get it to work, here’s some basic advice. You've either got a reflector, which has a big mirror at the bottom of the telescope, or a refractor, usually a long tube with a big glass lens at the top. The refractor’s eyepiece, which does the magnifying, goes into the draw tube at the bottom of the scope. If you have more than one eyepiece, use the eyepiece with the biggest number - this will give you the least magnification, which is what you want to start out. As a general rule, don’t magnify more than 50 power for each inch of aperture, the width of your main lens or mirror.
Fri Dec 27, 2024 JOHANNES KEPLER
Johannes Kepler, born on December 27th in the year 1571, believed in Copernicus’ theory that the earth orbited the sun. But while Copernicus had a beautiful idea about the motions of the planets, he held on to the ancient notion that the orbits of planets were perfectly circular. But the data that Kepler used, obtained from the painstaking observations of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, didn’t support that notion. Unlike past theorists, Kepler refused to toss out the data, which he knew was accurate. Instead he discarded that perfect round circle theory and introduced a new one: the orbits of planets are elliptical. Once elliptical orbits were calculated, the motions of the planets became understandable and predictable.
