Mon Aug 31, 2026 LONG MONTH, BLAME CAESAR
August used to be only thirty days long; now it’s 31. Back in 46 BC, our calendar got a major overhaul when Julius Caesar re-set the beginning of spring to March 25th (it had slid over into May). He also introduced the leap year, which gave February an extra day every fourth year. Then he was assassinated (probably no connection here,) and eventually Julius’ step-son Caesar Augustus took over. To honor dear old dad, Augustus changed the name of the 31-day month Quintillis, and it became July. Then Augustus thought that he ought to have a month too, so he changed the next month, Sextillus, re-naming it August. But it had only 30 days, so the emperor tacked on another day to make it just as long as his father’s, and that’s why this month is so long, and that’s also why politicians should never be left in charge of calendars.
Tue Sep 1, 2026 EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS
Edgar Rice Burroughs was born on September 1st, 1875. When Burroughs was just two years old, the planet earth passed Mars at a distance of a mere 35 million miles, which gave astronomers a chance to view the red planet up close. At the US Naval Observatory, Director Asaph Hall used a 26 inch refracting telescope to discover the two moons of Mars; while in Italy, the astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli made sketches of what he called “canali,” that he saw on the Martian surface. The Italian word, “canali,” means, “channel,” which Schiaparelli decided were natural features. But in America, the word got mistranslated to “canals,” which are artificial. So a regular Mars mania swept the world, and in 1912, Burroughs’ novel, “Under the Moons of Mars,” launched his career. Besides his series about John Carter of Mars and other off-world adventures, Burroughs is best known for his Tarzan stories.
Wed Sep 2, 2026 SCHOOL SHOWS
Another season of planetarium shows is coming to Indian River State College. There will be some shows in mid-September about black holes and the weird things that happen when you get too close to them. In October we'll be bringing back laser light shows on the dome as well as viewing the planet Saturn through telescopes. And we are now also accepting reservations from school teachers and other community organizations who want to bring their groups to the Hallstrom Planetarium. The Hallstrom Planetarium offers field trips to all public, private and home school groups and other organizations. 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 billions of light years away. If you’re a teacher or a group leader and want to bring your folks to see the stars, call Indian River State College at 772 462-7503 to make a reservation.
Thu Sep 3, 2026 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 4, 2026 HOW TO SEE A BLACK HOLE
Three bright stars called the Summer Triangle can be found overhead this evening. Inside this triangle, in the neck of the constellation Cygnus the Swan, there is something that is invisible to the eye, but which nevertheless can be detected - that enigmatic phenomenon known as a black hole. It is called Cygnus X-1, and we can't see it because its gravity field is so intense that light can't escape it. But we have discovered an incredible amount of x-rays pouring out of this part of the sky, which tells us it’s there. Gas is being pulled from a nearby star and funneled into the black hole. When it collides with the hole’s accretion disc, a lot of energy pours out into space, and is then detected by our x-ray telescopes. Cygus X-1 is a black hole roughly 2500 parsecs, or 48 quadrillion miles away.
