SKIP'S ASTRO TRIVIA
If you weighed 200 pounds on Earth you would weigh about 8 pounds on Pluto.
You would have to wait 248 years to become one year older on Pluto. It takes Pluto about 248 Earth years to revolve around the sun.
You would have to adjust to dim light if you were on Pluto. Pluto's brightest daylight is less than moonlight on Earth.
FEBRUARY 2006
JANUARY 2006
DECEMBER 2005
NOVEMBER 2005
OCTOBER 2005
SEPTEMBER 2005
You may already know that Mars' two moons are called Phobos and Deimos, and that their names mean "fear" and "panic." There's a reason for the unusual names: Phobos and Deimos were the horses that pulled the god Mars' war chariot
AUGUST 2005
JULY 2005
JANUARY 2005
WOLVES
Early Russian
cosmonauts landed on solid ground instead of into the ocean like American
astronauts. In 1965 Voskhod 2 missed its planned landing spot and the cosmonauts
inside had to fend off hungry wolves for a day until rescuers reached them.
ME! DIZZY?
Feeling a little dizzy? That's not surprising: The Earth is spinning at a speed of about 1,070 MPH at its equator. At the same time , it's rotating around the sun at about 67,000 MPH. Our entire solar system is spinning through the Milky Way galaxy at about 558,000 MPH. Meanwhile, our galaxy is spinning with clusters of neighboring galaxies at a rate of about 660,000 MPH.
DECEMBER 2004
Jovian or Terrestrial
Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are the Jovian (the adjectival form for the word
"Jupiter"), or Jupiter-like planets. They are giant planets, composed primarily
of light elements such as hydrogen and helium.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are the terrestrial (derived from terra, the
latin word for "earth"), or earth-like planets. They are small in size, have
solid surfaces, and are composed of rocks and iron. Pluto appears to be a
terrestrial-type planet as well, but it may have a different origin from other
planets.
Oldest US Astronaut
John Glenn at
the age of 77 flew his last flight on November 6,1998
NOVEMBER 2004
Goodbye Mr. Whipple
Fred Whipple,
Astronomer, died Aug.30, 2004 at the age of 97. It was he who proposed that
comets were "dirty snowballs" made up of ice with some rock mixed in. Up until
then it was believe comets were made up of dust. Fred Whipple Nov.5,1906
to Aug.30, 2004
In a
pioneering Sci-Fi novel, Across The Zodiac, published in 1880, British writer
Percy Greg presented the first fictional account of interplanetary travel by
space ship, calling his vessel Astronaut (from the Greek for "star sailor") By
the late 1920s the word had become used to mean a space traveler, rather than
his ship, and once the space age began, it was this sense that became
established in the west, with cosmonaut as the ruccian equivalent.
OCTOBER 2004
Yes, in
1656 it was proposed by the French fabulist Cyrano de Bergerac. Cyrano put
forward the rocket as one means to get to the moon; he also suggested traveling
there by balloon.
Yep, this discovery was made by the European Space Agency's SOHO (Solar Observer High Orbit) spacecraft in April 1998. Winds of hot gases inside these tornadoes were swirling at thousands of miles per hour. SOHO was launched into space on December 2, 1995.
September 2004
Superior or inferior planets
An inferior planet
is one whose orbit is nearer to the sun than Earth's orbit is. Mercury and Venus
are the inferior planets. Superior planets are those whose orbits around the
sun lie beyond that of the earth. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and
Pluto are the superior planets. The terms have nothing to do with the quality of
an individual planet.
1st manufactured reflecting telescope
The first manufactured reflecting telescope was made by Amasa Holcomb of Southwick, MA about 1826. This first one was made to order for a John A. Fulton of Chillicothe, OH, and was 14 feet long, with a 10-inch aperture and six eyepieces that magnified 90 to 960 times. The reflecting telescope was invented by Isaac Newton.
August
2004
The moon
isn't round exactly. It is sort of egg-shaped. A little ,with the small end
pointing toward the Earth
Who invented the telescope?
Hans
Lippershey (1570-1619), a German-Dutch lens grinder and spectacle maker, is
generally credited with inventing the telescope in 1608 because he was the first
scientist to apply for a patent. Two other inventors, Zscharias Janssen and
Jacob Metius, also developed telescopes. Modern historians consider Lippershey
and Janssen as the two likely candidates for the title of inventor of the
telescope, with Lippershey possessing the strongest claim.
Does the Earth rotate at the same speed all the time?
The Earths rotation speed is at its maximum in late July and early August and at its minimum in April; the difference in the length of the day is about 0.0012 seconds. Since about 1900 the earth's rotation has been slowing at a rate of approximately 1.7 seconds per year. In the geologic past the earth's rotational period was much faster; days were shorter and there were more days in the year. About 350 million years ago, the year had 400-410 days; 280 million years ago, a year was 390 days long.
JULY 2004
RINGS ANYONE?
Not only Saturn but Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune all have rings.
So you thought Pluto was the farthest planet?
Pluto's very
eccentric orbit carried it inside of Neptune's orbit on January 23,1979, where
it remained until March 15, 1990. During this time Neptune was the outermost
planet in our Solar System. However, because the planets are so far apart they
are in no danger of colliding with one another.
What do you mean the Moon has a tail?
Astronomers have discovered that the moon has a tail. A glowing 15 thousand mile long tail of sodium atoms streams from the moon. The faint, orange glow of sodium cannot be seen by the naked eye but it is detectable by instruments. Astronomers are not certain ot the source of these sodium atoms.
JUNE 2004
ET's on the radio
In 1937
Kark Guthe Jansky (US) detected extraterrestrial radio waves- a steady hiss type
static of unknown origin. He later demonstrated that these waves came from the
Milky Way and opened the way to radio astronomy.
Many heavenly bodies emit radio waves, including the Sun and Jupiter.
Radio telescopes are in fact aerial dishes. The first radio telescope was made
with a 31ft diah in 1937 by Grote Keber (US)
THE PLOUGH
In Great Britain the group of seven stars known as the Big Dipper, which is part of the constellation Ursa Major is known as the Plough. The Bi Dipper is almost always visible in the Northern Hemisphere. It serves as a convenient reference point when locating other stars; for example an imaginary line drawn from the two end stars of the dipper leads to Polaris, The North Star.
MAY 2004
SMALL TIDBITS
The
sky, looking up from Venus is orange.
Notables of old Rome surrounded themselves with bodyguards then called
"satellites." Johannes Kepler in 1611 borrowed the term to name the heavenly
bodies around planets.
You can never see Venus at midnight.
Samos ? Who?
Around 275BC Aristarchus of Samos (gk) was the author of both the Heliocentric Hypothesis- that the Earth revolved around the Sun-and that of the Earth's rotation on its axis.
APRIL 2004
Linda who painted nudes?
Linda Sagan, wife astronomer/writer Carl Sagan. It was Linda who drew the plaques depicting a nude male and female, which were attached to the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft.
R2D2
The preserved brain of Albert Einstein weighs 2.64 pounds
FEBRUARY 2004
DISTANT
NEIGHBORS
The star nearest to us, after the sun, are those of the Alpha Centauri System, which are more than four light-yeas away. If it were possible to drive through space at a steady law abiding speed of 55 MPH, you could reach our sun in 193 years. But at the same speed it would take 52 million years to reach Alpha Centauri.
WEIGHED DOWN
Black Holes- the collapsed remnants of giant stars are so dense that not even light can escape their awesome gravitational pull. If a telephone directory weighing no more than 2 pounds were brought to within 20 feet of a black hole, it would weigh more than one trillion tons.
JANUARY 2004
REQUIEM FOR A COW
BLOW FROM THE BLUE
DECEMBER
2003
A TOMB WITH A VIEW
The telescope at Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, in California also serves as a tomb. The 36 inch refracting telescope mounted on a pillar that contains the remains of James Lick (1796-1876). A wealthy financier who funded the observatory's construction and after whom it was named.
LARGEST,
SLOWEST, AND SAFEST
The Crawler, the huge transporter that takes the space shuttles to their launch pads is the world's largest and slowest vehicle. It weighs 3,300 tons, and its top speed is just 2 mph. Nevertheless, in the interests of safety the driver is required to wear a seat belt.
NOVEMBER
2003
ASTRO
WHO?
Astro was the
flying space whale on the 1965 animated movie "Pinocchio in Outer
Space"
Robert Beasley?
He
was the inventor of the 34,000 heat-resistant tiles that made up the skin on the
shuttle Columbia.
The man with the golden nose
The wealthy Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) had a large part of his nose sliced off during a sword fight. He had a replacement made from gold, silver, copper, and wax, then painted his nosepiece the color of flesh, glued it in place, and wore it until his death more than 30 years later at the age of 54. The duel in which he lost most of his real was with a young nobleman over who was the better mathematician.
OCTOBER
2003
Does
every month have a full moon?
Apparently not!
The month of Feb. 1865 according to recorded history did not have a full moon.
On
my honor I will do my best
Did you
know that the first original seven astronauts were all Eagle Boy Scouts.
Autumn
Constellations
Cassiopeia-She
was the queen of Ethiopia.
Cepheus- Was Cassiopia's husband and the King of Ethiopia.
Andromeda- was the daughter of Cassiopeia and Cepheus.
Perseus- A Hero, the slayer of the gorgon Medusa with snaky hair, who was so
ugly that anyone who observed her directly turned to stone. Perseus chopped off
her head while looking at her reflection in his shiny shield.
SEPTEMBER 2003
THE GUZMAN PRIZE, NOT WITH
MARS YOU DON'T
A prize
of 100,000 francs was offered in Paris France on Dec.17,1900 for the first
person who communicated with an extraterrestrial being. But included in the
rules it was stated that Mars was excluded. The people giving this award felt
that contact with the Martians would be easy.
THE FAMOUS
PHOBOS PLAQUE
In 1988 a Soviet probe
sent to the Martian moon Phobos carried with ti a plaque commemorating that
natural satellite's discovery in 1877 by the American Astronomer Asaph Hall.
Thank you Russia.
AUGUST
2003
Do you know that Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise?
TELEPHONING
OUTER SPACE
Earthlings
tried to reach out and touch extraterrestrial beings via spacephones in 1988.
AT&T had a publicity gimmick going. A caller could have his voice
transmitted toward Outer Space, but with no guarantee something Out There would
hear it.
To make it work, the telephone giant places free phones in the atrium of company
headquarters in New York for a few days. The public was invited to
"communicate with someone who could hear their voice long after they/re
dead."
AT&T had a web of 100-ft. dish antennas spun across North America, pointed
at communications satellites. To send the messages to Outer Space during
early morning hours when the antennas weren't being used for Earthbound
business, they swung the radio beams away from two dished. The messages
sped outward at the speed of light in a straight line, presumably until they tan
into something. Some 30 hours of recorded voices and pictures were beamed
to Outer Space through the phones.
Students from a Manhattan school were given a first crack at the
telephones. A 13-year-old, who said he didn't believe in UFOs, sent the
message, "I hope you saw the Knicks versus the Bullets, because the Knicks
won." A 13-year-old member of Young Astronauts of America said,
"I hope the quest for knowledge last forever." Another,
concerned about drugs in his world, said, "I hope they don't get stupid
like us." Most of the youngsters said they thought it likely someone
would see or hear the messages. Anyway, use of the space phones was free
so nobody could complain if they didn't get a call back.
MARTIAN
MOONS - WHO DISCOVERED THEM?
The
first mention of possible Martian satellites was fictional -- by Jonathan Swift,
in Gulliver's Voyage to Laputa (1727). Swift described two satellites of
Mars, one of which has a revolution period short than the rotation period of its
primary; but there was no scientific basis at that time for such an object.
Two satellites of Mars were also described in another novel, Voltaire's
Micromegas (1750). The reasoning was, apparently, that since the earth has
one satellite and Jupiter was known to have four, Mars could not possible manage
with less than two! But it wasn't until August 10, 1877 that Asaph Hall of
Washington discovered Deimos and 6 days later he discovered Phobos.
WHAT
DID JONATHAN SWIFT AND VOLTAIRE KNOW THAT HALL DIDN'T KNOW?
JULY 2003
RUN,
A FIRE BALL!
In 1719 Mars was at perihelic opposition (closest to the Earth and Sun). Mars was so bright that people panicked and mistook it for a red comet which was thought might be on a collision course with the Earth.
OK
MARTIANS LETS TALK!
In 1802
German mathematician K.F. Gauss drew up a plan to draw vast geometrical
patterns in the Siberian tundra at signal the inhabitants of Mars. In 1819 J.
Von Littrow of Vienna proposed to use signal fires lit in the Sahara to signal
Mars. Later in 1874 Charles Cros of France put forward a scheme to focus the
Sun's heat on to the Martians deserts by means of a huge burning-glass, the
glass could be swung around to write messages on the desert to the Martians.
JUNE 2003
People
and cities on the Moon?
The first report of
a lunar city was made in 1822 by the German astronomer F. von P. Gruithuisen who
described a structure with dark gigantic ramparts which however proved to be low
and quite haphazard ridges. In 1790 Sir William Herschel had stated his belief
in an inhabited Moon, and in 1835 there came the famous Lunar Hoax when the
paper The New York Sun published some quite imaginary reports of
discoveries made by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope. The reports were
written by a reporter, R. A. Locke, and included descriptions of bat-men
and quartz mountains. The first article appeared on 25 August 1835 and the Sun
admitted to the hoax on 16 Sept 1835
Schwarzschild
singularities? HUH
In 1967 what were
called Schwarzschild singularities was renamed to become BLACK HOLES.
MAY
2003
Montgomery
Ward Catalog
In 1922
the Montgomery Ward catalogue offered a 33 power astronomical telescope for
$25.65. Shipping was 10 cents extra. It also offered an additional eyepiece of
70 power with smoked glass so one could look at the sun. This extra eyepiece
sold for $7.20 with 6 cents for shipping.
When will our sun die?
The sun is approximately 4.5 billion years old. About 5 billion years from now, the sun will burn all its Hydrogen fuel into Helium. When this process occurs, the sun will change from the yellow dwarf star we know it as to a red giant. Its diameter will extend well beyond the orbit of Venus, and even possibly beyond the orbit of Earth. In either case, the Earth will be burned to a cinder and will be incapable of supporting life.
Evangelista
Who?
Evangelista
Torriculli invented the barometer in 1643. We know her. She was Galileo's
secretary.
APRIL 2003
SPACE
CHICK KENTUCKY
Kentucky, the world's
first space chick was hatched March 25,1989, in an incubator at Kentucky Fried
Chicken's Colonel Sanders Technical Center at Louisville, Kentucky, a week after
the egg came home from a five-day flight in orbit aboard the shuttle Discovery.
Kentucky was later donated to the Louisville zoo to live out a normal lifetime.
WAXING
OR WANING MOON
The moon as it's
illuminated face increases in size during one half of any month is said to be
waxing. If during the other half of the month the moon seems to be decreasing it
is said to be waning.
MARCH 2003
IS
IT TRUE THAT THE EARTH IS CLOSER TO THE SUN IN WINTER THAN IN SUMMER IN THE
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE?
Yes, However, the
Earth's axis, the line around which the planet rotates, is tipped 23.5 degrees
with respect to the plane of revolution around the sun. When the Earth is
closest to the sun (it's perihelion, about January 3), the Northern Hemisphere
is tilted away from the sun. This causes winter in the Northern Hemisphere while
the Southern Hemisphere is having summer. When the Earth is farthest from the
sun ( it's aphelion, around July 4), the situation is reversed, with the
Northern Hemisphere tilted towards the sun. At this time, it is summer in the
Northern Hemisphere and winter in the Southern Hemisphere.
WHY
DOES THE MOON ALWAYS KEEP THE SAME FACE TOWARD THE EARTH?
Only one side of
the moon is seen because it always rotates in exactly the same length of time
that it takes to revolve about the Earth. This combination of motions (called
"captured rotation") means that it always keeps the same side towards
the Earth.
FEBRUARY 2003
You thought that Mt. Palomar 's 200 inch telescope was large!
In Cerro, Chile is the European Southern Observatory. It consist of four 8-meter (315 inch) reflectors. If used together through computers it is equivalent of a 16 meter (630 inch) reflector.
How does NASA talk to it's spacecraft?
NASA developed the deep space network for two-way communications. It consists of three deep-space communication complexes placed about 120 degrees apart around the world. One at Goldstone, Cal. in the Mojave desert, another near Madrid, Spain and the third near Canberra, Australia. This ensures that at least one antenna always is within sight of a given spacecraft. Each complex contains up to ten deep-space stations equipped with large parabolic reflector antennas.
JANUARY 2003
Water as rocket fuel?
Only on the Grillo rocket of Italy. On Sept. 28,1963 Italy successfully launched and tested a 60lb. rocket propelled by water. The water was heated to 300 degrees and produced a steam pressure of 130 atmospheres.
You grind the mirror!
The 200 inch blank mirror for the now Mt. Palomar observatory weighed 193/4 tons. After polishing it weighed 141/2 tons. The correct parabolic curvature over it's entire surface is within 1/2,000,000th of an inch.
You thought you had a big Cassegrain telescope!
Mt Palomar's 200 inches is also a Cassegrain. It has a central opening of 401/2 inches with a focal length of 55 feet and an f-ratio of 3.3
DECEMBER 2002
THE
OTHER HERSCHEL
In 1781 William Herschel (1738-1827) who was employed as a musician accidentally
discovered the planet Uranus thinking at first it was a comet. This discovery
made him so famous that he gave up his career in music to become the Kings
astronomer. But who was the other Herschel? None other that William's sister
Caroline (1750-1848) She herself discovered eight comets and built a catalog of
2,500 nebulas and star clusters.
JUPITER (anyone need a moon, plenty to spare)
In the
year 2001 astronomers at the University of Hawaii discovered 11 more moons to
the planet Jupiter, bringing the number orbiting the solar system's largest
planet to a whopping 39. Does this mean that Jupiter doesn't have a new moon
type night for deep sky observing? How many full moons in one night does Jupiter
have? If you find out call me.
NOVEMBER 2002
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you
know that the first photograph of the moon was taken on March 23,1840 by J.W.
Draper using a five inch reflector telescope. The image was one inch across and
the exposure was twenty minutes.
HEY ANYONE SEEN MY WRENCH?
The shuttle Discovery made six flights to space with a construction wrench lost
somewhere inside the ship.
The wrench was lost during construction in 1984 and was spotted by x-ray in 1987
during pre-flight metal stress testing and was recovered by a woman with long
slender arms. The wrench was in a tight spot in one of Discovery's forward
compartments.
Several workers with larger arms tried in vain to retrieve the tool until one
with long slender arms was able to grab it.
Shuttle builder Rockwell International Inc. had told NASA in 1984 that the
combination wrench was lost during construction in Palmdale, California. NASA
didn't suspect mischief or foul play. Since the wrench was small and light
Rockwell decided there was no concern and NASA agreed.
The orbiter flew six times with the lost tool, from August 1984 to August 1985,
without any problem from the wrench. The wrench was found in 1987 as Discovery
was being prepared for America's return to space Sept.29,1988
OCTOBER 2002
NOT TOO MUCH OFF THE TOP PLEASE!
Did you know that Astronaut Alan Bean on Skylab 3 was the first person to get a haircut in space?
Astronaut Owen Garrett used a suction hose to catch the stray weightless clippings as he gave a haircut to Al Bean.
HEY! HOW DO YOU START THIS THING?
Astronaut Wally Schirra upon entering his Mercury spacecraft found a set of car keys dangling from the main controls.