International Observe the Moon Night

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International Observe the Moon Night 2020

International Observe the Moon Night 2020

Saturday September 26th InOMN 2020

In this very difficult year, the world needs global cooperation however small to help us cope with life. Every country on the planet is affected by the pandemic and its spiralling destruction of normality. International Observe the Moon night has a part to play even if it is considered tiny.

The moon does not care about anything, it is a spherical rock in space.It is battered by impacts and scared by its journey to be our only moon. However, when most people look at the moon they are warmed by its beauty in the night sky. Its dark surface manages to reflect the light of the sun very well indeed. Our moon deals out its nearside face in increasing slivers as it waxes toward full every month of our lives.

Moon Humans

Our moon represents the only other body in space where humans have walked. Moments in time that have genuinely united world in awe. The moon like the rest of the night sky reminds us of our place in space. We live in space, we may have dwellings on the Earth but we travel through space on a planet that provides us with air to breath, water to drink and food to eat.  The planets atmosphere protects us every second of our lives.  The air, the water and the food are basics needs. However we do need to be activly aware to make sure everyone has these necessary life sustainers. We all need to be activly aware of protecting our atmosphere.

We are all in this life together, living, working and dreaming. Not everyone gets on with each other. Some people spend their time oppressing other people and making their lives a misery. Nothing that helps us exist on Earth is evenly distributed, education, food, health, housing, caring. But do not get me going on that subject, those issues have not changed in my 63 years of living.

Sharing

Events like International Observe the Moon Night can not fix any of the problems of the world. What it does do is make people smile and make them feel good. That is a simple effect but an important one when it is on a global scale. Over the years, myself and  various groups I am connected with have taken part in sharing the moon with the public. It is always a positive and rewarding activity.

However, this year sharing like this is difficult because of the pandemic. Sharing eyepieces and being so close to random people is risky. Therefore other ways of sharing the moon need to be utilised.

Private and Household sharing

I am sharing the International Observe the Moon page via social media. Am sharing it with my club Louisburgh Astronomy Club and The Irish Federation of Astronomical Societies Facebook pages and others. If it is a clear night I will be doing as the page suggests. I will take out my telescope and share the moon with family members who are staying with me at the moment. The InOMN page will be doing a live broadcast on September 26th , details on the page. Also, I will be putting this link on a variety of pages to show this wonderful flyover the moon by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Oribier.

A Tour of the Moon

 

 

ⓜ Creation Stories: Science, Religion, and Science Fiction…Part 2

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This entry is part 1 of 39 in the series And Then I Wrote

In the fall of 2011, I was invited to give The Vivian J. Lamb Lecture on Science and Religion at Villanova University. The text of my hour-long talk ran to more than 6,000 words, and as far as I know it was never published anywhere. I’ve been publishing it here in three parts; what follows is Part 2. A friend of mine, an editor at Tor Science Fiction, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, once posted on her blog what she calls a “four-item formula” for writing fiction: 1. Move and keep moving. 2. Make it consequential. 3. Recycle your characters. 4. See if you already have one. Move and keep moving. Tell the story you want to tell without shilly-shallying around. You may know that something really wonderful is coming up in chapter three, but your reader doesn’t unless you give them a taste of the cool stuff with a promise of more coming soon. Of course you do then have an … Continue reading →

ⓜ Full Moon-th Meetup: 1 October, 2020

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Featuring Dr. Larry Lebofsky, and the latest news of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope! Just for our paying members: on the next Full Moon, October 1, a week from when we are posting this, we’ll be holding our regular on-line meetup where we get to know and chat with each other, and with astronomers from the Vatican Observatory. This month will feature Dr. Larry Lebofsky, who is a member of the Vatican Observatory Foundation Board and a regular user of the VATT. He is also very active in astronomy public engagement, as past attendees of our Workshops can attest.  I first met Larry when we were both students (me an undergrad, he a grad student) at MIT nearly 50 years ago. We share many things in common, as it happens, including both of us having papers written in the 1970s that eventually led to a certain NASA probe being sent into the asteroid belt to check out what we’d found. … Continue reading →

From the V.O. Faith and Science Pages: How to Search for the Truth

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Today’s featured entry from the Vatican Observatory Faith and Science pages: “How to Search for the Truth” (click here for it) An essay by George Washington Carver on science, nature, God, and truth. Carver interprets in a scientific sense the verse from John that reads: “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”. [click here to continue]. The Faith and Science pages (F&S) are a unique resource on the web. The material in F&S is stuff that you will find nowhere else (or at least not without a lot of digging). Featured areas on F&S include “History of Church and Science”; “Church and Science Today”; “Science and Scripture”; “Science, Religion & Society”; “Life in the Universe”; “Cosmology”; and more. The level of the F&S material ranges from being accessible to all audiences, with even some material oriented toward young readers, up to material for university specialists. The F&S pages, like this blog, are made possible … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – September 22, 2020

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This entry is part 165 of 165 in the series In the Sky This Week

Astronomy at the Beach – This Weekend! The Great Lakes Association of Astronomy Clubs hosts the annual Astronomy at the Beach event every September – this year it will be held online the 25th & 26th! The lineup of speakers and presentations for the event is simply amazing; four of the presenters just happen to write for the Sacred Space Astronomy site! If you are interested at all in astronomy, these are must-see presentations – and many will take questions from the viewing audience! Website and Schedule: https://www.glaac.org/astronomy-at-the-beach-2020/ Having meetings with Michigan astronomers and working on the website for the Astronomy at the Beach event has been a great way to get to know the astronomers of GLAAC member clubs I’ve only had a little contact with in the past. I was thinking this morning how incredibly fortunate I am to be in the company of so many astronomers – both amateur and professional. I only wish I would have known … Continue reading →

The Wisdom of the Biblical Accounts of Creation (Part One) – Exploring Pope Francis’ Spiritual Vision of Creation in Laudato Si’

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This week, I would like to continue a brief re-visit of some of the hidden gems of Pope Francis’ most recent encyclical, Laudato Si’. Again, I am offering this as a refresh before Pope Francis introduces his newest encyclical on October 3rd. Nevertheless, since Sacred Space Astronomy has also embraced reflections on Care for Creation, it never hurts to reacquaint ourselves with core principals as to why Catholicism has elevated the care of our common home to one of the core themes of Catholic Social Teaching. In that spirit, let’s get into it! 65. Without repeating the entire theology of creation, we can ask what the great biblical narratives say about the relationship of human beings with the world. In the first creation account in the Book of Genesis, God’s plan includes creating humanity. After the creation of man and woman, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good” (Gen 1:31). The reason I highlighted … Continue reading →

Skyward by David Levy: September 2020

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This entry is part of 25 in the series Skyward by David Levy

How to see more than half the solar system at once Have you ever wondered if you could see more than half the solar system at once? An opportunity to do so does not come about often, but it does happen  from time to time. A couple of summers ago, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were all in the evening sky and could be spotted at once. Now, during this summer of 2020 a couple of hours before dawn, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are all in the sky and can be seen at the same time. The procession begins in the evening, with Jupiter and Saturn easily visible at about the same time in the east. Jupiter is brighter than all the stars on a summer night, and through a telescope, the rings of Saturn are exquisite. Jupiter and Saturn appear to get close in the sky every twelve years, or about once every Jupiter orbit of the Sun. They … Continue reading →

Specola Guestbook | May 2-5 1922: IAU 1st General Assembly part 3 – Phillips, Stratton, de Roy, Davies, Ginori, and Hertzsprung

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This entry is part 60 of 60 in the series Specola Guestbook

Since its founding in 1891, many people have passed through the doors of the Vatican Observatory.  A quick perusal of our guestbook reveals several Names, including Popes, nobel laureates, astronauts, actors, and saints. For the past couple weeks, we have been highlighting visitors who came on the occasion of the first General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union.  This event will continue to occupy the next several entries in this column.  Today, in order to finish off this page of the guestbook, we will highlight six names instead of five. They are T. E. R. Phillips, F. J. M. Stratton, Felix de Roy, Charles Davies, Nello Venturi Ginori, and Ejnar Hertzsprung. T. E. R. Phillips Rev. Theodore Evelyn Reece Phillips FRAS (1868-1942) visited on May 2, 1922. Next to his name, he wrote, “Headley, Epsom, England.” An Anglican cleric, he was vicar of Headley from 1916 until his death in 1942.  He was also an accomplished amateur astronomer and meteorologist. … Continue reading →

Sunsets and Science

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One evening last month my wife and I were watching a lovely sun set and were struck by the changing illumination of the clouds after the sun had disappeared below the horizon. First, sunlight shone up on the undersides of the clouds. Then, gradually, the lower clouds grew dark while the higher clouds remained lit. Finally, even the high clouds went dark. And this of course led me to the obvious question: Where is the edge of the Earth? After all, those clouds were darkened by the Earth’s shadow passing over them. See the figure below. The flat Earth is in dark green. When the sun is at some angle A below the horizon of a flat Earth, a higher cloud (1) will be lit (from below) by the sun’s rays while a lower cloud (2) will be in the shadow and dark. If we know the height H of cloud 1 and the angle A, we can calculate the … Continue reading →

Lunar Drawing – Fracastorius, to Madler along the terminator

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Just this week I was sorting out some lunar drawings and this one has always stood out to me as a strong one. Therefore  here is a revisited blog about this sketch. Moon light Many astronomers are less than fond of the moon because its reflected light takes away from deep sky observations. Both the moonless and the moon full renditions of the sky are relished by me for different reasons. The deep dark sky for comets and messier objects, and specifically our moon for its outstanding contrast and detail. My attention is captured by the interaction of sunlight with the rugged landscape. Hence it is  often difficult to choose what feature of the moon to draw when your field of view offers several exquisite potentials. The theatre of the moon is almost impossible to ignore. Binoviewers Yahoo !! Back in May 2007 I had a loan of a pair of binoviewers. This sketch was the result of trying them … Continue reading →

ⓜ Creation Stories: Science, Religion, and Science Fiction…Part 1

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This entry is part 2 of 39 in the series And Then I Wrote

In the fall of 2011, I was invited to give The Vivian J. Lamb Lecture on Science and Religion at Villanova University. The text of my hour-long talk ran to more than 6,000 words, and as far as I know it was never published anywhere. I’ll be publishing it here in three parts, over the next three weeks. This past summer [2011] I did a bit of traveling…  First, there was the “Living Theology” workshop at the Jesuit parish in Liverpool. I gave a bunch of talks, heard a bunch of talks. Got lost one day driving through Liverpool, and found myself crossing Penny Lane. Following that, I went to Greenwich for the annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society. I heard a bunch of scientific presentations about meteorites, those bits of rock from the asteroid belt that occasionally fall to earth. It’s really cool to be able to hold and touch a piece of outer space. Of course, when you … Continue reading →