Tag Archives: Climate

In the Sky This Week – January 7, 2020

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This entry is part 131 of 159 in the series In the Sky This Week

I am the 2020 outreach officer for the Warren Astronomical Society – this is a position I’ve held several times before; I receive requests from individuals and groups that would like to use our observatory, or have a member come to their location and set up telescopes and/or give presentations about astronomy and space science. I’ve got a great outreach team – several of our members are volunteer NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassadors; we frequently get excellent feedback from the public for our events! One of the things I want to do this year is resurrect a popular Messier observing program that late member Larry Kalinowski ran years before I joined. I’m going to base it off of the Astronomical League’s Messier observing program, and I want to create some “standard” easy-to-use forms for recording and submitting observing logs.   Mars appears above the star Antares in the southeastern horizon before dawn this week The Moon appears near the star Aldebaran on … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – December 31, 2019

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This entry is part 130 of 159 in the series In the Sky This Week

By mid-February 2020, I will be a grandparent! Thoughts of what the world might be like when my granddaughter is an adult naturally come to mind. What new things will astronomers have discovered in the cosmos? What new inventions will change society forever, again? I also have to give a thought to my granddaughter’s quality of life, and in this I have to admit to no small amount of trepidation… Before I started writing this post, I was collecting notes about what I wanted to discuss – the list of topics grew WAY past my expectations, and needs to be an article all by itself. Many, but not all of the topics relate to pollution in its various forms: microplastics, air pollution, light/electromagnetic pollution, compromised city water systems, PFAS, space junk – the list goes on and on… Let me condense all those notes into one single question: Do you believe humanity is acting as adequate stewards of this Earth, … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – December 17, 2019

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This entry is part 128 of 159 in the series In the Sky This Week

Saturn and Venus move away from each other each evening in the southwestern sky after sunset this week – by early next week, Saturn will be very low on the horizon. Mercury, Mars and the star Spica continue to align above the southeastern horizon before sunrise this week – Mercury is very low, and may be challenging to observe. The waning gibbous Moon appears in the eastern sky around midnight on Dec. 18th, the star Regulus nearby. A waning crescent Moon appears near the star Spica in the eastern sky around 4:00 AM on Dec. 21st. Asteroid Occultations More often than I thought, asteroids and transneptunian objects pass in front of stars, causing them to monetarily wink-out. This observing challenge is a rather more advanced than most, as it is best done with an 8 inch+ telescope, and if you intend on reporting your timings (kinda the point) you’ll need video recording equipment with time-insertion hardware, and the ability to … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – March 19, 2019

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This entry is part 88 of 159 in the series In the Sky This Week

Third time’s the charm – under clear skies, I got to set up my telescope and show the Moon to attendees of the Astronomy Night event at my wife’s school… finally! As always, looking through my telescope was a first-time for several viewers, and I got the customary “Oh WOW!” from several people! Saturn, Jupiter and the star Antares are in the south-southeastern predawn sky all week. The image below is the same patch of sky above seen in infrared light – the disk and bulge of the Milky Way can clearly be seen! The waxing gibbous Moon can be seen setting in the western predawn sky on Mar. 19th. The full and waning gibbous Moon set a bit later each morning. The Moon will appear near the star Spica in the southwestern predawn sky on Mar. 22nd. The Moon joins Jupiter and Saturn in the south-southeastern predawn sky Mar. 25th. Mars continues to crawl slowly towards the Pleiades, high in … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – March 12, 2019

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This entry is part 87 of 159 in the series In the Sky This Week

Tonight, my wife Connie, who is also a volunteer NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, is running a huge Astronomy Night event at her school; she takes two days to transform the first floor into an astronomy wonderland with posters. We have a 100-foot “Walk the Solar System” down one hall with BEAUTIFUL 3-foot square color posters posters we just printed at the Macomb Intermediate School District’s teacher workshop. We were at the MISD for almost three days straight printing those posters… We’re having several lecturers from the Warren Astronomical Society give talks, and we’re opening up the computer lab where I’ll be showing a Virtual Reality fly-over of Saturn’s rings, and allowing attendees to play with space software like NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System and Kerbal Space Program. My wife will be at a table with meteorites, and we’ll hopefully have clear skies so we can set up telescopes outside. I also have a couple posters shamelessly plugging the Vatican Observatory … Continue reading →

California Wildfires: Reports of “Weird Skies” and a Red Gibbous Moon

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Last Friday evening, the western Michigan sky had a very unsettling hue to it. It had been cloud-covered and raining all day, but instead of typical shades of gray and red-orange of sunset, the sky was a sickly yellow. “That’s not right” I said, staring at it in confusion. Trails of smoke and carbon monoxide from massive wildfires in California have drifted eastward across the U.S., one branch moving toward Texas and the other forking toward upper Michigan and Canada. Carbon monoxide is a pollutant that can persist in the atmosphere for several weeks, and be transported long distances; it plays a role in both air pollution and climate change. There are several photos online showing an orange-red first-quarter Moon – which is just WRONG! A couple friends said they saw this… all I’ve seen for days is clouds and haze. The Blood Red Moon fighting her way through the Forest Fire Smoke and Haze in our Calgary sky last night. … Continue reading →