Golden rings in the night

Jupiter's gone behind the sun, Venus is sinking from prominence in the morning sky. Oh, what could there possibly be worth to look at in the spring evening skies?

Hmmm...I don't know. How about this!

Well, not all of us can image planets like a Donald Parker or Christopher Go but so what!? Even a modest telescope will show you Saturn's rings and a larger telescope will bring out all kinds of details that are just, well, stunning! Throw in its own retinue of visible moons - Tethys, Dione, Titan, Rhea, Iapetus and even Enceladus from time to time! - and you've got an evening not easily forgotten!

I could tell you all kinds of things scientific about Saturn, but that information is available courtesy of NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. So instead, let me just tell you that, if you want to find it, it's in the ecliptic constellation of Virgo, not too far from the wonderful double star Porrima.

Oh, and I'm also posting an image I've taken of Saturn in the past. Yeah, I know, not as good as a Don Park or Chris Go, but still...!

Clear skies!

Paddling against the tide

Well, how could I resist this!?

Doing the rounds of the Internet and suffering the barbs of media mockers like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert is a bit of video of Fox talking head and bombast extraordinaire Bill O'Reilly vs. the atheist.

Of course, Bill gave us a great example of the logical fallacy: argument from incredulity (or argument from ignorance) or a "God of the gaps." Pose a question which you insist there is no answer and propose that as the evidence for supernatural agency.

In this case, it was the tides. "They go in, they go out. You can't explain it," he challenges the atheist. The problem is, most of us with junior high school level of education can as was pointed out by a viewer in his YouTube response.

"You pinheads who attacked me? You're just desperate." Well, Bill, we're not the one's flailing around to defend a clear foul-up of logic. He even goes so far as to pose a series of other seemingly God-proving questions like "How did the moon get there?" "How come we have the sun?" "Why doesn't Mars have (a moon)? Or Venus?"

Well, as has been pointed out, Mars has two small moons. Venus doesn't but so what? Objects called nebulae in the night sky have been shown to be forming stars and planets. And how does any of that prove the existence of God?

Of course, it doesn't disprove "God's" existence. But it also doesn't prove or disprove the existence of unicorns, fairies, Thor, Zeus or the great Flying Spaghetti Monster and his sacred son Googamooga!

The irony of it all is that someone can display such ignorance of basic science using a medium that is the direct products of science and which makes scientific knowledge so accessible.

Perhaps Bill should make better use of that technology.

Sidesteppin' astrology

Surprise, surprise! The big "shift" is underway!

I have to admit, this one took me a bit by surprise. Turns out that Earth's precession is necessitating a reshuffling of the astrology charts. So if you're a "creative and sensitive" Virgo, you might be about to become a "deep and imaginative" Libran.

Or not.

Now, I've been pretty straightforward in my views on astrology. In two words: it's nonsense! And, in fact, I've been thinking of doing a blog on astrology for a while now. Here's my chance. Let's lay it out for everyone here.

First of all, there is not one type of "astrology." In fact, there's many different forms of astrology. But they all attempt to accomplish the same thing: tie the affairs of tiny humans to the movements of the stars and planets. Where a planet or the sun or the moon sits in a particular part of the sky determines your "fate."

Let's really look at this for a second. The Milky Way galaxy has been around for about 13 billion years. The solar system for 4.5 billion. And we humans have been around for about 2 million years. So what did the universe do without us all that time? Did it wait for us to come along, just so it could start determining fates? I suspect otherwise.

And that's the core of my issues with the concept of astrology. It seeks to place humans at the core of creation. I thought we were past that nonsense with the insights of Copernicus and Galileo.

Also, like a lot of "magical" thinking, it requires the belief that distance has no impact on the effects. For instance, Venus comes closer to Earth than any other planet in the solar system. It's possible to see its disk withe the naked eye. However, Pluto (argued by astronomers over whether it is or not a planet) also has an effect, even though it's so far away, it's light takes four hours to reach us!

Then there's the selectiveness of it. Why just the nine classic planets (again, nine if you count Pluto...which I do)? Why not Ceres? Or Vesta? Or Chiron? All these bodies are large enough to have pulled themselves into spherical shapes. Why would they not have an effect on the fates of individual people?

But, like a lot of this sort of thinking, it boils down I think to not just individual but collective vanity - the belief that we are the end point of a universe's evolution instead of just a single point of a much larger, complex system.

It's a big universe that existed a long time before we ever came along. It will be here a long time after we're gone both individually and as a species. And in the time we've been here, through science, we've discovered that the universe is an amazing place all on its own.

To quote Douglas Adams, "Isn't it enough to see that the garden is beautiful without having to believe there's fairies at the bottom of it?"

Clear skies.

Much ado about gas

Gas giants, that is, specifically Jupiter and Saturn.

Jupiter is that bright starlike point of light in the south/southwest sky in the evening while Saturn sits unassuming above the mucho brighter Venus in the morning. And we have astrophotographer Christopher Go to thank for the latest images. Just follow his links.

In short, Jupiter, which has been missing its south equatorial belt (SEB) since the planet came out from behind the sun earlier this spring is getting it back again. About a month ago, he recorded a bright spot that is long known as a precursor to a revival of the SEB. The revival has continued on pretty much following the same old script! Chris has recorded dark material now girdling the planet where the SEB should be.

In addition, Saturn has shown its spots. Well, one spot. But the planet, now a morning object, is as prone as Jupiter to great storms but they are often more subtle and difficult to spot. However, Go says he recorded a white spot (which is also a source of radio noise) and even spotted it visually!

Stay tuned! I'm sure these two powerhouse planets are far from finished with their amazing sky show!

Clear skies!

Jupiter's face changes

The face of Jupiter has had some dramatic changes this year and no cosmic plastic surgeon is to blame.

Being in astronomy, many people have expressed how amazing they find the sky, but sometimes they express some incredulity, too. "Really, what's so amazing about it? It's the sky! It doesn't change."

But nothing could be further from the truth! Planets can change features all the time and Jupiter can be the most mercurial of the lot. A planet made of up mostly gas, over 1,000 times more mass than our planet made up almost entirely from hydrogen and helium, heated from within and rotating once every nine hours - it tends to have a lot of weather.

Most prominent of its features are its cloud bands. Alternating light and dark, they represent massive areas of high and low pressure. Ammonia and other chemicals contributes a lot to the colours of the planet that we see.

Girdling Jupiter's equator are two darker "belts," a northern belt and a southern one. And earlier this year, Jupiter appeared in the night sky with it's south equatorial belt faded out of view.

This isn't the first time it's happened. Indeed, I recall at least one incidence in the early '90s when Jupiter's south equatorial belt disappeared.

Most recently, amateur astronomers have noted that the SEB is experiencing a resurgence. What started as a fairly bright spot has been showing signs of bringing back the SEB, much as it has done several times over the last few decades. Astronomers, both professional and amateur alike, have been watching Jupiter in hopes of seeing the re-emergence of the SEB.

Of course, the downside of this is that the famous Great Red Spot is more difficult to spot. Oh well, win some, lose some!

Unfortunately, as is typical for this time of year in Southern Ontario, the weather has been anything but clear! No doubt, the next time I have a chance to view it, the view will be a lot different than this past summer. And who says the skies never change!

Clear skies!



Jupiter before...














And Jupiter after, without it's southern equatorial belt but with a prominent Great Red Spot. But things are changing. Here comes the SEB!

RIP Star Hustler Jack Horkheimer!

I remember the first time I saw him on TV and the first thought I had.

"You're kidding me! Right!?"

But, like all characters, Jack Horkheimer, the 'Star Hustler' seen weekly on Public Broadcasting from the states kind of grew on me and I found myself tuning in as often as possible in the hopes of catching one of his shows. They were fun, they were campy and it was wonderfully informative about all things 'backyard astronomy!'

In case you weren't aware, Horkheimer, the executive director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium and renowned astronomy "popularizer" passed away in his home in Florida on Aug. 21 from respiratory illness.

He started the show back in the 1970s and what made the show endearing was the absolute enthusiasm Horkheimer brought to his presentation. The show would start with its signature theme Arabesque #1 by Claude Debussy. Horkheimer would appear, sitting on "Saturn's ring" to relay the latest goings-on that were visible to the naked eye in the sky. He then would close out the show with the reminder to "keep looking up!"

Horkheimer started the show with the title "Star Hustler." However, in the age of the Internet and search engines, he had to change the title of his show because, if you typed in "star hustler" in the search field, chances were good you were going to find a site that had little or nothing to do with astronomy of any kind!

He would also challenge many misconceptions about astronomy including a few "doomsday" predictions, and this video where he once again tackles that annoying Mars Hoax that just...won't...die!

Amateur astronomy has certainly lost one of its best ambassadors. He offered the hobby to a wide range of people in a wonderfully light and uncomplicated manner, reminding everyone that, if you have a pair of eyes, you too are an astronomer. And that is perhaps the most important legacy he could leave.

So clear skies...and remember to keep looking up!

Why won't it DIE???!!!!!

Oh crap! It's back!

Maybe recently, an email came across your inbox declaring that this August, Mars would be as big as the full moon in the sky. A friend of mine who works in an astronomy store in Toronto reports that he even recently got a customer inquiry from someone who wanted to look at Mars then.

After seven years, you'd think the Mars Hoax would have run it's course.

Just in case you aren't sure what I'm talking about, let me clarify. The origin of this thing goes back to 2003 when Mars did, in fact, have a remarkably favourable "opposition." This is something that happens with every planet beyond Earth when sun, Earth and planet form something of a line in the sky. Think about watching a race from within the circle. As two runners run in their individual tracks, the inside runner appearing to go faster because he has a smaller circle to run, both are going to appear to 'line up' occasionally.

For us, this simply means that the planet will rise as the sun sets and vice versa. We see the planet for a considerable amount of time either side of this so it only means, for a brief period of time, the planet is at its biggest and brightest in our sky. This year, that happened for Mars on Jan. 29.

For Mars, it's closest approach is about 35 million miles! To give you an idea of distance, the sun is 93 million miles. The moon is about 250,000 miles. You'll see why this is important in a minute.

First, let's talk about Mars's orbit. It's weird! More specifically, it's highly "eccentric." Most orbits are somewhat "egg-shaped" but for Earth, Venus and several others, that eccentricity doesn't amount to more than a few per cent out-of-round. Mars is different. It's eccentricity actually amounts to something like 30 per cent. That means the Earth-Mars distance can vary wildly between 35 million miles - like what happened in August 2003 - and almost 100 million miles. That's a difference of nearly 80 millions miles!

And the variation between most favourable oppositions? Well, between 2003 and the last most favourable when Mars appeared it's largest in a telescope....about 60,000 miles.

Okay, keep that in mind. Here's why...even when Mars is at its closest, it still only appears as a star-like dot in the sky. Granted, in 2003, it was a very bright dot. But still, a dot.

In order to actually cover as much sky as the moon does, Mars would actually have to be considerably closer. Say, about 800,000 miles away! That's close! Scary close! As in, not sitting under the romantic ochre glow. More like "Oh God, Oh God, we're all going to die!" close! If Mars were that close, life on Earth would be a very unpleasant thing. The tidal forces between these two bodies would be considerably larger than they are between the moon and Mars (remember, we're talking not just angular size but volume and mass!)

So now you know why not to take too much stock in the Mars hoax. Of course, if you're still inclined to buy a telescope from my friend, go right ahead! He might even tell you about some interesting things you actually can see!

Oh, and just so you know, on Aug. 23, Mars will be close to the sun and low on the western horizon near Venus.

Clear skies!