Yes. Drew a complete blank.

 

Did you remember it once you looked it up?

She's! 10/10 on the quiz. Since I teach astronomy, I'd better, huh? Btw, my students would do well on this quiz!

She's! 10/10 on the quiz. Since I teach astronomy, I'd better, huh? Btw, my students would do well on this quiz!

 

I figured that one would be a pretty easy 10/10 for you. I'll see if I can trip you up on one down the road. It won't be easy. You know your astronomy and that makes me happy!!!

She's! 10/10 on the quiz. Since I teach astronomy, I'd better, huh? Btw, my students would do well on this quiz!

 

I love it when kids take an interest in learning this stuff!!! Little scientists of today become big scientists of tomorrow!!! Thanks for what you do in spreading your love of astronomy!!!

While math is my job during the day, astronomy is my personal passion at night. I have had a passion for space since I was six years old. When I was in grade school I would make out quizzes about the planets and stars for my family members. If I was forced to give up studying either math or astronomy, I would be a very, very unhappy camper. However, if I had to, I would forfeit math in favor of astronomy.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, the Earth-Moon distance varies slightly because of both bodies' elliptical orbits. When the Moon is farther from Earth, its apparent diameter is slightly less, as viewed from Earth. When a solar eclipse occurs at this time, the Moon will not be quite big enough to completely cover the Sun. The result is what is called an annular eclipse, sometimes referred to as a "Ring of Fire."

 

Ring of Fire Eclipse over Texas in 2012:

 

 

Annular eclipse from earlier this year(February 26). Taken from Argentina:

 

 

Odessa, TX in May of 2012:

 

 

 

From a park near Albuquerque in May, 2012:

 

Did you remember it once you looked it up?

 

I didn't look it up. Still in the dark.

With all of the attention on the GAE in a couple weeks, the upcoming partial lunar eclipse coming up Monday has largely been ignored. Unfortunately, this lunar eclipse will not be visible in the U.S. You'll have to be located in the nighttime side of the world, i.e., the Earth's Eastern Hemisphere, to see this one. Considering the view that we are gonna have for the big one in two weeks, I don't think we can feel too cheated for missing out on Monday's Earth-Moon shadow dance.

 

*** Eclipse Fact 2 Keep in Mind***

 

 

Eclipses Come in Pairs!

 

A lunar eclipse always occurs about 2 weeks before or after a solar eclipse. On some occasions, a lunar eclipse can be both preceded and followed by a solar eclipse!

When you look to the heavens at night and observe the awe-inspiring beauty of the cosmos, what is the question that most often occupies your mind? If you are like me, it something to the effect of : " Are we along in the universe?" " Where in the cosmos are those civilizations and what are the beings who occupy those civilizations like?"

 

Some of you may be familiar with something called the Drake Equation. First proposed by radio astronomer Frank Drake in 1961, the Drake Equation is used to estimate the number of communicating civilizations in the cosmos, or more simply, the odds of finding intelligent life in the universe.

 

The Drake Equation calculates the number of communicating civilizations by multiplying together seven variables.

 

The equation typically looks something like this:

 

 

 

But the problem is that the Drake Equation is now 55 years old and doesn't include new information from astronomers on the likelihood of life existing on newly- discovered planets. The Kepler space telescope has found more than two thousand planets and several thousand more candidate exoplanets. Thanks to Kepler and other searches, we now know that roughly one-fifth of stars contain planets in "habitable zones," with temperatures that could support life as we know it.

 

Scientists have recently revised the Drake Equation to reflect Kepler's exoplanet data. Researchers also adapted the equation from being about the number of civilizations that exist now, to being about the probability of our civilization being the only one that has ever existed.

 

The study shows the odds of an advanced civilization developing need to be less than one in 10 billion trillion for humans to be the only intelligent life in the universe.

 

Folks, that's a 1 followed by 22 zeros!!!

 

1 chance in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 that we humans are the only intelligent life in the universe.

 

Folks, let's face it--- as guru, myself, and others have pointed out from time to time--- We are most definitely NOT alone... Not even close to being alone !!!

Momentous Eclipses in History: The Discovery of Helium

 

Not all eclipses have bad omens attached to them. In fact, we have a solar eclipse to thank for our party balloons and the Goodyear blimp. On Aug. 18, 1868, astronomer Jules Janssen turned the newly invented spectrograph to the Sun during a total solar eclipse over India. What he discovered would change science and society forever. Janssen observed an unusual spectral signature in the sun's chromosphere that was visible only during the eclipse.

 

The newly discovered element took awhile to gain wide acceptance as the lightest of the noble gases. Of course, we know that element by the name of helium, which comes from the Greek word, Helios, for Sun.

Alarming news about Fake Eclipse Glasses flooding the market!!!!

 

Stay safe and stay tuned for more info....

Alarming news about Fake Eclipse Glasses flooding the market!!!!

 

Stay safe and stay tuned for more info....

I was in the Richmond Walmart tonight and I asked about if they had eclipse viewing glasses and the lady said they sold out of them the first day they had them. I'm going to go to our county library tomorrow to see if they have any. Or maybe the county health department.

The most important thing I can tell you about your eclipse glasses is this: When you look through them if you can see any kind of light source besides the Sun, toss them in the garbage!!! You should be able to see the Sun and absolutely nothing else!!!

To be certified, there should be an ISO label on the glasses. ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization. But with sales skyrocketing in anticipation of the eclipse, some companies are skipping the certification process. Also, there are scammers out there, particularly online, that are faking the ISO labels and even selling glasses that may be not be capable of blocking out the necessary amount of sunlight. It's sad, but not surprising, that some scammers are willing to risk damaging the retinas of people in order to make a buck. Just be certain that you have the right glasses before viewing the Sun. They should cost you only a couple or three bucks.

The death of a massive star in a distant galaxy 10 billion years ago at a time astronomers call cosmic "High Noon" has led to the discovery of a superluminous supernova, one of the most distant ever discovered.

 

How bright was this explosion??? You won't believe it !!!! Stay tuned for more details...

Edited August 7, 20179 yr by Science Friction

I'll post some quizzes from time to time to let you test your astronomy knowledge. Here are the first ten questions that popped into my head. 8 or more correct answers means you have quite an impressive astronomy IQ. Don't post any answers for a day or two so everyone who is interested has a chance to mull them over. Then we'll post the answers. See how many you know without researching any of the answers.

 

Astronomy Quiz #1 :

 

1. If you were standing on the surface of this planet just as the sun was rising, you would notice something unusual. The sun would be rising in the western sky and not in the east. Not only does this planet rotate on its axis in the opposite direction that Earth does, but it rotates very, very slowly as compared to Earth. In fact, a "day" on this planet is equivalent to 243 days on Earth. Venus

 

2. Approximately how long does it take light to travel a distance of 1 A.U.(Astronomical Unit) ? 8 minutes

 

( 8 seconds , 8 minutes, 8 days, 8 weeks, 8 months)

 

3. What is the brightest star in the night sky? Sirius (also known as the "Dog Star" or Sirius A

4. The Asteroid Belt lies between which two planets? Mars and Jupiter

 

5. Used to measure large astronomical distances, this is a unit of distance in astronomy equivalent to about 3.26 LY, or about 19 trillion miles in length. A little more mathematically speaking, this unit is the distance at which one astronomical unit subtends an angle of one second of arc. parsec

6. Named after the Dutch astronomer who first proposed its existence, this theoretical, roughly spherical, immense cloud of icy debris is believed to exist in the outermost reaches of the solar system. It is believed to surround the Sun to as far as somewhere between 0.8 LY and 3.2 LY. It is thought to be the origin of most of the long-period comets that have been observed. Oort Cloud

 

7. The period of Halley's Comet is slightly more than 76 years.

( 66, 76, 86, 96, 133 )

 

8. This term refers to the boundary marking the limits of a black hole. Within this boundary, the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light. Thus, within this boundary, all paths that light could take are warped so as to fall farther into the black hole. So, not even a ray light can escape once it is inside this Event Horizon.

9. The closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way, this galaxy, also known as M31, is located some 2.5 million LY away and is on a collision course with the Milky away some 4 billion years from now. Andromeda

10. SN 1054 is the best know supernova in the history of astronomy. It was first observed on July 4, 1054 and remained visible for two years. The core of the exploding star formed a pulsar. The remnant of SN 1054 consists of that pulsar and all the debris that was ejected during the explosion. The aftermath of the star's explosion is shown in the image below. It is known by what name???? Crab Nebula

 

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How well did you do on Quiz #1??? 8 -10 is very good; 5-7, not bad at all;

0-4 , well, just keep keep reading the astronomy thread and watch your numbers improve!!!