Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
Saturday, January 11th, 2025
Yes, that's right, Mars is going to disappear!! Well, I am teasing a bit, of course - The Red Planet is actually going to be hidden by Earth's Moon a short time in a phenomenon known as an occultation. This happens when one celestial object blocks the view of ...
Posted in Announcements, Events | No Comments »
Sunday, December 22nd, 2024
Ok, I'll be brief ... it's not just another short day today, but at 4:20 AM EST, it was officially the Winter Solstice for December 2024. That interesting fact is obviously very important to a great many people around the world!! Now, this year on the morning of, admittedly I ...
Posted in Ethnoastronomy, Events | No Comments »
Thursday, September 12th, 2024
International Observe the Moon Night (IOtMN) is an annual public outreach event ... "that encourages observation, appreciation, and understanding of the Moon and its connection to planetary science and exploration" (Wikipedia). International Observe the Moon Night is sponsored by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission and the Solar System Exploration ...
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Saturday, July 20th, 2024
Today is the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing and humanity's first steps on another world. As NASA posted this week, from "One Small Step, One Giant Leap" ... "In July 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin completed humanity’s first ...
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Sunday, January 6th, 2019
This year starts off nicely with a lunar eclipse on January 20. This is a Sunday night during the MLK 3 day weekend and it will be visible to all of North America. The first stage with the penumbra visible is starting Jan 20 at 10:10PM (22:11) EST and last ...
Posted in Events, Observing | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 11th, 2013
The nights are getting longer and the sun is lower in the sky each day. Our planet is bathed in sunlight at a more oblique angle and the signs all around of Winter are unmistakable. And for centuries, even before written history, human kind has marked our Sun's arch in ...
Posted in Archeoastronomy, Events, History | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013
Yes, sort of. In other words, a penumbral lunar eclipse. This means the moon passed through the Earth's shadow, hence the eclipse part. However, Earth's shadow comes in two concentric circles - the inner, darker umbral and the outer, fainter penumbral. Follow the link above for lots of eclipse stuff.
Anyhow, ...
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Wednesday, June 19th, 2013
How time flies (so to speak)! The year is almost half way complete looking at our modern calendar. The Summer Solstice occurs this Friday, June 21, and that will signify the longest day of the year. So starting Friday, the days get shorter and the nights longer. That is some ...
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Saturday, December 22nd, 2012
Well it's the day after the Winter Solstice 2012 ... and ... hey ... we're still here! All that talk about the world coming to an end?!?! Pah! Fortunately many of us just waved off that kind of stuff but it was still a lot of fun. I was already ...
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Wednesday, October 27th, 2010
My wife and brother-in-law and I spent time in Arizona in May of 2009, mainly to see the Grand Canyon. We stayed in Flagstaff for most of that time since it was also near Sedona, Meteor Crater and some other "Grand" sites around northern Arizona. As wonderful as the five ...
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