Wednesday, October 10, 2018

What Are You Looking At?

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU SEE WHEN YOU LOOK UP AT NIGHT?
I've been gazing up quite a bit recently in preparation
for the 2018 Astronomy Lab.  
It’s amazing up there!  Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and a quadrillion
stars are all looking down at us.  What a sight.
Want to join us?

Click Here to register.


In preparation for the lab, I went to the Fernbank Science Center
in Atlanta with my daughter Angie and our granddaughter Michelle.




In the lab, we will take some time to focus on Mars. Fernbank
had a wonderful planetarium presentation on the "Red Planet".
The telescope I use to view the night sky is an introductory level
telescope, called the FirstScope.  It is a great telescope to begin with,
costing around $54.  
(I am desperately ready for something more!)  

















These are some really good stargazing iphone apps that are free.
I'm sure the Android devices have comparable apps.  To hear a recording
of the night sky for October in our SC area, click here.  This month,
Mars rises in the southern sky right at nightfall.
Saturn and its spectacular rings can be seen with a telescope or
binoculars in the southern sky inside the constellation Sagittarius.  
Jupiter is also visible at nightfall for a short time in the southeast.

Guess what? For the first time ever, we are having a star party
for those enrolled in the lab.  Bring your telescope! Bring your
binoculars! Bring your phone apps, and we will all celebrate the
night sky together with hot cider and lots of fun.  
(Date and time to be determined.)

Want to join us?
Click Here to register.  












When we gaze up into the heavens we are stretching our capacity
to understand time and space. We must understand that we are
four dimensional beings (length, width, depth, and time).  
In our current culture, we spend a lot of time looking down
at two dimensional screens.  
And I am pointing the finger at myself first and foremost!!    
I absolutely LOVE technology!
In physics, spacetime is any mathematical model that fuses
the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time
into a single four-dimensional continuum.
 
What is the consequence of our unwillingness to look up?  Who knows?
But I do worry about it.  
I am concerned that our western world is becoming increasingly
dependent on technology and desperately out of touch with creation.  
Creation and space offer far more opportunities for our brains to grow
and understand who we are and who we came from.













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