Discovery of the Kuiper Belt
How far can you get in 43 years traveling at 38,000 miles per hour? Far enough to make it through the Kuiper belt. Both Voyagers 1 and 2 have passed through the Kuiper belt but to be clear, their trajectories took them
The Night Sky by Eric Erickson
Discovery of the Asteroid Belt
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroid Belt, Jupiter, wait…what, asteroid belt? Yes, our solar system has an asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter. Like detritus on the ocean shore, asteroids appear to be remnants of events that went awry. Tycho Brahe was
All That Glitters…
…is not gold. From the Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare gave us a vision that Led Zeppelin later crafted into song. Not all that glitters is gold, but what makes gold special? Part of gold’s appeal is its longevity; it stays brilliant
Night Sky Month and Bright Mars
On October 1st, The Hill Country Alliance kicked off its first annual Hill Country Night Sky Month and here are some of the activities and events planned. October 14, 1-4pm: Conservation of the Night, a virtual conference. Hosted by Hays County Master
Look at the Moon Tonight
Tonight, September 26 is International Observe the Moon Night. Just go outside and contemplate it – it’s an amazing thing. You will be seeing the same Moon as many around the world. NASA is streaming it live and NASA’s website also has
Planetary Smell Test
When I was younger a friend started a conversation about steak. He was related to the owner of a local restaurant noted for its steaks. The gist: You need to age steaks well before cooking to get the best from them, and
Planet 9 Where are You?
We’re still looking for the elusive body, we think it’s out there, lurking in the Kuiper Belt. Refresher: The Kuiper Belt is far-far away, at the edge of our solar system, composed of asteroids and some Dwarf Planets. Remember Pluto? Pluto is
A Parade of Planets
I hope you saw Mars and the Moon get close last night. It was even more spectacular if you were in mid-South America, north Africa, or southern Europe. The Moon occulted Mars from those vantage points. An occultation is basically an eclipse
Break-ups, Mergers, Re-orgs
“It’s business, not personal”- says the new VP as your entire group is eliminated from the “new company” business plan. Could be a break-up, re-organization, spin-off, maybe a merger or take-over. This is the world of business. How funny, this is how
You Don’t Miss Your Stars Until…
Nancy and I spent four days in Fort Davis last week, to celebrate my birthday. What a treat! Yeah, I know Fort Davis is a tiny town in dusty west Texas. No nightlife, and only a few restaurants. Also, unfortunately, Fort Davis
August 16, 2020 – The Sun, a Quiet Dynamo Part 2
Here we are, at the Sun’s photosphere. What a vision! Seeing it through special filters we witness a vast plum of plasma shooting up and arching back to the photosphere. A prominence! Several Earths could fit into the arch. Above us we
August 9, 2020 – The Sun, a Quiet Dynamo Part 1
Sunrise, sunset. It’s been going on for billions of years. Artists of all sorts rely on seeing and recording light. Good light is ethereal, difficult to master in art but when done well, draws us into the work. This light, this source
August 2, 2020 – Clouds in my Coffee
Maybe milk in my tea? It’s deep summertime with warm evenings and the Milky Way spilling out of the teapot. Like steam rising, the Milky Way’s presence is prominent in Sagittarius and its famous Teapot asterism. Not familiar with the Teapot? It
July 26, 2020 – Mars, a Popular Destination
Let’s go to Mars! Mars has become an important target of several nations. In 1971 the USSR became the first to successfully land a craft (Mars 3) on Mars. Its mission was cut short (lasted 14.5 seconds) by a massive dust storm,
July 19, 2020 – Great Comets
2019 and 2020 have been blessed with the presence of numerous comets. You might ask, WHERE?! Me too. Unless you have a telescope at least 8” in diameter they are just dim smudges and even in an 8” they aren’t anything to
July 12, 2020 – Sahara Dust? Try Living on Mars!
Oh, the Sahara dust plume will be mostly done by the time you read this. We had hazy skies, our allergies got pumped up, and it of course exacerbated serious respiratory health issues. Weather forecasters had a fun couple of weeks with
July 5, 2020 – Big, Bad-A$$ Stars!
In the early 20th century two astronomers separately developed diagrams to identify classes of stars based on parameters such as luminosity and surface temperature. They got together and a unified diagram, called the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram came into being. It makes a
June 28, 2020 – Winds of Pluto
Pluto, the little planet discovered at Lowell Observatory by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 and named by British schoolgirl Venetia Burney. It became our solar system’s ninth planet, yea! Pluto, the Roman mythological ruler of the underworld. Makes it seem a little creepy.
June 21, 2020 – The Night Sky is Suffering
But you can help heal it! It’s a fact, cannot be argued, the night sky above us is getting lighter and lighter. The cause is indisputable, it comes from outdoor lighting. It’s not liberal vs conservative, or my scientist says this, and
June 14, 2020 – Stellar Family Hierarchy
Like in a kinship chart, stars get placed into historical context and this helps us see how the universe progressed from the big bang. We are star stuff. Most everything around us is star stuff. Yet, stars didn’t exist until about 200
June 7, 2020 – Pick a Moon
Technically there is only one Moon, Earth’s Moon, also called Luna. Most planets have their own “Moons”, or satellites. Only Mercury and Venus are without a known satellite. Why is that? Let’s look at how planets get their satellites, their satellite’s varied
May 31, 2020 – Black Hole Nearby
There is a super massive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, a cool 25,000 light years away. I like to keep a good distance, don’t want to experience that intense amount of gravity. Get too close, past the
May 24, 2020 – How Old is That Star?
I know how old I am. Got a birth certificate. What about stars? No birth certificate with cute little footprints…do they still do that? Figuring out a star’s age is a labor of investigative science. Fortunately, we live in a time where
May 17, 2020 – Conjunctionitis…not
Conjunctivitis is an inflammation of the conjunctiva, frequently called “pink eye”. Conjunctionitis (my word) is the inflammatory message sent to scare people that the next “super conjunction” will cause a major catastrophe on Earth. I give those folks the “snake-eye”. We have
May 10, 2020 – KM3Net…No, Not a new Radio Station
In a continuing effort to figure out this universe scientists have gone beyond the electromagnetic spectrum to gather information. The electromagnetic spectrum, with all its information, only presents us with 5% of the universe. Albert Einstein predicted things like gravitational. It took
May 3, 2020 – Deep, Dark, Endless Night
Following up from last week, our universe is expanding. Not just expanding, but at an increasing rate and no one knows if it will ever slow or even stop. What if our universe’s expansion doesn’t stop? Let’s take a step back and
April 26, 2020 – Will it Ever End?!
I’m Not talking about coronavirus. Not talking about conspiracy theories that are a constant presence…you know, comet Z, asteroid A, or heaven forbid, planet Nibiru might threaten life on Earth. Because even if they don’t hit us, they are poisonous or will
April 19, 2020 – Grab Your Binoculars Tonight!
I feel lucky…so far. Our neighborhood has been free of Coronavirus (COVID-19) but people are getting stir crazy. Jigsaw puzzles go just so far. Zoom or other video meetings are fun but… So, grab your binoculars, get your hands-on binoculars and forego
April 12, 2020 – See-Through Galaxies
Not kidding, there are galaxies that are transparent! Our Milky Way is not one of them, we are quite obscure thank you. In 1984 Allan Sandage and Bruno Binggeli discovered the first see-through galaxy, in the Virgo supercluster of galaxies. This discovery,
April 5, 2020 – What’s Next for NASA
Let me pull out the old Ouija board. No, to subjective. How about tea leaves, taro, psychic, crystal ball? All too subjective. Ask the old Eight Ball? It’s not subjective, but somewhat random. Darn, there must be a way to predict our
March 29, 2020 – Liquid Telescopes
At first Hiram Bingham, generally credited as Machu Picchu’s discoverer, thought they were for grinding grain. Later scientists discarded this hypothesis as the structures were not like others used in that time period. The current consensus is they were used as astronomical
March 22, 2020 – What’s Going on With Betelgeuse?
Betelgeuse has been acting up lately. As stars go, Betelgeuse is a beast! It’s the bright, orange star defining the constellation Orion’s right (left as we look at it) shoulder. It’s a huge, massive red giant star. Huge, meaning if it were
March 15, 2020 – Diamonds Fell Like Rain
In an opium induced dream, poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge experienced a wonderous place he called Xanadu. In Citizen Kane, Orson Welles’ character creates a magical paradise he called Xanadu. However, while the Xanadu of Coleridge was a placid benevolent place, Xanadu in
March 8, 2020 – Red is the Color of Carbon
Carbon is essential for life on Earth and it takes numerous forms but when a star gets really old and runs out of gas, carbon shows up. Stars begin their lives by fusing hydrogen nuclei and the good news is there’s lots
March 1, 2020 – Supermoon? Meteor Storm? Hyperbole!
Weather forecasters and services get maligned for an occasional miss. It was supposed to be mostly clear for our Astronomy Night, but noooo, clouds rolled in just in time to mess with us! Just saying, weather is still a tricky prediction due
February 16, 2020 – Farewell and Thank You to Spitzer
We can’t see in infrared. For better or worse, our eyes rods and cones just do not have sensitivity to those longish wavelengths of light. What would we see if we could suddenly see in infrared? It would be wild! Everything and
February 9, 2020 – Baby, it’s Cold out There!
Space is a cold mistress. When we venture up, higher and higher into the atmosphere it just keeps getting colder and colder. At 29,035 feet it’s never warm at the peak of Mount Everest, with temperatures staying well below zero F all
February 2, 2020 – Magnetic Mergers
Our Sun has a strong magnetic field but there are stars out there with much strong magnetic fields, way beyond what they should have. Stars many times the size and mass of the Sun are expected to have proportionally larger magnetic fields,
January 26, 2020 – Let There be Dust
It’s everywhere, except maybe in super clean rooms where the air is constantly filtered. Dust mostly comes from the breakdown of bigger stuff like rocks, planets, stars, people, pets. Nancy and I live with a dust machine. Her name is Blanca and
January 19, 2020 – Surveying the Milky Way
Do you own property? Has it been surveyed? Has it been surveyed again? Did the surveys agree? In my experience the possibility of two surveys not agreeing is good. Why? Change. Change in how surveys are done, change in technology, sometimes a
January 12, 2020 – Weirdness in the Large and Small
Why should I care about it? What difference does it make? It doesn’t make a difference for my cozy life in the comfort of mid-sized normalcy. I like it here but it’s fun to explore the extremes, no? Our universe is unimaginably
January 5, 2020 – Planet Nine, or Ten?
In my October 8, 2017 article I wrote about the suspected existence of a planet beyond the orbit of Neptune. It was called planet nine in light of Pluto having been demoted to Dwarf Planet status. There has been considerable interest in