Astronomy
As always, feel free to contact me with comments, suggestions, and constructive criticisms concerning anything on this page.
Astronomy Page Index:
Lunar Libration
Speed of Light to the moon
Speed of Light to the moon
Shape of the earth
Astronomy web links
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Lunar Libration:
The moon actually appears to shake its head at us! This is an animation of sequential pictures of the moon throughout a one month period.
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This image is public domain.
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Speed of Light between earth and moon
This image shows how fast light travels between the earth and the moon
This image is public domain.
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Hubble Deep Field image of dozens of galaxies
One of the most fascinating images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows dozens of galaxies in a tiny patch of sky where nothing had been observed before except a few foreground stars in our own galaxy. View the image and read details here:
Hubble Deep Field Image and Explanation at NASA's web site
This image is public domain.
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Shape of the earth
This picture looks like it could have been taken from the International Space Station. But it's not. It's actually a picture of an exercise ball. I placed the camera on the ball with the lense as close to the ball as I could get it. I measured the height of the lense off the surface of the ball. Using the ball as a scale model of the earth, the lense would be approximately 400 miles above the earth.
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Astronomy links
I occasionally bring a set of plywood cutout painted planets to special events for display. These are all to scale with each other and to a 24 foot diameter sun. For more information about these events and any upcoming events, Click here. These events are typically held at our farmers markets and open house.
I used this model generator to make the maps provided at events as well as to determine sizes of the planets Solar System Model Calculator
3D Interactive Animation of the Asteroid Belt and planets: Asterank.com
This page also provides monetary values of minerals found in the asteroids and the estimated costs of retrieving those minerals.Report Meteor Sightings: AMSMeteors and at IMO.netThis link demonstrates scale within your web browser Scroll through the Solar System. With some patience with this one, there are cute messages along the wayInteractive display of the current sky, showing positions of stars, planets, sun and moon. Start by clicking on an object. You can also adjust for location and time. This tool makes it easy to identify what you're actually looking at when you look at the sky. Lots of other information is provided as well.Upcoming Astronomical Events.Eclipse Info at our Charcoal Eclipse Soap description page: Click on 'Click for more info about Eclipses' at this link.Track Near Earth Objects (NEO's) and asteroids at the Center for Near Earth Object Studies, learn about close approaches, possible impacts with earth, and level of damage they can cause.
Astronomy Picture of the day. Includes an archive going all the way back to 1995!
Search for 'astronomy animations' for a good list of astronomy simulations and animations.
Search for videos that show size comparisons for various asteroids, what the planets would look like from earth if they were where the moon is, and the size of planets through the size of the largest stars.
Many space ships have been sent to other planets. Among the most well known (in part because they launched a long time ago): Voyager I & II, Pioneer 10 & 11, and Mariner. Much longer lists are available on Wikipedia and other sources.
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