Koppernigk

Mars and Regulus together

It's nice and clear out here, real summer weather, but with the clarity of spring. If it's the same at your place (or maybe clarity of autumn, you antipodes) go outside and see Mars and Regulus, the main star of the constellation Leo, low in the west getting close(r). Follow them the coming days as Mars runs around Regulus. And don't forget to peek at Saturn, in the South to South-west.

Eta Aquarids coming

The Eta Aquarids are coming. Again. We're not talking about big eyed aliens, but about meteors. This swarm is, like the Orionids, associated with Halley's Comet. If you go outside in the early hours of May 6th, you might get a glimpse. Last quarter Moon is interfering, but you might give it a shot if skies are clear and you're in a good mood.

You can find the constellation of Aquarius (my birth sign, which is, as you know, very very important when I'm in my fifth house opposite my love quadrant) low in the east around five in the morning, between the Moon and Jupiter. Click on the Stellarium screenshot below to get an idea. And if you're in the southern hemisphere, stand upside down to get the correct directions.

Venus shining bright

Look at the sky these nights and wish away the clouds. If that wish is being fulfilled, you can see Venus shining very bright low in the west. Venus is at a distance of about 1.5 AU from Earth, at the opposite side of the Sun. Because Venus is an inner planet it's a crescent when close to Earth and nearly full like now, when far from Earth and on the opposite side of the Sun. At magnitude -3.8, it's hard to miss.

Venus and Mercury are alright tonight

These days Venus and Mercury are quite close to each other in the evening sky. Best look between eight and nine local time (DST over here) in the west just above the horizon. Venus will be the easy one, Mercury can be a challenge. They're about three degrees apart. How much is that? Stretch out your arm and give the skies a thumbs up. The width of your thumb at arm's length is about two degrees.

Happy hunting - weather permitting.

A full Moon effect

Tomorrow we have a full Moon. You might ask how that will affect you. If you do nothing and think nothing of it, the short answer is it won't. But nevertheless myths persist. This article has a nice overview of several (non) effects on humans in particular and the world in general.

But if you decide that full Moon has an effect on you, you might start acting strange. And that's a choice, not an effect. So what are you going to do tomorrow?

Daylight Saving Time

Did you know that DST - what we call "summer time" over here - was first proposed in the 19th century by a man named George Vernon Hudson? Neither did I. You can read more about this idiotic invention here. As you can see, not all things made up by astronomers are a valuable addition to life.

By now you've guessed right that tonight at 2 a.m. the clock will jump to 3 a.m. and that I'm no fan of it.

But if you are, please feel free to enjoy it...

Have you seen the tutulemma?

Don't know what a tutulemma is? Neither did I. For more about the analemma, go here. For the Tutulemma, visit APOD today.

Happy New Year with a lunar eclipse

"In a lunar eclipse, the Earth, Sun and Moon are almost exactly in line and the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. The Moon is full but moves partly into the shadow of the Earth and dims dramatically with the shadowed portion of the lunar surface lit by sunlight that passes through the Earth’s atmosphere.

Stronger atmospheric scattering of blue light means that the light that reaches the lunar surface has a reddish hue, so observers on Earth will see a Moon that has a darkened southern tip, with hints of colour that depend on terrestrial conditions.

The Moon travels to a similar position every month, but the tilt of the lunar orbit means that it normally passes above or below the terrestrial shadow. A Full Moon is seen but no eclipse takes place.

Lunar eclipses are visible wherever the Moon is above the horizon and this one will be visible from virtually all of Europe and Asia, the western half of Australia and the extreme eastern part of North America.

It begins as the Moon enters the lightest part of the Earth’s shadow, the penumbra, at 1715 GMT. At 1852 GMT the southern part of the Moon will enter the darker terrestrial shadow, the umbra. Mid-eclipse is at 1923 GMT, when 2.5% of the area of the visible surface of the Moon will be within the umbral shadow of the Earth. The Moon leaves the umbra at 1954 GMT and the eclipse ends when it leaves the penumbra at 2130 GMT." (Space Fellowship)

The Star of Bethlehem - again

On Tom's astronomy blog Marian Ware discusses the possible background of the "Star of Bethlehem" at length. It's well worth a read because it describes a reconstruction of phenomenon from a time when not all observations were as reliable as today's, to say the least. You can read it here; it's a well documented piece.

Maybe you remember I wrote an article about it as well - as did thousands of others before me - because this sleuthing is the same sleuthing that leads to the solution of other astronomical questions. Science at its best, with religion tagging along.

Nevertheless we must remind ourselves that we're basically discussing religion here, not historical accuracy. The people who wrote the "Star of Bethlehem" story - to be more precise: the evangelist Matthew - and told it to others weren't very concerned about astronomical accuracy. They wanted to tell everybody that Jesus was the messiah as predicted in the old testament.

First of all, the three wise men weren't kings, but astrologers. It was their job to provide an interpretation of the stars in the heavens. Why did they have to come from the East? Because the old testament said so. In the books of Numbers and Isaiah God claims that the wise people would come to the chosen land to pay their respect to the God of the chosen.

In early times it was extremely important to refer to these texts. In our times the adage goes: "if it's new, it's good", but in those times the payoff was "if it's old it's good - the older the better and the more reliable". Referring to the old testament as often as one could with respect to Jesus was very important to make him believable in a time when there were few believers.

Most theologians assume that Jesus started his "career" when he was baptized by John. By then he was a grown up. It's not very plausible that all the stories before his baptism in the river Jordan are true - and it isn't necessary. Again: the evangelists had to convince people that Jesus was the Messiah mentioned in the old testament, not by force of proof, but by conviction. We can hardly imagine such a way of proving you're "right" anymore in our times, although some people nowadays still are doing an adequate job every now and then...

To convince people that Jesus was this messiah the evangelists wrote a "story of" - not a "history of". In that story historical facts were scattered throughout the tales and wonders that aren't historical.

Is that a bad thing? No, it wasn't and it isn't. The story of Jesus as told by the gospels is a story about a man who explained us how to enter the "kingdom of God". He not only explained it, but he also demonstrated it. He "talked the talk and walked the walk". He told everybody to care for the other like you care for yourself. That you especially should care for those unable to keep standing up in the fight for life. Because they're oppressed in one way or another, or outcasts. He never judged them and always helped them. He told it and he did it. Even better: his own cradle stood between the poor: in a stable, so the evangelists tell us to convince us even further. The first to know about his birth weren't the rich and wealthy, but poor shepherds.

And in the end he became one of them, because everybody left him, his people, his leaders, his friends, and he became the oppressed himself. Hanging from a cross, like a common criminal, a convicted murderer, he even believed God had left him. He was the ultimate loser, the primary example of the group he fought for. And that was the moment, the evangelists tell us, that God jumped in and picked up the glove to show that Jesus was right. God can't intervene in human life of dead, the evangelists say, but he can speak out and take care of those who fight for that ideal of caring for others, for the oppressed. And so God did. And the first to know were - in those times second rate citizens - two simple women, not the highest kings, nor the elite.

That's the real, Biblical story about Jesus. He told us to care for each other, to help the oppressed, and the evangelists tell us God unmistakenly endorsed him.

You can imagine that in this story there's not much need for historical accuracy. But there's a lot of need for affirmation of every sign and telltale that Jesus was the man they all talked about. We don't know what real historical facts are at the base of all those tales and wonders, let alone if the Star of Bethlehem was something real. And if it was, it isn't even sure that it was around the real birthdate of the historical Jesus. Maybe somewhat later, maybe somewhat earlier. Maybe from the times of the Evangelists themselves. It doesn't matter, religiously speaking.

Religion isn't about facts or science. It's about you and me, about one human to another.

Nevertheless the story about the Star of Bethlehem is a nice opportunity to hone our astronomical skills, analyze and find out what happened two thousand years ago.

Twisst and shout

Wan to keep an eye on the ISS and registering on heavens-above.com is too much? You could use Twisst to cater your needs. Here's also an article on SciAm about Twisst.

Light pollution

Light pollution threatens to hide the sky from us and out children. Where do we find the most light pollution on Earth? It's no list to be proud of, nor to be proud if you don't make the list. There should be no need for a list at all.

Your own eyes, the best low budget telescopes

Go outside, wait until late in the evening, see if it is clear and observe with the unaided eye. It's great to discern all the constellations without looking at a star map. To know the names of dozens of stars and identify them without hesitation. Star(t) tonight with Hercules.

And then there were one thousand

It's time for a little celebration over here at Koppernigk's editorial room, because this is blog post number 1,000. Started December 11, 2006 with the short blog post "I changed this site into an astronomy blog. Why? Because I can." That's still very true. Why do I blog? Because I can. And because I want to tell the casual visitor about the things I find interesting in all sections of astronomy - from cosmology to satellite launches, from observing with the naked eye to the last results of the submillimeter telescope. You'll get an impression of what I mean by clicking the special Koppernigk went 1,000 mosaic I made for you below.

Adding to all that is the fact that this blog forces me to keep up to date with astronomical developments throughout the world, as I promised myself to post at least one blog item each and every day. So far so good.
You might wonder if the 1,000th blog post should be something special. Well, it isn't. If I lived in a binary world, the 11th post might be something special. If I were a clock inhabitant, the 144th blog post might be reason for festivities. If I lived in a geodesic home, I couldn't be cornered. Okay?

So there you have it. This blog started 1,000 posts ago and went boldly where I've never gone before. If you want to join the ride, you're always welcome. Up for the next two-and-a-half years.

Eta Aquarids: get up early tomorrow

The Eta Aquarid meteor shower is on its way. The meteors you can see early next morning (best just before dawn) are a remnant of Halley's comet. You will see more meteors in the southern hemisphere than here up north. The difference might well be moot, because meteor showers are hard to predict when it comes to intensity. Let alone the weather (heavily overcast over here). Spaceweather.com has the story.

Keep fighting for women's equality

Today is International Women's Day. The first IWD was held in 1911 to press for equality of women in our society, and this year's theme is "Women and men united to end violence against women and girls". That's not only physical violence, but mental violence as well.

Almost a century later, the message of IWD only has become more relevant. These days, orthodox religions of all kind are fighting to suppress women's equality, often downright violent. From orthodox Christians forcing women to leave the public domain to the orthodox Islam trying to enslave women with headscarfs, draconian women-only punishments and actively enforcing inequality between men and women. All these dangerous groupings are developing political influence to push their antidemocratic segregationist and oppressive policies. They try to frustrate free speech and dismantle scientific progress. They try to withhold development of medications like vaccines, much needed safe and sound birth control policies. They provoke by aggressively pushing their supposed victimhood. Who are the culprits according to them? Scientists, people who defend freedom of speech, people fighting for democracy. These 'religious' people are the real danger for society - not some economic crisis which will last some time and revert again.

As you might know, I'm a positive supporter of the Christian message as it once was meant to be; a message that doesn't oppress people, but opens them up for each other. That means religious people should also raise their voices. Religious belief is a decision, made in freedom. Religious belief is never a stupid decision, aimed at oppression. All people around the world who are oppressed by some religion deserve our help, our support and our active intervention. Support them, by never shutting up. Don't let the agressive believers silence you. Never. The battle isn't over yet. On the contrary: our enemies are actively arming for the next war against women's equality.

The scientific community has an important mission here as well. It shouldn't lock itself up or fight orthodoxy with equally stupid Dawkin-like orthodoxy, making it easy to ridicule the opponents of oppresive religion. The scientific community should stand for the freedom of scientists to do their jobs without restrictions. And that's only possible if they understand that the society they live in should be free as well, for men and women.

Not much astronomy content in this message. But how can we explore space around us with an open mind, when at the same time religious abberations are trying to shut us up here on Earth?

Just nice

Today is my 48th birthday. So here's a picture I like because I feel festive.

(click on the picture for more info)

Lost - and found

Of course this is a headline for Koppernigk!

"WARSAW, Poland - Researchers said Thursday they have identified the remains of Nicolaus Copernicus by comparing DNA from a skeleton and hair retrieved from one of the 16th-century astronomer's books. The findings could put an end to centuries of speculation about the exact resting spot of Copernicus, a priest and astronomer whose theories identified the Sun, not the Earth, as the center of the universe. Polish archaeologist Jerzy Gassowski told a news conference that forensic facial reconstruction of the skull that his team found in 2005 buried in a Roman Catholic Cathedral in Frombork, Poland, bears striking resemblance to existing portraits of Copernicus. Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here The reconstruction shows a broken nose and other features that resemble a self-portrait of Copernicus, and the skull bears a cut mark above the left eye that corresponds with a scar shown in the painting. Moreover, the skull belonged to a man aged around 70 — Copernicus's age when he died in 1543. In addition, Swedish genetics expert Marie Allen found that DNA from a tooth and femur bone matched that taken from two hairs retrieved from a book that the 16th-century Polish astronomer owned, which is kept at a library of Sweden's Uppsala University where Allen works..." (MSNBC)

Get out! Get started!

Curious about these pages? About astronomy as a hobby? Here's a short Hobby 101 for you.

credit ABC News

Autumn again

Today, at 17.44 local time (CEST, which is UTC+2) it was officially autumn. It means the Sun crosses the equinox. You can see it in the illustration below. The Sun is directly above the equator, and day and night both have the same length. The autumn starts almost always at September 22 or 23. That's not September 21, like spring begins at March 21. This is caused by two things: a leap year, pushing the start of autumn even farther, and the fact that the Earth orbit around the Sun is not exactly round, but elliptical.

For the meteorologists seasons begin at month's start. The Societas Meteorologica Palatina, one of the first international meteorological organizations, under direction of German Kurfürst Karl Theodor decided in 1780 to make each season consisting of exactly three full months. Thus the separation between meteorologists and astronomers.

Finally

"The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has announced that the first attempt to circulate a beam in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be made September 10. This news comes as the cool down phase of commissioning CERN's new particle accelerator reaches a successful conclusion. Television coverage of the start-up will be made available through Eurovision..." (Astronomy.com)