Lunar Eclipse Party at the Adler Monday

Total Lunar Eclipse Party

 

Date: December 20 – 21, 2010
Time: 11:00 p.m. – 4:00 a.m.
Location: Adler Planetarium
Cost: Free

(Ahem: Yo Adler,  I'm ma let you finish but the first movement of William Herschel's Symphony in F Major would have been one of the best soundtracks of all time for this video.)

Celebrate the total lunar eclipse on the winter solstice at the Adler Planetarium’s free Total Lunar Eclipse Party. Adler educators and astronomers, along with telescope volunteers, will be on hand to facilitate telescope viewing of this rare occurrence in the night sky – weather permitting. Visitors can bring their own telescope or use ones provided by the Adler. The next total lunar eclipse visible in the Chicago area will occur on April 15, 2014.
What is a total lunar eclipse?
A total lunar eclipse takes place when a full Moon passes through the shadow of the Earth. The Earth blocks light from the Sun and casts a shadow that obscures the entire Moon. A total lunar eclipse on the winter solstice is a rare occurrence. The next total lunar eclipse on December 21 (winter solstice) will be in 2094.
Winter Solstice Eclipse Schedule

• 12:32 A.M. CST – Partial eclipse
• 1:40 A.M. CST – Total eclipse begins
• 2:17 A.M. CST – Point of the greatest eclipse
  

Special Presentation at the Adler Planetarium Time: 11:30 p.m.
"Caught in the Shadow of Earth" presented by Adler astronomer Larry Ciupik

During a lunar eclipse, the moon turns a reddish-orange color. Image Credit: NASA

What is a lunar eclipse? How and why do eclipses happen? When are the best times to view this total lunar eclipse? Find out how Moon phases work and hear fascinating highlights from past eclipses in a live presentation.
Please Note: Free coffee, tea, hot chocolate and light snacks will be provided to visitors beginning at 11:00 p.m. on a first-come, first-served basis.
Enjoy unlimited shows in the Definiti Theater for $5 (free for Adler members). Shows include Journey to the Stars and Night Sky Live. Please note, Adler exhibitions will be closed.
For more information about the total lunar eclipse or the Adler’s Total Lunar Eclipse Party, call (312) 922 7827.

Best astronomy pics of 2010

Hubble's sick new picture of the Pillars of Creation is one, of course.

Go see the rest!

Hubble's Christmas Ornament

Supernova bubble "SNR 0509-67.5 (or SNR 0509 for short)", as the Hubblesite description reads - LOL - is 23 light-years across and is expanding at more than 11 million miles per hour (5,000 kilometers per second).

What a nice gift from the folks at Hubble.  
Stellar*, as usual.

*Ba dump bump.

Hubble Holiday cards

Even though, helloooo, it's December 10th and you should totally have already mailed holiday cards if you were going to, Hubble's holiday cards are back for free download and printing.
And they. are. awesome.

Here's where ya go to get them.

And here are a couple of examples.

Solar filament eruption

You know that part in Sleigh Ride?
That's what plays in my head when I watch this.

Astrophotography, right in the middle of Chicago

Joe Guzman, astronomer extraordinaire and all-around really nice guy, shot some awesome pics of Saturn and Venus the other night. I love how supportive and encouraging the astronomy family is in Chicago - whether you're an Adler employee like Joe or just wanting to ask a hundred questions about a telescope before you buy it (ahem), these guys are so great. As a bonus, star parties are an extremely frequent event here in Chicago.

Even if you're not a local, you should check out Chicago Astronomer. Many of the posts there deal with observation information that is also relevant to the rest of North America,  the pictures are pretty, and the support is trememdous.

All photos by Joe Guzman

Wisconsin man builds backyard planetarium.

I want to be this guy's next door neighbor/BFF.

Story found over at the Chicago Astronomer - thanks for the tip, fellas.
Going to have to make a trip to this one.


Wisconsin Backyard Planetarium

Well, it's not 9' tall aliens carrying a cookbook disguised as a manual for peaceful coexistence, but...

it's still pretty damn cool.

Piltdown Man, War of the Worlds, Energia's SpaceDyson©

     The ole BS detector is overheating on this story. 

     A quick Google search reveals that this story has been picked up by every major news outlet in the free world. From Australia to Zimbabwe, the headline blares that Energia is developing an orbital pod which will push space debris into a decaying orbit. It will, they breathlessly report, run on nuclear-powered ion drives.

     Of course it will.
     And it will convert dark matter into tasty, tasty Skittles.

     The outlet which "Roscosmos" used to announce this groundbreaker? A Facebook page administered by a couple of French citizens who happen to be space fans. The Facebook page contained just a few sentences and cited no official sources regarding the story. Contrary to what many, many major news outlets are reporting, this Facebook page is in no way an "official" Roscosmos page, and a 10-second investigation could have helped them determine that.

     Being somewhat of a giant dork, I am a not-infrequent visitor to the Roscosmos website. After reading this story on CBS News, I realized I hadn't seen anything about it from the, ya know, Russians, so I went over to Roscosmos and searched for "space debris", "space junk", "energia", and several other keywords to no avail.
Their last news item mentioning space junk? January of 2010, when Yuri Makarov represented Russia at the perfectly boring annual meeting of the International Committee on Space Debris. There is nothing on Energia's website. A search for news on Interfax or anywhere else which does not use the Facebook source is circuitous and futile. I don't know - news like that? You'd think it'd be on Energia's homepage, not just on a private Facebook page. You'd think they'd be (justifiably) bragging about it on every news station.
     If true (ahem), fantastic. I believe space debris is the most pressing space-related issue today.
     If the Frenchies just punked the worldwide media, zut alors and sacre bleu!


    Also, LMAO.

That's not a wheat sheaf or a weeping willow or a stalk of broccolini.

That's a dumbbell*!

*If you squint. And are drunk.