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This is the Classical Astronomy Update, an email newsletter especially
for Christian homeschool families (though everyone is welcome!)
Please feel free to share this with any interested friends.
IN THIS UPDATE:
- Anouncements
- Signs & Seasons Ebook Freebie!
- Amanda Bennett's Unit Studies
- Dance of the Planets
- Observing Jupiter in the Evening Sky
- Astronomy Topics
- Seeing the Earth's Shadow
Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted
out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the
earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales,
and the hills in a balance? - Isaiah 40:12
Welcome to the Classical Astronomy Update!
Hello Friends,
The summer days are growing noticably shorter, as they always do in late August. For more info on that, check out the articles at our page, The Sky This Month, at the Classical Astronomy website. Hope you're enjoying the cool nights and the "good sleeping weather" as we are. Soon it will be fall, which is a wonderful time of year here on the wind-swept shores of the Great Lakes.
Today, August 25, 2009, is the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first public presentation of the telescope. Galileo didn't invent the telescope, but made a better one than the original. Galileo first promoted the telescope for its military applic...ations, since it could sight enemy ships before they could be seen with the eye. He didn't point his scope at the sky until the next January, when he discovered Jupiter's moons.
Your ongoing prayers would be greatly appreciated. My mother turns 70 this week, but her celebration is spoiled by a tenacious infection that she has suffered with since April. Please pray for my Mom's speedy recovery. Also, 2009 has been a difficult financial year for the Ryan Family as my "day job" work as a freelance patent agent has been extremely slow. If you know any innovative companies or individuals that are seeking help with patent services, please point them my way. Many thanks for your prayers.
Also, I will be leading a class in Classical Astronomy, based on Signs & Seasons, for our homeschool coop this year. This promises to be a different experience! Additionally, we're hoping to speak at a couple homeschool conventions in 2010, in Ohio and Illinois. If you're involved in convention planning, please check out my profle at The Old Schoolhouse Speakers Bureau.
The bright planet Jupiter is back in the evening sky. We'll have much to say about Jupiter in this newsletter and in others for the remainder of 2009.
Announcements
Signs & Seasons Ebook Freebie
This week, we are offering an ebook sample of our Signs & Seasons homeschool astronomy curriculum as a freebie! For a limited time, you can download a 29-page sample that includes excerpts of the Signs & Seasons curriculum and also the companion workbook.
If you're on Facebook, you can download the ebook at the new Homeschooling with the Trivium page. If you're not already a fan of this page, please become a fan, it's a great resource. And if you're the last one on your block that hasn't joined Facebook, you're missing out on some wonderful homeschool-related discussions. If you're not on Facebook but are interested in downloading the ebook, please drop us an email for download information.
Amanda Bennett's Unit Studies
Amanda Bennett is doing some great work with unit studies. She has prepared studies on a great number of subjects, and also provides helpful information for homeschool families to get started with unit studies. Amanda explains:
What is a unit study? It is defined as an in-depth study of a topic (space, trees, cars, etc.) that takes into account many areas of the topic, such as geography, science, history, art, etc. It is a complete immersion into the topic so that the student will see things as a "whole" instead of bits and pieces learned throughout their education.
Dance of the Planets
Observing Jupiter in the Evening Sky
Following opposition on August 14, 2009, Jupiter has returned to the evening sky. Jupiter is the very bright "star" coming up in the eastern sky in the early evening. Many people have trouble at first believing that it really is Jupiter, but it really is! Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the sky, after the Sun, Moon, and Venus (currently in the morning sky). So when you look at Jupiter tonight, consider that, as bright as it appears, Jupiter is still 400 million miles from the Earth!
Jupiter will be visible in the evening sky for the rest of 2009. Jupiter is currently passing through the stars of the constellation Capricornus. If you live under the light-polluted skies of the city as we do, you probably won't be able to spot the figure of Capricornus. This is a horn-shaped constellation formed of mostly faint stars. However, a couple of the stars closer to Jupiter are more bright, and perhaps you can spot these if your skies are clear enough.
Keep an eye on the waxing crescent Moon this week. On the evening of Thursday, August 27, 2009, the half-moon will be very close to the first magnitude star Antares as night falls.
During daylight, the Moon will be in occultation of Antares, which means the Moon's face will be blocking this star. However, that will be over by the time the Sun sets and the sky is dark enough so that the stars can be seen. As night falls, during evening twilight, the Moon will have moved off from Antares, but the two will still be very close in the early evening.
This event especially favors observers in the eastern USA, who will see the Moon and Antares at their closest. Folks on the west coast can still expect to see a close approach. Be sure to look before 9:30 or 10:00 PM, since the Moon and Antares will be sinking low into the west throughout the evening.
Keep watching the Moon from night to night as it will draw close to Jupiter. On the evening of Tuesday, September 1, the Moon will be to the west of Jupiter (i.e., on the right, as seen from the northern hemisphere). On the next evening, Wednesday, September 2, the Moon will pass to the other side of Jupiter.
Europe and Africa are favored for this event, and observers on these continents will see a very close conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter on September 2. If you know any missionaries in these places, please pass this along to them. Everyone else in the world should plan on taking a look, since it is still very interesting to follow the Moon's monthly passages of the bright planets.
Astronomy Topics
Seeing the Earth's Shadow
Did you know that you can actually see the Earth's shadow in the sky after the sunset? The Earth's shadow can be observed as a dark portion of the sky in the bright twilight, in the minutes after the Sun has gone down. It's a very subtle effect but easy enough to notice if you know what to look for.
In the early twilight, as the sunset sky is still orange, the Earth's shadow can be seen as an arc or a "bow" climbing the horizon in the direction opposite the Sun. This shadow arc reaches wide, running about half the extent of the horizon, but clearly higher in the middle than at the ends. Looking sideways (as shown in the picture) you can clearly see where the arc disappears into the horizon.
The color of the Earth's shadow is very subtle, but is a definite grey, different from the blue of the early twilight sky. Above the shadow is the "Belt of Venus," which is a ruddy ring of sunset glow that circles the horizon. All these things are easy to miss if you don't take the time to observe the sky right after sunset.
As night begins to fall and as the Sun descends father below the horizon, the Earth's shadow rises noticably higher, and the shadow arc appears to grow over the eastern horizon. In order to properly observe the Earth's shadow, you need a flat area of land with a relatively treeless horizon toward the east. If you live in a mountainous area, you might have a hard time seeing the Earth's shadow, unless you can find a treeless mountaintop, or least a mountainside with a clear, flat exposure toward the east after sunset.
I always see this from a shopping strip near our house, with a wide open view of the horizon and few trees or other obstructions. We'd be interested to hear if anyone can notice this tonight or in the next couple evenings. Please drop us an email if you do!
Coming in future Classical Astronomy Updates:
Til next time, God bless and clear skies!
-jay
The Ryan Family
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and
the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art
mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
- Psalm 8:3,4, a Psalm of David
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