Welcome to the Classical Astronomy Update!

IN THIS UPDATE:

• Announcements
• Grand Master Plan 
• Reader Comments on the Celestial Almanack
• Review at Transit of Venus Website
• Night Skies Network
• Dance of the Planets
• Jupiter and Venus Approach
• Seasonal Skies
• The Winter Sky - Orion

Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea,

 and poureth them out upon the face of the earth:

 The LORD is his name: - Amos 5:8

Dear Friends,

 

Many thanks to everyone who ordered the inaugural issue of our new monthly eZine, the Classical Astronomy Celestial Almanack.  I'm happy to report that the February edition is now available.  I hope everyone will support our efforts to make the night sky understandable, and learn as much you can.  You owe it to yourself and your family, especially with such an exciting year ahead in 2012.

 

There are so many rare, amazing things happening in the sky during the first six months of this year.  Here are the three biggest ones:

 

1) the Jupiter-Venus conjunction on March 15 (once every 24 years);
2) the annular solar eclipse on May 20 (once every 18 years); and
3) the transit of Venus on June 5 (last one til 2117!).

Each one of these events will be totally easy to observe, and the best part... they will be free!  The bad news is, 350 million Americans will have an opportunity to see these events, and many more worldwide, and yet probably only a couple thousand will see them.  Everyone else will either not know about, or forget, or won't even bother to trouble themselves to slip on their shoes to go outside for all of 60 seconds to take a look.    

 

I am very grieved at the unawareness, inattentiveness and indifference toward the sky among the average people today.  God has placed an amazing sky over our heads, and has included much knowledge and understanding that had been known for centuries, and yet our generation just blows it all off.  This is a tragedy, folks, an appalling state of affairs.  Even though the schools don't teach Classical Astronomy, and the media ignores it, I wish that more people would have an innate desire to know and understand such things.      

 

I have a grand master plan for reaching the public with this information, but it's much more than I could accomplish with only a free email newsletter.  So I was inspired to create the Celestial Almanack  for 2012 to provide in-depth explanations of the circumstances of these events. 

 

In particular, I want everyone to see Venus in the evening sky.  I especially want everyone to appreciate the upcoming rare conjunction with Jupiter, which has not happened since 1988, and will not happen again til 2036.  In this way, I want everyone to look up and see Venus on a clear evening, and understand exactly what is happening when it descends and vanishes into the sunset in a few months.  Then, when Venus is passing in front of the Sun during its historic transit on June 5, everyone will have a full appreciation for the causes of this very rare event, which will not occur again for another 105 years!

 

Further, I want everyone to see the annular eclipse of the Sun that will be seen everywhere in the USA west of the Appalachians on May 20.  Moreover, I want everyone to have a pair of Eclipse Shades in hand for that day, so they will still have them two weeks later for the Venus transit, as the black dot of Venus crosses over the face of the Sun.  Maybe I may not be able to teach everyone about God's sky, but would hope to see a spark of interest at least among those within my reach.  

 

For these purposes,  I've been creating the Celestial Almanack , packing in 20 pages of information and providing two or three images on each page to present crystal clear explanations, so that the readers could learn more, and understand and appreciate these rare sky events.  I'm only asking three dollars, in the hopes that no one would balk at the price.  I hoped that the 3000 readers of this free newsletter would take an interest in this product and support it, and learn as much as they could.  Some readers have, and have said some nice things about the Almanack.  Those comments are posted below.

 

In case anyone is wondering, though the Celestial Almanack is a paid product, it has not been a profitable one.  Creating this 20 page ebook has been a mountain of work, like creating a mini-installment of Signs & Seasons  every month.  It has diverted evening time from my family and days away from my regular day job, placing a burden on our finances.  The sales of the January edition recouped about 25% of the lost wages devoted to creating it.  Some readers have asked if a subscription plan will be available.  I'd love to offer a subscription and accompanying discount, but cannot do so until there is enough reader interest to justify such a commitment. 

 

I will make every effort to continue the Almanack at least through June, but like any other responsible breadwinner, it is unlikely that it will continue unless it begins to pay for itself.  So friends, why not give the Celestial Almanack a chance?  It's only $3.00, and includes a lot of content.  Please visit the CurrClick site check out the FREE PRODUCT PREVIEW to see what the Almanack includes.  If it looks good to you, please download your own copy of the Celestial Almanack.  If you like what we're doing, and would like support this project and see it succeed, consider ordering a gift copy for a friend or family member.  Thanks for your friendship and support.

 

 

Reader Comments on the Celestial Almanack

The January edition of the Celestial Almanack received 13 reviews at  CurrClick, all of which were 5-stars (highest possible rating).  Visit the  link to read those reviews.  Here is a sampling of comments received directly from other readers:

I ordered the Celestial Almanack and love it.  I'm impressed with the amount of information that was presented and the illustrations are beautiful.  It is well worth the $3.00 subscription, and I'm excited as I really think it is going to be helpful to guide our family's monthly night sky observations.  - Kieki

 

My husband came across one of your newsletters and forwarded it to me. How excited I was as this is just the thing our son is interrested in. We'll be ordering! And $3 is nothing compared to what the average person wastes on a weekly basis. - Marie

 

My 11 year old was so excited when I printed out this month's Celestial Almanack for him! I was fascinated with astronomy as a child, but couldn't find anything really useful to help me. Jay Ryan has put together a monthly guide to the sky that *really works* - 17 pages of sky maps, instruction and intense guy fun for only $3! - Raising Real Men

 

We purchased it last week for my 16yo and he too is thrilled with it, we are planning on buying it on a monthly basis, more than worth it!  We have his curriculum too, and this is a wonderful supplement to it. - Lisa

 

We love it!  My husband and I spent time individually pouring over January's issue and already understand several things much better! We also plan to go outside!  Promise! - Sara

 

Thanks to you kind folks for your kind remarks.  Everyone else, why not find out what these folks are talking about?

 

 

Review at Transit of Venus Website

The Almanack was recently the subject of a very nice article entitled The Sky for Homeschoolers & Beyond  at the Transit of Venus website.  This site is very slick and informative, and includes all manner of information about the upcoming Venus transit.  

 

The article includes one of my hand-drawn astronomy cartoons from the mid-90s, and also one of the slick, computer-drawn images from the Almanack!  This is funny to me, like a "then and now" presentation of my work. 

 

Anyway, spend some time browsing the  Transit of Venus website, and learn more about how you can see this rare and historic event from your hometown.  We'll be saying more in this newsletter in the coming months. 

Night Skies Network

My astronomer friend Scott Short contributed some images of the Orion Nebula that I combined and modified to create an image for the February edition of the Almanack. 

 

Scott is a member of the Night Skies Network, a group of over 300 amateur astronomers from around the world who stream a live video feed from their telescopes over the internet.  At any time of day, you can log on and see a live view from someone's telescope.  Is that cool or what?  Here's what Scott has to say about his group:

NSN is family friendly; however it is very casual and not structured.  You log on, look who is live, click on the broadcast and talk, direct or chat.

 

We have amateur astronomers from New Zealand, Pakistan, Spain, Peru, Japan, South Africa, US and Canada to name a few countries.

 

My Outreach I do now is very simple. I set up, start a broadcast and have people show up and we share views and explore.  I usually have mapped out what I want to look out. However I often throw that out so that those watching can see what they want to look at.

So if you logon and see Scott, tell him Jay sent you!  Check out NSN, I'm sure your family will have a lot of fun.

 

 

Dance of the Planets

 

Jupiter and Venus Approach

The following is an excerpt from the February edition of the Celestial Almanack: 

 Venus and Jupiter are, respectively, the third and fourth brightest objects in the sky, after the Sun and Moon. And wow, are they really bright! Jupiter shines at magnitude -2.2, which is about twice as bright as Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. Venus shines at a whopping magnitude -4.2, two and half times brighter that Jupiter, and almost 15 times brighter than Sirius! When either Jupiter or Venus are up, they rule the night sky. But when these two come together, wow! Watch out!

 

During February, we have a very rare opportunity to watch Jupiter and Venus draw toward a conjunction, placed very high in the sky above the horizon. The actual conjunction will not occur until March, and we'll be covering that in the next edition of the Celestial Almanack. But half the fun of a conjunction is watching the planets draw near over the months, until the big week arrives when they approach, reach their closest, and then swing past each other in a graceful cosmic ballet.

 

February, 2012 is an amazing opportunity to observe the clockwork of the heavens in action. Be sure to tell all your friends and family! There will very likely be an increase in UFO sightings, as the uninformed populace struggles to understand what's going on with those mysterious lights in the night sky! The media might start reporting this conjunction maybe a day or two before the main event, but your family has a chance to watch it all unfold! 

 

Seasonal Skies

The Winter Sky - Orion

Here's another excerpt from the February edition of the Celestial Almanack:

 You can't miss the constellation Orion the Hunter on winter evenings. Orion is, by far, the most amazing constellation. Most everyone is familiar with Orion's Belt, three very bright stars, all perfectly lined up and evenly spaced. In my opinion, Orion's Belt is a type of a miracle, as if anyone could believe that such an unlikely alignment of bright stars could happen by accident.

 

In addition to his Belt, Orion also has a distinct human figure, with a "torso" and "legs" clearly defined by stars. (Experienced stargazers can even pick out the "arms" of Orion!) Orion's body is defined by two very bright first-magnitude stars, Betelgeuse and Rigel. Betelgeuse (pronounced "Beetle Juice") is a bright, reddish star that marks Orion's "shoulder." Rigel (pronounced "Rye-Jell") is a distinctly bluish star at Orion's "foot."

 

Orion has always been a very famous constellation down through history, and has been mentioned often in literature, from the Greek poet Homer to the English poets Alexander Pope and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Orion is mentioned three times in the Bible, twice in the Book of Job, which is arguably the oldest work of western literature:

 

Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? - Job 38:31 

 

First-magnitude stars are the brightest stars in the night sky, and there are only 15 stars of first-magnitude visible from the northern temperate latitudes. Of that small number, seven of the 15 first-magnitude stars are in the vicinity of Orion. Thus, if you can learn Orion and his bright neighboring constellations, you have already made an excellent start at learning the constellations.

 

These are just short exerpts from the Celestial Almanack for February, 2012, and only a couple of the 32 images.  There is also another section  that explains the apparent movement of the Sun through the constellations, and how that results in the days growing longer through the month of February.  We also show you what's going on with Mars and Saturn this month

 

Coming soon in the Classical Astronomy Update:

• In addition to all these exciting sky events, I want to explain why I hate sky maps, and how these do more harm than good in teaching the sky to beginning stargazers.
• Homeschool Astronomy Club -- it's just a name, and I'm wondeirng how to make it a reality.  Any ideas?  With all these homescholars learning about the LORD's sky, there ought be a way for them to network and share the sky with their family and friends.

 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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