If you’ve seen the Great Pyramids, Machu Picchu, the Grand Canyon, the Taj Mahal, the Atacama Desert, the Himalayas and maybe even rented a houseboat on Lake Powell, is there any sight that can top all these? Yes. A total solar eclipse. Not a lunar eclipse. And certainly not a partial solar eclipse.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, along with a few other companies, are planning to put 12,000 new satellites into low Earth orbit over the next few years. Unlike our existing communications satellites that are parked in geostationary orbits all the way up at 22,300 miles and are utterly invisible, these will definitely appear in the sky.
Polaris can be identified most easily right now, at nightfall in spring, because the Big Dipper hovers at its highest of the year.
If you ask anyone the first words spoken from the Moon, they’ll invariably mention the “One small step” speech. Actually, the first lunar words were, “Okay, engine stop,” uttered by Buzz Aldrin. Less than a minute later, Armstrong said, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed!” This July 20, 1969 photo of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module interior shows Aldrin during the lunar landing mission.
Arcturus’ light was focused through a telescope onto a photocell, which tripped the lights to start the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933.
In truth, that wasn’t a photo of a black hole. Nor was it the first ironclad proof that they exist. And it didn’t finally prove that Einstein was right.
A third of the population is at least partially convinced of an ongoing, health-threatening government spraying program that does not exist.
If the dark matter is an entirely new form of material, unlike the baryonic matter that comprises our bodies and our planet, then we have been demoted
once again, big-time.
On Friday, April 13, 2029 (yes, Friday the 13th!), the asteroid Apophis will just barely miss us.
Our cloudiest month is November, but we are currently in the midst of a happy transformation.