Look straight south in the early evening, and you’ll see the familiar constellation Orion high in the sky. Above Orion, to the northeast, the constellation Gemini, the Twins, will be easily visible.
Here’s a deceptively simple question we recently got at Perkins Observatory: Do the stars move?Not too long ago, asking such questions got you burned at the stake. These days I can give the answer in the newspaper. Yes, they move, but not in the way you might think. Much of the motion we see is illusory.
Ah, autumn. There’s a nip in the air, and practically every local radio and television station, newspaper, and coworker hanging out at the water cooler is talking about the plight of OSU football. As I think of the upcoming game with that “team up north” (and I try not to think about it much, truth be told), my mind turns to thoughts of … binary stars. So I’m an astro-nerd. Sue me.
This past Saturday night found me in one of my favorite places — Gray Chapel — on the evening of a Central Ohio Symphony concert. On the long list of things I love about my adopted hometown of Delaware, the symphony is right up at the top. In particular, I was looking forward to the performance of Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, which would close the performance, and is one of my favorite pieces of music.
Stargazing can be a lonely preoccupation. Sometimes it’s so hard to convince your loved ones to travel to the middle of nowhere in the dark to see a bunch of sparkly things, as beautiful as they may be. Most stargazers have spent an evening or two alone in the middle of some farmer’s field, lost in the vastness of space and, frankly, scared out of their minds. The sounds of the night are the scariest part — the rustle of a corn stalk can be the sure sign that Bigfoot is approaching stealthily through the darkness.
Star Wars was the theme at the main branch of the Delaware District Library in a special program Tuesday as storm trooper Scott Thomas, left, prepares to battle jedi Mandy Henning and Brian Pauley. Pauley made the costumes for the Star Wars celebration.
Of all the great cataclysms that can happen in the Universe, almost nothing compares to the death of even a small star like our sun.
The experienced stargazer will recognize the star numbered “61” in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan, almost immediately. The beginner seems to have absolutely no reason at all to seek it out. This relatively faint point of light is, after all, not one of the constellations on the imaginary lines that identify the Swan’s shape. Why bother?