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Director’s note: Starting 2010 with new films, more fun

February 3rd, 2010

I realize that we’re several months away from International Talk like a Pirate Day (September 19th), but we’re not going to let a calendrical triviality dampen our enthusiasm for our latest dome theatre production, Attack of the Space Pirates.

This new show will be a rip-roaring space adventure – the planetarium’s first original astronomy education production incorporating good guys vs. bad guys, blazing lasers and a desperate pursuit among the stars in a do-or-die race to save the galaxy.

We’ve stopped short of sporting eye patches and parrots on our shoulders as we open this show, but we want you to know that high adventure awaits in our Hansen Dome Theatre.

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Groundhog Day, February 2nd

February 1st, 2010

Groundhog Day is February 2nd each year, and has its roots in Astronomy. It is a crossquarter day, marking the midpoint between the winter solstice in December and the spring equinox in March. Although we celebrate the beginning of spring around March 21st, we begin to sense an end of winter, and anticipate the arrival of spring about now, the beginnings of February.

The tradition is simple: We watch the local groundhog and see if it will see its shadow or not. If the groundhog sees its shadow, then it will be scared, run back into its hole and we have to endure 6 more weeks of winter. If the groundhog does not see its shadow, then it will stay outside and we can expect an early spring.

The reasoning is also simple: If the weather on Groundhog Day is bright and sunny, then it is a nice day, we feel good, and don’t care too much that spring officially begins in about 6 weeks–the spring equinox. If the weather on Groundhog Day is grey and gloomy, then we laboriously plod through the day and hope for an early end to the doldrums of continued winter.

There are several weather-related origins to Groundhog Day that have included bears and badgers predicting the weather. Celtic tradition refers to the day as Imbolc, and uses a serpent as its weather prognosticator. Groundhog Day is also known in Christian tradition as Candlemas, and celebrates the purification of Mary and the presentation of the baby Jesus in the temple 40 days after his Christmas birth.

Skywatch: A bright Mars in the sky in January

January 18th, 2010

To me, Mars has not been a very interesting planet to observe in the night time sky. Ok, it’s red–really red. But even through a backyard telescope, Mars is just a small red ball. Well, this month (January, 2010) Mars is much more interesting.

Mars reaches opposition on January 29th. At that time, Mars will be on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun (or, alternatively, Earth will be exactly between Sun and Mars). This happens once every 26 months, simply because of the different orbital speeds of the two planets. Earth takes 365.25 days to orbit the Sun; Mars takes 687 days (1.88 Earth years). Mars will also be at its closest approach to Earth: 99.33 million kilometers (61.5 million miles) on the 27th. A natural result of this is that Mars is very bright in our current night time sky, at magnitude -1, brightening to -1.2 at opposition.

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