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I Am Getting The Hang Of This!
Oct. 21st, 2011 04:03 pmDriving home from work the other night, I was fascinated to see a HUGE STAR in the east. “Good lord, but you’re shiny,” I thought. “And given the time and your location—my god! You can’t be Sirius!”
And no, I don’t keep up with daily astronomical happenings, but I have learned a few things about the sky—like how there’s no way in hell that was Venus, either.* By the time I got home, I had an educated guess. So as soon as I got home I was all, “Mom! Can I borrow your iPad?** I think I see Jupiter!”
Turns out I was right. Jupiter’s across from the sun for the next few weeks—it’ll be in opposition on October 28th. If you want to see an extremely shiny thing in the sky, look to the east at sunset, or the west at sunrise. That hydrogen is some reflective stuff.
I also got out my binoculars and may have seen one of the moons, but it’s hard to hold binoculars steady. Dang I need a telescope.
*Look, don’t laugh. I am not really good at translating my head’s excellent “zoom-out” model of the solar system into what I’m actually seeing. I’m working on it, though.
RANDOM FACT: I can never remember the mnemonics for naming the planets, but I know the planets themselves, so whenever someone has to remember the stupid “My Very Excellent Mother” whatever, I have to run through the planets in my head to fill in what the rest of the sentence is.
**The only thing on the iPad I’ve really liked is Mom’s astronomy app. You can hold it up to the sky and it’ll tell you what you’re looking at—constellations, planets, individual stars, celestial thingy-things like clusters and nebulae, etc..
And no, I don’t keep up with daily astronomical happenings, but I have learned a few things about the sky—like how there’s no way in hell that was Venus, either.* By the time I got home, I had an educated guess. So as soon as I got home I was all, “Mom! Can I borrow your iPad?** I think I see Jupiter!”
Turns out I was right. Jupiter’s across from the sun for the next few weeks—it’ll be in opposition on October 28th. If you want to see an extremely shiny thing in the sky, look to the east at sunset, or the west at sunrise. That hydrogen is some reflective stuff.
I also got out my binoculars and may have seen one of the moons, but it’s hard to hold binoculars steady. Dang I need a telescope.
*Look, don’t laugh. I am not really good at translating my head’s excellent “zoom-out” model of the solar system into what I’m actually seeing. I’m working on it, though.
RANDOM FACT: I can never remember the mnemonics for naming the planets, but I know the planets themselves, so whenever someone has to remember the stupid “My Very Excellent Mother” whatever, I have to run through the planets in my head to fill in what the rest of the sentence is.
**The only thing on the iPad I’ve really liked is Mom’s astronomy app. You can hold it up to the sky and it’ll tell you what you’re looking at—constellations, planets, individual stars, celestial thingy-things like clusters and nebulae, etc..
