You never know what you might see if you just look up (Photo by xamad) This weekend, you might be attending a Fourth of July party, and you'll probably be craning your neck upwards to watch fireworks displays. As you gaze, though, cast your eyes a little further upward for a glimpse of the biggest and brightest parties of them all. You won't find paparazzi or a red carpet at these parties, just dark skies filled with dazzling stars of the celestial kind. A quintessential part of the amateur astronomer scene worldwide, star parties are held in public squares, at campgrounds, on mountaintops, and even on the Grand Canyon's North Rim. Open to the public, these nighttime gatherings and weekend campouts are an excellent way to become acquainted with astronomy and the wonders of the night sky. 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, ensuring that telescopes will be set up on sidewalks, at observatories, or in parks near you. If you can't make it to the party, just step outside into the night, or plan a star party of your own. Suggested Sites... "Sky & Telescope" Event Calendar - find a star party near you. Space.com’s Star Party Survival Guide - tips for happy stargazing. Astronomy Calendar of Celestial Events – 2009 - see what's up tonight -- literally. Night Sky Network - NASA's guide to clubs, events, and starry happenings. The Galileoscope: An IYA2009 Cornerstone Project - get started with an inexpensive telescope.

Directory categories: Star Parties, Astronomy Clubs, Astronomy Beginners' Guides, International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009), Astrophotography

Archived under: Astronomy, Celebrations, Events, Exploration, Holidays, Night, Outdoors, Planets, Science, Space, Stars, Summer

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Halley's Comet, minus the advertising space that's sure to come next time If there's one thing mankind has discovered, it's that nature cannot be tamed. As last weekend's earthquake in Los Angeles and the recent "inland hurricane" in Southern Illinois proved, when Mother Nature wants to do something, it's best to stay out of her way. With that in mind, today we examine a few of the ways in which people have coped with nature's whims. The first took place on May 19, 1780. While the former British colonists of New England were still fighting their Revolution, strange things were happening. For a couple of days prior, the skies from Maine to New Jersey had been strangely colored -- yellow, copper, and red -- but in mid-morning of the 19th, those skies began to darken unnaturally to the point that, by noon (in most places), it was as dark as midnight. While animals behaved normally, many humans panicked and flocked to religious services, believing the end of the world had come. Those of a more scientific bent tried to determine what had happened, but were baffled. By the next day, the darkness had dissipated as mysteriously as it had come. Modern scientists have examined "Dark Day" and are now pretty sure (though not positive) that a combination of wet weather, Canadian forest fires, and just-right winds created a "perfect storm," and a cloud cover so thick that sunlight was unable to provide illumination to the region. While 18th-century Americans were driven into confusion and terror by a natural phenomenon, by the 20th century, Yankee ingenuity had figured out how to capitalize on Mother Nature. Halley's Comet paid the Earth a visit in 1910. Even though it had been doing so with no harmful effects since at least 240 BCE, the media got hold of the fact that the Earth would pass through the comet's tail on May 19th, and a minor worldwide panic ensued. Predictions of the damage that would be caused were apocalyptic. It got even worse when scientists determined that the comet's tail contained cyanogen gas -- similar to cyanide -- leading many to believe they'd be poisoned. Panicked (again), Americans packed churches, stopped up their doors and window with towels, and went insane from worry -- and (of course) there was a land-office business in comet "cures," ranging from pills to inhalers to gas masks. Of course, not everyone panicked, but even for those folks who kept their heads, retailers and restraurateurs managed to capitalize on comet fever, with souvenirs, postcards, pins, soaps, and even special dinners. While we can't imagine that when the "Big One" finally hits, folks will be flocking to buy souvenirs, we're pretty sure that, given the vast number of scams that popped up after Hurricane Katrina, American knowhow will figure out a way to make a buck. Suggested Sites... The Dark Day Over Olde New England - just what happened? Wikipedia: New England's Dark Day - description and links to sites explaining what occurred. Halley's Comet Postcards - capitalism is a worldwide phen A Brief History of Halley's Comet - from prehistory to the future. Comet Hysteria and the Millennium - it wasn't limited to 1910.

Directory categories: Weather, Weather Phenomena, Halley's Comet, Astronomy, Fraud

Archived under: 18th Century, 1910s, American History, Anniversaries, Astronomy, Coincidence, Comets, Environment, Events, Halley's Comet, History, Nature, Revolutionary War, Scams, Science, Society and Culture, Storms, Superstition, United States, Weather, Weird Stuff

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(Courtesy of Goldenrectangle) Out among the dust and debris in our solar system are notable bodies not quite worthy of dwarf planet status, but still worthy of our notice -- asteroids. Millions of these irregularly shaped chunks of rock are out there orbiting the sun and humbly going about their business. As they drift along in the void, little do they suspect that we Earthlings have come to view them as potential planet-killers! The 1994 collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter caught the public's attention and made it quite clear that astronomical run-ins aren't just theoretical, but a reality. We hardly needed to look so far into the solar system to find evidence, though. The pockmarked surface of our moon keeps a running tab on impacts, and we even have video of meteorites slamming into it. Furthermore, there is plenty of terrestrial evidence of our planet's own violent history. So, do we need to worry about aggressive asteroids in the coming centuries? Perhaps. Fortunately for us, the fine folks at NASA are on top of Near Earth Objects (NEOs) and have even developed an Impact Risk Scale to allow us to appropriately match our level of alarm to any asteroid in question. And should NASA make some faulty calculations, there are other organizations searching for ways to deflect the next dinosaur killer. So for the time being, since it seems our doom is not so imminent, let us then think of asteroids not as ruinous rocks of annihilation, but rather as gentle space neighbors who are just as keen on avoiding us as we are on avoiding them. Suggested Sites... Earth Impact Effects Program - design your own disaster with this impressive impact calculator. NASA: Near Earth Object Program - check out the orbits of potentially risky asteroids. NASA: Images of Eros - view an asteroid up close with these Eros images taken by the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft. NASA: Friday the 13th, 2009 - asteroid 2004 MN4 pays us an uncomfortably close, but potentially stunning, visit.

Directory categories: Asteroids, Earth Impact, Solar System, Astronomy Instruments, Dwarf Planets

Archived under: Asteroids, Astronomy, Disasters, Physics, Planets, Science, Space

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Trees blown over by the Tunguska blast One hundred years later, no one is sure exactly what happened. Eyewitnesses described a column of blue light as bright as the sun that tore the sky in two and set it on fire, followed by an explosion the likes of which humans had never seen or heard. It all happened in Tunguska, Russia, on July 1, 1908, when something came from the sky and devastated more than 800 square miles, flattening an estimated 80 million trees. The explosion was estimated at 1000 times the power of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. It was seen from 100 miles away, and the shock wave broke windows 250 miles from the point of impact. An Englishman reported that the sky on the north coast of Britain that night was so bright that he "could read a book by it." The most surprising thing about the event was that virtually no lives were lost. Thanks to the remoteness of the impact site (the center of Siberia), the only casualty was a reindeer herder who was thrown into the air and against a tree -- twenty miles from ground zero. Astonishingly, for all the commotion, there was no immediate investigation. The first exploration party didn't arrive until 1927, and no one thought to take aerial photographs until 1938. Numerous theories of what the event was have been floated: asteroids, comets, black holes, antimatter, UFOs -- even Nikola Tesla testing a death ray. But no one theory provides all the answers. If it was an asteroid, we can be thankful that it struck where it did. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has warned that if an asteroid hit in the right part of the Pacific Ocean, it would wipe out most of the Pacific Rim. Sounds like Russia got off cheap. Suggested Sites... Tunguska Comet Impact - 1908 - a Russian examination of the Event. Wikipedia: Tunguska Event - good overview of the impact, research, and theories. Tunguska Event - a more scientific exploration, with period and current photos. Tunguska - just what the heck did happened? Ground Zero - Siberia - so, was it a UFO?

Directory categories: Tunguska Event, Siberia, Asteroids, Russia, Asteroid, Comet, and Meteor Earth Impacts

Archived under: Anniversaries, Asteroids, Astronomy, Comets, Disasters, Mysteries, Russia, Science, UFOs, Weird Stuff

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The Solar System as we know it Alas, poor Pluto. Demoted last year to dwarf planet status -- not really a planet after all. At least its "day in the sun" lasted for 75 years. We bid it a fond farewell as we pluck it out of the solar system mobile from our fourth-grade science project. Now consider the tragic story of Vulcan. It began its life in 1859 as a calculus equation when French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier tried to account for Mercury's deviation from its predicted orbit. Was it caused by a new planet? After all, Neptune was discovered this way. Over the years, scientists and amateur astronomers joined in the search for the hypothetical planet, but Mercury's proximity to the sun made it difficult to view. Was it just a sunspot or an asteroid? It was a moot point by 1915 when Einstein announced his General Theory of Relativity. It neatly explained the wibble in Mercury's wobble and later viewings during an eclipse confirmed it. There was no planet Vulcan. Ah, fleeting fame! Suggested Sites... Hypothetical Planets - some other astronomical objects that have vanished into thin air. NASA's Discovery Program - find out about the program, design your own mission, and get involved. Kuiper Belt - all about trans-Neptunians, those icy remnants of the early stages of our solar system. Astronomy Picture of the Day - 'nuff said.

Directory categories: Astronomers, Astronomy, Planets, The Solar System

Archived under: Astronomy, Planets, Pluto, Science, Space

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