Week 7 and 8 Review

Busy two weeks, and unfortunately not very successful for real life observations, at least not planned observations. The other day I was driving to my mother in law’s place in Anacortes, north on Highway 5, just shortly after sunset. It was one of those stormy days we recently had with lots of cloud build up in the mountains, but the sky was a bit clearer in the West. Right away I observed Venus to the WNW, at about an altitude of 20 degrees, Just a bit higher up was the moon, waxing crescent, and then a bit further up and more to the west was Mars. OK, to be honest, I was not sure if it was Mars. After all I was driving, but based on the location of Jupiter, the Moon and the way the ecliptic arcs across the sky, it is where I would expect Mars to be. I also knew that the constellation of Gemini should be right there to the west, so if it gets a bit darker I should be able to see Polux and Castor. Below Gemini and a bit further west is Canis Minor with Procyon. I really like to be able to have a look at the sky and find my way around.

I watched Apollo 13, and I read, actually listen to, Contact. I will have a more detailed review of those two movies for my extra credit, but here is a preview. Apollo 13; I forgot what a great movie that is. I forgot when I saw the movie the first time, but it did not make the same impression then as it did now. As I was watching the movie, two thoughts went through my mind. David Bowie’s song, Space Oddity, especially the part when he says, “I am floating in my tin can…”. My other thought was, they were too eager to step onto the Moon, and overlooking too many little signs that should have forced aborting the mission. In accident prevention we learn accidents never happen because of one event. Accidents are a chain of events that lead to the crash site. The truth is it is very difficult to break that chain before the accident happens.

The second movie to watch is Contact. I have seen this movie several times, so I looked for an alternative. I am a big fan of listening to books. I have a huge library of audiobooks I listen to. Audible.com offers the audiobook Contact, it is an abridged version, read by Jodie Foster. I loved it! It was way better than the movie. I especially liked the ending of the book with Pi. What a cool idea, a message hidden somewhere in Pi. I don’t know why the movie did not use that, except that whoever wrote the screen play thought we are too dumb to understand the concept. You got to read (listen to) the book. 

 I will write up a more detailed review of those two topics, Apollo 13 and Contact.

The big idea over the past 2 weeks for me was, size and distance. There is this pyramid of ways to measure distance. Stellar Parallax, Luminosity and Apparent Brightness, Stellar Temperatures. Take each one of those procedures on how to measure the distance of a star individually, and it is not very convincing. It sounds too much like guessing. But somehow, together, one way of measuring confirming the other and vice versa, it works. It is really neat how astronomers do this. On the whole, there is no doubt in my mind, the distances they are calculating are accurate. Impressive!