Physical Science

To many people, the North Star is Polaris, a bright star easily located in the northern night sky for most of the northern hemisphere. What many people don’t realize is that Polaris actually isn’t always, and hasn’t always been, the…
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One of the first objects in the night sky seen by the naked eye that was recognized as a planet was Jupiter. In fact, though it is almost eight times further away from the sun as is the earth, it…
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Most people think of the story of the three wise men when they consider the North Star. Everyone knows how the story goes. They hear of the birth of the Baby Jesus, and they search for him to present him…
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When I was a child, I was a very curious little tyke. I was always asking questions about everything, especially about nature. When the fall of the year arrived, it amazed me how the leaves on the trees knew it…
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Sun dogs are astrological sun maneuvers caused by the sun shining through prisms of ice crystals. The sun reflects or refracts – bends – as it shines through cirrus or cirrostratus clouds while sending to astonished earth bound humanity a…
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Skywatcher make a wide array of eyepieces from the extravagantly expensive right down to what could be considered the budget range. Their sp plossl series falls squarely into the latter category. A low cost eyepiece that can be used on…
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Our familiar North Star is Polaris, a Cepheid variable trinary star located 431.42 lightyears from earth. It is not the brightest star in the sky, having an average apparent magnitude of only +1.97; but of all the stars of the…
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In outer space, stars generally do not twinkle. Rather, their light tends to be diamond-clear, with no apparent internal motion. Terrestrial scintillation, commonly known as twinkling, can occur only when a star is viewed from within atmosphere, and that only…
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“Cosmic rays” is a blanket term used to describe high energy radioactive space particles that shower the Earth’s surface. Science fiction writers often use the term to explain some strange phenomena in their stories or they give the heroes special…
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Once you are able to identify the North Star, you will be able to find North. Simply trace a line from the star to the horizon, and that is North. To your right is East, straight behind you is South,…
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