What’s In A Year? Happy New Year everyone! Ever wondered what a year is, really? In the simplest terms, it’s the amount of time it takes the Earth to orbit the Sun one time. How do you figure that out, though?  Well, hopefully you aren’t too hungover from last night and you have shaken the cobwebs out of your noggin’. Because Phil Plait has a heaping helping of year-related science for you: The astronomy of New Year’s Day. Learn why just waiting for the stars to come back around to the same place will give you a slightly different number for a year than the one we commonly use. Discover that there’s many ways to define a day. Wobble your brain with the wobbly orbit of the Earth! Lose faith in the North Star, for it shall leave our North Skies one day soon! And figure out, once and for all, why they picked January 1st to begin the year… …well, whatever a “year” is, anyway. As Phil says, “As usual, astronomers have taken a simple concept like “years” and turned it into a horrifying nightmare of nerdery and math” (via Bad Astronomy, hypnotic GIF by dvdp)
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What’s In A Year?

Happy New Year everyone! Ever wondered what a year is, really? In the simplest terms, it’s the amount of time it takes the Earth to orbit the Sun one time. How do you figure that out, though? 

Well, hopefully you aren’t too hungover from last night and you have shaken the cobwebs out of your noggin’. Because Phil Plait has a heaping helping of year-related science for you: The astronomy of New Year’s Day.

Learn why just waiting for the stars to come back around to the same place will give you a slightly different number for a year than the one we commonly use. Discover that there’s many ways to define a day. Wobble your brain with the wobbly orbit of the Earth! Lose faith in the North Star, for it shall leave our North Skies one day soon! And figure out, once and for all, why they picked January 1st to begin the year…

…well, whatever a “year” is, anyway.

As Phil says, “As usual, astronomers have taken a simple concept like “years” and turned it into a horrifying nightmare of nerdery and math”

(via Bad Astronomy, hypnotic GIF by dvdp)

Source: Slate

Radical (Customized) Cartography Bill Rankin’s Radical Cartography is a map geek’s dream. You may have seen his work before, when he took world population data and organized it by latitude and longitude? Over at his site (under “The Universe”), in addition to maps of cities, planets and beyond, you can create a custom calendar of astronomical phenomena where you live. I put one together above for Austin, where I call home, featuring everything from hourly planetary visibility and moon phase to sunrise/sunset and the dates of major meteor showers. All you need to do is enter your latitude and longitude, choose your options and click go (the hi-res versions can take a while) and voilà! It’s almost poster-worthy, eh?
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Radical (Customized) Cartography

Bill Rankin’s Radical Cartography is a map geek’s dream. You may have seen his work before, when he took world population data and organized it by latitude and longitude?

Over at his site (under “The Universe”), in addition to maps of cities, planets and beyond, you can create a custom calendar of astronomical phenomena where you live. I put one together above for Austin, where I call home, featuring everything from hourly planetary visibility and moon phase to sunrise/sunset and the dates of major meteor showers. All you need to do is enter your latitude and longitude, choose your options and click go (the hi-res versions can take a while) and voilà!

It’s almost poster-worthy, eh?

Source: radicalcartography.net

Re-post to remind you to get out and watch the Perseids this weekend, and all the other events this year! jtotheizzoe: Meteor Showers 2012 A calendar of all the major meteor showers taking place in 2012 that I drew up. Of course, this isn’t all of the meteor events this year. Only the ones with the best chance of being visible. I chose only events with a Zenith Hourly Rate (ZHR, the number of peak events per hour) above 10. You should also consider the moon phase for that date, which I did not include. How to use this:  The date on the left is the early morning after midnight on the day it will peak (so “October 7” is between midnight and sunrise on the morning of the 7th).  The constellation represents the point in the sky that the shower will “originate” from.  Choose someplace dark, away from city lights, and bring a blanket and a friend. Enjoy. To calculate the sunrise/sunset for your area on a specific date, go here. Many more details about each event can be found in this summary from EarthSky. Some events will favor the North or South Hemispheres, but such is life. Feel free to distribute freely! (Link to hi-res version)
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Re-post to remind you to get out and watch the Perseids this weekend, and all the other events this year!

jtotheizzoe:

Meteor Showers 2012

A calendar of all the major meteor showers taking place in 2012 that I drew up.

Of course, this isn’t all of the meteor events this year. Only the ones with the best chance of being visible. I chose only events with a Zenith Hourly Rate (ZHR, the number of peak events per hour) above 10. You should also consider the moon phase for that date, which I did not include.

How to use this: 

  1. The date on the left is the early morning after midnight on the day it will peak (so “October 7” is between midnight and sunrise on the morning of the 7th). 
  2. The constellation represents the point in the sky that the shower will “originate” from. 
  3. Choose someplace dark, away from city lights, and bring a blanket and a friend.
  4. Enjoy.

To calculate the sunrise/sunset for your area on a specific date, go here. Many more details about each event can be found in this summary from EarthSky. Some events will favor the North or South Hemispheres, but such is life.

Feel free to distribute freely!

(Link to hi-res version)

Watch the skies tonight! Hey folks! Check your meteor calendars! Tonight marks the next major event of 2012, with the Lyrid meteor shower. Best viewed from the northern hemisphere, look to the northeast after midnight until dawn. The meteors will peak then, radiating off the east side of the bright star in Lyra up there (although you could see them anywhere in the sky). Here’s a complete guide from EarthSky on what to look for tonight. Best of all? No moon to get in the way! jtotheizzoe: Meteor Showers 2012 A calendar of all the major meteor showers taking place in 2012 that I drew up. Of course, this isn’t all of the meteor events this year. Only the ones with the best chance of being visible. I chose only events with a Zenith Hourly Rate (ZHR, the number of peak events per hour) above 10. You should also consider the moon phase for that date, which I did not include. How to use this:  The date on the left is the early morning after midnight on the day it will peak (so “October 7” is between midnight and sunrise on the morning of the 7th).  The constellation represents the point in the sky that the shower will “originate” from.  Choose someplace dark, away from city lights, and bring a blanket and a friend. Enjoy. To calculate the sunrise/sunset for your area on a specific date, go here. Many more details about each event can be found in this summary from EarthSky. Some events will favor the North or South Hemispheres, but such is life. Feel free to distribute freely! (Link to hi-res version)
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Watch the skies tonight!

Hey folks! Check your meteor calendars! Tonight marks the next major event of 2012, with the Lyrid meteor shower. Best viewed from the northern hemisphere, look to the northeast after midnight until dawn. The meteors will peak then, radiating off the east side of the bright star in Lyra up there (although you could see them anywhere in the sky).

Here’s a complete guide from EarthSky on what to look for tonight. Best of all? No moon to get in the way!

jtotheizzoe:

Meteor Showers 2012

A calendar of all the major meteor showers taking place in 2012 that I drew up.

Of course, this isn’t all of the meteor events this year. Only the ones with the best chance of being visible. I chose only events with a Zenith Hourly Rate (ZHR, the number of peak events per hour) above 10. You should also consider the moon phase for that date, which I did not include.

How to use this: 

  1. The date on the left is the early morning after midnight on the day it will peak (so “October 7” is between midnight and sunrise on the morning of the 7th). 
  2. The constellation represents the point in the sky that the shower will “originate” from. 
  3. Choose someplace dark, away from city lights, and bring a blanket and a friend.
  4. Enjoy.

To calculate the sunrise/sunset for your area on a specific date, go here. Many more details about each event can be found in this summary from EarthSky. Some events will favor the North or South Hemispheres, but such is life.

Feel free to distribute freely!

(Link to hi-res version)

This might be a horrifically stupid question but how does a leap year work? Like, with space and the time it takes to make a revolution around the sun? I thought that’s what determined the length of our days, so every four years do we wobble off our axis? Also, you’re blog is the most informative and interesting blog, ever! Not horrifically stupid at all. Leap years are pretty odd. You’ve gotta realize that leap years are purely man-made. They don’t have to exist. Without them, the Earth would continue to orbit around the sun for the foreseeable future, with no care of how long it took to do so. But people care. We care. We have seasons, calendars, birthdays … our cultural milestones depend on a nice orderly calendar. At least for most of human history, anyway. Leap years exist because the Earth actually takes ~365.25 days to orbit the sun. If we didn’t correct for this, our calendar would be off by several hours every year. So we add a day to make up for it, assuring that equinoxes, seasons and other human calendar comforts proceed without confusion. Can you imagine if all of a sudden December was during springtime? Santa would get sweaty. Here’s the rules for determining a leap year: The year is evenly divisible by 4, AND If the year can be evenly divided by 100, it is NOT a leap year, UNLESS The year is also evenly divisible by 400. Then it is a leap year. So 2000 was a leap year, but 2100 will not be. This is because the orbit is a little less than 365.25 days when you start carrying out the decimals. In closing, thank you. I’m glad you think this is the most interesting blog ever!
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This might be a horrifically stupid question but how does a leap year work? Like, with space and the time it takes to make a revolution around the sun? I thought that’s what determined the length of our days, so every four years do we wobble off our axis? Also, you’re blog is the most informative and interesting blog, ever!

Not horrifically stupid at all. Leap years are pretty odd.

You’ve gotta realize that leap years are purely man-made. They don’t have to exist. Without them, the Earth would continue to orbit around the sun for the foreseeable future, with no care of how long it took to do so. But people care. We care. We have seasons, calendars, birthdays … our cultural milestones depend on a nice orderly calendar. At least for most of human history, anyway.

Leap years exist because the Earth actually takes ~365.25 days to orbit the sun. If we didn’t correct for this, our calendar would be off by several hours every year. So we add a day to make up for it, assuring that equinoxes, seasons and other human calendar comforts proceed without confusion. Can you imagine if all of a sudden December was during springtime? Santa would get sweaty.

Here’s the rules for determining a leap year:

  • The year is evenly divisible by 4, AND
  • If the year can be evenly divided by 100, it is NOT a leap year, UNLESS
  • The year is also evenly divisible by 400. Then it is a leap year.

So 2000 was a leap year, but 2100 will not be. This is because the orbit is a little less than 365.25 days when you start carrying out the decimals.

In closing, thank you. I’m glad you think this is the most interesting blog ever!

Meteor Showers 2012 A calendar of all the major meteor showers taking place in 2012 that I drew up. Of course, this isn’t all of the meteor events this year. Only the ones with the best chance of being visible. I chose only events with a Zenith Hourly Rate (ZHR, the number of peak events per hour) above 10. You should also consider the moon phase for that date, which I did not include. How to use this:  The date on the left is the early morning after midnight on the day it will peak (so “October 7” is between midnight and sunrise on the morning of the 7th).  The constellation represents the point in the sky that the shower will “originate” from.  Choose someplace dark, away from city lights, and bring a blanket and a friend. Enjoy. To calculate the sunrise/sunset for your area on a specific date, go here. Many more details about each event can be found in this summary from EarthSky. Some events will favor the North or South Hemispheres, but such is life. Feel free to distribute freely! (Link to hi-res version)
Pop-upView Separately

Meteor Showers 2012

A calendar of all the major meteor showers taking place in 2012 that I drew up.

Of course, this isn’t all of the meteor events this year. Only the ones with the best chance of being visible. I chose only events with a Zenith Hourly Rate (ZHR, the number of peak events per hour) above 10. You should also consider the moon phase for that date, which I did not include.

How to use this: 

  1. The date on the left is the early morning after midnight on the day it will peak (so “October 7” is between midnight and sunrise on the morning of the 7th). 
  2. The constellation represents the point in the sky that the shower will “originate” from. 
  3. Choose someplace dark, away from city lights, and bring a blanket and a friend.
  4. Enjoy.

To calculate the sunrise/sunset for your area on a specific date, go here. Many more details about each event can be found in this summary from EarthSky. Some events will favor the North or South Hemispheres, but such is life.

Feel free to distribute freely!

(Link to hi-res version)