Astronomy For Educators

Lovely morning on the ranch today!
This is a "morning glory"! In astronomy, a "glory" occurs when you can clearly see the rays of sunlight, but not the Sun itself.

This is more common when the Sun is hidden behind dark clouds, and the rays shine down to the Earth below. A morning glory is far less common, but if you are up to greet the dawn, you can sometimes catch one. My dogs rarely let me sleep in!

-- at Barthland Ranch

Out watching for meteors tonight!

There is a lot of discussion about "student loan forgiveness" - when I was teaching at the University of Arkansas, I took a different approach.

We discussed the cost of coffee by the pound, a coffee maker (NOT keurig!), and a thermos, along with a sack lunch.

Put the rest of the coffee & convenience food budget toward loan payoff. By their own estimate of expenses, they could easily put $200 a month extra on loan payments. Most could do more if they were disciplined about it!

We used online loan calculators. With a $100K loan, students could cut 8 years off a 20 year loan and save over $20K in intetest payments - not to mention improving their credit scores.

Dunno how many actually did this, but "How Student Loans Work" was a lecture presentation I did for every class, every semester, for my 9 years as an Asst. Professor of STEM Education. One of the things I am most proud of during my time there.

I have been blessed both by those luckier and less fortunate than me. The former were often mentors who gave me a hand up. The latter blessed me because I was able to be the giver and the mentor. They allowed me to pay back (or forward), which has done much to shape me as a man.

Ready for another night of observing & photographing the Waxing Moon.

Tonight, I brought out the venerable Orion EON 120mm. This 4.7-inch refractor has a slightly smaller aperture than the big binos, but a longer 900 mm focal length - this gives greater magnification and minimizes false color (chromatic aberation) in the image.

Note that the eyepieces have 2 magnifications - the lower one is for this telescope, the higher is for the big Apomax with its 1600mm focal length!

Occultation! 10:13:48 pm!
Spica winked OUT as the Moon in its orbit crosses in front of the blue giant star!

Ready for the Moon to occult Spica tonight!

The Moon will occult (block out) the blue giant star Spica tonight!

From my location in western Arkansas, this should happen shortly after sunset. I'll have a telescope trained on the Moon tonight, but this will be visible with binoculars, or even the naked eye.

To see this, go out about 8:15 and look for the Moon. Spica will be a bright blue star just beyond the darker portion of the Moon. Spica will reappear about an hour later on the Moon's bright (eastern) side!

Out tonight with the Oberwerk 127-XL's mounted on a Manfrotto 161-B tripod & Nitrotech 612 head. I have a red dot sight which works well for bright targets. For fainter targets & star hopping, I use the green laser sight mounted atop the picatinny rail on the binocular handle. Scorpius shows up very nicely looking south over the Ouichita mountains!

Crescent moon shows very nice features along the terminator. Crater Fracastorius just south of Mare Nectaris shows lovely illumination along the western limb and the crater floor is lighted with reflected light, casting reverse shadows compared to the rest of the landscape.

Setting up the big 127mm binos and the new observing chair - now if the weather cooperates, we'll have first light at the new house!

MLB has a contest on: "Beat the Streak"

If you can pick one player each day who gets a hit - and string 56 together, you'll win 5.6 million.

If you pick only .300 hitters, your odds are 1:20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Think MLB is worried about paying off?
Think the game is "fair"?

That's one in 20 billion billion billion. (2.0^29)
PS: The UNIVERSE is "just" 4.3^16 seconds old. That's right, from the Big Bang to now. (13.8 byo)

And please don't embarrass yourself by saying "Well, that's half as much!" The first number is 10 billion times larger.

Because math.

A friend at work 3d printed an adapter so I can use light pollution filters with my 2x54 binos!
Now if the weather would just cooperate...

Testing some new binoculars. 2x42!
These are amazing under the stars. Not much magnification, but 65x more light than your naked eye sees! Constellations show hundreds more stars!

Now on sale through Explore Scientific!
Want a signed copy? Just let us know! ;)

Star Mentor: Hands-On Projects and Lessons in Observational Astronomy for Beginners - Paperback This is a hands-on guide for both the budding astronomer in need of a mentor and the seasoned observer who wants to learn how to effectively share their knowledge with newcomers. Through decades of teaching observational astronomy at the high school and college level, Dr. Daniel E. Barth has inspire...

Getting eclipse ready! Test fitting the new solar filters I got at Explore Scientific on the 127mm binoculars!

Just for reference, those filters are each 6-inches wide (150mm)! These are Oberwerk 127XL's - synthetic fluorite triplets, fully apochromatic, each eye focuses indepently.

The venerable 120 mm apochromat (f/7.5) is mounted, balanced, and ready to test the iExos 100 mount and the PMC-eight system.

I have a new telescope mount to test!
This is the iExos 100 mount from Explore Scientific with the PMC-Eight navigation system. This mount links wirelessly to a tablet or laptop. Planetarium style software can control the mount, I'll be using the Explore Stars app.
The ads say I can point at Polaris, the the scope can choose 2 or 3 stars to align to - and find them for you. After that, you pick your target on the app and the telescope will find it for you, and track your target as you observe.
It's supposed to be easy. Prophesy? Or Famous last words! I'll let you know!

I will be appearing on Global Star Party
Tonight at 6:45pm speaking about
Hawking Stars!

https://www.youtube.com/c/ExploreScientificOfficial

Monday's How Do You Know? Program:
"Can we Unify Gravity?"

A century old mystery may be solved at last!

4th season of
How Do You Know?
Is about to begin!
Check out Explore Scientific page on FB or YouTube!

Here is the third episode in our series on planet formation. Episode #85 on Brown Dwarfs. Brown dwarfs are neither planets nor stars; as large as 80 Jupiters, these monsters are still too small to start the fusion process that would make them true stars.

Come explore with me!

How Do You Know? – Episode #85 Brown Dwarfs: Neither planet nor stars

Last week's episode discussed how planets collide to form larger worlds. This week's Episode of the How Do You Know? program is about a never before seen planet forming mechanism!

We have long believed that planets always form in the dusty disks of material found around young stars. These disks compress particles together so that they can collide and stick together, eventually forming large planets.

New evidence from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) seems to indicate that large Jupiter-class planets can form directly in dense nebulae, such as the Orion Nebula (M42). We are not only detecting Jovian class planets, many of them are being found in pairs!

Jupiter-mass binary objects in the Orion Nebula How Do You Know? – Episode #84 The Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered Jupiter-mass binary objects in the Orion Nebula (M42). Scientists do not know how these rogue planets are eve...

How Do You Know? Episode 83: When Worlds Collide!

How do large planets form? Astronomers believe that large planets are created when smaller planets collide, and then stick together! For the first time, astronomers have witnessed the collision of two large Neptune-class planets, each 5-7 times larger than the Earth.

This collision is the first 'smoking gun' evidence of a collision between two large planets around a star creatively named ASASSN-21qj. In this program, we will discuss the Big Impact theory, and how scientists became convinced that our own Moon formed this way.

How Do You Know? – Episode #83 How do large planets form?

Here is the special Eclipse Adventure presentation that I did for local home school families and children last Friday. There was special emphasis on SAFE solar observing!

You can download the activities for FREE here: https://explorescientificusa.com/search?type=article%2Cpage%2Cproduct&q=eclipse*+activities*

The presentation includes activities on timing the eclipse, making an eclipse simulator, observing the eclipse with binoculars, and making an eclipse flip book

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCkTn3w6w2s

Special LIVE How Do You Know / Solar Eclipse Dr Barth gives a live class from the parking on on the upcoming solar eclipse!

Today's How Do You Know? show:
How old is the Universe?

A new controversial theory by Professor Gupta of Ottawa University claims that the Universe may be 26 billion years old, not 13.5 billion as most of the Astrophysics community claims.

Is Dr. Gupta right? And how do we know?

How Old is the Universe? HDYK 82 Dr Barth Explores competing claims for the age of the Universe.

An update on our Eclipse event:
https://explorescientificusa.com/pages/explore-alliance-live

We are scheduled for Friday, Oct 6th, at 4pm. We are conducting this event from the Explore Scientific Store, 1010 S 48th St, Springdale, AR.

Lesson materials are being prepared (by me) and will be available for free download for *anyone* who wants them (you do not need to attend to get these!) They will be available by Friday, 10/6/23. I will post the link for you when these are ready.

We will be live streaming this event on the web, as a special edition the the How Do You Know? program - link is above. The entire video will be available on video (YouTube) for anyone who cannot see us live.

I will be demonstrating how to observe the Sun and the solar eclipse safely and how to do educational activities. Most of the activities can be done conceptually (little or no math), but I can also "go deep" and show how to add math into the lessons to make them appropriate for any grade level. None of the activities I will demonstrate require special equipment, however I will also show you how to project the image of the eclipse in a number of ways, including with binoculars if you have them.

Let me know if you have questions!

Dr. Barth

Homeschool Eclipse Event

Explore Scientific in Springdale has agreed to host our Homeschool Eclipse Observing event this Friday (Oct 6th) at 4pm. This event will also be livestreamed on the web, and the video will be available on YouTube for those who cannot attend.

If you are in the Northwest Arkansas I encourage you to attend. Parents and children are all welcome, however we have been asked to limit the event to 50 families. To reserve your place, please PM me. This should be exciting and fun for the whole family.

I will be showing everyone how to observe the eclipse safely, and how to do science activities that are appropriate for every grade level (K-12). All of the activities meet both Arkansas and NGSS science standards. I will answer astronomy questions from parents and children as well.

There is NO CHARGE for this event, and downloadable lesson materials will be available free of charge as well. If you have questions about this event, please PM me and I will get back to you ASAP.

Watched the Moon eclipse the red supergiant Arcturus at 9:28 pm!
Testing a new smartphone adapter from Celestron: the NexYZ DX kit. The name could use some work, but the mount is brilliant!
You can see Arcturus as a dim red point low on the left of the Moon. Seeing a star "disappear" is thrilling!

Today's How Do You Know? program is about active volcanoes on Venus - and how we discovered them from 30-year old data!

How Do You Know? – Episode #74 Volcanism Discovered on Venus Check out the latest episode of "How Do You Know?" where we discuss the discovery of volcanism on Venus! Did you know that there are over 1,600 major volcano...

I'll be appearing tonight - I'm scheduled at 6:35 pm. I am helping coordinate a large international group of students, teachers, and amateur astronomers to help us measure the Earth as Eratosthenes did some 2,300 years ago. You can do it, too!

If you would like to watch: https://www.youtube.com/c/ExploreScientificOfficial