Jun 01
What’s Up in the Sky June, 2008 By Peter Burkey We live in a more or less placid, stable world. Changes occur, but slowly. Although recent events may indicate otherwise, most of us live full lives never encountering a natural disaster more violent than a storm and so we are fairly complacent. The geological record, …
May 01
What’s Up in the Sky May, 2008 By Peter Burkey It was Saturday, September 15, 2007, at 11:45 a.m., when 74-year-old Justina Limache, a farmer in Carancas, Peru, not far from Lake Titicaca, heard a “thunderous roar from the sky.” Scared, she ran into her house clutching her 8-year-old granddaughter. For the next few minutes, …
Apr 01
What’s Up in the Sky April, 2008 By Peter Burkey This month marks the anniversary of an event not well known outside the astronomical community. On April 20, 1920, the Shapley-Curtis debate was held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. The topic was the nature of “spiral nebulae” which astronomers had observed …
Mar 01
What’s Up in the Sky March, 2008 By Peter Burkey A parade of planets dominates the sky this month and my two favorite constellations are both easily visible. If you face south, Mars is nearly overhead. Saturn follows close behind below the constellation Leo, the Lion, just east of the star Regulus. For the other …
Feb 21
by Peter Burkey February 21, 2008 Mother Nature provided us with a magnificent spectacle last Wednesday night in the form of a marvelous total eclipse of the moon accompanied by sparkling snow on the ground and clear skies up above. Tuesday night, as I watched the almost – full moon appear between the passing clouds, …
