The Summer Solstice

Today is the Summer Solstice which is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere and the start of summer. This is when the sun is farthest north for the year and begins its six-month return southward. Meanwhile, it also marks the shortest day for the southern hemisphere and the start of winter. This year, the solstice began earlier due to the fact that 2012 is a leap year, so I hope you all enjoyed the longest day of the year.

Transit of Venus

Today was the extremely rare opportunity to view Venus's transit across the sun. It will be the last transit in our lifetime. There are only two transits in our lifetime. One was today, and the other was in 2004. Therefore, it is quite an amazing experience to see this. Venus only appeared as a small dot on the sun, but it was quite cool. The transit began at around three and ended several hours later past sundown. Of course, it was only visible until the sun went down from our location though.

Today, I mostly had to settle for a webcast. I tried to use my pinhole projection box, but Venus was too small to be seen on it. Then, I tried projecting with a really cheap pair of binoculars, but they were even worse. Finally, I tried using my telescope. Under a low magnification lens, I was only able to see the light of the sun. Under high magnification lens, I saw an amazing view of Venus. However, it proved to be a bad idea. I think I may have directly my telescope too directly at the sun as the plastic part around my lens began to burn and melt. Luckily, I noticed after a couple of seconds, so it isn't really damaged. I believe and hope it works perfectly fine, but I can obviously tells something happened when I look inside. At least I noticed before anything too bad happened though, so I should be thankful. However, that is probably the end of my solar adventures using my telescope. I must be content with pinhole projection and webcast. Today, I used this link.

During the webcast, there was a lot of background told of this transit. It was supposedly used to help find the distance between the sun and the earth, which was a large ordeal back then. After it was discovered, it led to so many other discoveries.

Along the same lines of the transit, I discovered something quite interesting in my research. Being in marching band, the name John Philip Sousa sticks out like a sore thumb with him being the 'March King'. Therefore, I was intrigued upon reading this at this website:

"John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) was very interested in the 1882 transit of Venus. In 1882-3 he wrote his 'Venus Transit March.' He didn't write it specifically to commemorate the transit itself, but wrote it to honor the great American physicist Prof. Joseph Henry who had died on May 13, 1878.

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. asked Sousa to write this march for the planned unveiling of the statue of Henry in front of the Smithsonian Institution in 1883. The music was to be played while dignitaries solomnly walked from the museum to a special receiving stand in front of the Smithsonian. Sousa's Transit of Venus March remains a delightful, and rarely-played addition to Sousa's opus of compositions."

Somehow, this was just interesting to me since it somehow combined music and astronomy. Anyways, most of my research came from this site, since it was pretty informative on the transit. It also provided links to find more information. I found the information quite helpful for my viewing, and there were multiple links to webcasts  being conducted from different locations. In the end, I was glad that I was able to see this magnificent sight and will always be glad that I watched it.

Annular Solar Eclipse - The Ring of Fire

Today was one of the rare opportunities for the people of California to view a solar eclipse. A solar eclipse is when the moon crosses between the sun and the earth, thus blocking the sun from the earth. Even though it was partial in Los Angeles, the moon still covered about 85% of the sun. It was especially rare because it was an annular eclipse creating a "ring of fire." The "ring of fire" is an eclipse in which the moon blocks out all except the sun's outer edge, creating a ring of light around a dark circle. It began at about 5:24 p.m. and reached its maximum at about 6:38 p.m. The transit of the moon ended at 7:42 p.m.


Using a pinhole projection box that I created, I was able to view the solar eclipse without injuring my eyes. Even though the image was small and it wasn't a complete "ring of fire", it was still breathtaking. When I first heard about the annular eclipse, I immediately started doing research and tried to learn as much as I could about it. All that research made the experience of viewing the solar eclipse so much more enjoyable and made me appreciate the site more than I would have otherwise. It has always been my goal to view a solar eclipse, and I suppose my goal was fulfilled. That only means that my next goal is to view a total solar eclipse. Perhaps when I'm older, I will travel to an area where you are able to see that. Some day, it is my goal to go on a retreat of sorts to just view the wonders the sky. Today was just another step on my journey to learning about the sky.

I know that many people in Los Angeles were eager to view the solar eclipse today because in 1992, Los Angeles missed the full "ring of fire" eclipse due to the clouds. In contrast, there was perfect weather for viewing it today. In addition, it is evident that people were excited seeing how the Griffith Observatory and several other places sold out of eclipse glasses. The eclipse was first seen in China and Japan before moving to be seen in parts of the western United States. If you want to read the full coverage of the eclipse that the LA Times had, here is the link. 

This map shows where the full annular eclipse could have been seen. It is indicated by the gray area of the map.

Despite the fact I did not have an eclipse glasses, I used the alternative way of viewing it using a pinhole projection box. It didn't exactly look the best, but it did a pretty good job considering it was a box and piece of white paper. An alternative way of looking at it was projecting an image of the sun with a telescope or binoculars onto the ground. You could have also used a welder's mask #14. Despite how safe it may have seemed, looking at the sun through sunglasses or film is not safe and still causes eye damage. It may be better than staring at the sun with a naked eye, but it can still cause damage The safest way to view it is when the sun is projected onto a surface. I know that there's nothing you can do about it now that it's over, but I just thought it should be known for the next solar eclipse.

This was my pinhole projection box. It was just a box with a pinhole and a piece of white paper. Viewing the solar eclipse was as easy as aiming that box at the sun. It was simple and effective.

Here is the projection of the eclipse onto the paper. It wasn't exactly as big of a projection as I would have liked, but it was amazing nonetheless.

According to an LA Times article, the next solar eclipse will be in 2023 when 78% of the sun's diameter will be blocked by the sun. The next two after that will cover 83% of the sun's diameter in 2044 and 2045. The next major solar eclipse that will be greater than the one today will occur in 2071 when 91% of the sun will be covered. It is probably disappointing if you missed today's eclipse but know that there will be a few others in Los Angeles during your lifetime and many other eclipses around the world.

Astronomy 1 - 2

As you might remember from this post, I enjoy stargazing from time to time. I typically don't have time during the school year, so I don't usually do it until the summer. The skies are usually clearer at this time of year anyways. Recently, I have gone out a few times, and I have been keeping a record of what I have been seeing. I have made a lot of progress since last summer. I am finally able to identify some constellations. I am hoping that my new star chart will help me the next time I go out to stargaze. Here is the record of the last couple of times:


Friday, June 24, 2011
Tonight was a cool night. My session began at 9:00 pm. I have spotted the Big Dipper and Arcturus. After this point, I had a difficult time finding what I was looking at. I wish it could have been darker. I had spent about forty-five minutes out there when a possum came out of a tree and began walking along the fence. I had been hearing noises for the past five minutes thinking it was nothing, but I was wrong. I got scared, ran inside, and decided to call it a night. Well, at least got to see how effective my star chart was and was able to identify a few constellations.


Saturday, July 16, 2011
Tonight was a bit chilly with a few bugs around. For once, my attempt at locating constellations and stars was successful. I was able to see the Big Dipper, the Summer Triangle, and Bootes. I was only able to view parts of the Little Dipper and Draco because it was difficult to see the fainter stars. My attempts at finding Pluto tonight were unsuccessful, but I believe that it was hidden under the horizon. Today, there was a mostly full moon since it is the day after the full moon. The southern horizon seems foreign to me. I was unable to identify anything there. Overall, I believe that I am beginning to get the hang of this. Perhaps with more practice, I will get better. I will be out again soon, but perhaps less paranoid about strange things in the dark next time.


As you can probably see, I am still trying to find my way around the sky, and I am paranoid that another possum will come out of the trees. However, I am not going to let that stop me. 

Griffith Observatory

Yesterday, my sister and her friend took me to the Griffith Observatory. It was really exciting since I enjoy looking up at the stars, and I had been looking forward to going here for a while. When we arrived, we parked somewhere on the hill, not too far from the observatory. It was quite crowded at the observatory today.

As we walked up to the observatory, we saw a fantastic view.

We are finally at Griffith Observatory! Hooray!

Before we entered the building, we looked at a few of the things outside such as this statue of scientists who contributed to astronomy like Nicholas Copernicus and Galileo.

We also saw this sundial in front of the statue that actually told the accurate time.

This was also interesting.

After examining the stuff outside, we proceeded inside the building. Many of the things inside were really cool such as this Tesla Coil which produced lightning.

There were also other displays that explained how telescopes work. Some telescopes refract light, while others reflect light (This is the type of telescope that I own which uses mirrors and a lens to enlarge the image. This allows people to observe fainter objects in space.)

This is a model of the observatory and telescope. It was there to show people how the actual telescope works.

Then, we went to the other side of the observatory to see some more displays. This one explained how people studied the sun. We actually got to look through the spectrohelioscope and were able to see the solar flare.

Look, it's the periodic table of elements. Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen...... Hmm.....where was I again? Oh right, the periodic table of elements. This table had samples of each of the elements in the boxes. There were also buttons you could push that would show what some things were composed of such as stars and humans.

Don't forget Lanthanum! This was the element that I had to do a project on in science class.

Next, we went downstairs to look at some more displays. Here's a large 269-pound iron meteorite. For some reason, my sister is afraid that one is suddenly just going to crash down from the sky and hit her even though the likelihood of that happening isn't great. Though if it did happen, she wouldn't be the first person to be hit by a meteor.

Wow! This is a large replica of the moon and next to it is an actual moon rock.

Hmm.... I wonder what my weight on Mars would be. Let's see.... I am much lighter on Mars than Earth.

After all that walking around, we got hungry, so we went to The Cafe at the End of the Universe. We shared some nachos, a cookie brownie, Silk.... Well, you can see it for yourself.

We also went to the Stellar Emporium Gift Shop. It had all sorts of neat gadgets such as a gyroscope. However, I ended up getting a Planisphere which is a star chart which you are supposedly going to be able to use until 2020.

When we finished looking around at all those gadgets, it was time for the show. We attended this show called Centered in the Universe at the Samuel Oschin Planetarium. It was so cool. It reminded me of the nights that I went outside to stargaze except a lot more comfortable. It was all about the universe It also showed us a brief history of astronomy, how there are many galaxies, and that the universe is enormous. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Well, it looks like the sun is beginning to set. Let's take a look at Los Angeles.

Next, we went to look through the large Zeiss refracting telescope. Tonight, the telescope was directed at Saturn. We were able to see it's rings and color. It was as the person there said "butterscotch yellow". I was glad to be able to see this since I had been looking for it outside every night that I had gone out to stargaze.

I had a fun time at the observatory, and I am glad that there is one located here even in midst of the city.

Astronomy

Recently, my science class has been studying astronomy. We are learning about all the planets, the sun, and nebula. Last week, our class was assigned a project. We are required to build a model of the solar system. Therefore, that is what I have been working on lately. I am making it out of a few different things. I am using some Styrofoam balls, a Styrofoam board, skewer sticks, rubber balls, and clay. I'm still not sure how it's going to look when I'm finished, but it will hopefully look great. I'll take a photo of it when I am finished with it since it is a work in progress. Speaking of astronomy, that was actually what I was reading up on this summer. I attempted to stargaze a few nights but that is kind of hard to do when there are so many lights turned on around you and when you're not supposed to be outside in the middle of the night. However, I still did get to see some stars. You can see the short record that I kept of what I saw during the summer below.

August 23, 2010: It's been a great stargazing night. I think I have spotted the Summer Triangle. I also think a saw part of the constellation Scorpius. I also spotted a few other stars, but I can't really tell what they are. I think I saw just about everything that the website, Stardate said to be visible tonight. It is nice and cool outside tonight. (I use a website called Stardate which usually tells me what will be visible in the night sky during the week. Here's the link if you're interested: http://stardate.org/nightsky/weekly.php)
August 24, 2010: Tonight I observed the full moon, a constellation, and a bunch of other stars. I saw many more than usual since I actually went outside tonight with my mom.
September 15, 2010: I haven't really been stargazing since I am going to school again, but I have been watching the moon lately and I have been watching this star in the eastern horizon that seems to be moving farther away ever night. It's a sign that autumn is coming. Good bye Summer Triangle. (Note: What I saw was not actually a star, my friend told me that it was actually a couple of planets that were close together. They were Jupiter and some other planet that I can't remember.)

These were the books that I read during the summer. The Stargazing Year was a really interesting nonfiction book about a guy named Charles Laird Calia who built a backyard observatory. I read half of The Planets by Dava Sobel. It mostly just gave me information about the planets and their names, but it wasn't really that interesting to me.
This is a photo that I took probably around the time that school started. I just found it really amazing for the moon to be on the western horizon extremely close to a star that I look for every night. The moon is hardly ever there, so that is why I took this photo. It's not great quality especially since I took this from my window.
This is just one of many pictures I took of my cat. She kept me company on most nights while I was stargazing.