Author Archives: The Backyard Astronomer

When I was growing up, we remembered the names of the planets in order with the mnemonic My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas.  However, on August 24th, 2006, the International Astronomical Union voted on a stricter definition of what it means to be a planet.  You see, Pluto had become a problemContinueContinue reading “Planetary Demotions”

Crab Nebula. Hubble Space Telescope. The Red Planet shines bright this month, transiting between the horns of Taurus, the bull, and up towards Gemini, the twins, at just over one AU from Earth.  One Astronomical Unit is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, or about 93 million miles/150 million kilometers. The hornsContinueContinue reading “Bullish About Astronomy”

The Upper Paleolithic is a segment of human prehistory starting around 50,000 to 12,000 years ago, and is characterized by the first known organized settlements, advancements in tools and weapons, and artistic work.  These early petroglyphs (carved or etched) and pictographs (painted) started with simple lines and dots, and soon evolved to include traced hands,ContinueContinue reading “An Ancient Visitor From The Outer Solar System”

The first and most basic element on the periodic table is hydrogen. A single atom of hydrogen consists of one positively charged proton in the center or nucleus, and one negatively charged electron orbiting it. This simple element was the first thing in the universe after the Big Bang, and there was a lot of it. Every oneContinueContinue reading “Fusion – The Lifeblood of Stars and Science Fiction”

October 4th, 1957 was truly the beginning of a new age.  While humans had spent the last few decades dreaming of, dabbling in, and testing their mettle in the high reaches of Earth’s atmosphere, the launch of Sputnik 1 on that day was the true harbinger of what was to come in the new frontierContinueContinue reading “Sputnik and the “October Sky””

Two months in a row we are fortunate to have the largest of our Solar System’s Gas Giants put on a stunning display.  While in August Saturn was at opposition, Jupiter will also be at its nearest and brightest to Earth on the night of September 26th.  Unlike the Saturnian opposition, however, when the MoonContinueContinue reading “September 2022 – Jupiter”

The planet Saturn has intrigued astronomers – both professional and amateur – since Galileo first sketched what he thought were two odd-shaped moons on either side of the planet.  His final telescope at magnification 30x was still not quite able to resolve the rings that we love so much to gaze at.  Dutch mathematician ChristiaanContinueContinue reading “August 2022 – The Ringed Planet”

In the early summer months, the constellation Boötes moves to the western sky.  Adjacent the Big Dipper, some Ancient Greek Mythology tells of how Boötes invented the plough and was rewarded with a place in the heavens for this history-altering advancement.  Keeping in line with feeding the masses, the Yup’ik language – second most widelyContinueContinue reading “The Many Wonders of Boötes”

The early solar system was a violent place.  We know this courtesy of modern telescopes and models generated by today’s supercomputers, allowing us to peer at clouds of gas around distant stars, and observe their planets forming, and hypothesize how our solar system would have formed under similar conditions.  Like the rings around Saturn, aContinueContinue reading “Planetary Collisions and the Seasons”

The Earth has been estimated at a total mass of approximately 5.9722×1024 kg, or more commonly notated as 1 Earth Mass (ME).  One Solar Mass – or the Mass of the Sun and notated as M☉ – is approximately 333,000 Earth masses.  The whole of the solar system is estimated at 1.0014 Solar masses, meaning all theContinueContinue reading “Space Junk”