With everything going on this year, I have been pretty bad about star-gazing regularly. Then the last time I went, I took pictures of Saturn that were so bad I am far too embarrassed to share them… but that’s a separate issue. Imagine my excitement when I read about this:
I initially read about the project in Natural History magazine.
So cool!
You may or may not know this: 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy.
What, you may wonder, does that mean?
Well, in 1609, two major events in the history of astronomy occurred: Galileo Galilei first pointed his telescope at the night sky, and Johannes Kepler published his laws of planetary motions. If you do the math, 1609 was precisely 400 years ago this year. So to celebrate these huge moments in science, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and UNESCO have organized a global celebration in their honor. Now, I am aware that the IAU is the organization responsible for the demotion of Pluto, but I have decided to forgive them for that.
There are all sorts of interesting projects being done in this International Year of Astronomy. And why not?! Galileo is the person credited with realizing there are craters on the Moon, moons around Jupiter (ever wonder why Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io are called Galilean moons?), rings around Saturn – although he didn’t know they were rings – and phases of the planet Venus. You could say Galileo is kind of a big deal. Which makes it appropriate that one of the projects I’ve read about is a local school making a model of the solar system to scale, that stretches across their entire town. It shows just how big the solar system is… which ought to give people a feel for how incomprehensibly huge the universe is.
Another part of the International Year of Astronomy is Space Day. I believe Space Day is celebrated every year, it’s just that this year it is bigger because of IYA. May 1, 2009 is Space Day.
For my part, I have been trying to honor the International Year of Astronomy in a few ways. I have made it a point to attend as many public observatory events as possible. That’s something I would do anyway, but it feels more important this year. I have also made a more concerted effort to track my own observations when I use my telescope. I have a special, designated Moleskine notebook for this very purpose. I also take pictures through my telescope as often as the weather allows. I intend to spend Space Day watching the sunset with my fabulous boyfriend, then heading to WestConn’s observatory for their public night, then hopefully using my own binoculars to check out the things I don’t get to see there. Finally, I happen to be traveling to Florence, Italy this year. Florence is where Galileo did most of his work! It is a happy coincidence, the trip was not planned to include Florence for this reason, but it’s kind of cool anyway!
Hopefully now that I have made everyone aware of this year’s astronomical significance, more people will try to “look up” from time to time!
Welcome to another installment of what Whitney and I are calling ‘collective blogging.’ To refresh everyone’s memory, we will both be writing blog entries on the same topic every week as an exercise to see how different our thought processes and memories are. Hopefully it will be good practice for an idea we have for NaNoWriMo 2009 – to write the same novel, but separately.
Today’s topic: More Explaining of Bucket List Items
Writing “bucket lists” has given Whitney and I a lot of bang for the buck with our collective blogging. This week, we decided to pick 4 items on the other one’s list to be explained in more detail. To see what I chose for Whitney, go here.
From my list of 75 to-do’s, Whitney was interested in these: #69 Travel to Ekaterinburg, Russia, #60 Travel to outer space, #52 Cruise all the major rivers of the world, and #44 fly a kite.
#69: Travel to Ekaterinburg, Russia.
I understand why this seems bizarre. Have you looked on a map of Russia? No? Check one out here… seriously, check it out before you read further.
Ekaterinburg is pretty much in the middle of nowhere… at least, no where a tourist from the US with no familial ties to Russia would go. So, why is this place on my bucket list? It’s not that complicated an answer: it’s because I have a morbid fascination with what happened to the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his family, the famous Romanovs. Ekaterinburg is where they met their ultimate fate, and I feel like one day I’d like to see it. I know it’s a bit strange. But if I ever end up in Russia (which honestly isn’t likely), I would like to go to Ekaterinburg.
#60: Travel to outer space.
I think everyone knows I am a space geek. I love astronomy. I own a pretty fancy telescope. I read about astronomy for fun (astronomy, not science fiction, and not astrology!). When I was younger, one of my dreams was to be an astronaut. Then I found out what becoming an astronaut entails and I gave up that idea.
Then Virgin Galactic came along. They want to let regular, ordinary, private citizens travel into outer space. Granted, it’s for a price. But if they really get their spaceline off the ground, going into space would no longer be impossible for us non-astronauts. So traveling to outer space has been granted a slot on my bucket list.
#52: Cruise all the major rivers of the world.
OK, I should clarify this. I don’t mean every major river of the world. That would mean I have to decide which rivers are major, and how do you really decide that? By length? By cultural historical significance? By volume? I wouldn’t know where to start, and there are a lot of rivers out there. I have 4 specific rivers in mind: the Nile, the Danube, the Yangtze, and the Amazon.
The Nile River is 4184 miles long and winds its way through East Africa, on its south to north journey to the Mediterranean Sea. It’s the longest river in the world. Loads of history is hanging out along the Nile’s banks. So it’s a major river to me.
The Danube River travels from Germany’s Black Forest to the Black Sea and is the second longest river in Europe. It passes through Bavaria, Vienna, Budapest, and a slew of other interesting places. I figure a cruise of the Danube is the only way I’d ever see most of these cities and towns and countries, so it makes the cut.
The Yangtze River is the longest river in China (third longest in the world), originating in the Tibetan plateau and emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. There are some interesting animals in the river, like the finless porpoise, and I figure it would be a neat way to see part of China I might never venture to otherwise.
Ah… the Amazon River. There are so many cool things about the Amazon that I can’t even list them all. Think: biodiversity, lost cultures, rainforest. AND it’s the second longest river in the world, and the largest by volume.
#44: Fly a kite.
This was not a joke. I’ve seriously never flown a kite – at least not properly. I have this romanticized idea in my head about what it is like… wind in my hair, barefoot on a beach, pretty kite flying perfectly above. I think it’s sad I’ve never done this – hence it’s appearance on my list.
Normally I don’t advertise that I’ve added content to my astronomy blog. It’s a locked blog, so it doesn’t make sense. However, in honor of the super-cool events in the sky this week, I unlocked the blog for the next 2 days so people can read this entry if they’d like:
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