Why Astrology is Bunk

Why, according to Carl Sagan, astrology is complete baloney.

What's Up? Is it Astronomy or Astrology?

Welcome back to What's Up?

Every amateur astronomer has been asked at some point, "Is it astronomy or astrology?" and "What's the difference between astronomy and astrology?"

Astronomy is a science, it uses facts, evidence, and mathematics to come to conclusions about the universe around us. Astrology is the unfounded belief that the position of the planets relative to the stars in the sky affect everyday life in some way.

Although very different today, astronomy and astrology share common roots. Over 2000 years ago, astrology was created by the ancient Babylonians. They believed that the position of the planets in the sky could be used to predict the future. They also believed that the constellation the sun rose in the day of a person's birth would determine their personality and fate.

Since the sun rises in the same general area of the sky all year and the stars and constellations slowly rotate overhead, the sun will rise in one constellation to the next spending on average a month in each.

According to astrologers, the sun rises in Gemini from May 21 to June 21, but not all constellations are the same size, so the sun can spend different amounts of time in each one.

There's also another major flaw in astrology: since astrology was created, the positions of the constellations have shifted. If you take someone born on June 16, they are considered a Gemini, but when it comes to checking where the sun rises, it actually rises in Taurus!

Astronomy started to diverge from astrology in the early 1600's when it was discovered that the planets are actual worlds of their own and not just tiny points of light, Earth is not the centre of the universe, and math began to be used to predict the path of planets through space (math can't be used to predict someone's personality or the next time someone will stub their toe).

Astronomy is now a diverse and extremely interesting scientific field. Using it, humans have landed on the moon, robotic spacecraft have been sent to the planets, there are planets around other stars, we now know stars don't live forever and often die dramatic deaths, and that the universe is so enormous that light takes billions upon billions of years to cross just a portion of it.

Astronomy has also provided great benefits to our everyday lives. Things like cell phones, satellite TV, weather forecasts, GPS, and accurate maps of the Earth all owe their existence to the science of astronomy.

Look at all the benefits astronomy has provided, what has astrology done for anybody other than being a little fun to read in a newspaper?

Astrology has done a great deal of harm to many people in the past. Many civilizations of the past had their own appointed astrologer and didn't allow anyone else to make observations of the sky, hindering any way for astronomy to develop.

Astrologers that got predictions wrong were often executed, as their job was to predict the future of the empire to which they belong. Those astrologers made sure to keep their predictions vague or change the details of their predictions to match what later happened.

Although not very common today, many people still fall victim to fraud artists who scam people out of money with astrology.

In 1998, for example, an astrologer in Alang, India, predicted that there would be a disastrous cyclone. Over 60,000 workers were evacuated from the town's shipyard. The cyclone never came. As much as 60 million dollars of profit were lost. This is just one example of many in recent history.

As Carl Sagan, a great astronomer who popularized science, once said about astronomy and astrology, "There are two ways to view the stars, as they really are, and as we might wish them to be."

To read further into the nonsense of astrology go to "www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/astrology.html".

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Forgetting astrology, let's check out what the planets are really up to this month.

Mercury will be low in the west right after sunset while Saturn will be high in the south. Jupiter will be rising much later in the evening and will be fairly high in the southeast by twilight.

Right before the sun rises in the morning will be brilliant Venus in the east. It will be the brightest starlike object in the sky and will slowly rise higher in the sky as the month progresses. Reddish-orange Mars will be to the lower left of Venus for much of the month.

The moon will be full on May 9 and will shrink to a new moon by May 24.

On May 11, the space shuttle is planned head up to the Hubble Space Telescope for a repair mission.

* * *

The Athena Community Astronomy Club will be having boardwalk astronomy viewing sessions by the Shipyard Market building during the weekend if skies are clear. Come by for a peek through a telescope at Saturn, the Moon, or whatever else is visible in the sky at that time. Club members will typically be there from 9pm to 11pm.

To end this month, is the monthly Athena Community Astronomy Club meeting in the Wilmot community centre. Visitors are always welcome. It runs from 7pm to 9pm on Sunday, May 31.

Until next month, just look up!


Hey Kids...
On April 25, the "world's largest model rocket" was launched. It was a model of the Saturn V rocket that brought people to the moon in the 1970's. It's about ten times shorter than the Saturn V and was only expected to fly up about one mile high. It set the Guinness world record for heaviest model rocket. It weighed over 1600 pounds. It may have been a beast but it was sure beautiful when it launched!

What's Up? A New Age of Manned Space Exploration

Welcome back to What's Up?

On Sunday, March 15, the space shuttle docked with the International Space Station. During the mission the astronauts installed a final set of solar panels to bring space station up to full power and allow for a crew of up to six people. The solar arrays now have a total collecting area of over one acre and an electrical production capacity of 100 kW, or about enough electricity to power 52 average households.

The US space shuttle is very expensive, is limited to low Earth orbit and has been scheduled to retire in 2010. In 2004, George Bush signed the Vision For Space Exploration, which is designed to start a new age of human space exploration for NASA. NASA will accomplish this through the Constellation program.

The Constellation program will consist of the Ares rocket, Orion crew module, and the Altair lander. Constellation is what Michael Griffin, NASA's previous head administrator, calls "Apollo on Steroids."

The Ares rocket will come in two sizes, the Ares I, which will carry the Orion crew module into space and the Ares V cargo launch vehicle, which will launch heavy cargo and/or the Altair Lander with the Earth Departure Stage (EDS). The Altair lander will be used to land on the Moon.

Once the Orion crew module and the Altair lander/EDS are launched they will meet and head on their way to the Moon or Mars using the EDS' main rockets. Once they arrive, the lander will detach from the crew module and will land while leaving the Orion module in orbit. When the astronauts finish their work they will use the Altair lander to blast off into space to meet up with the Orion crew module. They will then head back to Earth to land.

The first test flight will occur in the Summer of 2009 while the first manned flight is scheduled for 2014. The long awaited return of humans to the moon is then planned for 2019, the first manned moon landing since 1972!

The US returning to the moon may seem like old news to most people, but the interesting thing is this time we are going settle on the moon, creating permanent colonies.

At the moment NASA is the space agency with the most concrete plans for returning to the moon by the 2020's. Among the other countries that have announced that they have plans to go to the moon are Europe (18 countries are currently working together in one large collective space agency), Russia, Japan, China, and India.

Russia recently announced that they plan on landing on the moon before NASA does, reigniting memories of the space race back in the 1960's. Russia is still having problems switching to democracy, is going through very tough times, and has its space agency running on little more than 10% of NASA's budget, and has a very uncertain future in space exploration.

Countries all over the world are about embark humanity on its greatest manned exploration effort ever, by humanity finally entering the final frontier. Most first world countries are going to be involved in this, as well as a few developing nations, so where is Canada's place in all of this?

The Canadian Space Agency has provided the robotic space arm to the International Space Station and has also supplied Dextre, a robotic "hand" that allows external space station repairs without putting astronauts at risk.

Although the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has had some great achievements in the past, its future is somewhat uncertain. Its budget has not been increasing to keep up with inflation and is actually going to drop over the next few years.

Even though there are budgetary concerns, the agency continues to work with NASA and other agencies to keep involved. The CSA is conducting underwater robotic experiments with a robotic "surgeon," and early designs for a lunar rover have been made. Canada's part in settling the Moon and Mars will clearly be robotics, as it has excelled with past robotic components designed and made for NASA.

While the world has its sights set for outer space, let's set our gaze upwards and see what's up this month.

On Saturday, April 4, is the wrap up event for 100 Hours of Astronomy. 100 Hours of Astronomy is a worldwide event in celebration of this year being declared the International Year of Astronomy. The goal of 100 Hours of Astronomy is to get as many people as possible to get a look through a telescope just like Galileo did 400 years ago when he discovered the craters on the moon and Saturn's rings.

Charlottetown's astronomy club will have a display set up at the Charlottetown Mall Atrium during the day and have a viewing at the North Shore Dark Sky Site in the parking lot across from the Dalvay hotel in participation of the 100 Hours of Astronomy. All are welcome to come.

Summerside's club, the Athena Community Astronomy Club will be having a public viewing session at the waterfront boardwalk in Summerside that evening if the weather agrees. If you're on your way by, or around town and you have a few minutes to spare, stop by for a peek through a telescope.

The full moon will be a few days later on April 9. It is called the egg moon because it occurs right before Easter. It will become a new moon again by April 25.

Saturn will be fairly high in the southeast in the evening sky while Jupiter, Mars, and Venus will be hiding in the morning sky.

Finally, to finish off the month is the monthly meeting of the Athena Community Astronomy Club at the Wilmot Center. The meeting is from 7pm to 9pm on Sunday, April 26. Guests are always welcome.

Until next month, just look up!

Hey Kids...

Last month the record for most people in space at once was tied for the third time. On March 26, there were 13 people floating around in space, including one space tourist. The space tourist, Charles Simonyi, payed $35 million dollars for his ticket to space. No space tourist has ever been to space twice. So if any of you out there win the lottery or have a few extra bucks to spend, a space flight would be a great way to spend it.

Image of galaxy triplet taken for 100 Hours of Astronomy

For 100 Hours of Astronomy, an event of the IYA2009, the Hubble Space Telescope took an image of a galaxy triplet (Arp 274).

Read the news release on the HubbleSite NewsCenter.

Click here to view available sizes of the above image.

What's Up? The Solar Cycle and the Danger of Solar Flares

As the end of winter approaches (hopefully!), the warmth of the sun will be well appreciated. To most people the sun looks like a simple, unchanging orb of light. But in reality, the sun is a wild, dangerous, and somewhat unpredictable broiling ball of hot gases. It is the gases blasted off the sun that cause the aurora borealis (northern lights).

The sun's surface is constantly bubbling and is frequently covered in small dark spots called sunspots. Sunspots appear when the sun's magnetic field is tangled up. If you ever get the opportunity to see the image of the sun projected from a telescope you could see a few of these "solar pimples."

The sun also, on occasion, emits highly energetic flares of material. Solar flares tend to occur around sunspots and are the sun's way of getting rid of built up magnetic energy.

The sun goes through cycles where it is really quiet for a while, has periods with a large amount of solar activity, and then quietens back down again. This cycle is referred to as the solar cycle and lasts roughly eleven years.

During 2009, the sun will be very inactive and will have only a few sunspots throughout the year. The number of spots will increase until 2012 when the solar cycle reaches its peak number of sunspots. Near the peak and for a while after the peak, solar flares occur very frequently. Occasionally one of these flares are aimed towards the Earth.

Just a few years ago a large flare was shot straight at Earth. On PEI the entire sky turned red when the energetic particles caused Earth's upper atmosphere to glow.

Solar flares may create beautiful auroras but can also cause serious damage.

In 1859 a massive solar flare hit Earth, causing charged particles to move in Earth's upper atmosphere, creating odd magnetic fields. That in turn caused electric currents to flow through long telegraph wires which sparked a few house fires.

A similar event occurred in 1989 which caused Quebec's power grid to go down for 9 hours, resulting in a loss of millions of dollars.

Since 1989, the power grids have had little upgrades and are overloaded. A solar flare like the one in 1989 would cause more widespread power outages.

Other than causing power outages, solar flares can cause large amounts of damage to satellites. Satellites carry satellite television service, cell phone and some internet signals, allow GPS to work, and monitor weather around the Earth. Since a majority of these satellites are unprotected they are vulnerable to being knocked out by a large flare. That kind of damage would cost millions or potentially billions if it were to be of a similar magnitude as the 1859 solar flare.

NASA currently has multiple observatories monitoring the sun, but the sun can change so quickly and flares travel so fast that they may hit Earth only a few hours after being detected. To keep an eye on what the sun is up to with the SOHO (SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory) spacecraft go to: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/home.html.

And while you're checking out what the sun is doing, let's check out what's up in the sky this month.

Starting off, the moon will be full on Mar. 11, and will still be very full looking (and eerie) for Friday the 13th. The full moon will diminish to a new moon by Mar. 26.

The Vernal Equinox, or first day of Spring, will occur on Mar. 20.

If you're an early riser, check out Venus around Mar. 25. For a few days around Mar. 25 you will be able to see Venus set in the evening sky and rise in the morning sky in the same night! This rare event only happens once every eight years. At dusk, Venus will be setting in the western sky and at dawn Venus will be rising in the eastern sky. It will appear as the brightest "star" in the sky. Check it out about 30 minutes after sunset and 30 minutes before sunrise. If you have binoculars or a telescope look for Venus' neat crescent shape.

NASA's Kepler mission launched Mar. 6 will be the first mission to look for Earth-like planets. It will look towards the constellation Cygnus, monitoring the brightness of a few hundred thousand stars, looking changes in the stars' brightness. If there is a periodic drop in a star's brightness, that means there is a planet crossing in front of the star, blocking some of its light. NASA scientists hope to discover a few Earth sized planets and help provide an estimate for how common Earth-like planets are in our galaxy.

Finally, on Sunday, Mar. 29 will be the monthly meeting of the Athena Community Astronomy Club at the Wilmot Community Centre in Summerside. Visitors are always very welcome to come.

Until next month, just look up!

Hey Kids...

Did you know that Venus glows in the dark? If the sun were turned off, a dim, deep red light could be seen coming from Venus. It glows like that because of chemical interactions happening in Venus' upper atmosphere. Check out Venus in the night sky for yourself by looking in the western sky (the sun sets in the western sky) at sunset. It won't be glowing red, but will be a brilliant bright yellow, brighter than any other star in the sky. If you have access to binoculars or a telescope, point them at Venus and you will see a crescent shape. See if you can notice the changes in Venus' phase night to night. Good luck in your celestial hunting!

Obama's 2010 budget - NASA and NSF funding increased!

President Barack Obama released his 2010 budget outline. The whole document is 140 pages long. Let's digitally flip to close to the end.... ah here we are! NASA's budget. And look! Budget increases!

From the document:

"Funding Highlights:

• Provides $18.7 billion for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Combined with

the $1 billion provided to the agency in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,

this represents a total increase of more than $2.4 billion over the 2008 level.

• Funds a program of space-based research that supports the Administration’s commitment to

deploy a global climate change research and monitoring system.

• Funds a robust program of space exploration involving humans and robots. The National

Aeronautics and Space Administration will return humans to the Moon while also supporting a

vigorous program of robotic exploration of the solar system and universe.

• Funds the safe flight of the Space Shuttle through the vehicle’s retirement at the end of 2010.

An additional flight will be conducted if it can be completed safely before the end of 2010.

• Funds the development of new space flight systems for carrying American crews and supplies

to space.

• Funds continued use of the International Space Station to support the agency and other Federal,

commercial, and academic research and technology testing needs.

• Funds aeronautics research to address aviation safety, air traffic control, noise and emissions

reduction, and fuel efficiency."

The NSF is also getting budget increases:

"Funding Highlights:

•Provides $7 billion for the National Science Foundation, a 16-percent increase over the 2008

level, as part of the President’s Plan for Science and Innovation.

•Increases support for graduate research fellowships and for early-career researchers.

•Increases support for the education of technicians in the high-technology fields that drive the

Nation’s economy.

•Encourages more novel high-risk, high-reward research proposals.

•Increases support for critical research priorities in global climate change."

It looks like congress is taking science a little more seriously than George Bush did. Let's just hope they spend this money more wisely, otherwise it is just wasted tax-payer dollars.

Price recommendations for Apple

Apple's computers are great, they're fast, stable, and efficient. BUT, the pricing is a bit high for the average consumer (including me!). Here's what I would like to see apple pricing be for their various computers:

NAME: Apple's baseline price (most expensive model in brackets) / My recommended price

iMac 20": $1199 ($1499) / $999 ($1249)

iMac 24": $1799 ($2199) / $1399 ($1799)

Mac Pro: $2799 / $2699

Mac Mini: $599 ($799) / $399 ($599)

MacBook (white): $999 / $799

MacBook: $1299 ($1599) / $1099 ($1349)

MacBook Pro 15": $1999 ($2499) / $1699 ($2099)

MacBook Pro 17": $2799 / $2599

MacBook Air: $1799 ($2499) / $1399 ($2099)