Backyard Astronomy: September-December
How Far Is That Star?
Distances to the Bright Stars and Why We Only See A Few of Them
September 6
- How do we know stellar distances?
- What are the distances to nearby stars?
- Why don’t we see more stars?
Lecturer: Frank Sanders, Night Skies columnist, The Mountain-Ear
For ages 10 to adult – Free
Mercury Is Retrograde: Should I Hide Under My Bed?
October 4
- Seeing planetary retrograde motion
- It’s not you, Mars, it’s me: Seeing the sky from a moving platform
- Seeing retrograde while you’re driving
Lecturer: Frank Sanders, Night Skies columnist, The Mountain-Ear
Free – Ages 10 to adult
The Amazing and Expanding (and Accelerating) Universe That Nobody Saw Coming
November 1
- How Einstein blew the first prediction
- Discovery of accelerating expansion!
- How Einstein’s initial ‘mistake’ of stopping expansion worked out after all
Lecturer: Frank Sanders, Night Skies columnist, The Mountain-Ear
Free – Ages 10 to adult
Decoding the Astronomy Behind the Star of Bethlehem
December 6
- Canonical Biblical ‘Star description
- Who were the Magi? Who was Herod?
- What the Star wasn’t
- What the Star (probably) was
- Likely chronology of events 3 to 2 BC
Lecturer: Frank Sanders, Night Skies columnist, The Mountain-Ear
Free – Ages 10 to adult
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