6:11 a.m. MDTOccultation: (noun) Astronomy. the passage of one celestial body in front of another, thus hiding the other from view: applied esp. to the moon's coming between an observer and a star or planet.
Ryan has recently (6 or so months ago) discovered Jack Horkheimer's Stargazer Episodes on the internet. If you've never seen one, your missing out. Mr. Horkheimer loves all things celestial and talks excitedly all the time. Well, the other week, we learned about an occult occurance. The crescent moon travelling directly in front of Venus blocking it from view. Ryan figured out what time we'd have to get up in order to see this using this website. 6 am. This time of day comes really early when you retire past midnight, in case you're wondering. As it turns out, it was beautiful and totally worth the loss of sleep. We even woke up Sabrina and set up her brand-new-for-her-birthday telescope to see it. She is now way too excited to return to sleep, which is a good thing because she has part of a project due today.
6:19 a.m. MDT
6:21 a.m. MDT
6:24 a.m. MDT
6:26 a.m. MDT
7 comments:
Cool. So is a solar eclipse a subset of occultation?
Cool!
I would say according to the definition on dictionary.com, yes a solar eclipse is an acculation.
Thanks for the website - Kayla is very into astronomy and has a telescope and all, but nothing much to point it at, it seems. Preston trips are getting cooler . . .
Wow, that is very cool! Chris and I have tried to get into stargazing, but it's not working out very well here in Humid-Land. . . .(We're lucky if we can see the moon! Ha!)
Very cool pictures! Better than getting up to watch the sunrise (oh yeah, you probably did that too).
wow! that was way cool! I'll have to show the website to Michael - he loves astronomy.
Post a Comment