astronomy – Page 3 – Montessori Muddle

Supernova Viewing this Week

During the next week or so, you should be able to see this supernova in the Pinwheel Galaxy with a good pair of binoculars, or a small telescope, as it waxes to its maximum brightness on September 9th.

The supernova was discovered just hours after the explosion. Astronomers are pointing every telescope they can manage at it, so this is going to be very well studied over the next decade, something high-schoolers interested in astronomy might consider.

It’s worth reiterating that since the supernova is occurring 21 million light years away, this star exploded 21 million years ago.

The video below explains where to look to find it in the night sky.

It All Depends on Your Point of View-2

Here’s a neat little video, which holds the Milky Way (galactic-centric) steady as the Earth rotates relative to it.

For comparison, here’s the original video by Stephane Guisard and Jose Francisco Salgado, showing the geocentric view of the sky moving:

It is always revelatory to see things from unexpected perspectives. Brian Swimme was amazed by the immensity of it when he first truly recognized that he was standing on a planet that was rotating through space orbiting the Sun.

The inner planets. (from my Solar System Model).

I’ve always been struck by the opposite point of view. To think that if you hold still enough, and think about it a bit, from one point of view you could be the central reference point for the entire universe, with everything else moving relative to you: the Earth still beneath your feet; the Sun (almost) orbiting around you; and the planets arcing through their epicycles.