Fair, Gazing
Tonight Ali and I are going to venture to the county fair right down the street. Tonight just happens to be half price admission night, meaning the two of us can get in for a total of $10. When you add this with the new policy of no parking fee this year we will be getting in the door for a bargain basement price.
In addition to the animal displays which I like to see there are a couple acts that interest me, especially the high dive act. I heard once again this year they have a “big ride” which the fair was missing last year. It is described as the “scariest ride in America” . I will make an evaluation when I get there if I want to ride it or not since I am willing to bet they will be charging $20 to do so.
For a few weeks when I take the dogs out for their last bathroom break of the night I have been noticing two very bright objects low in the western sky (around 9pm) . I have since heard that these objects are Venus and Jupiter. I have found it interesting to see the difference in their position relative to each other change on a nightly basis. At one point they were parallel to each other but now one object is at about 1pm in relation to the other.
I assume the bigger, brighter object is Venus since it is much, much closer to us than then much more physically massive but distant Jupiter. I wonder if off the shelf telescopes offer enough magnification to make out any detail on either of these planets.
When I was younger I was fascinated by the stars above and would spend a lot of time simply looking upward at night. I wondered what exactly was out there and how awesome it would be to find myself magically transported to one of those stars looking back at the rock we are all stuck on now. It was incredible for me to try to wrap my head around the idea that the light I was seeing actually left many of these stars thousands of years ago.
Astronomer was actually one of my earliest ideas as a grown up profession.
I spend precious little time gazing at the sky any more, but when I do the feeling of wonder comes back pretty quickly. There is so much out there, we are literally a speck of a speck in comparison.
Devyn Damore
I love star gazing myself. I wonder if astronomy can pay this bills?
One thing I remember was perhaps 25 years ago, there was a report on the news, that if we’d look up at a certain time, we might see the Russian space station moving across the night sky. My dad and I went into the yard, and sure enough, a tiny speck sped across the sky and disappeared. It amazed me at how fast it was traveling.
Of course, the one think we’ll all always remember is where we were during the Challenger disaster. Personally I think it is a real set back back, even a step back ward that we have decommissioned the Space Shuttle program without a proper replacement. (However I realize the enormous expense in these times of more pressing matters).
For the record, I hate that we decommissioned the Concorde too. When it came out in the 70’s, I was sure that by now, we’d all be traveling at super sonic speeds. Imagine flying to Florida from PA in an hour or less?