When Jupiter Blazed Over Babylon
As Jupiter burns brightly in our night sky this month, our thoughts turn to how this great, brilliant beacon must have appeared twenty...
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Douglas MacDougal
Jul 2314 min read
Newton, Halley, and the “Prodigious Comet of the Year 1680”
A surprising celestial event may have ripple effects on the progress of science. It can be a catalyst for reexamination of old paradigms,...
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Douglas MacDougal
May 1615 min read
Modeling Mars, Second Century AD
Early next year in the night sky, Mars will glow like a brilliant ember. As it nears earth for its January opposition, I thought I’d try...
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Douglas MacDougal
Mar 616 min read
How Cecilia Payne Found Hydrogen in Stars and Disbelievers on Earth
About a century ago astronomy had a momentous year. Two discoveries in 1925 were to reshape cosmology and astrophysics. From Mt. Wilson...
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Douglas MacDougal
Dec 30, 202311 min read
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks Arriving! Rare Line-up with April's Solar Eclipse
You’ve probably never heard of 12P/Comet Pons-Brooks. But if you’d been riding on it, you’d now have a grand view of the inner solar...
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Douglas MacDougal
Oct 8, 20234 min read
Eclipse Special! Moon on Track to Intercept Sun
It would be refreshing if newspaper headlines reported current astronomical events this way. Think what it would do for collective...
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Douglas MacDougal
Aug 1, 20238 min read
In Search of the 'Perfect' Solar Eclipse
Is there such a thing? I don’t mean a perfect observing experience (which we all hope for but don’t always get), but an aspect of an...
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Douglas MacDougal
Apr 23, 202312 min read
A Quick Look at 1,500 Years of Lunar Eclipses
I've long been intrigued by lengthy cycles of natural phenomena that overlay shorter ones. Nature has countless such extended cycles...
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Douglas MacDougal
Feb 5, 202316 min read
Saros, Spirals, and the Antikythera Project ~ Revelations from an Ancient Shipwreck
In 1901, sponge divers off the tiny Aegean island of Antikythera, Greece, discovered the remains of a Hellenistic era cargo ship which...
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Douglas MacDougal
Dec 2, 202210 min read
Historical Snapshot: Henrietta Leavitt Deciphers the Cepheid Code
It’s sometimes satisfying in this age of new rockets to the moon, space probes around the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, and the...
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Douglas MacDougal
Aug 30, 202213 min read
What is Saros? ~ Using Babylonian Astronomy to Track Eclipse Paths
It is a remarkable coincidence that the size and distance of the moon in our time just happens to cover the disk of the sun during an...
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Douglas MacDougal
Jul 19, 202210 min read
Pushing Z ~ JWST’s Stunning Galaxy Images
Everybody was waiting for the big day, July 12th when the initial images from the James Webb Space Telescope would be released to the...
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Douglas MacDougal
May 26, 202214 min read
Astrophysics for People Not in a Hurry
I was thumbing through Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. Nice, easy writing from an engaging popularizer. I...
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Douglas MacDougal
Mar 31, 20229 min read
Fast Stars and Hotrod Galaxies ~ Vesto Slipher’s Astonishing Discovery of Galactic Redshifts
One of the greatest discoveries in the 20th century was made by one of today’s lesser-known scientists, a man called Vesto Slipher. When...
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Douglas MacDougal
Jan 31, 202210 min read
Space-Age Milestones: Ham Goes Parabolic, Shepard Follows, Glenn Orbits
Six decades ago was a very special time for America. I’m not talking about the fact that you could buy a Mercury Comet for $1,898 at the...
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Douglas MacDougal
Dec 16, 202111 min read
James Webb Space Telescope to Lift Off to L2 ~ But What’s L2?
There’s a buzz of activity at the Arianespace's launch complex near Kourou, French Guiana. Finally, after so many delays, the James Webb...
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Douglas MacDougal
Nov 19, 20217 min read
The Parker Solar Probe ~ Wild Ride to the Sun’s Furnace
On November 21, 2021, at 08:24 UTC, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will be at perihelion in another of its orbits around the sun, and it is...
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Douglas MacDougal
Sep 28, 202111 min read
The Myth of Our Goldilocks Earth ~ A Conversation with a Climate Change Skeptic
Once at a party a good friend parked me in front of her mother, an intelligent and inquisitive woman who had deep connections with one of...
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Douglas MacDougal
Aug 15, 20218 min read
Comet Halley Remembered, 35 Years Ago, 40 to Go
Portion of the Bayeux Tapestry showing Comet Halley One of the benefits of astronomy is time travel: I enjoy moving around in time,...
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Douglas MacDougal
Jun 22, 20217 min read
Juno Greets Ganymede, Solar System's Biggest Moon
When as a middle schooler I got my first real telescope (a beautifully-painted 4 ¼ inch reflector) I was fascinated by the four bright...
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