This Day In Space History: July 30

While I sat at the computer brainstorming fun and creative ideas for my next blog post, a lightbulb went off… why don’t I do a “This Day in Space History” segment? So I thought I would see what I could find on the internet. There were a plethora of relevant search results. So, I clicked today’s date (July 30th) and lo and behold, the first event on this day in space history ultimately made the decision for me. It was just too cool for me not to share! As I continued on through the list, there were many more events - but slightly boring (a lot of test missions/launches etc., as well as some births and deaths). Among the almost 100 events today, spanning a little more than a century (including an outlier -- see below), I picked out three to feature in today’s post. I can’t wait to check back each day and see what world-changing events might have happened in history on each respective day!

1610

(This is the outlier I referred to above - all other events didn’t start until the early 20th century)

In Italy, over four centuries ago, this was the day that Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) observed Saturn’s rings. This stuck out to me because it was so long ago and was monumental in observations and planetary science. I know it was such big of a deal because I actually remember writing this down in my notes from my high school World History textbook (granted, it was an AP level book, but still). I have a memory of sitting in the basement with my textbook and writing down the four main achievements of Galileo, the “father of modern science” (history.com) and author of Starry Messenger. Making note of rings on Saturn was one of them. The others: sunspots, Jupiter’s four moons, and mountains on the moon.

(p.s. Sorry for such a long commentary on this one, I’m just a sucker for some good history and also felt proud for remembering something from those long hours with that textbook!!!)

1971

Part of the Apollo 15 Mission, the lunar module Falcon (LM-10) landed on the moon at 6:16 EDT at Hadley Rille, where crew members David R. Scott and James B. Irwin explored the Hadley-Apennine region.

2001

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) reached "an intention to collaborate" which would help China gain access to the International Space Station. The reason this event caught my attention is because China has since been banned from the ISS (2011-present) by NASA.

For a complete list of today’s Space History, see http://www.astronautix.com/j/july30.html

July 27, 2017

Wow, I’m just getting back from looking outside and it was a much better success than last time! I saw so many stars - I tried to count them to report on, but it was impossible!

I was out from 10:40 to 10:55 pm, facing west, and once again used the guide of my SkyView App.

The three brightest stars I could see from my backyard were:

• Arcturus, part of the constellation Bootes (directly in front of me)
• Vega, part of the constellation Lyra (above my head)
• Kaus Australis, part of the constellation Sagittarius (to my left)

Arcturus                                                                                 Vega

Kaus Australi

I also saw the three stars that make up the handle of the Big Dipper, as well as the top two of the bowl - the bottom two were covered by the trees. The picture below shows the three stars in the handle: Alkaid, Mizar, and Alioth. The Big Dipper is part of Ursa Major.

Unfortunately, I didn’t look for the planets - whoops, that was a mistake on my part for it not even crossing my mind (I guess I was so absorbed in the beauty and magic of the stars!).

Tonight was a really great experience for me, looking up and seeing what stars I could find. The ight was beautiful: bright specks splattered across the dark sky 

* * * * *

Around 8:30 pm, I looked out and could see the moon - a waxing crescent - right in the crevice between some trees. The pictures aren’t great, but I’ll feature some below.

July 22, 2017

This was my first night going out (around 11pm) to observe and report on the night sky, however an unsuccessful one at that. It was a cloudy night and thus, I could not see a single star with the naked eye. I did, however, see (through the SkyView app) that Saturn and Jupiter would have been in sight had there not been so many clouds or trees in the way. In the meantime, I will keep watching for these planets, as well as other stars and constellations - and I’ll be sure to post about anything interesting I see.

I couldn’t see anything, but this screenshot shows where Saturn was in the sky

(I’ll do a post in the future about the SkyView app)

Welcome!

Hi! This is my “amateur astronomer’s” blog about everything space-and-stars-and-planets. This blog is the first step in pursuing my dream of combining my two passions: writing and learning. In the future, I hope to work for a science magazine (or NASA would be pretty cool, too, I guess) to write articles about new discoveries and research. This way, I can continue to learn new things each and every day. I love to look up into the sky and wonder what’s out there and I love to hear about upcoming missions out into the unknown.

In this blog, I hope to inform you of my glimpses into the night sky and the goings-on in the world of space science, as well as include other random and fun posts with a connection to astronomy.

I am a creative person, so hopefully I can bring fun things into this blog. I don’t know exactly what will come out of it just yet, but thanks to anyone who sticks around to see what I come up with. The universe is yours. Let’s explore it together.

      
       Shine bright,

          The North Star Gazer