Title: Things That Go Bump In the Night

Podcaster: Patrick McQuillan

Organization: Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) - www.iris.edu

Music Credit: "What is a Shooting Star?" by They Might Be Giants from the CD Here Comes Science.

Description: The Universe is mostly empty. That’s why it is called space and not stuff. However, collisions do occur. Let’s take a look at some of the more notable collisions that have occurred in the history of the Universe.

Bio: Patrick McQuillan earned a B.S. Physics and an M.S. in Museum Education from the College of William and Mary. His senior research project involved determining the period of variable stars, most notably Alpha Auriga. In the twenty plus years since then, he has explained astronomy to the general public as a Planetarium Director, the Education Manager for Challenger Center for Space Science Education, a NASA Solar System Ambassador, and currently explains Earth Science as Education and Outreach Specialist for IRIS. You can view current earthquake activity using the Seismic Monitor located on the IRIS website.

Today's sponsor: This episode of "365 Days of Astronomy" is sponsored anonymously because studying the stars promotes science and reason.

Transcript:

Patrick: Welcome to the February 9 edition of the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcasts. Hello, I’m Patrick McQuillan, the Education and Outreach Specialist with IRIS, the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology, a NASA Solar System Ambassador and a former Planetarium Director.

The Universe is huge. It’s the largest thing we know of and is perhaps infinite. But even given all its size, the Universe is mostly empty. That’s why it’s called space and not stuff.

On average the Universe has only one hydrogen atom per cubic meter. Pretty empty. So you would think collisions would be very rare. If that were the case you wouldn’t be listening to this podcast. Lots of matter had to collide to form the Earth so that we would have a chance to exist. Luckily one of the fundamental forces of the Universe, Gravity, helps bring matter together.

One of the most recent collisions that we know of occurred on January 18. A small chondridic meteorite ended its journey around the solar system when it crashed though the roof a doctor’s office in Lorton, Virginia (just outside Washington D.C.). The doctors gave the half-pound meteorite to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. They thought it would be great if it could be added to the Smithsonian’s meteorite collection and go on display for everyone to enjoy. Unfortunately things are never that simple.

The Doctor’s do not own the building or the land where their office is located. They rent. The landowner is claiming, that since the meteorite fell on his property, he legally owns it and is demanding it be returned. Typically meteorites belong to the landowner. And since meteorites can fetch a high selling price, they are interested in getting their piece of the universe.

The Lorton meteorite is a fairly common type of chondrite. Chondrites make up about 85% of the 27,000 or so known meteorites. So it isn’t intrinsically very valuable. But the Lorton meteorite may well be the best-documented meteorite fall. The fireball created on its entry into the atmosphere was seen by lots of people and its final resting spot is well documented. So it may be worth the eventual lawyers fees that will resolve the ownership dispute. For now the Smithsonian is holding on to the meteor for safekeeping.

It is not rare for a meteorite to impact the Earth. Estimates for the mass of material that falls on Earth each year range from 37,000-78,000 tons. Most of this mass would come from dust-sized particles. A study done in 1996 (looking at the number of meteorites found in deserts over time) calculated that for objects in the 10-gram to 1-kilogram size range, 2900-7300 kilograms per year hit the Earth. Over the whole surface area of the Earth, that translates to 18,000 to 84,000 meteors larger than 10 grams per year. The meteorite that may have contributed to the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was over 10 km in diameter and might have weighed over 90 million kilograms.

Ironically, it may have been a collision in the asteroid belt that put the Lorton meteorite on a course that led to a doctor visit. Most chondrites formed from the material of the early solar system in the region between Mars and Jupiter known as the asteroid belt. Over 200 asteroids are known to be larger than 100 km, while a survey in the infrared wavelengths shows that the main belt of asteroids has 700,000 to 1.7 million asteroids with a diameter of 1 km or more. The total mass of the asteroid belt is about 4% the mass of the moon.

This doesn’t mean that if were in the asteroid belt you would have to constantly dodge rock chunks ala the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars the Empire Strikes Back. The volume of space that the asteroid belt occupies is large enough that even with 1 and a half million asteroids you would be lucky to see even one. The asteroid belt is mostly empty space. Many NASA spacecraft have traveled safely through the asteroid belt enroute to their final destination. Voyager 1 and 2, Galileo, Cassini, and New Horizons have all made it safely.

But collisions due occur. Collisions between main belt bodies with an average radius of 10 km are expected to occur about once every 10 million years. A collision may fragment an asteroid into numerous smaller pieces. After more than 4 billion years there have been tons of collisions.

Hubble Space Telescope images taken on January 25 and 29 may show the result of a collision between two asteroids. The image was captured with the new Wide Field Camera 3, which was installed during the May 2009 space shuttle servicing trip. The camera can spot house-sized fragments at the distance of the asteroid belt. The Hubble images show a solid nucleus that lies outside its own halo of dust. This pattern has never been seen before in a comet-like object. Scientists think this nucleus is the surviving remnant of the collision, and the tail is the rubble left over from the crash.

Collisions between asteroids should be common, but we have never seen direct evidence of it. We have however seen comets colliding with planets.

Way back in July 1994 the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with the planet Jupiter. On an earlier pass by the planetary giant in 1992, the comet fragmented into dozens of pieces. Each of these pieces hit Jupiter over period of six days. The larger comet fragments caused Earth sized dark clouds to form in the planet’s atmosphere. These dark spots lasted for a few months before dissipating.

A comet impacting a planet was thought to be a very rare occurrence in the solar system today. Even so, last July an amateur astronomer took photos of Jupiter that showed a new dark spot very similar to the spots formed during the Shoemaker-Levy event. So the rate of comet-planet collision may be much higher than thought. Of course Jupiter is a very big planet. Things are bound to hit it.

Conversely, if two asteroids collide at slow relative velocities, they can collide and stick. This is the basic mechanism that formed the objects of the solar system. We believe that the solar system formed from a cloud of gas and dust that contracted under the influence of gravity. The Sun, the planets, the moons of the planets, the asteroids, and the comets were all formed from collisions between small pieces of matter that stuck together to form larger objects.

Well most of them. We believe that the Earth’s moon was formed early in Earth’s history when an object the size of the planet Mars struck a glancing blow that destroyed the incoming object and knocked a large bit of the outer surface of the Earth. Most of this material eventually fell to become part of the Earth, but a good portion of the material remained in orbit around the Earth. This material collided with itself until it coalesced into the object we know today as the Moon.

We were led to this theory of the Moon’s formation by studying rock samples returned from the Moon’s surface by the Apollo astronauts in the early 1970s. The rocks were amazingly similar to rocks on the surface of the Earth. The percentages of elements in the moon rocks matched the percentages of elements in the Earth rocks. The only way they could be so similar was if they formed form the same original material in the same part of the early solar system. A great example of human exploration of the solar system expanding our understanding of the universe.

Prior to the Apollo missions there were several competing theories of Lunar formation. One theory involved the Moon forming in different part of the solar system and then getting captured into orbit by Earth’ gravitational field. If this were the case, Moon rocks would have different elemental proportions than Earth rocks, which is not the case.

A second competing theory was that the Moon formed out of the same material that was forming the Early Earth. The Earth was spinning so quickly while forming that a bit broke off to become the Moon. Both objects then cooled off and solidified. If this had occurred, Moon rocks would have a higher percentage of heavy elements, like iron, in them. They do not. The collision that formed the Moon occurred after the heavy elements had sunk to the center of the Earth. This is known as differentiation. When the Moon formed, the incoming object only dislodged material from the upper part of the Earth which has very low percentages of heavy elements.

So with one small step, two lunar formation theories were rendered invalid.

The next time you are outside enjoying the night sky and see a meteor flash across the sky, remember that you are observing the process that formed the planets in action. Of course the same process also caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. So if that meteor is really big and really bright, you might want to run. But you really can’t hide.

End of podcast:

365 Days of Astronomy
=====================
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Astrosphere New Media Association. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. Until tomorrow...goodbye.

Title: The Supernova That Bounces

Podcaster: Rob Bowman

Description: Rob describes the before, during and after of a Type II supernova – also called by a much better name: A “Core Bounce Supernova”.

Bio: Rob Bowman is an electronics/software engineer by day and an armchair astronomer by night. He lives under the orange glow of city skies, so contents himself with downloading and manipulating images from the world's great telescopes, reading and listening to any astronomy media he can get his hands on, and wondering if 43 is too old to become a professional astronomer.

Today's sponsor: This episode of "365 Days of Astronomy" is sponsored by Mick Vagg, a grassroots astronomy punter in appreciation of the efforts of all contributors to the 365 Days of Astronomy project. Thanks for keeping me interested on those all too frequent cloudy nights!

Transcript:

The Supernova That Bounces

by Rob Bowman for The 365 Days of Astronomy

Feb 8th 2010
Supernovae are amongst the most spectacular of all known physical phenomena in the known universe. Pretty much everyone who gets into physics or astronomy in some way, soon takes an interest in these amazing happenings. Essentially, a supernova is a humungous explosion. When I say humungous, I mean really big, in ways it's hard to wrap our heads around.

Many stars, at the end of their normal life, reach a point where the fuel burning processes within the star can no longer maintain equilibrium with the other forces occurring within the star. As you can imagine, when a giant ball of incandescent gas (i.e. a star) gets to the point where it's out of balance ñ something cataclysmic happens.

I'm going to talk about just one of the several types of Supernovae, as we haven't much time. I'm going to describe for you the before, during and after of a Type II supernova ñ also called by a much better name: A "Core Bounce Supernova". To understand why they happen, we need to understand whatís going on in the star before the supernova, and to understand that, we'll need a little physics ñ but DON'T PANIC (or indeed switch off)! It's really quite straight forward.

So let's start with a star that is at least 8 times the mass of our sun ñ they're not hard to find out there, as our sun is quite a modestly sized star really. Now, the reason why stars shine is that they are hot ñ simple as that. Anything that is a few thousand degrees Kelvin gives off photons that we can see. And the reason why stars are hot is because they are gigantic nuclear reactors. So why do stars burn in this way? When a star is born, it is formed out of a huge, spread out cloud of Hydrogen gas (and maybe a few other elements that are hanging around, but basically Hydrogen). Sometimes these clouds of gas are perturbed by some nearby event (think of wisps of wood smoke rising from a camp fire disturbed by drafts, then scale that thought up billions of times). This disturbance can result in gravity getting a hold, and the giant gas cloud starts to collapse in on itself, shrinking in size until all those Hydrogen atoms start coming into much closer contact with each other. And when that happens, they heat up ñ the more atoms you have in a certain space, the more those atoms collide with each other and interact. Eventually the pressure and density in the (now spherical) gas cloud reaches a point where the Hydrogen atoms are coming into contact with each other so often, and with so much force, that they actually fuse together ñ a fusion reaction has started.

Atomic physics is a strange creature indeed if you are not used to it (and when you do get used to it it seems even stranger!). Without going into lots of detail, when two Hydrogen atoms fuse together, they create a Helium atom. But, because one Helium atom has less mass than the two Hydrogen atoms, this missing mass is released as energy. Energy is mass and mass is energy, so said the worldís most famous Swiss Patent Clerk. So every time we fuse two Hydrogen atoms to make one Helium atom, we also liberate energy which is given off as photons.

So, to recap, our young star is burning Hydrogen, giving out large amounts of energy as photons and leaving behind ashes ñ the Helium atoms. The energy liberated by nuclear fusion heats up the core of the young star and this produces an outward pressure in the core of the star which holds up against the inward force of gravity, so our young star is in a delicate balance, keeping its size and spheroidal shape precisely because of these balancing forces. So, what next? Well, after a long while, when most of the Hydrogen has been burnt into Helium ashes, the star wants to contract because there is less Hydrogen burning going on to keep the pressure up in the core. So the star squeezes down a bit ñ and guess what, this causes the internal temperature to rise to the point where the Helium atoms, left over from the first stage of burning, can themselves fuse together to give Carbon & Oxygen atoms and, you guessed it, lots of energy output which, yep you guessed it again, serves to hold the star up against it's desire to collapse in on itself due to gravity, and we're back in the balancing business. This sort of burning and rebalancing process goes on several more times, with each cycle burning through its fuel faster than the previous cycle, producing ever heavier atoms as the ashes ñ Neon, Sodium, Magnesium, Aluminium, Silicon, Sulphur, Argon, Calcium, Nickel and Iron. Physicists call this balancing act hydrostatic equilibrium, but don't be put off by the jargon ñ itís just a balancing act between the pressure in the core wanting to bloat the star outwards, and the gravitational attraction of all the stuff in the star which wants to collapse it.

OK, back to our dying star. So, when the star has contracted enough, after a few billion years of burning through the ashes of the previous fusion cycles, the star's core pressure is immense and the core temperature reaches about 3 billion degrees or so, at which point it can start burning Silicon. This is a very fast process, lasting only about 1 day, and it produces Nickel and Iron. So, if youíre guessing that this process just goes on and on, producing ever heavier elements with each new stage of burning then that would be a good guess, but for one thing: The Iron and Nickel atoms cannot fuse together to produce even heavier elements and liberate energy. Fusion has stopped. The internal furnace of the star has been switched off.

Now, something really wild is about to happen. Remember from earlier that the only thing holding the star from gravitationally collapsing in on itself was the pressure of the internal furnace at the core? Well, the furnace has just been turned off so the star starts to collapse. Eventually the the temperature in the core reaches about 10 billion Kelvin, at which point neutrinos start streaming out of the star, carrying away energy really quickly. One of the defining characteristics of neutrinos is that they carry energy but cannot be physically stopped by almost anything, so not only has the starís internal furnace been switched off, but also the star starts radiating away its internal energy. This accelerates the collapse of the star even further, and it contracts from the size of the earth to the size of a city in about one second. Now we have a star that is about 1.5 times more massive than the sun but is only the size of a city. That's a phenomenal density. It's so dense, in fact, that it cannot collapse any further because it's already a tightly packed sphere of neutrons and protons. The collapse stops. Stone dead. Don't forget the neutrinos, though, they're still being generated in the core, but now the core is so dense that even neutrinos can't get through ñ the temperature therefore rises in the outer part of the core and nuclear fusion kicks off again in a very big way ñ such a big way, in fact that no amount of gravity can contain it and the outer envelope of the star explodes away at 10,000 km per second. So the core is left behind as a hyper-dense object (a black hole or a neutron star), and the outer layers detonate, giving off huge amounts of energy, much of it in the visible spectrum and thus the supernova shines many thousands of times brighter than the star.

It's worth a pause at this point to reflect on this star that is a giant factory for producing elements. If you are listening to this podcast on an aeroplane, then many parts of your plane will be made of Magnesium and Aluminium alloys. The actual atoms around you and of you were made in the nuclear furnaces of stars aeons ago. I think that fact alone is amazing. To mangle a famous quote from Dr Johnson - "If you are tired of knowing you came from stardust, youíre tired of life!".

End of podcast:

365 Days of Astronomy
=====================
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Astrosphere New Media Association. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. Until tomorrow...goodbye.

Title: Retro Science: Determining the Eccentricity of the Moon's Orbit

Podcaster: Mike Simonsen and Kevin Krisciunas

Organization: Slacker Astronomy

Description: Mike Simonsen from Slacker Astronomy interviews Kevin Krisciunas about his recent paper that describes how to measure the eccentricity of the moon's orbit with a yardstick and some cardboard.

Bio: Slacker Astronomy is a light-hearted podcast that wanders the astronomical road-less-traveled. Visit us at http://www.slackerastronomy.org/.

Today's sponsor: This episode of "365 Days of Astronomy" is sponsored by Kylie Sturgess of the Token Skeptic podcast, investigating superstitions and the science behind them at www.tokenskeptic.org.

Transcript:
Michael Koppelman: Hey everybody, hello again it’s Michael here from Slacker Astronomy. I’m here with Mike Simonsen. Hello Mike.

Mike Simonsen: Hello Slackers!

Michael: Welcome to the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast and welcome to Slacker Astronomy – the other astronomy podcast.

You have a new interview for us and I’m so bad at saying names that I get chills when I see this guy’s name. But Kevin

Mike: Krisciunas.

Michael: Kevin Krisjunas?

Mike: Yeah, that’s close. [Laughter]

Michael: Tell us a little bit about Kevin.

Mike: Kevin is an astronomer, a lecturer at Texas A&M University. His current area of research is supernovae and studying them in the infrared in particular. The reason why I really wanted to talk to Kevin was because at heart, he’s basically one of us.

He’s an amateur astronomer at heart, or he started out that way. I don’t want to give away everything in the interview but basically he’s been able to live out a dream and work with some of the biggest telescopes and with some interesting instruments in his career.

Michael: Cool, let’s stop with the drama here and get right to the interview. Here’s Mike Simonsen with Kevin Krisciunas. [Laughter] Here we go.

Mike: Hi, we’re here today with Kevin Krisciunas, a lecturer at Texas A&M University, Department of Physics and Astronomy. You just released a paper where you determined the eccentricity of the moon’s orbit without a telescope.

Kevin Krisciunas: That’s right. When you teach Astronomy 101 you tell them about Kepler’s Laws of planetary motion. For most of the students this is the first time they’ve ever heard this. You emphasize that they have to know this for the test and so they memorize it. But it’s pretty abstract, especially Kepler’s third law relating to periods in the orbit size. It’s hard to remember that when you first hear it.

Kepler’s first law states that the orbit of a planet is an ellipse with the sun at one focus. Kepler worked really, really hard to show that it was mathematically an ellipse not an ovoid and not just a circle that is offset from the center. Every ellipse is an eccentric orbit but not every eccentric orbit is an ellipse.

I had it in my head that Hipparchus in the second century B.C. had actually measured the variation of angular size of the moon and of course he didn’t have a telescope so he would have used some counting device or a sighting hole moved up and down some equivalent of a yardstick to do this. It turns out Hipparchus didn’t do this and apparently hardly anybody else took any data relating to this. So, I have my students go try to measure the angular size of the moon.

One of the things they can do is measure the nearly full moon very low in the sky and high in the sky because one thing that many, many people “know” is that the moon is gigantic on the horizon and then it gets smaller. This is the thing called the moon illusion. None of my students have been able to measure that the moon is significantly larger in angular diameter when it is low towards the horizon and high in the sky.

I started to try to measure it myself about a year ago and finally it dawned on me that I should use my better eye, the one with less astigmatism. So the data with that eye since last April does show a regular and systematic increase and decrease of the moon’s angular size of just about the right amount.

The signal that I’m looking for is a range of about four arcminutes in angular size and the uncertainty of an individual observation with my better eye is about eight tenths of an arcminute. It’s sort of at the limits of my naked eye but it is doable.

Mike: Can you describe the instrument that you made to do this? Some of our audience might want to try this.

Kevin: Okay, here’s the easiest way to do just the moon experiment. Take a box of Aunt Jemima buttermilk pancake mix when it’s empty and take a razor blade knife and saw off the bottom inch of the box. Then take a yardstick that has one edge calibrated in centimeters and millimeters and cut 2 slots in the 2 long edges of the bottom of this box so that the box bottom slides snuggly up and down the yardstick.

Then take a thinner piece of cardboard, maybe an inch by two inches and punch a hole with a metal hole punch – it’s about a quarter of an inch. Then tape that to this thing that slides up and down the yardstick. That can be used to sight the moon.

But I will recommend that when you make these observations that you sit in a chair with both of your feet flat on the ground to make yourself steadier. It seems to be you get more accurate results if you measure the moon during twilight when the sky is still reasonably bright.

Mike: Hmm, so you actually hold the yard stick up to your eye and you sight the moon through the hole in this little sliding mechanism.

Kevin: Exactly, you put the one edge of the yardstick just at the top of your cheekbone underneath your eye and you sight through the hole. What I do is I put the cross piece considerably too close to my eye and then I move it out until it seems to match the moon. Then I move the cross piece to the far end and then I bring it in until it seems to match the moon. Then I average those two values.

Sometimes they differ by twenty millimeters and sometimes they only differ by two millimeters. It depends sort of on how high the moon is in the sky, what phase it is. I haven’t quite figured out exactly all the problems but it is doable without a telescope to come up with evidence that you can measure the right range of angular size of the moon.

There is one more wrinkle here and that is that your pupil is not infinitely small. In fact it is comparable in size to a hole made with a hole punch. So depending on the lighting level, twilight or daylight or nighttime, your pupil is going to be larger or smaller.

So one way you can calibrate your observation is to take a 91 millimeter disk. Cut out a circle 91 millimeters and place it at eye level exactly ten meters away from you and measure that. Why 91 millimeters viewed at ten meters? Because that has an angular size exactly equal to the mean angular size of the moon.

If you work out the simple geometry you’ll find that you probably have to place your sighting hole further from your eye than simple geometry would stipulate because of this effect of the non-zero size of your pupil.

Mike: Hmm, so it’s a little more complicated than it sounds at first.

Kevin: Yes, it’s a little more complicated than it sounds.

Mike: But it’s still surprising that no one, not even Tycho actually did this.

Kevin: Yeah because Tycho worked very hard on the orbit of the moon. But he was primarily concerned with matching the celestial longitude because apparently when the three-body problem of the sun, moon and the Earth has the moon further to the east and west at first and third quarter than you would guess on the basis of a simple orbit.

It turns out that the moon does not orbit the Earth according to Kepler’s first law of orbital motion and the Earth does not orbit the sun either. The Earth, moon barycentre orbits the sun on an ellipse. But the moon springs closer to the Earth than the mean value than it gets further away at apogee.

There was a big long article twelve years ago in the Reviews of Modern Physics by a guy named Gutzwiller I think is his name. There is more about the moon’s orbit in there than the average person might want to know but he is clearly an expert.

For example, the modern model of the orbit of the moon require between 600 and 900 and some terms in order to calculate the best value for the distance between the Earth’s center and the moon’s center.

Mike: [Laughter] It must be easier to just shoot a laser at the moon and bounce it off those little reflectors.

Kevin: Absolutely.

Mike: Well thank you very much Kevin. You’ve been great. I know that our Slacker audience is going to love listening to you. Anything else you’d like to say before we sign off?

Kevin: So long and thanks for all the fish? How about things are looking up? [Laughter] I know, Bugs Bunny said it best: “Don’t say it hasn’t been a slice of Heaven.”

Mike: Thank you [laughter] it definitely has been a slice of Heaven. Thanks a lot Kevin.

Kevin: Okay, bye for now.

This transcript is not an exact match to the audio file. It has been edited for clarity. Transcription and editing by Cindy Leonard.

End of podcast:

365 Days of Astronomy
=====================
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Astrosphere New Media Association. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. Until tomorrow...goodbye.

Title: Expanding an Already Very Large Array

Podcaster: Nicole Gugliucci

Links: The Very Large Array - http://www.vla.nrao.edu
The NRAO Image Archive - http://images.nrao.edu
The EVLA - http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/evla
One Astronomer's Noise - http://noisyastronomer.com/365-days-of-astronomy/
Music from Dorian Spencer: http://www.dorianspencer.com/

Description: One of the most productive telescopes in astronomy, the Very Large Array, has shut down its operations for the first two months of this year in order to give it a much anticipated upgrade. Find out more about what this new Expanded Very Large Array will have in store.

Bio: Nicole Gugliucci is a graduate student at the University of Virginia, working at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. When not helping with the construction and data analysis for PAPER, she enjoys public outreach activities, especially those that allow her to talk about the fascinating discoveries to come out of radio astronomy.

Today's sponsor: This episode of "365 Days of Astronomy" is sponsored by Kylie Sturgess of the Token Skeptic podcast, investigating superstitions and the science behind them at www.tokenskeptic.org.

Transcript:

Hello and welcome to another edition of the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast. I'm Nicole Gugliucci, graduate student in astronomy at the University of Virginia and National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville. You may know me online as the Noisy Astronomer.  Today, we're going to talk about the shut-down and rebirth of one of the most productive telescopes in astronomy... the Very Large Array.



Have you ever seen the movie "Contact?"  You know, the one starring Jodie Foster and based on a wonderful book by Carl Sagan about what might happen if we make contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence? The ET signal in the movie is detected at the VLA, a Y-shaped radio interferometer located on the plains of San Augustine in New Mexico in the United States.



(And no, we don't listen to radio signals... it's actually a form of light. When turned into sound, most astronomical objects are just static. But anyway...)



Although the VLA is not involved in any ET searches, astronomers have used this telescope for decades to probe planets, star formation regions, interacting galaxies, powerful jets from active galaxies, and so much more.  A quick search of the NASA Astrophysics Data System shows that 11499 papers have VLA or "Very Large Array" in the abstract going back to 1972, although the full array was not commissioned until 1980.  This versatile instrument allows astronomers to observe at a number of different frequencies, or wavelengths, of radio light and with different spatial resolutions, as the 27 antennas are moved along railroad tracks to different distances from the center of the site. 



(For the record, "Contact" was filmed while the array was in its most compact, and arguably most photogenic, configuration.)



So why was this amazing instrument shut down on January 11, 2010? Well, to make it better, of course! The VLA is being transformed into the EVLA, or the Expanded Very Large Array.  It is being brought into the 21st century with a series of upgrades that will give it more than 10 times its current sensitivity and a host of new capabilities that have astronomers eager to explore the possibilities.



Some of these upgrades have been underway since 2001 and are already completed. Radio signals were brought from each antenna to a central location via a series of tubes (No, really. A series of tubes...) called waveguides.  These hollow metal tubes allowed the radio light to be brought together and the signal digitized before coming to the central computer.  The waveguides for the VLA have been replaced with fiber optics for the EVLA, which allows the data, now digitized at the antennas, to be brought to the center at a faster rate.



Each antenna got an upgrade as well, as one by one they were taken off to the antenna barn and refitted with all new feed horns and receivers.  A feed horn is literally a metal horn that collects the radiation that has been reflected into it by the dish and sends it to be detected by the receiving system.  The receivers detect the radiation and transmit it electronically to the next stages of the telescope system. In this way, it's (very) roughly analogous to the CCD camera in an optical telescope, only it operates with just a single pixel. (That's why systems of multiple antennas are really useful!) The new receivers have the ability to detect radiation at every frequency between 1 and 50 GHz (that's 30 cm to 6 mm, for those of you who are spatially inclined.)  The old system was only sensitive to certain small frequency windows within that range.  With the EVLA, astronomers will be able to probe the universe more deeply at all of these frequencies, discovering new astrophysical phenomena along the way.



The final piece of the new EVLA infrastructure has been in development by the National Research Council in Canada and is now being hooked up to the array in New Mexico. This is the reason for the temporary closure.  I'm talking about the WIDAR Correlator.  A correlator is the specialized central computer for an interferometer. It brings all the signals from the individual antennas together so that astronomers can make an image or measure a spectrum. WIDAR stands for Wide-band Interferometric Digital ARchitecture.  Let's parse that. We know it's a digital system, and that it is being used for interferometry. Wideband means that it can accommodate a wide range of frequencies at once. More frequencies... means more light... which means better sensitivity... which means dimmer objects can be observed! This is where much of the power of the new EVLA system will come from.



(For you radio astronomy nerds, we're talking 8 GHz of simultaneous bandwidth, with is 80 times better than the best done by the original VLA, with 16,384 spectral channels, a far cry better than the current 16 channels. The maximum number of spectral channels is 4,194,304. I'll repeat that... 4,194,304 spectral channels at it's finest resolution... compared to the 512 channels for the VLA. That's a frequency resolution, at it's finest, of 0.12 Hz, more than 3000 times better than the current system. For those of you that could care less about the jargon, that's ridiculously, stupid good.)



This fantastic new correlator will come back online, slowly at first, in March of this year. The EVLA will be up to it's full functionality in 2012. Science will be done the whole way there, slowly, cautiously, shaking out all the bugs in the system as they go along. When it is finished it will be a versatile, powerful telescope, and much easier to use for the general astronomical community.



If you are ever in central New Mexico, I highly recommend a visit to the EVLA! Self-guided tours are available every day from 8:30 am until dusk... just be sure to head inside if you hear the lightning alarms... or see a rattlesnake. Special guided tours will be offered on April 3rd to correlate with one of the two times a year that the Trinity Site is open.  Guided tours are also offered on some days during the summer by the lovely NRAO summer students.  Check out the website www.vla.nrao.edu for details. If you can't make it out there, be sure to check out some gorgeous images of and from the VLA at the NRAO's image gallery images.nrao.edu. More information about the EVLA can be found at www.aoc.nrao.edu/evla. All of these links will be included in the show notes and at my website, noisyastronomer.com.



Thank you for listening! (And, uh, the VLA is not a, uh, an awful waste of space.)



I now leave you with Dorian Spencer and his song, "New Mexico."

End of podcast:

365 Days of Astronomy
=====================
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Astrosphere New Media Association. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. Until tomorrow...goodbye.

Title: Getting Started in Astronomy: Then and Now

Podcaster: David Chapman and Andrea Misner

Organization: Royal Astronomical Society of Canada - Halifax Centre: AstronomyNovaScotia.ca

Description: Andrea and Dave are two amateur astronomers and friends 30 years apart in age with a common bond formed by their interest in astronomy and physics. Dave became an amateur astronomer in the 1960s; Andrea in the 1990s. In conversation, they compare the "Galileo Moments" that started them on their individual journeys, the telescopes that were available to them, pop culture influences, the effect of light pollution on their skies, and the "photon" connection of observing through a telescope. Finally, they share their thoughts about the International Year of Astronomy 2009 when they and others helped bring the Universe down to Earth.

Bio: Andrea's Bio: Andrea Misner was born under the skies of the Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Over the course of her life she has developed a love for astronomy and physics and obtained her B.Sc. in Astrophysics from Saint Mary's University in Halifax. During her undergraduate studies Andrea discovered she had a passion and enthusiasm for learning, which took her to earn a B.Ed. at the secondary school level (Fort Kent, 2008). Andrea is the Past President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada – Halifax Centre and now teaches in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Dave's Bio: Dave Chapman was born in Leicester, England and moved to Canada as a young boy. There, he encountered the dark skies of Northern Ontario and became a lifelong amateur astronomer. He studied physics up to the M.Sc. level (University of British Columbia, 1977) and worked for 31 years as a Defence Scientist, Since retirement, he has returned to his first loves: astronomy and guitars. He is a life member of the RASC, an Assistant editor of that organization's Journal, and currently lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

Today's sponsor: This episode of "365 Days of Astronomy" is sponsored by Kylie Sturgess of the Token Skeptic podcast, investigating superstitions and the science behind them at www.tokenskeptic.org.

Transcript:

Getting Started in Amateur Astronomy: Then and Now

365 Days of Astronomy podcast (scheduled 2010-02-05)

by David M.F. Chapman and Andrea D. Misner

D: Hello, this is Dave Chapman from Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Canada…

A: …and I am Andrea. Dave and I are amateur astronomers, both members of the Halifax Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

D: So Andrea; what does it mean that we are amateur astronomers?

A: Well, Dave, “amateur” simply means we do astronomy as a hobby and not as a profession.

D: So. Just for fun!

A: Exactly!

D: So, Andrea: tell me how you first got started in astronomy. What was your “Galileo Moment” of personal discovery?

A: I was about 15 years old in 1998 standing in back of my parents house looking up at the sky when all of a sudden a meteor—or perhaps some space debris—collided with Earth's atmosphere, streaking across the sky in red and orange flames over our house. It lasted a good 7 seconds, leaving a smoke trail behind! I saw that and said “Oh this is it…I am hooked!!!” That was my Galileo Moment.

What about you Dave? How did you get started in astronomy? What was your “Galileo Moment”?

D: I recall this very distinctly. I was a boy—maybe 9 years old—living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in the 1960s. My father took me outside during the winter and showed me the Big Dipper and the constellation Orion, the Hunter. He had been a radio operator in the Royal Air Force and I expect he had a little training in navigating by the stars. I was hooked from that moment on. I read all the astronomy books in the children’s section of the Library and my mother tells me she had to get special permission to allow me to take out books from the adult section. A year or so later, my parents gave me a telescope on my 10th birthday, and a book by Patrick Moore. The telescope was a simple 60 mm refractor with a zoom lens on a wooden tripod.

A: Yeah...that sounds like my first telescope! My mother wanted to see the craters on the moon, so we went to the local hardware store, where my parents bought a 60 mm black refractor on a rickety tripod. We were in awe of this new sleek black ‘scope until my parents got frustrated and it was slowly forgotten, until I picked it up.

D: Yes my telescope wasn’t much, but it really opened my eyes to the cosmos. One of the first things I observed was the Moon, and I still have my observations and sketches from those days. I also looked at Saturn with its rings and Jupiter and the 4 bright moons.

A: You were such a geek!

D: Well, I prefer the term “boy scientist”.

A: Let’s talk a little about science fiction and space exploration. In my case, I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and reading a lot of Stephen Hawking. Now Stephen Hawking for me wrote in a way that it did not seem that space was such a high thing, away from me. I read it, I understood it, and it really excited me. It wasn’t beyond my intellectual grasp or understanding. What about you Dave? What science fiction did you follow? What space missions excited you?

D: Well I was a big fan of the short stories and novels by Isaac Asimov and later Larry Niven, who had a lot of correct physics in his work. I also read a lot of non-fiction by Asimov, who wrote a lot about astronomy, chemistry, and life science. I believe I may have learned more from my personal reading than I ever did in school. As far as TV shows, of course I was a big fan of the original Star Trek series. In my day, manned space flight was very new: I recall John Glenn orbiting the Earth in his Mercury capsule and all the soft landings of space probes on the Moon. Of course, the milestone for me was Apollo 11 landing in The Sea of Tranquility on the Moon, and Neil Armstrong’s first words as he stepped onto the lunar surface. That was live on TV on my 16th birthday! That was so great for me!

A: Wow…when I was growing up John Glenn went back into space at the age of 77 years! I remember watching the Space Shuttle Discovery launching on the TV. I don’t think that space flight had the same impact on my generation as the original moon flights did for yours, Dave.

D: One thing I cannot remember so well is light pollution. I recall seeing the Milky Way from the city as a boy, but I may be mistaken. My impression is that light pollution is worse now, with the increased population and overly bright lighting. I feel lucky to live in a relatively small city with dark skies not too far to drive to. What about where you grew up?

A: I grew up just outside of Bridgewater—on the South Shore of Nova Scotia—in Conquerall Mills, where the next door neighbor was a small forest away and any stray light was shielded by the trees. Bridgewater has grown since then putting in more buildings and lights that I am sure affect the skies I once observed under.

D: Well, I hope that people will eventually learn that responsible lighting is not only less expensive to operate, but has less impact on the environment, both from the point of view of chemical pollution and improved night sky transparency. I am very excited about Kejimkujik National Park becoming a Dark Sky Preserve, right here in Nova Scotia!

A: Me too! I think a lot of people have lost their connection with the night sky and the wonders it holds. Some people may not realize that when you look at the night sky you are actually seeing “old light”. Light from the Andromeda galaxy, the closest galaxy to us, takes about two-and-a-half million years to travel to Earth and into your eye at the telescope. People have lost that “light or photon connection” and part of The International Year of Astronomy was showing people the night sky and enjoying the views through telescopes or binoculars.

D: I agree with you: Of all the events we organized for IYA last year, I got the most satisfaction from setting up my telescope on the sidewalk and showing people Saturn, the Moon, and Jupiter. There is no substitute for seeing things for yourself, and the reactions were amazing. For may people it was their first view through a telescope, and they went away very happy indeed.

D: So what I learned from IYA was that the stars are our common bond, not only in the scientific sense you mentioned, but also culturally. All over this planet, people look up and see the same stars, even if they call them by different names, form different constellations from them, and make up different stories about them.

A: Even though not everyone feels a connection towards astronomy and the night sky, we are deeply connected to the universe. The same elements that are in stars are in us. For example, our universe and stars are made out of 90% hydrogen. We are made out of about 70% of water. What's the H in H2O? Hydrogen!!! Regardless what we call the constellations or where we live, we are literally made of stardust.

D: We are made of stardust! I wonder if Joni Mitchell knew about that when she wrote her song?

D: Well Andrea, speaking of Galileo Moments, I believe we have used up all our podcast minutes. This has been a great conversation! And Happy Birthday, by the way!

A: Thank you! Absolutely, I hope the listeners enjoyed it. But before we go, we should invite them to visit our website AstronomyNovaScotia-DOT-ca.

A: So this is Andrea Misner…

D: …and Dave Chapman…

A: …wishing you clear, dark skies, pleasant observing, and lots of photon connections!

End of podcast:

365 Days of Astronomy
=====================
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Astrosphere New Media Association. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. Until tomorrow...goodbye.

Title: Spectroscopy 101

Podcaster: Richard Drumm

Link: Richard's Blog - http://theastronomybum.blogspot.com/

Description: Richard Drumm talks about the basics of how spectroscopy works and why it is so interesting to professional astronomers.

Bio: Richard is the owner of 3D - Drumm Digital Design, an award-winning video production company. He was an observer with the UVa Parallax Program at McCormick Observatory in 1981 & 1982. He's found that his greatest passion in life is public outreach astronomy and he pursues it at every opportunity.

Today's sponsor: This episode of "365 Days of Astronomy" is sponsored by Kylie Sturgess of the Token Skeptic podcast, investigating superstitions and the science behind them at www.tokenskeptic.org.

Transcript:

Hello! Welcome to the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast! I'm Richard Drumm The Astronomy Bum, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Like I said last time, if Bill Nye can be "The Science Guy" I guess I can be "The Astronomy Bum"... Drumm doesn't rhyme with much, ya know?

Anyway, this month's podcast will be a little different from my usual interview-type podcast that you've all become so accustomed to. You see, all the area's professional astronomers, the folks at the University of Virginia Astronomy Department and the folks over at the NRAO, well they're are all up in Washington DC at the AAS winter meeting (that's the American Astronomical Society) so I'm kinda on my own this month! Well, last month as it's the first week of January right now when I'm recording this, not February.

So I thought I'd just chat with you all for a little bit and maybe recall a blog post I made a few weeks ago on the topic of spectroscopy.
My blog by the way is at http://theastronomybum.blogspot.com/ No need to put in a www.

[1:07]

Here's how I put it on my blog:
"It's like I'm looking through my telescope and see that there's a speck on a hillside. I know the speck is a person, but I can't tell if it's a man or woman, or if it has both legs, nothing. But I can read this person's mind!"

For reals, people! I'm not kiddin' ya!

You know, when we see a news item out there that talks about something of interest to astronomers, we see them talking about spectra being taken almost even before they take the time to get a picture of the thing they're talking about.

So what gives?

Why is this spectoscopy thing so attractive to the pros? It's almost like they don't even want to look at a photo of anything, they just want spectra! Well, it seems like that sometimes.

Well, after this little chat, you'll understand (I hope) that these spectra are the keys to the kingdom, you know, the cat's meow, whatever! And they deserve all the attention they get!

I mean, we all know our colors, right? And we all have gotten the color spectrum, the "Roy G. Biv" sequence in high school classes. So everybody knows at least that much about it. And we're told that bluer colors of light have greater energy, you know that a blue flame is hotter than a red flame. But what is the spectrum telling astronomers?

[2:26]

First a little history. Hey, hey, stop that!
I heard that groan!

Anyway...
In 1814 we took a little trip...
No! No, no, no.

In 1814 Joseph von Fraunhofer discovered that the Sun's spectrum had some dark lines in it, it wasn't a smooth wash of colors from red to blue. By the way, we now call these Fraunhofer lines in his honor. Then it was Kirchoff & Bunsen (yeah the same Bunsen as in the Bunsen burner) - a little later in 1859, well they figured out that these lines were a result of the energy levels of the electrons in the gas in the flames they were studying.

They'd shifted from studying the Sun's spectrum like Fraunhofer, to looking at the spectra of flames in the lab. This was a more convenient & controllable environment. And the work could continue on cloudy days and at night, aaaand with stuff like mineral salts sprinkled into the flame they could study known substances.

Kirchoff came up with 3 laws:
1. That a solid body will put out a continuous wash of colors. When it's heated up to incandescence, that is.
This is now called black body radiation.
2. That a hot gas (instead of the solid body like in #1) will put out discrete, bright lines of color, kinda the opposite of Fraunhofer's dark lines.
These are called emission lines nowadays. And,
3. That a hot solid body surrounded by a cooler gas will show the dark Fraunhofer lines just like the Sun does.
These are what we call absorption lines.

[4:03]

Now a big clue for Kirchoff & Bunsen came when it was discovered that the dark lines for Hydrogen (where it was the cool gas like in law #3 a moment ago) & the bright lines for burning Hydrogen (uh, that would be law #2) well, these lines had the exact same pattern, and were the same colors. Clearly they were different sides of the same coin, you know, the same phenomenon expressed 2 different ways.

Well, to understand all this we have to make ourselves small.
Very small [pitch shifts up to higher frequency] smaller still! Keep on going!
[pitch normal again]
Ahem! There! Now we're the size of an atom and we can see the electron in its orbit. It's convenient for us to think of an atom as being like the solar system, you know,with the nucleus of the atom in the center kinda like the Sun is in the solar system.

The electron is actually in a spherical cloud of a sort, but let's think of it as being in a single flat plane.

Let's examine an atom of Hydrogen for simplicity's sake.
I like simple, don't you?

Now the nucleus of our atom has just a single proton in it, and there's just a single electron orbiting it. It doesn't get much simpler than that, eh?

[5:15]

Now, that electron has a larger orbit when it has a higher energy. Its lowest energy orbit would be like Mercury's orbit, to use the solar system analogy,then higher energies give you Venus' orbit and so on. Imagine that this electron is in the 3rd level, like Earth's orbit. Now this is a hot atom, one that is bonking into its neighbors a lot! Energy, thermal energy in this case, is literally just atoms jostling around bumping into each other.

OK, if we were in the solar system we could set out from Earth and head to Venus and after a time we'd be 1/3 of the way there, then 1/2 of way there and on & on. But in the world of the atom, where quantum mechanics holds sway, there's no part way.
Either you're at Earth or Venus, there's no "in between".

So if our atom cools down it can get to a lower energy state and the electron can find itself at the energy level it needs to be in to exist at the next lower orbit.

So what happens is it jumps instantaneously down from the "Earth" orbit to the "Venus" orbit. Ping! And it's there!
When it makes this "Quantum Leap" (so that's where the old TV show got its name!)...
Well, it also [Ping!] emits a photon of light that has a color that is directly tied to the energy difference between the 2 orbit levels.

[6:39]

And the reverse is true too, if a photon comes along and hits the atom, it can knock the electron up to a higher energy level, but only if it has exactly the energy (or color) needed to make the electron make a jump to a higher level.
Otherwise, the photon doesn't interact with the atom & passes right on through.

This means the atoms will selectively filter out photons of certain colors, because only those photons have the exact energy needed by the atom's electrons for the various orbit jumps that it can do. This is what makes the dark Fraunhofer lines seen in the Sun's spectrum.

And when our Hydrogen atom cools down and it's lone electron jumps from level 3 back down to level 2 (like going from Earth to Venus), it emits a red photon of light that we call Hydrogen Alpha light.

Solar telescopes often filter out all the wavelengths of light except this one red color, giving us a look at interesting details of the Sun at a certain temperature level or depth on the Sun's surface.

[7:44]

So when astronomers look at their spectra, they're looking directly at what's happening inside the atoms of a star!
We can't image the star directly (except for a very few) but we can see inside their atoms!

So this is like reading the mind of that person in the telescope.
You can't see the person, not clearly, but you can get inside their heads!

Oh yeah, did I mention it? Science rocks!

I'm Richard Drumm The Astronomy Bum, and I'll see you next time on 365 Days of Astronomy!
 [8:16]

End of podcast:

365 Days of Astronomy
=====================
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Astrosphere New Media Association. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. Until tomorrow...goodbye.

Title: The GLOBE at Night Campaign: Our Light or Starlight?

Podcaster: Constance Walker

Organization: Globe at Night: www.globeatnight.org
globeatnight.wordpress.com
Dark Skies Awareness:
 www.darkskiesawareness.org/DarkSkiesRangers

Description: Two out of every three people in the United States cannot see the Milky Way galaxy arch across a pristinely dark night sky. Light pollution is obscuring people’s long-standing natural heritage to view stars. GLOBE at Night is an international citizen-science campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution by encouraging everyone everywhere to measure local levels of night sky brightness and contribute observations online to a world map. All it takes is a few minutes to participate between 8-10pm, March 3-16. Your measurements will make a world of difference. For more information, visit the website at www.globeatnight.org.

Bio: Connie Walker is an astronomer and science education specialist in the Education and Public Outreach (EPO) group at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson, Arizona. She directs the GLOBE at Night program. In addition, she chaired the global cornerstone project on Dark Skies Awareness for the International Year of Astronomy. Rob Sparks is a science education specialist in the EPO group at NOAO as well. He works a lot on the Galileoscope project, providing design, dissemination and professional development and blogs at halfastro.wordpress.com. A,J. is a 6th grader, eager to learn about the world around him.

Today's sponsor: This episode of "365 Days of Astronomy" is sponsored by Kylie Sturgess of the Token Skeptic podcast, investigating superstitions and the science behind them at www.tokenskeptic.org.

Transcript:

The scene opens at a park (outdoors) on a clear, moonless evening away from city lights. Crickets make sounds in the background and owls hoot.
You hear a car door shut and a child saying:

CHILD: WOWWWWW! Look at the night sky! Are those all stars? I have never SEEN so many stars. I can't even find the constellation, Orion, there are so many stars!

PARENT: Yup! It IS beautiful. And just wait a few minutes. Your eyes will adjust and you will notice even more stars.

CHILD: But why can’t we see as many stars from home, Mom?

PARENT: Well, let me show you. See this flashlight here? It’s a like a maglight. I am going to unscrew this top part so you can see the light bulb.

CHILD: Okay.

PARENT: Suppose I pretended it was a streetlight. I will hold it above your head and turn it on. Can you see as many stars now?

CHILD: Nope!

PARENT: Why is that?

CHILD: Too much light in the way.

PARENT: In cities many times there is more than enough light to light up the night. Too much light can make a sort of bright glow in the sky and so if we can see any stars it would only be the brightest stars. The fainter stars would get washed out by the bright glow in the sky.

CHILD: Heh, I thought that streetlights are supposed to light the ground beneath them. This one has a big dark circle underneath it.

PARENT: Yeah, there are some streetlights that are just like this flashlight, but guess what? I bet you can come up with an answer to this problem: how would you get the light from a streetlight to go down to the ground and not up into the sky? And the one rule is that you cannot turn off the streetlight!

CHILD: Hmmm… Can I turn the streetlight upside down?

PARENT: Now, A.J.. Can you really turn a streetlight upside-down?

CHILD: No, I guess not. …I KNOW!!! I can put my hand on top of the flashlight!

PARENT: That’s right. It would be like putting a cap on the streetlight. And look what happens. None of the light is going up anymore. All of the light is hitting the ground. You’re lighting where you want the light to go and not where you don’t need it. Congratulations!

CHILD: And people who are near the light won’t get run over by cars that can’t see them!

PARENT: Yes, there is the issue of safety for sure. …What if this light bulb was a 100 Watts, but now instead of light from the bulb going in all directions, all of the light just goes down toward the ground, because you capped the light bulb. Could we switch the bulb for one that does not use as much electricity?

CHILD: Yeah!

PARENT: Then what would you be saving?

CHILD: Electricity!

PARENT: Yes, or energy. You would not have to use as much energy. …What else would you be saving?

CHILD: Money! You would save money.

PARENT: That’s right. A 100 Watt light bulb costs more to run than a 50 Watt light bulb. And there is an added bonus: with your hand over the top part of the light, look up at the sky above. …You can see the stars…

CHILD: Yeah! Look at THOSE STARS!

-----------------------

(TWO OTHER SPEAKERS:)

6 out of every 10 people in the U.S., 5 out of 10 Europeans and 2 out of 10 people worldwide have never seen our Milky Way Galaxy arch across their night sky from where they live. And the problem of light pollution is quickly getting worse. Within a couple of generations in the U.S., only the national parks will have dark enough skies to see the Milky Way.

Too much outdoor lighting not only affects being able to see the stars, but also wastes energy and money, about 2 to 10 billion dollars a year. And it has been shown to cause sleep disorders in people and to disrupt the habits of animals like newly hatched sea turtles that try to find their way back into the ocean but are disoriented by streetlights.

Light pollution may be a global problem, but the solutions are local. To help people “see the light”, an international star-hunting program for students, teachers, and the general public was created called GLOBE at Night. GLOBE at Night is now in its 5th year and is hosted by the U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory.

This year, the annual event takes place March 3-16, each night from 8-10pm, when there will be no Moon and the constellation, Orion, will be visible to naked eyes from almost any location on Earth. Everyone around the world is invited to participate.

Through this program, children and adults are encouraged to reconnect with the night sky and learn about light pollution and in doing so, become citizen scientists inspired to protect this natural resource. Teachers like the GLOBE at Night program, because it lends itself to cross-curricular learning: astronomy, geography, history, literature, and writing. The possibilities are great.

How can you participate? The basic GLOBE at Night program is simple: On clear and moonless nights during the two-week campaign, you go outside at least an hour after sunset but before 10 pm local time. Don't stand under or near a light. Wait about 10 minutes for your eyes to get adjusted to the night sky. Then find the constellation, Orion, known for its three distinctive stars that make up Orion's Belt.

You will see Orion toward the South at 8pm and toward Southwest by 10pm, two to three fists (at arm’s length) above your horizon. The stars in Orion are arranged like an hour glass: two stars at the top are Orion’s shoulders, the three stars in the middle are his belt and two stars at the bottom are Orion’s knees.

You then compare what you see to seven stellar images depicting varying degrees of light pollution and choose the chart that most closely resembles what you see. (The charts can be downloaded from the GLOBE at Night website at www.globeatnight.org.) The first chart has only a few stars (similar to light pollution seen from the middle of New York City). The last chart (#7) shows lots and lots of stars (as seen from a National Park). The charts show progressively fainter stars and therefore more of them, providing a good indication of local light pollution levels. You may also elect to use a Sky Quality Meter, which quantitatively measures the brightness of the night sky. (See www.unihedron.com for more information.)

After observing, you can log on to the GLOBE at Night Web site, identify the date and time you took the observation, identify your observation location in terms of latitude and longitude with a website tool, and report your observations (e.g., the chart you picked). And that is all. ESRI (the Environmental Systems Research Institute) compiles the information and produces maps for the world to see and teachers to use in lessons about population density, light pollution, geography, and related topics.

Educators and astronomers are hopeful that young stargazers will ultimately draw the same conclusion about their world: The night sky is an irreplaceable natural resource that's worth protecting. One day we can take this data to Congress or to state legislatures to advocate for regulations on artificial light. And then imagine how great the impact will be!

To learn the five easy steps to participate in the GLOBE at Night program and to obtain important information on light pollution, stellar magnitudes, the mythology of Orion, how to find Orion, how to obtain your latitude and longitude, and how to use a Sky Quality Meter, please see www.globeatnight.org. All information needed to participate is on the GLOBE at Night Web site, along with downloadable activity guides. The guides have the steps for participating in the program, the different star charts, reporting form and more.

Should you be interested in other activities that have children explore what light pollution is, what its effects are on wildlife and how to prepare for participating in the GLOBE at Night campaign, see the new activities at www.darkskiesawareness.org/DarkSkiesRangers.

Last year, GLOBE at Night collected more than 15,000 measurements of night-sky brightness from kids and adults in 70 countries! Help us exceed these numbers this year!

Monitoring our environment will allow us as citizen-scientists to identify and preserve the dark sky oases in cities or catch an area developing too quickly and influence people to make responsible choices in lighting. All it takes is a few minutes during the March 2010 campaign to measure sky brightness and contribute those observations on-line. Your measurements will make a world of difference.

For more information, visit the GLOBE at Night website at www. globeatnight.org. A transcript of this podcast will be available at 365daysofastronomy.org/.

This is Connie Walker, Rob Sparks and A.J. signing off, wishing you dark and clear skies ahead. Thanks for joining us! And happy star-hunting!

End of podcast:

365 Days of Astronomy
=====================
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Astrosphere New Media Association. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. Until tomorrow...goodbye.

Title: Amateur Astronomy's Affliction - Aperture Fever

Podcaster: RapidEye

Organization: RapidEye Observatory - a private observatory in rural Lee County, NC http://www.rapideye.us/astro/RapidEye-ClearSky.html

Description: An analysis and examples of the dark side of Amateur Astronomy.

Bio: I've been captivated by astronomy ever since I was a kid, living in NW Colorado where the Milky Way was bright enough to read by. I can be found most clear nights in my pasture with either my 4.5" Dob, 10" Dob, or my binoculars.

Today's sponsors: This episode of "365 Days of Astronomy" is sponsored by Greg and Heather Thorwald on behalf of our favorite monthly astronomy lecture, "60 Minutes in Space" at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, learn more at dmns.org.

Also sponsored by Kylie Sturgess of the Token Skeptic podcast, investigating superstitions and the science behind them at www.tokenskeptic.org.

Transcript:

Script for 365 Days of Astronomy - February 2, 2010

Amateur Astronomy's Affliction - Aperture Fever


People become involved in hobbies for many different reasons.  My brother loves to fish because of the peace and quite he finds while out on a mountain lake or stream.  My father on the other hand loves golf because of that different challenge every course, every hole, and even every shot presents - no two days on the course are the same.  My Mother-In-Law is a very accomplished quilter and will disappear for hours into the patterns and rhythms of the work while time seems to pass by her unnoticed.  As a hobby, astronomy is no different.  I enjoy the relaxing peace and quiet while sitting in a lawn chair on a warm night while scanning the summer Milky Way with a pair of binoculars.  I get an amazing feeling of accomplishment after completing a challenging observing program by star hopping across the sky locating faint, fuzzy objects using nothing more than a sky atlas and a red flashlight to hunt from one object to the next - each starhop presenting a unique and frequently a memorable challenge.  There is also an almost magnetic pull that some objects have, drawing me deeper and deeper into the eyepiece while my eye traces faint swirls, eddies, and finds patterns in nebula, clusters, galaxies, comets, or planets all the while time just seems to flow by without notice.



What is often overlooked, or if it is noticed, discussed in hushed circles, is the downside each of these hobbies has.  Fishermen will spend hundreds of dollars to buy the latest and greatest tackle to help ensure they catch their prey and tens of thousands of dollars on boats and fuel to get them out to where that bigger, smarter, more elusive trophy fish lives.  Golfers will spend many hundreds of dollars on a new club or some other gadget to help them eek out another 5 yards on a drive.  Quilters will spend thousands of dollars on sewing desks and machines to help them complete that next quilt that is just a few feet bigger.  Astronomy is no different, it has its own dirty little secret: Aperture Fever.  Telescopes can be measured many different ways.  Cheap telescopes in department stores try to lure in beginners with promises of high magnifications like 700X!!!  But seasoned astronomy veterans know that the most important measurement of any telescope is the diameter of its primary reflective or refractive component.  So if we are trying to see thing that are, as George Hrab so eloquently puts it, Like Ubber Far away, why isn't it important how much a telescope magnifies?  The reason a telescope's most important measurement is its diameter is because a larger primary will collect more light, have a higher resolution, and has a much higher coolness factor.


Lets start with first symptom of aperture fever - the pursuit to see fainter and fainter objects.  Most amateur visual astronomers with a 4, 6 or even 8 inch telescope will observe the Messier list, some of the brighter NGC objects highlighted by the RASC, SAC, or Caldwell lists.  These several hundred beautiful and engaging objects can keep an astronomer happy for years observing them over and over seeing what new details can be teased out from a darker location, a new filter, or a new eye piece.  But eventually the call of the faint fuzzies starts to get louder and become harder to ignore. On an exceptionally clear night while observing the Cigar Galaxy (M82) and Bode's Galaxy (M81) in Ursa Major with your 6 in telescope, you might notice another small smudge just to the south.  As the seeing comes and goes, the object pops in and out of view.  Using averted vision you can get the object to stay in view but can't see any details.  You turn to your nearby friend with the 10" scope and ask him if you can borrow his scope for a couple of minutes.  Sure enough, right there, just where you thought it was, another small galaxy!  You double check your charts, and yes, you have just "discovered" NGC3077!  Because light collecting is a function of surface area, not diameter, that 10" telescope isn't just 2/3rd bigger than the 6" telescope, it collects almost 3 times as much light!   You try that 10" scope on another small scope favorite, M13, a gigantic and bright globular cluster in Hercules.  Sure enough, not only is the cluster brighter and more resolved, but just to the north of the cluster is a small strip of light that is invisible in your 6" - you've just found NGC6207, a small galaxy that lies tens of millions of light years beyond the cluster.  Don't even point that bigger telescope towards the no mans land between Virgo, Leo, and Coma Berenices or your friend won't get their 10" scope back anytime soon!  Once you start down the path of hunting down fainter and fainter objects there is only one real end point - a bigger telescope.

The second symptom of aperture fever is a little less obvious, but not less important - pursuit of increased resolution.  Lets go back to that 6 inch telescope.  The amount of detail visible on the moon, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars will be amazing.  Under steady skies you'll see countless craters on the moon, Jupter's Great Red Spot, the Cassini division in Saturn's rings, and all the major albedo features on Mars.  I don't have time here to get into the physics involved, but increasing the aperture of telescope also increases the telescope's ability to separate objects that are close together.  What this means to an astronomer is the ability to separate a small blob in Jupiter's atmosphere into two separate and smaller oval swirls.  Or turn what looks like a funny broken line on the face of the moon into a chain of small craters.  The amount of detail that increases is subtle and doesn't jump out at you like the increase in object brightness does.  Even deep sky objects benefit from this increased resolution.  Globular clusters that are puffy balls in the 6 inch scope explode into a sea of individual points of light in a 10 inch or 12 inch telescope.  Even galaxies that are millions of light years away reveal more detail - spiral arms will become sharper and more pronounced and dust lanes that pepper many galaxies become obvious in the bigger telescope.  Just like the pursuit of faint fuzzies, once you see the increased level of detail a larger aperture gives, there is only one real cure - a bigger telescope.

The final symptom of aperture fever is probably the most insidious, the most obvious, and yet, the symptom most amateurs secretly pride themselves on - the coolness factor!  Go to a club dark sky site or star party and see for yourself.  A new 80mm carbon fiber apochromatic triplet refractor will no doubt turn heads and lure the occasional passer by to move in for a closer look.  A new 127mm Televue IS Imaging telescope will pull in a handful more people.  But the guy with an 8 inch refractor on an Astrophysics 3600GTO mount will have to put up safety cones and tensile barriers to keep the crowds back.  You should see the crowds follow a SUV pulling a cargo trailer with an 30" Obsession Telescope sticker on the side of it, waiting for it to stop so they can help unload and set up the scope in the hopes of being one of the first to look through the telescope that night.  The bigger the telescope, the longer the line will be to look through it at night - its the second law of Star Parties, right after red lights only!  Everyone at a star party wants to be the guy or gal with the longest line - it becomes a matter of club bragging rights.  Just look around the office or cubicle of any large telescope owner - there is likely to be more pictures of their telescope than the is of their children.  Anyone can have kids, but not everyone can own a 24" F/3.3 Starmaster, or so the addiction, err, I mean theory goes.

Unfortunately the price of telescopes increases exponentially with the size: an 8 inch refractor costs considerably more than twice that of a 4 inch refractor.  So most folks satiate their aperture fever need with a modest jump in size - say going from a 4 inch to a 6 inch refractor or going from an 8 inch reflector to a 12 inch reflector.  Both jumps will give noticeable increases in brightness, resolution at the eyepiece, and modest increases in stature at the club dark sky site.  But like any addiction, the satisfaction you receive from your new and larger telescope eventually starts to fade and someone shows up to the club field with a newer and bigger telescope that shows just a couple more small faint fuzzie dots in that Hickson Galaxy cluster or shows hints of Olympus Mons on Mars on those few seconds when seeing firms up.  Does it sound like I know just a little bit too much about this affliction?  Yes, its true, I know this addiction first hand. 

After 5 years of touring the heavens with my trusty 10" F/5 Hardin Dob, I managed to cool my aperture thirst by purchasing an 18 inch F/4.5 Obsession.  This scope has shown me details on Jupiter and Mars I've only seen in magazine pictures.  I've witness first hand how Globular Cluster Messier 15 explodes into a sea of stars, all the way to the core.  I've even had a chance to pick out individual members of Stephan's Quintet - something I tried in vain to do with my "little" 10" scope that really didn't look that little when I first put it next to my 4.5" F/9 Orion Dob.  Yes, I have to admit, this recent purchase isn't the first time aperture fever has made me open up the checkbook and make my wife weep.  I'm sure there is a reason she hid the Spring 2010 Orion Telescope catalog from me.  That is OK, I only have to wait until the next Star Party to see what monstrosity they have thought up to liberate unwitting aperture addicts from their child's college funds. 

This podcast is dedicated to a great scientist, an active amateur astronomer, and a dear friend, Dr Gene Baraff.  His positive impact, helpful manner, and friendly advice on countless amateur astronomy forums will be felt long after his passing.  Goodbye Doctor Wizard - you made a difference you will be missed.

End of podcast:

365 Days of Astronomy
=====================
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Astrosphere New Media Association. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. Until tomorrow...goodbye.

Title: Migration by Celestial Navigation

Podcaster: Wild Ideas

Organization: Wild Ideas...the Podcast, produced by The Wilderness Center - http://www.wildernesscenter.org

Description: Wild Ideas...the Podcast is a nature podcast. We’d like to share some of the many connections between astronomy and animal species in the natural world. One of the things that comes up often is the breadth of species that use astronomical clues in their migration.

Bio: Wild Ideas...the Podcast is your own nature talk! Our observations of everyday nature events lead to bigger ideas about the natural world. Join general naturalist Gordon Maupin, science educator Joann Ballbach, and conservation biologist Gary Popotnik for a friendly, science-based nature chat. But we don’t want to keep you inside! Listen to Wild Ideas...the Podcast to help you go outside, observe, and play—it’s good for you, good for your kids, and good for nature. Wild Ideas...the Podcast is produced by The Wilderness Center, a nonprofit nature center, land conservancy, and ecopreneurial organization in Northeastern Ohio.

Today's sponsors: This episode of "365 Days of Astronomy" is sponsored by Don Hoverson, not because I think our species will one day reach those distant stars, but because I hope we will.

Also sponsored by Kylie Sturgess of the Token Skeptic podcast, investigating superstitions and the science behind them at www.tokenskeptic.org.

Transcript:

Wild Ideas...the Podcast for 365 Days of Astronomy

Intro music

Gordon Maupin, Naturalist
I’m Gordon Maupin, a naturalist with Wild Ideas...the Podcast and with me today is science educator Joann Ballbach

Joann Ballbach, Science Educator
 Hi!

Gordon
And conservation biologist Gary Popotnik

Gary Popotnik. Conservation Biologist
Hi, everyone!

Gordon
We’d like to share the many connections between astronomy and animal species in the natural world and one of the things that comes up often is the breadth of species out there that use astronomical clues in their migration.

Joann
They actually use celestial navigation, way before people invented it. So, what are some of these, Gordon? Gary?

Gordon
Well, a really interesting experiment was done with Indigo Buntings, where they brought the birds into a planetarium and the birds could wee the “stars” in the planetarium (quotes around those stars) and the birds, when they were ready to migrate northward, would orient to the North Star. And so

Joann
Now, the real North Star or the North Star in the planetarium?

Gordon
The North Star in the planetarium, so they’re obviously looking at it. So then, they decided to play a trick on the birds and they switched the planetarium star ball around so that Betelgeuse was the polar star that didn’t move and the other stars revolved around Betelgeuse instead and the birds oriented then towards Betelgeuse.
Joann
So that’s interesting.

Gordon
So the clue they were using was the stars and constellations turning in a circle around a certain star—the North Star in the wild and, if you trick them in the planetarium, Betelgeuse, I guess.

Joann
So precession doesn’t throw them off at all!

Gordon
It doesn’t throw them off at all. They’re looking at that rotation. But that’s only touching the surface about how wildlife uses celestial clues to migration. Gary, have you got something?

Gary
Yeah, in fact, along those same lines, there, someone else was doing the same type of experiment. They were actually blocking out different constellations as time went on and they found birds were more confused. So it certainly points to birds being able to recognize patterns of stars in the sky.

Joann
But I think it’s different for each species.

Gary
It certainly is, yeah. There’s a number of species who do what’s known as vector navigation, where they know exactly what line they’re supposed to fly and what direction they’re supposed to fly and there’s been some interesting research that’s been conducted with ah with crows in Europe in which they actually moved crows 600 kilometers to the west and then released them and, in spring migration, they flew north and ended up 600 kilometers west of where they normally breed. So, some of them are using vector navigation where others are using celestial navigation.

Gordon
Well, what’s interesting, a lot of animals use solar navigation and that has to be, since they don’t have a calculator to pull out and run their trig functions, they actually have to connect their biological clock with their navigation.

Joann
Now, I always hear of honeybees. What others?

Gordon
Well, honeybees

Joann
Honeybees are a good example

Gordon
At the insect level. There have been experiments. Even salamanders using celestial navigation.

Joann
 Salamanders?!

Gordon
 Salamanders.

Joann
You wouldn’t even think salamanders could see the sky.

Gordon
You would think, yeah, but salamanders using celestial, using the stars, to find their way around their home range. Pretty amazing stuff! And of course, these animals that are using astronomical clues to navigation, that’s only part of the story because many of these animals use many, many other really cool, subtle, not-fully-understood methods for doing navigation, so

Gary
Yeah, there certainly is geomagnetic orientation

Gordon
 Geomagnetic

Gary
That birds are using in that

Joann
Not just birds! I think that...

Gary
Not just birds. Birds get a lot of work done on them. Some of the research is, actually says that it’s associated with sensory receptors that have a, uh, magnetite in their brains. There are some that are now saying at least an alternate hypothesis is that, uh, the response is to a visual pigment that can actually see electromagnetic energy. Kind of like bees can see in the ultraviolet, which is pretty far out there.

Gordon
That’s pretty far out there, but there’s also some working on the hypothesis that some animals, particularly birds, can respond to very, very low frequency sound waves that carry for hundreds and hundreds of miles and will fly their migration route while listening to ocean waves crashing on the shoreline.

Joann
But wait! The great migration patterns are pretty much, well, there’s one right down the Mississippi. And they’re still hearing the ocean shoreline?

Gordon
Uh, perhaps. I think that’s still out there as a bit of a hypothesis.

Gary
Well, and they’re also using the landscape itself as a cue. A lot of research has been done where they’re actually following large flocks of birds with winds coming in either from the east or the west as they’re doing their southward migration and the birds are actually staying on course because they’re using, say, a river as a visual cue.

Gordon
They have to ultimately use visual cues because it’s not at all uncommon for a bird to fly to South America and land in the very same tree it landed in last year and then fly back to North America and land in the very same tree that it was in in North America a year later, so obviously the birds are using a lot of subtle combinations of things, but certainly astronomical cues are very important for many species in their migrations.

Joann
And many species just finding around. You talked about the bees using the sun.

Gordon
The bees use the sun and they communicate that with their dance that people have figured out. The angle of the dance on the comb tells a sun angle and then the length of the dance tells the distance.

Gary
So, what we’re seeing are multiple ways that a number of animal species use to migrate. It’s actually been thought of for many years now that migratory behavior has evolved independently with many, many different species and therefore, a lot of these species have used or depended upon one or more of these ways of navigating.

Gordon
And many species probably use a combination of the various ways.

Joann
We talked about them using the sun, the stars, and the geomagnetic field of the Earth

Gordon
And their memories.

Joann
 Yes.

music

Gordon
Wild Ideas...the Podcast is on the same page in iTunes under Natural Sciences as 365 Days of Astronomy. Thanks for having us! You can find The Wilderness Center and Wild Ideas...the Podcast on the web at wildernesscenter.org.

music

End of podcast:

365 Days of Astronomy
=====================
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Astrosphere New Media Association. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. Until tomorrow...goodbye.

Title: 2012: The Impact

Podcaster: Bill Hudson

Organization: http://2012hoax.org
Music by Kevin McLeod; http://www.incompetech.com

Description: Bill Hudson with 2012hoax.org uses some ‘impact statements’ from the website in order to explain his motivation for fighting the “2012 doomsday” rumors, and hopefully motivating other people to get out and begin actively debunking the myth.

Bio: Bill Hudson is an amateur astronomer in California, and is not usually militaristic at all. He has spent the last decade looking up, and is involved in astronomy outreach programs in the California central coast area. He became involved in debunking the "2012 doomsday" hoax after being asked about it by school kids. He is the publisher of 2012hoax.org, a wiki that seeks to document and debunk all of the doomsday rumors surrounding the year 2012.

Today's sponsor: This episode of "365 Days of Astronomy" is sponsored by The Planetary Society, celebrating 30 years of inspiring the people of Earth to explore other worlds, understand our own, and seek life elsewhere. Explore with us at planetary.org.

Transcript:

This is Bill Hudson with 2012hoax.org.

In my first podcast this year I laid down a challenge for people who are interested in space to get out and begin debunking the “2012 doomsday” hoax. In my second podcast I gave you some information and advice about how to get started doing it.

In today’s episode I switch gears a little, and hopefully provide you with some motivation.

Many people have asked me why I care about this so much. Why do I spend so much time and energy in debunking this particular myth? A couple of people have asked me who is paying me! They imagined that I must be getting a paycheck from someone in order to be so persistent! I found that to be funny and also a bit of a compliment.

The answer of course is that I don’t get paid. Nobody is sending me money. 2012hoax.org doesn’t make any money, we don’t even have ads! So… what *is* my motivation?

Perhaps the best way to explain what drives me to do this is to read some of the emails that I have received.

John writes:

“Great web-site, I reviewed it with my 7 and 9 year old who were having nightmares about the whole 2012 thing. They will no longer be fooled by the media! Thanks again.”

When I asked John how his children found out about 2012, he answered that they had seen *commercials* for some of the various shows that the History channel has produced regarding 2012. Not the shows themselves, mind you, but commercials for the shows.

This isn’t surprising, because the History channel has produced (at last count) no less than seven separate shows on 2012. They like to put all of them on the air in week long blocks arranged by topic, so if you happen to catch the “Apocalypse Week” then you get all of their productions regarding 2012 all at once.

Based on my unscientific and self-selecting interactions with people at the website, I would say that this hoax affects juveniles and young adults the most. They seem to be the most credulous audience for this kind of paranoid programming. However, this is not always the case.

Hillary writes:

So I wasn't even aware of the 2012 rumors until I overheard my father talking one night. After he was finished with his conversation I decided to slip in and ask him a few questions. He answered me to the best of his knowledge, but ultimately left it at "The world is pretty much ending in 2012."

On my way home that night my mind spun with so many awful thoughts. I have a two year old son, and a husband who works several states away from here. I called my husband sobbing, explaining to him everything that my father told me. For the few weeks that followed that there was a dramatic decrease in both of our moods… even once my husband talked about quitting his job and coming back home, to be with us. I also couldn't think about my 2 year old, and every time I looked at him it was hard not to break down in sobs. The idea of never seeing him graduate or get married seemed like a hopeless thing. I'll admit I was too scared to research because I was afraid I would just find what my father said to be true. But after two weeks of sleepless nights, depression, and scrubbing anything in my house to keep myself distracted, I decided to further educate myself on the issue. I ran across the 2012hoax site, and I must say in the hour that I spent on this site I feel like a new person. I'm going to call my husband in the morning, give him the link, and I'm going to look my two year old in the eyes tonight without crying. I just want to thank the people on this site for giving me hope. I know I sound a little dramatic, but I've never been so scared about anything, and honestly the thought of only seeing my son reach the age of four terrifies me. So thank you, I can now start dreaming about what my life will be like without the thoughts of losing everything in 2 years!

So, not only was Hillary deeply affected by this, but so was her father!

The thing that really gets to me is when I hear stories about people who become depressed, and even suicidal over these rumors. For example, Megan writes:

I actually just want to thank this site and its founders. I was recently introduced to the IHC by the commercials on TV and when I went through [their] site, I began to have a panic attack. For the few days afterwards I was subject to extreme depression and I contemplated taking my life in order to avoid the horrible fate of the world. I am 18. I found a link to this site on Yahoo Answers and I have been following it ever since.

I guess what I am trying to say is thank you. I appreciate this site and everyone who works on it. It has helped me, my family, and many others. I can finally function without thinking "what's the point of living if life is going to end anyway?" I want you to know that you have saved me, and that I will tell everyone I know about this site.

So, there you have it. That is why I do this, not for fame, or fortune, but just out of a sense of civic duty.

You do *not* have to become as deeply involved as I am, in order to make a huge difference. Let us say that you give one talk to a group of 20 school-aged kids. Out of those 20, there might be 10 who have heard the rumors, and 5 of those believe it, and 1 is depressed, anxious, and perhaps suicidal. If you can reach that one kid, and get him to understand that this is a hoax, then it is worth it.

Until next time, this is Bill Hudson with 2012hoax.org

End of podcast:

365 Days of Astronomy
=====================
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Astrosphere New Media Association. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. Until tomorrow...goodbye.