Valuable Local Fossil Site Needs Your Help!

This is an e-mail we received from one of our very good customers:

Hello Paleo fans. A recent visit to the Worthenia site at I-635 and H(ighway)9 revealed to me that the site is rapidly being overgrown by seedlings of the notorious honey locust tree. This is an ominous developement, as this means that in about 2 years the seedlings will form a near impenetrable thicket, complete with long thorns. This site is one of our member`s favorite collecting locations. The site is highly valuable education wise, as it is a fine first collecting site. I first considered returning with a weed eater, but, I think the hardy seedlings would rapidly regrow. Does anyone have a large capacity sprayer they can use? I just have a small unit that won`t finish the job with one filling. I think I would want to do this quickly, as this may not be legal. Please e-mail me, or call me if you can help, or if you have advice. 816-781-5719 Ron

Mineral Identification Workshop: Follow-Up and Bibliography

While we're on the subject, thanks to everyone who came out for the mineral identification workshop on Saturday, 8 August. We had a lively time and I hope that everyone got something out of it. If you missed it, and are interested in attending a future session, let us know in the comments or by emailing me. I felt that we could have covered more experimentation and less discussion, but as this was the first time out, I wasn't sure how time would ultimately play out. Future sessions will have more direct work of identification, and a lot more discussion of reactions and the chemistry that governs them. It will give me an excuse to do more reading and practising, after all...

In the meantime, here's the bibliography from the workshop. This is by no means every book out there; rather, it is just a selection of what I used in putting together some of the tests and gathering the necessary background material.

Bibliography

• Audubon Society. Audubon Society Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978.


• Landauer, J. Blowpipe Analysis. Second, Revised Edition. Translated by James Taylor. Bradley, IL: Lindsay Publications, 1984.


• Lewis, J. Volney and Hawkins, A.C. A Manual of Determinative Mineralogy with Tables, 4th Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1931.


• Peck, Donald B. Mineral Identification: A Practical Guide for the Amateur Mineralogist. Tucson, AZ: The Mineralogical Record, 2007.


• Pellant, Chris. Rocks and Minerals (Smithsonian Handbooks). New York: Dorling Kindersley, Inc., 2002.


• Pough, Frederick B. A Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals, Fifth Edition. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1988.


• Sinkankas, John. Gemstone and Mineral Data Book. New York: Collier Books, 1972.


• Vanders, Iris and Kerr, Paul. Mineral Recognition. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1967.

Useful Websites and Journals

• Mindat.org


• Mineralogical Record Magazine


• Rock & Gem Magazine


• Rocks and Minerals Magazine


• WebMineral.com

Thanks again, and happy rock hunting!

Philosophy of Science Presentation: Bibliography

Thanks again to everyone who came out last night for Ginger Nedblake's presentation on the Philosophy of Science. Mystery noises aside, it seems as though a good time was had by all.

As promised, the rest of this entry is part of Ginger's bibliography from the presentation. Email us if you have questions, or post them in the comments. Thanks!

Free Resources

• Mid-Continent Public Library has a link for cardholders to online back copies of Philosophy of Science journal


• The Linda Hall Library of Science and Technology - Peirce Studies


• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - the site includes an RSS feed for new/updated entries

Partial Bibliography

• An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science by Rudolf Carnap


• Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder - The Introduction to Philosophy course you wish you had.


• Godel, Escher, Bach: and Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter
  


• Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction by Samir Okasha (part of the Oxford Very Short Introductions series - watch for them in the store!)


• A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell - a classic


• Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge by Edward O. Wilson

Finally: Challenge Your Own Assumptions: Examples

• Animal Liberation by Peter Singer


• The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty by Peter Singer

Thanks again to everyone, and we'll see you next time!

What is this?

Okay everyone; what is this? If you think you know and can not only identify this piece of laboratory apparatus, but can fully explain for what it is used and how it works, then we will give you 10% off any one, in-stock item in the store (telescopes and microscopes excluded). The discount may be used for on-line purchases.

To claim your discount be the first to email (1) a correct identification, (2) a short explanation (a single sentence should suffice) of its use and (3) a description of the labeled parts, in the illustration, and their purposes to jfk@hms-beagle.com. I will be the sole judge of the completeness of the answers. Your answer must be receive no later than midnight, Monday, the 17^th of August, 2009.

The winner will be notified by return email. The details of how to claim the discount will be in that email. Good luck.

==JFK==

Platte County's Parks & Recreation Sales Renewal Passes!

We wish to thank all of our customers and clients who patiently listened to us and read the literature we stuffed into your bags in the weeks and days leading up to the vote last Tuesday (August 4^th) that affirmed the County's request to renew the sales tax for parks and recreation. As we explained to you, both one-on-one and in our various meetings in the store, we think that this is great for Platte County and Parkville and should help us proceed with our stated plans of building an astronomical observatory south of English Landing Centre. We're very glad that you listened and that you voted.

==JFK==

Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do!

We at the Beagle are firm believers that every child is born a scientist and will remain a scientist until exposed to someone or a setting that turns them against a life of scientific exploration. Children should be expected to explore, experiment and question. To this end we want to know if there are students, parents and/or teachers out there that would like to participate in a series of workshops in which we explore some of the "dangerous" experiments and demonstrations that are always intriguing and exciting, but which shouldn't be done without a lot or foreknowledge and appropriate planning and safety preparation. If you are interested please post a comment and contact us for a follow-up on our plans.

Make: KC

Join us for an organizational meeting for
Make: KC
Tuesday July 14, 2009
6 pm to 7 pm: Maker Show and Tell
7 pm to 8 pm: Organizational Meeting

Do you enjoy creating new inventions or taking things apart to see how they work? Maybe you’ve seen some of the Do-It-Yourself projects but you’re not sure how to finish certain parts. This is an opportunity for tinkerers, inventors, makers, artists, and crafters to share your knowledge and inspiration with others from young to old in a family friendly atmosphere. We are planning for this meeting to include some show and tell projects using Arduino microcontrollers, as well as organizational topics and planning for future events as we launch this new group.

The meetings will be held at H.M.S. Beagle, 180 English Landing Drive, Parkville, MO. We have already had interest expressed by the editors of Make Magazine, and it looks like we can expect their wholehearted support.

HMS Beagle Awarded "Coolest Business in K.C." for 2nd Year

We just received notification that H.M.S. Beagle was awarded the "Coo;est Business in Kansas City" for the 2^nd year in a row. The award is given out by KC Magazine. We will once again be tooting our own horn for the next year. Thank you KC Magazine, the editors and publisher.

Vertebrate Fossils in the U.S.

All:

I am a member of the Association of Applied Paleontological Sciences, and I am hoping to find support amoung the readers of this blog for help in defeating or removing a provision that was wedged into the recent Omnibus Land Management Act of 2009 in front of Congress. Please read on:

As you may have heard, the Omnibus Land Management Act 2009 was defeated in the House on Wednesday. This act is not part of the stimulus program, nor is it a spending bill. It will adversely affect those of us who hunt, collect, trade and sell vertebrate fossils outside of an academic setting. Just because the House of Representatives defeated it for now, our work is far from over. It will be presented again, as early as next week, and it is imperative that we contact those Representatives that voted Yes and inform them of the big problems with the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act (PRPA), a very small part of this 1000+ page bill. I'm pretty confident that most of the folks in Congress have not read this entire bill and are voting based on the small part of it they want to see passed. That's no excuse and we need to help them be responsible stewards of our country. Tracie Bennitt of Triebold Paleontology, Inc. was personally able to change the vote of her representative in Colorado, Doug Lamborn, by showing him the problems with this bill. Please take action NOW and contact your representative. Here are some talking points for your call, fax, email or letter.

S22 Subtitle D (page 495 of 1248) PRPA Highlights:
The bill requires a federal permit for fossil collecting on federal lands; there is NO exception for casual collectors and permit is still required, and without one a casual collector will be subject to the penalties outlined below:
It requires that ALL vertebrate fossils found on federal lands are the property of the U.S. Government.
Establishes civil and criminal penalties for some fossil activities that are quite commonplace. Local boy scouts and college students could be arrested.
The criminal penalties are felonies in some situations. Child abusers and rapists get off easier than this! And for picking up a fossil?
The federal government is given the powers of asset forfeiture for vehicles, equipment, and fossils collected in violations of these new restrictions.
The bill also contains a provision to condemn private land with funds seized under this act. Your personal property could be taken if the government thinks it's in their best interest! (See United States Code Chapter 44 Title 18) This is in the gray area and we all know how the government can operate in the gray.
Locality data will not be released. This is against all scientific principles of sharing knowledge.
There are still no provisions for the sale of fossils by commercial dealers. You can grind them up into gravel, but not collect and sell them. There has never been an opportunity for commercial collectors to come to the table to present reasonable alternatives for collecting, although the Secretary of the Interior instructed all interested parties, academic, amateur, professional and government to sit down and map this out.
The direct effect of PRPA will be to exclude the majority of those who are currently collecting fossils on federal lands from being able to do so. This will reduce the fossils available for museums and classrooms. The vast majority of amateurs are not operating for profit. Those of us that are will continue to be unable to collect on federal lands. You can get a permit for just about anything else, forest products, wildlife, gas and oil, timber harvest, mining etc. but not to collect fossils. One can even get a permit to go onto federal lands (= public lands) to dig up rocks and crush them into gravel for profit The academic community cannot collect them all and would rather see them turn to dust than show up in a private collection or pay fair market value for someone else collecting it.

So, I urge you to act today. We did make a difference on this vote, but next time round they only need half to pass. Please help.
Now is the time to write your local federal representatives, and let them know where you stand on the bill. Most congressmen have a toll free number listed in your phone book, and on their web sites.

If your not sure how to contact you representative, follow this link; http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102503382295&e=001HBcfHdc5woMJC96tz0phuMrwo1i697R4fr2gdWWL0Iv3oOoDx68_zOwjOfCp5FfCV0v_69WEhdQRNnnz4mhaKuc7vIxNvkv7t_LdVdGdFZ17NNLdp64C6OYGepj-uMPT
Senate votes - see Colorado
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102503382295&e=001HBcfHdc5woPfNrjV_dHCvM_TFmyvYcNqohFBNeVwDV4s2Gl6TpsTsat3gTGcC301hxBByqVi49KBTSVdkNrApm4NBQ9qF11x_zDMuYHI9B3rZNMRWVHrbMOaU7sKzc67Dy7lA-Z2I8ym_ZbdBJ0k5bmOceoxYs4G
House Votes -- by member names: Lamborn, Coffman, Markey, Salazar, Polis, DeGette, Perlmutter
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll117.xml

Thanks to Tracie Bennitt of Triebold Paleontology, Inc. for preparring the bulk of this posting. I hope you will help in this endeavour and contact your representatives. If you do so by e-mail please c.c. (or b.c.) me at jfk@hms-beagle.com.

==JFK==

member AAPS

EuroTool lapidary & jewelry working tools

By the time you read this post we will be awaiting our first shipment of EuroTool tools and equipment for lapidarists, jewelers and hobbyists. This will be another line from a local, Kansas City area, company, and they join Garmin, Donnegan, Ken-a-Vision, and Midland Radio as the lines we carry that are made in our area.

Very soon now these new items wil be on our shelves and in our on-line catalog.

==JFK==

Correcting an error...

This past Saturday we had the last monthly session for our Science Club members in the 4th through 8th grade on Charles Darwin. During that session I misspoke and created an error that, I am sure. led to a misunderstanding of my point about relatedness among species. My point was intended to be about the well-known cichlid fishes (Family: Cichlidae) of Lake Victoria in East Africa. Prior to the 1980's there were known to be several hundred species of small, mostly in-shore cichlids in the lake. By that time, however, the introduction of the Nile perch (Lates niloticus) had started to take a noticeable toll on the endemic fishes and their total numbers as well as the number of species began to drastically disappear.

This kicked in high gear a world-wide effort to stop the species loss, and the Victorial Species Survival Plan (VSSP) was instituted whereby zoos and aquariums and private individuals were to hold in captivity, for the purposes of captive breeding, select species whose offspring would them be reintroduced into the lake.

Studies of the genetics of a group of fourteen, obviously distinct, species of these colorful fishes led to the discovery that there were fewer genetic differents among those fourteen species than there were (are) between any two individual humans, and all humans are of the same species!

My error came about when I substituted the word more for the word fewer.

==JFK==

No More Copernican Theory

I received official warning today from Cardinal Bellarmine that I am not to teach or defend the Copernican Theory whereby the Earth moves around the Sun.

--Galilei
26 Feb 1616

Yay! No Moon!

This is a great weekend for observing as the light of the moon won't be washing out all the deep sky objects.

Starting in the solar system, though, we can observe Venus in the southwest after sunset. It's the brighter-than-any-star star-like object. Just about any telescope will show you what phase Venus is in.

Around midnight Saturn is high in the sky. It's hanging around the back legs of Leo right now. It's a fairly bright star-like object, a little cream-colored. Just about any telescope will show you the rings around Saturn. But this year the rings are nearly edge-on, so look for a thin line or ring around the planet.

A little later than Saturn, this year's bright comet (so far), Comet Lulin, is still brightening. From a dark location, I've read, you can see the comet with the unaided-eye. Lulin will be brightest the night of 23-24. Will it be bright enough to see with the unaided-eye from Parkville?

This is the time of year for observing open clusters. On Taurus' back is the Seven Sisters, or the Plieades. To the unaided-eye it looks like a very tiny Little Dipper. In even the smallest of 'scopes it looks like a swarm of stars.

North of Orion in the constellations of Gemini and Auriga are four of my favorite star clusters, all of them Messier objects (so they're fairly bright). M35 in Gemini is a star cluster I call the Soccer Ball because it sits at the feet of Castor, one of the twins of Gemini. Three clusters lie right in a row northwest of M35. These are M36, 37, 38 all in southeastern Auriga. A small to modest-sized 'scope will bring all of these into view.

Clear skies and enjoy.

Our Telescope

About 10 months ago a rumor came to our ears that a spyglass had been made by a certain Dutchman by means of which visible objects, although far removed from the eye of the observer, were distinctly perceived as though nearby. About this truly wonderful effect some accounts were spread abroad, to which some gave credence while others denied them. The rumor was confirmed to me a few days later by a letter from Paris from the noble Frenchman Jacques Badovere. This finally caused me to apply myself totally to investigating the principles and figuring out the means by which I might arrive at the invention of a similar instrument, which I achieved shortly afterward on the basis of the science of refraction. And first I prepared a lead tube in whose ends I fitted two glasses, both plane on one side while the other side of one was spherically convex and of the other concave. Then, applying my eye to the concave glass, I saw objects satisfactorily large and close. Indeed, they appeared three thimes closer and nine times larger than when observed with natural vision only. Afterward I made another more perfect one for myself that showed objects more than sixty times larger. Finally, sparing no labor or expense, I progressed so far that I constructed for myself an instrument so excellent that things seen through it appear about a thousand times larger and more than thirty times closer than when observed with the natural faculty only. It would be entirely superfluous to enumerate how many and how great the advantages of this instrument are on land and at sea. But having dismissed earthly things, I applied myself to explorations of the heavens. And first I looked at the Moon from so close that it was scarcely two terrestrial diameters distant. Next, with incredible delight I frequently observed the stars, fixed as well as wandering, and as I saw their huge number I began to think of, and at last discovered, a method whereby I could measure the distances between them. In this matter, it behooves all those who wish to make such observations to be forewarned. For it is neccessary first that they prepare a most accurate glass that shows objects brightly, distincly, and not veiled by any obscurity, and second that it multiply them at least four hundred times and show them twenty times closer. For if it is not an instrument such as that, one will try in vain to see all the things observed in the heavens by us and enumerated in further "blogs." Indeed, in order that anyone may, with little trouble, make himself more certain about the magnificatoin of the instrument, let him draw two circles or two squares on paper, one of which is four hundred times larger than the other, which will be the case when the larger diameter is twenty times the length of the other diameter. He will then observe from afar both sheets fixed to the same wall, the smaller one with one eye applied to the glass and the larger one with the other, naked eye. This can easily be done with both eyes open at the same time. Both figures will then appear of the same size if the instrument multiplies objects according to the desired proportion. Now let us review the observations made by us during the past 2 months, inviting all lovers of true philosophy to the start of truly great contemplation....

-- Galilei

(Translated by Albert Van Helden, University of Chicago Press, 1989)

What's Up This Weekend?

An Astronomical Challenge

How many astronomical objects are visible in the daytime sky? There's the sun of course. And the moon, sometimes. Can you think of anything else?

How about Venus? In the night sky, at certain times of the year, only the moon outshines Venus. But does that mean Venus is bright enough to see in broad daylight? Many people are surprised to find out that the answer is yes.

It's difficult to see in the daytime sky and it takes practice or luck to do it, but I'm going to try to help you with a trick that I've been using recently to find Venus -- even at two in the afternoon. Right now, Venus is about 44 degrees from the sun. This is a little more than the width of two hand spans at arm's length. Actually, it's about 18-1/2 inches from the sun as measured by a yardstick held at arm's length.

Now using the sun to find things in the daytime sky can be bad for your eyes, so use the corner of a building or something to block the sun. Hold the yardstick up to the object blocking out the sun. Venus will be at about a 10 o'clock position relative to the sun. Venus will be a pale point of light in the sky, so it will be difficult to see at first. If after searching around about 18-1/2 inches from the sun you don't see Venus you may want to hunt in that area of the sky with binoculars. Do NOT point the binoculars in the direction of the sun. If you are a child, get your parents help.

Happy hunting! If you still can't find Venus, feel free to stop by the store some clear afternoon Tuesdays - Saturdays and I'll help you out.

Astronomical Message

In this series of "blogs" I propose great things for inspection and contemplation by every explorer of Nature. Great, I say, because of the excellence of the things themselves, because of their newness, unheard of through the ages, and also because of the instrument with the benefit of which they make themselves manifest to our sight.

Certainly it is a great thing to add to the countless multitude of fixed stars visible hitherto by natural means and expose to our eyes innumerable others never seen before, which exceed tenfold the number of old and known ones.

It is most beautiful and pleasing to the eye to look upon the lunar body, distant from us about sixty terrestrial diameters, from so near as if it were distant by only two of these measures, so that the diameter of the same Moon appears as if it were thirty times, the surface nine-hundred times, and the solid body about twenty-seven thousand times larger than when observed only with the naked eye. Anyone will then understand with the certainty of the senses that the Moon is by no means endowed with a smooth and polished surface, but is rough and uneven and, just as the face of the Earth itself, crowded everywhere with vast prominences, deep chasms, and convolutions.

Moreover, it seems of no small importance to have put an end to the debate about the Galaxy or Milky Way and to have made manifest its essence to the senses as well as the intellect; and it will be pleasing and most glorious to demonstrate clearly that the substance of those stars called nebulous up to now by all astronomers is very different from what has hitherto been thought.

But what greatly exceeds all admiration, and what especially impelled us to give notice to all astronomers and philosophers, is this, that we have discovered four wandering stars, known or observed by no one before us. These, like Venus and Mercury around the Sun, have their periods around a certain star notable among the number of known ones, and now precede, now follow, him, never digressing from him beyond certain limits. All these things were discovered and observed a few days ago by means of a glass contrived by me after I had been inspiered by divine grace.

Perhaps more excellent things will be discovered in time, either by me or by others, with the help of a similar instrument, the form and construction of which, and the occasion of whose invention, I shall first mention briefly, and then I shall review the history of the observations made by me.

(HMS Beagle note: Galileo translated by Albert Van Helden, Sidereus Nuncius or The Sidereal Messenger, University of Chicago Press, 1989)

What's Up This Weekend?

Saturn and an Interplanetary Traveler

I hope you have had time to get out and watch the moon pass Venus the last couple of evenings. The sky has been absolutely beautiful.

This weekend you might want to start following a couple of solar system objects. The first is the planet Saturn. Over the next five months, you can see Saturn rise and move across the sky earlier and earlier. Also over those five months, Saturn's rings will "open up" from it's current nearly edge on view.

Right now, Saturn rises before 9 p.m. Give it a couple of hours to get high enough for good observing and take a peek through stabilized binoculars or a telescope. Through even a small telescope there will be no doubt that you are looking at Saturn. It will look like someone slipped a photo behind the eyepiece, rings and all. Through a telescope look for the second largest moon of the solar system, Titan, hanging around near Saturn as an orange-ish "star." Saturn looks like a cream-colored bright "star" below the tail of the constellation of Leo the Lion.

It seems that every year a comet passes Earth and flirts with becoming visible to the unaided eye. This year isn't any different. A couple of Chinese comet hunting teams found this year's comet, Comet Lulin. In February it should reach unaided-eye visibility as seen from a reasonably dark location. Whether it gets that bright, it already looks obvious in binoculars or a telescope as a fuzzy object. (Typically comets look better in the wide field of view of binoculars.) Start watching Comet Lulin now and watch it brighten and move across the background of stars. The comet glides through the constellation of Libra the Scales for the next couple of weeks on its way to a rendezvous with Saturn. Here's a map of the comet's progress through Valentine's Day.

Till next time, clear skies.

Meet the Beagle All Over Again

Let's take a moment for a quick entry now, to tell you about what's going on at the Beagle.

First, 2009 is a big year for science. In the event that you've somehow missed it, it is not only the International Year of Science, but the International Year of Astronomy. There are a lot of important anniversaries that fall in 2009, and we're hoping to add our efforts to those of the friends of science around the world.

Secondly, if you're already a Facebook user, you can now join the Beagle Society group on Facebook. We're posting upcoming events to the group, and trying to get everything in place there so that you can be updated on all the latest happenings with the Beagle as you would be with your long-lost high school friends. You can also comment on our Wall, upload photos, and do all of those Facebook things that you enjoy the most. The Facebook updates will not replace the regular email updates, but we're hoping to extend our reach with a little bit of additional publicity in a different medium.

John and Carol will be at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in the next few weeks, looking for what's best and brightest, or at least, what's interesting and affordable, from the world of minerals, rocks, fossils, beads and the like. The trip to Tucson is something of a busman's holiday, but it allows them to get out of town for a bit, and, as the colloquial wisdom has it, a change is as good as a rest...

Our online store is growing rapidly, and will eventually include everything that you will find in our physical store. You can visit it here at HMS Beagle Online. We're adding descriptions to items as rapidly as possible, but unfortunately there's no easy way to describe 10,000 items (give or take) from the two-line truncated descriptions in our point-of-sale system. Our goal is for the site to be an effective surrogate for an in-store visit. For those of you wondering, we chose to use PayPal as our primary payment means in the interests of everyone's security. PayPal has a proven track record in conjunction with eBay, and we're sure that a lot of you already have PayPal accounts. Of course, if you're still cautious about paying in this way, we'll also accept your payments through the post or in person, and you can select the Walk-In delivery option if you want to shop online and then come to collect your purchases, or the site will automatically quote you rates for UPS or US Postal Service shipping. If you haven't already taken a look, please do, and let us know what else you might like to see there.

And finally (though we're somewhat late in expressing this), we want to extend our warmest thanks to everyone who has supported the Beagle in 2008. Thanks to you, we have had what could in these economic climes be considered a good year, and January has also shaped up thus far to be on a par with our expectations. We have a lot of exciting things planned for 2009, and hope that we can continue to rely on your patronage and support. As always, if you have any questions, please drop us a line or post in the comments.

Best wishes to everyone for an educational and enrichment-filled 2009!

Astro Bites

A lot of interesting things have come my way through the Intertoobs this week, so I thought I'd just list them for your astronomical web surfing pleasure. After all, the weatherpeople are calling for cloudy skies all weekend in the Kansas City area.

1.) Good news! The Kansas legislature is considering a bill to protect and clean up Kansas' night skies (in other words, an anti-light pollution law). It looks like a pretty good bill to me. If you live in Kansas, and you think it looks good too, contact your reps in Topeka and let them know.

2.) "One stop shopping" for planning your observing sessions at NASA.

3.) A la Jeff Foxworthy, there's a new group on Facebook called "You know You're an Astronomer When..." I don't do Facebook so I won't be joining the group, but the group's front page has a pretty good list of things that might indicate you're an astronomer.

4.) Tuesday morning (1/27) from 10:05 to 10:25a.m. the International Space Station will be talking to schoolchildren in Parnell, MO via ham radio. I'll be listening. If you have a 2-meter ham radio or a scanner you can listen too on or around 145.800 MHz. Remember to account for the doppler effect. The frequency will be higher as the ISS approaches and lower as the ISS moves away. If you can't listen you can watch on NASA TV.

5.) And last, but not least, some actual observing... Check out a thin crescent moon approach Venus Thursday evening (1/29) and then be on the opposite side of Venus the next evening.

Till next time...Clear skies!

What's Up This Weekend?

This weekend two wanderers and a hunter take center stage.

The first wanderer is the planet Venus. If you've seen a very bright "star" in the south-southwest after sunset in the past few weeks, then you've seen Venus. Through even a small telescope you should notice that Venus has just passed dichotomy. This is when Venus looks half-lit, like a first-quarter moon. Earth, Venus, and the Sun make nearly a right angle this weekend and we are looking at the day- and night-side of Venus simultaneously.

Our other wanderer is the planet Saturn, just about everyone's favorite. Saturn rises in the east about 10 p.m. and in an hour is well-placed for telescopic observing. Even the smallest telescope will show Saturn's rings, usually. I say "usually," because about every 15 years we cross the ring plane of Saturn. This is one of those years and the rings appear very thin. The rings are still visible, though, so take a look and compare your views in the next few years to see the rings "open up" again.

Traveling with Saturn is a large retinue of moons. Many of these can be seen in backyard telescopes. Its most famous moon, Titan, is the second largest moon in the solar system -- after Ganymede. Titan can be seen -- even in small telescopes -- as an orange-ish "star" near Saturn. The moon Rhea can be seen in telescopes larger than 60-mm in diameter. Tethys and Dione can be seen in telescopes 150-mm and larger.

Due south after sunset this time of year is the large constellation of Orion the hunter. Orion's most striking feature is his three "belt" stars that form a diagonal running from northwest to southeast. If we continue to move southeast from Orion's belt we run into the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, which is also the brightest star of the constellation Canis Major the big dog. Moving back through Orion's belt and to the northwest we run into Aldebaran, thr brightest star in the constellation of Taurus the bull. Moving past Aldebaran we run into an open star cluster known as the Seven Sisters or the Pleiades. The Pleiades cluster is often confused with the little dipper because of the shape made by its brightest stars. But the Pleiades cluster is microscopic compared to the actual Little Dipper in the northern sky. And last, but not least, if we move south from the left-most star in Orion's belt we see a fuzzy star. In binoculars or a telescope we discover that this fuzz is in fact the Great Orion Nebula, a gigantic cloud of dust and gas where stars are currently being born.

Do yourself a favor and take a look at these marvels this weekend.

What's Up This Weekend?

This weekend provides an excellent opportunity to witness one of the wonders of the night sky. I'm talking about the star Algol in the constellation of Perseus.

The cool thing about Algol is that it consists of two stars, a bright primary and a dim secondary. Even cooler, Algol is what astronomers call an eclipsing binary. The dimmer star, which orbits only five percent as far from its companion as Earth does the Sun, passes in front of the bright one every 2.867...days. This makes Algol's brightness dip nearly 70 percent from magnitude 2.1 to magnitude 3.4. From light-polluted, suburban skies Algol can go from a respectably bright star to seemingly not there at all.

Algol is the prototypical eclipsing binary system and provided a terrific laboratory for astronomers to study stellar masses, dimensions, and luminosity; which in turn allowed better distance estimates between stars in our galaxy. And we get to see this wonder take place every few days from our own backyards.

Algol's eclipse starts about 11:07 p.m. Saturday night (CST). Mid-eclipse occurs at 12:07 a.m. Sunday. And it should all be over about 1:07 a.m. Sunday. The constellation of Perseus will be high in the west-northwestern sky at that time. Algol lies nearly mid-way between The Pleiades star cluster and the constellation of Cassiopeia.