by Joseph A'Hearn | May 7, 2020 | Astronomy, Basics, Eclipse, Featured, Observational Astronomy, Outreach, Science & Faith
On Astronomy, Calendars, and Pluto's Status Joffre Swait from Kepler Education interviewed me on various topics of astronomy this afternoon. We talked about the calendar, why Pluto is not a planet, the Astronomy course I’m offering this Fall with Kepler...
by Joseph A'Hearn | Apr 12, 2018 | Astronomy, Basics, Featured, Outreach
On April 9 I hosted my first Astronomy Q&A live stream on Facebook. I responded to questions about the planets and then to questions made to me by viewers of the live stream. It was fun but wore me out. If I do another live stream in the future, I may reduce the...
by Joseph A'Hearn | Mar 14, 2018 | Astronomy, Basics, Featured, Science & Faith
The first day of spring and the first day of fall happen on equinoxes, when the plane of Earth’s equator passes through the Sun’s center. Day and night are appoximately (but not exactly) of equal length. Before Julius Caesar introduced his calendar in 45...
by Joseph A'Hearn | Feb 16, 2018 | Featured, Science & Faith
“Maintaining the view that science and religion are in conflict does no one any favors and is hurting science,” writes Tom McLeish in his article “Thinking differently about science and religion,” published in the latest (February 2018) edition...
by Joseph A'Hearn | Jan 13, 2018 | Astronomy, Cosmology, Featured, Outreach, Science & Faith
“We’re not special” is not a scientific statement. It’s an opinion. It’s a simple way of expressing what has become known as the Copernican principle. Copernicus himself did not explicitly hold this when he realized Earth was likely not...
by Joseph A'Hearn | Jan 7, 2018 | Astronomy, Eclipse, Featured, News, Outreach
Interested in seeing the Earth’s shadow fall on the Moon on the 31st of this month? Here’s a simple and elegant representation by timeanddate.com showing where on Earth it will be visible from. This is a lunar eclipse. It will be total roughly 5-6am...
