I attended the Wagner College Planetarium ( located in Spiro Hall ) on November 15, 2000 at 11:00 for research and to detect the stars, planets and our full solar system more closely. There was a clear dome on the ceiling for us to see the sky. The manager of the show was Dennis Anderson. He put the latitude to forty grades, and dimmed the visible radiations.
Up in the sky the stars are beautiful and bright. They seem, by the bare oculus to be traveling but the Earth is what is really traveling. Everyone knows that the sky doesn’t move. The Earth rotates around the Sun. The Earth being in a different topographic point in its’ orbit all the clip gives us different stars to see at different times out of the twelvemonth.
A star is a immense ball of glowing gas in the sky. The Sun is a star. It is the lone star near plenty to the Earth to look like a ball. The other one million millions of stars are so far off that they are no more than a pinpoint of visible radiation.
A configuration is a clump of stars in the sky that form a image. Each Configuration has a definite clip of the twelvemonth when it reaches its highest point. At latitudes to far north or to far south of the equator, many configurations do non make at that place culminates high plenty to be seen. The configurations appear to travel westward as the Earth rotates around the Sun. For this ground, certain configurations can merely be seen during one season of the twelvemonth. There is Pegasus which is highly big. If you connect the stars of Pegasus it is supposed to look like a Equus caballus organic structure. However it is upside down.
The teacher put a line traveling across the center of the dome. It separated the sky from north to south. He said this line is called the Meridian. When a star is at the Meridian it is at its highest point. It is nine grades egg-shaped on each side. The 2nd brightest star is Mercury it has a really thick ambiance. However the brightest star nearest to the skyline is Venus. We besides saw Jupiter it was besides a really bright star but non every bit bright as Venus. Jupiter has four Moons’ which was really interesting to see.
We live in a coiling Galaxy. It has one to four billion stars. Some people believe we live in the barricaded galaxy. It is besides called the Milky Way galaxy. If stars or galaxies explode we would non cognize until light old ages subsequently. This is due to the great distance between us and other stars or galaxies. Light old ages are a step of distance. Some bi-global bunches of stars are a numbered at 150,000 to one million stars bunched together. This is called “Messier 13? . Messier 13 is 30,000 light old ages off. It was discovered by a adult male named Charles Messier. Charles Messier besides discovered the Leading Nebular. He got a batch of recognition for his clip, which was around the 1700’s.
Many old ages ago stars were known as pilotage systems. Sailors used the stars to steer them on where they wanted to travel. They would look at the stars and seek to judge where they were by where the stars were located in the sky. Therefore turning the stars into a pilotage system.
If we were in the state side and non the metropolis we would be able to see the stars much better. They would look brighter to the bare oculus. The teacher at the planetarium explained to us that in New York City the street visible radiations and auto visible radiations seem to submerge the energy of the stars. He besides said that if something isn’t done about it in a twosome of decennaries we will non be able to see any stars from our metropolis.
A set of stars everyone is familiar with is the Big Dipper, but it is lone portion of a configuration called the Big Bear. There is besides the Little Dipper. At the grip of the Little Dipper is a star called Polaris, which is besides known as the North Star it stands out in the sky when you look up into it because of how bright it is. To the bare oculus it is the brightest and most seeable in the sky.
In decision my trip to Wagner College’s Planetarium was non merely really interesting but besides really educational as good. I did non anticipate this to be the instance at all. It brought me to recognize how intriguing the universe really is. We live in a complicated existence if you think about it. There are many stars and planets that consequence our ambiance. Most people will ne’er even recognize it. I myself was non cognizant of many things until I visited this planetarium. Overall I thought it was a good and mind opening experience.
