Friday, November 27, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!



Things I am thankful for:

1) A patient, supportive wife (she's much more patient than I give her credit for).
2) Good health.
3) An active mind.
4) An wide-open future (I'm considering relocating to Cleveland, Ohio with Emily in pursuit of a career that I began at Case Western Reserve University 10 years ago).
5) Those cans of cranberry sauce that Emily's mom got for us before we came back from America...they really tied our Thanksgiving dinner together!

Monday, November 23, 2009

Luna ≈ Day 7


39% Waxing Crescent. Nikon S6 (handheld) through Pentax 10x50 binoculars.

Prominent crater toward bottom: Maurolycus. This was named after Francesco Maurolico, an Italian mathematician and astronomer. Maurolico sighted a supernova in Cassiopeia in 1572, but Tycho Brahe got much of the credit, including the name of the supernova.

Two smaller craters toward top (bottom one first): Eudoxus and Aristoteles.

Eudoxus was a Greek astronomer/mathematician who studied under Plato. Eudoxus developed a type of mathematics that was a precursor to integral calculus.

Aristoteles is named after Aristotle, a Greek philosopher who was integral in the founding of Western philosophy. Yet another student of Plato, he believed that since women are "colder" than men, they are a lower form of life, even going so far as to say they are not fully human. Wow.

Lunar Geography note: Plato (a larger lunar crater) is located just to the east of this subordinate pair. I'm sure the geographic nomenclature of the moon has many more instances of this "teacher/pupil" coincidence.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Hahahahahahaha

Who says astrophysics isn't cool....?