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Blue Moon
A blue moon refers either to the presence of a second full moon in a calendar month, to the third full moon in a season containing four, or to a moon that appears blue due to atmospheric effects. The calendrical meaning of "blue moon" is unconnected to the other meanings. It is often referred to as “traditional”, but since no occurrences are known prior to 1937 it is better described as an invented tradition or “modern American folklore”. The practice of designating the second full moon in a month as "blue" originated with amateur astronomer James Hugh Pruett in 1946. It does not come from Native American lunar tradition, as is sometimes supposed. The moon – not necessarily full – can sometimes appear blue due to atmospheric emissions from large forest fires or volcanoes, though the phenomenon is rare and unpredictable (hence the saying “once in a blue moon”). A calendrical blue moon (by Pruett's definition) is predictable and relatively common, happening 7 t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
13 (number)
13 (thirteen) is the natural number following 12 (number), 12 and preceding 14 (number), 14. Folklore surrounding the number 13 appears in many cultures around the world: one theory is that this is due to the cultures employing lunar-solar calendars (there are approximately 12.41 lunations per solar year, and hence 12 "true months" plus a smaller, and often portentous, thirteenth month). This can be witnessed, for example, in the "Twelve Days of Christmas" of Western European tradition. In mathematics The number 13 is a prime number, happy number and a lucky number. It is a twin prime with 11 (number), 11, as well as a cousin prime with 17 (number), 17. It is the second of only 3 Wilson prime, Wilson primes: 5, 13, and 563 (number), 563. A 13-sided regular polygon is called a tridecagon. List of basic calculations In languages Grammar * In all Germanic languages, 13 is the first Compound (linguistics), compound number; the numbers 11 and 12 have their own names. * The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Sun
The Sun may appear blue after volcanic eruptions or major forest fires. This is typically due to scattering by aerosol An aerosol is a suspension (chemistry), suspension of fine solid particles or liquid Drop (liquid), droplets in air or another gas. Aerosols can be generated from natural or Human impact on the environment, human causes. The term ''aerosol'' co ... particles. Normal Rayleigh scattering is caused by particles much smaller than the wavelength of visible light. The scattering which causes the blue sun appearance is due to larger particles whose size is similar to the wavelength of light. See also * Blue moon – a similar phenomenon affecting the Moon * Green flash – a phenomenon at sunset, when the last edge of the sun may flash green or even blue References Atmospheric optical phenomena Solar phenomena {{geophysics-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Planetarium Society
The International Planetarium Society, Inc. (IPS) is the global association of planetarium professionals. Its more than 600 members come from 42 countries around the world. They represent schools, colleges and universities, museums, and public facilities of all sizes, including both fixed and portable planetariums. The primary goal of the IPS is to encourage the sharing of ideas among its members through conferences, publications, and networking. By sharing their insights and creative work, IPS members become better planetarians. IPS membership is open to anyone interested in planetariums. Members include directors, teachers, informal educators, technicians, writers, artists, media specialists, digital artists and producers, presenters, vendors, scientists, students, and sponsors and friends of the planetarium dome and its starry sky. Although planetariums can be part of school district curriculum, either at an in-district dome or through field trips, they also serve as sites ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sky & Telescope
''Sky & Telescope'' (''S&T'') is a monthly magazine covering all aspects of amateur and professional astronomy, including what to see in the sky tonight and new findings in astronomy. Other topics covered include: *observing guides for planets, galaxies, star clusters, and other objects visible in the night sky *reviews of telescopes and other astronomical equipment, books, and software *events in the amateur astronomy community * amateur telescope making * astrophotography The articles are intended for the informed lay reader and include detailed discussions of current discoveries, frequently by participating scientists. The magazine is illustrated in full color, with both amateur and professional photography of celestial sights, as well as tables and charts of upcoming celestial events. History ''Sky & Telescope'' was founded by Charles A. Federer and his wife Helen Spence Federer. The duo had formed the Sky Publishing Corporation in late 1939 to manage a magazine called '' T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trivial Pursuit
''Trivial Pursuit'' is a board game in which winning is determined by a player's ability to answer trivia and popular culture questions. Players move their pieces around a board, the squares they land on determining the subject of a question they are asked from a card (from six categories including "history" and "science and nature"). Each correct answer allows the player's turn to continue; a correct answer on one of the six "category headquarters" spaces earns a plastic wedge which is slotted into the answerer's playing piece. The object of the game is to collect all six wedges from each "category headquarters" space, and then return to the center "hub" space to answer a question in a category selected by the other players. Since the game's first release in 1981, numerous themed editions have been released. Some question sets have been designed for younger players, and others for a specific time period or as promotion (marketing), promotional tie-ins (such as ''Star Wars'', ''S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
StarDate (radio)
''StarDate'' is a science radio program of The University of Texas at Austin McDonald Observatory, broadcast on over 300 radio stations. It is a daily guide to the night sky and breaking astronomical news. Typically heard without formal introduction, ''StarDate'' is a self-contained science news feature interwoven with routine radio programming. It is the longest-running science outreach program on U.S. radio. Created in 1978 by science journalist Deborah Byrd of the McDonald Observatory, the short (2-minute) format of ''StarDate'' sprang from Byrd's scripts written for a telephone hot line on astronomy, which had started a year earlier. The telephone scripts had attracted the notice of a producer at radio station KLBJ-FM in Austin, who had turned them into a radio show that was broadcast for a year under the name "Have You Seen the Stars Tonight?" — a reference to the song co-written by Paul Kantner of Jefferson Starship. With the support of Harlan James Smith, McDonald ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Midsummer
Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer, taking place on or near the date of the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere; the longest Daytime, day of the year. The name "midsummer" mainly refers to summer solstice festivals of European origin. These cultures traditionally regard it as the middle of summer, with the season beginning on May Day. Although the summer solstice falls on June solstice, 20, 21 or 22 June in the Northern Hemisphere, it was traditionally reckoned to fall on 23–24 June in much of Europe. These dates were Christianization of saints and feasts, Christianized as Saint John's Eve and Nativity of John the Baptist, Saint John's Day. It is usually celebrated with outdoor gatherings that include bonfires and feasting. History There is Archaeoastronomy, evidence that the summer solstice has been culturally important since the Neolithic era, with List of archaeoastronomical sites by country, many ancient monuments throughout Eurasia and the Am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modern Paganism
Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, spans a range of new religious movements variously influenced by the Paganism, beliefs of pre-modern peoples across Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Despite some common similarities, contemporary pagan movements are diverse, sharing no single set of beliefs, practices, or religious texts. Religious studies, Scholars of religion may study the phenomenon as a movement divided into different religions, while others study neopaganism as a decentralized religion with an array of Religious denomination, denominations. Adherents rely on Christianization, pre-Christian, folkloric, and ethnographic sources to a variety of degrees; many of them follow a spirituality that they accept as entirely modern, while others claim to adhere to Prehistoric religion, prehistoric beliefs, or else, they attempt to revive indigenous religions as accurately as possible. List of modern pagan movements, Modern pagan movements are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wheel Of The Year
The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of seasonal festivals, observed by a range of Modern paganism, modern pagans, marking the year's chief solar events (solstices and equinoxes) and the midpoints between them. Modern pagan observances are based to varying degrees on folk traditions, regardless of the historical practices of world civilizations. Modern Paganism in the United Kingdom, British neopagans popularized the Wheel of the Year in the mid-20th century, combining the four solar events ("quarter days") marked by many European peoples, with the four midpoint festivals ("cross-quarter days") celebrated by Insular Celts, Insular Celtic peoples. Different paths of modern Paganism may vary regarding the precise timing of each observance, based on such distinctions as the lunar phase and Hemispheres of Earth, geographic hemisphere. Some Wiccans use the term sabbat () to refer to each festival, represented as a spoke in the Wheel. Origins Seasonal festival activities of pag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Reckoning Of Time
''The Reckoning of Time'' (, CPL 2320) is an English era treatise written in Medieval Latin by the Northumbrian monk Bede in 725. Background In mid-7th-century Anglo-Saxon England, there was a desire to see the Easter season less closely tied to the Jewish Passover calendar, as well as a desire to have Easter observed on a Sunday. Continuing a tradition of Christian scholarship exploring the correct date of Easter, a generation later, Bede sought to explain the ecclesiastical reasoning behind the Synod of Whitby's decision in 664 to favor Roman custom over Irish custom. Bede's resulting treatise provides justification for a precise calculation for Easter. It also explains why time, and the various units of time, are sacred. Structure The treatise includes an introduction to the traditional ancient and medieval view of the cosmos, including an explanation of how the Earth influenced the changing length of daylight, of how the seasonal motion of the Sun and Moon infl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beda Venerabilis' Easter Cycle
In the year 616 an anonymous scholar extended Dionysius Exiguus' Easter table to an Easter table covering the years 532 up to and including 721. Dionysius' table was published in 525 and only a century later accepted by the church of Rome, which from the third century up till then had given preference to go on using her own, relatively inadequate, Easter tables. From about the middle of the seventh century all controversy between Alexandria and Rome as to the correct date of Easter ceased, as both churches were now using identical tables. In the year 725 Bede (Latin name Beda Venerabilis) published a new extension of Dionysius’ Easter table to a great Easter cycle, which is periodic in its entirety and in which consequently not only the sequence of (Julian calendar) dates of Alexandrian Paschal full moon but also the sequence of (Julian calendar) dates of Alexandrian Easter Sunday is periodic. Bede's Easter cycle contains lunar cycles (of 19 years) as well as solar cycles ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
