Monday, February 23, 2009

Copernicus: the latest sighting

from the magazine ARCHAEOLOGY, March/April 2009:

“POLAND: Until now, no one knew for certain what happened to the remains of Nicolas Copernicus, the 16th-century astronomer who proclaimed that the earth revolves around the sun. Scientists have solved the mystery--they matched DNA from a skeleton, found in a cathedral in 2005, with DNA from hair taken from Copernicus's copy of Johannes Stoeffler's Calendarium Romanum Magnum.
A facial reconstruction based on the skull bears a convincing likeness to portraits of the heretical scientist, from the scar above his eye to his crooked nose. “

To see a photo of the reconstruction go to ‘World Roundup’ [Patel, S. 2009: 62 (2): 11]

Friday, February 20, 2009

Friday night 'two-for' special at WCC Imaginarium & Observatory

Tonight Friday February 20, two special events will occur:
from 7pm – 8pm
the Hokulani Imaginarium at Windward Community College
presents
Cosmic Perceptions takes the Imaginarium audience on a journey across the seas of time and space--from Stonehenge to the Hubble Space Telescope. Learn how we observe and perceive nature by taking an imaginary flight on a beam of light into the human eye, down the optic nerve and across the neurons in our brain.Cosmic Perceptions also tells the story of how astronomers are expanding our knowledge of the heavens with new and more powerful telescopes.Through the use of the Imaginarium's interactive response system, audience members will get a chance to challenge their own understanding of the Cosmos.

Tickets may be purchased at the Imaginarium box office 30 minutes before the show, or call 235-7433 to reserve tickets in advance. [
$3 for children (12 and under); $4 for UH students, military or seniors (65+); $5 for adults]

followed 8pm-9pm by: NASA Great Observatories Images
at the Lanihuli Observatory [Windward Community College]
A special unveiling of spectacular, multiwavelength images of our universe taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Cost: Free

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

You'll be able to see the ISS tonight & tomorrow from Hawai'i. If you check out the Heavens Above website, you can see the times it will pass overhead and the magnitude:

http://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=25544&lat=21.29433&lng=-157.8344&loc=Honolulu&alt=0&tz=UCT10

You can really see it at 6:56 on Friday.

You can also use Heavens Above to find Iridium flares, which are also cool.

Thanks to Richard Wainscoat for the reminder e-mail.