An Introduction to Naked Eye Astronomy: Annual and Daily Motion

At the beginning of the semester, just a few months ago, I paid very little attention to the night sky.  That all changed when I took the awesome Ancient Astronomies course at CU with professor John Stocke.  Although I'm definitely not an expert, I've learned a lot, and I love sharing it with you guys.  However, sometimes it can be tough to tell what exactly you are looking at, where you should look for something, or even how the sky changes throughout the day or year.  Hopefully this post, as well as any others I make, can help you figure things out.*

To further assist you in your understanding, I made a video supplement to this post.  Below is the video embedded within the post, but if for whatever reason that is not working, click HERE to check it out.  I refer to it several times later on in the post, and it just makes things easier to understand.  You can watch it as you read along.

First off, look at the picture below.  In it, we see the Earth encased in a plastic globe with the constellations printed on it.  For our purposes, that plastic globe with the constellations printed on it is called the celestial sphere.  Inside the celestial sphere, you can see a tiny little yellow ball: the Sun.  (I can't actually see it in this picture, but the Moon is probably inside the ball as well.)  Is that how the universe looks then?  Of course not.  We've known for many, many years that the sun is neither that close in size or distance to the Earth.  However, this model is how we can think of the night sky, especially when it comes to naked eye astronomy.  It shows, from where you are on the Earth's surface, what constellations the Sun and the Moon are in, and what constellations you can see from your specific point on the planet.

A lot of the time in naked eye astronomy, we say things that mean one thing while they sound like another.  Like what I just said: "what constellations the Sun and the Moon are in."  If we were to look up at the night sky and see the Moon smack-dab in the middle of a constellation, we realize that the distance between the moon and the stars is actually much greater than what it initially appears.  However, for our intents and purposes and to make things simpler, we just say "the Moon is in the constellation of...."  Just like when we talk about the daily motion of the Sun.  When we say that the Sun sets or rises, we realize that the Earth is the celestial body that is moving.  But from an Earth-bound perspective, it doesn't look that way.

Before we go any further, it's time to meet a very important star: Polaris, the North Star.  As you probably know, Polaris is called the North Star because it is situated directly to the north.  This star sits almost exactly on something that is called the North Celestial Pole.  Look back up at that globe for a second.  See that metal bar that sticks right through the middle of the Earth?  That's the Earth's axis of rotation, or how the Earth spins around.  And see how that pole intersects with the celestial sphere?  Those are the North and South Celestial Poles.

Confused?  I thought you might be.  I know I definitely was.  Stand up, find someplace where you can safely spin around, and start to spin, looking straight out in front of you.  After doing that a few times, look straight up.  Notice how when you looked straight in front of you, everything seemed to move, and move pretty fast too.  Now, when you look up at the ceiling, you can still see everything moving, but there is a single point that doesn't move at its center.  That single point is the equivalent of the North Celestial Pole.

Now, let's look at the video that I made to accompany this post.  We will start with "Part I: Polaris in Boulder".  Part 1 shows how the celestial sphere spins around Polaris over the course of a single night.  This part of the video takes place at 40° N, and is facing north.  "Part II: The Equator" shows the spinning celestial sphere from the point of view of someone standing slightly north of the Equator, just far enough that they can still see Polaris.  They are still facing north.  "Part III: The North Pole" tracks the daily motion of the celestial sphere from the perspective of someone who is lying on their back and looking straight up, situated at the North Pole.  Try and draw comparisons between what you see at the Equator and the North Pole; and what you saw while you were spinning and looking straight in front of you, and straight up.  While you watch all three clips, notice how in each one there are some stars and constellations that never set, with the fewest being at the Equator and the most being at the North Pole.  These stars and constellations are called "circumpolar."

So now it's time to introduce two different types of celestial motion: daily, and annual.  Daily motion can really apply to anything in the night sky, and is what we've just been looking at.  The three parts of the video taking place in Boulder, the Equator, and the North Pole were three views of daily motion at different locations on the planet.  Even with the video to help guide you, it can be difficult to absorb, so this might be a good place to stop and absorb what you have learned.

Excellent.  Now, on to the other main type of motion that we will discuss today: annual motion!  Annual motion applies to the celestial objects that move over shorts amount of time (i.e. not thousands or millions of years) against the backdrop of the celestial sphere: the planets, including the Sun and the Moon.  The motion of the moon amongst the heavens is arguably the most easily observed, as it changes constantly, and you can compare its relative position with that of the sun.  A discussion of the moon and its phases will take up an entire post though, so we can do that later.  For now, it's just important to recognize that the main objects that we see moving through the sky from night to night are the planets.  

There are two such planets easily observable in the night sky right now, and I fear that as I am writing this it might already be too late for one.  Venus and Jupiter are typically the brightest planets in the sky, with the former being quite variable in its brightest and degree of visibility throughout its journey around the sun.  Again, a topic for another time.  If it can still be seen in the night sky, however, look for Venus right after the Sun sets in the west.

I think I've used this picture like four times or something now, but it's the best one I've got.  The Moon is in a waxing crescent phase above Venus as the Evening Star, the bright object between the Moon and the mountains.  We will talk more about Venus and its varied locations in the morning and evening sky some other time.  This picture was taken in early November here in Boulder.  

So what did you hopefully learn in this post?  This post was really just a rudimentary introduction to how the sky moves each night, also called daily motion.  You should remember the term "North Celestial Pole," and remember that that is where Polaris is located.  You also briefly learned about what it means to be a circumpolar stars or constellation.  We just barely touched on annual motion, a topic we will delve into deeper later, as well as the phases of the moon.  In the next Intro to Astronomy post, I will show you how to locate several celestial objects and constellations, including The Big Dipper, Polaris, Orion, and Jupiter.  Until then, clear skies!

*I am writing from a latitude of about 40 degrees North, in Boulder, Colorado.  The information in this post can apply to anyone within that belt around the world.  For example, people in Beijing and Baltimore, both cities around 40 degree North latitude, will see the same thing every night as people in Bursa and Boulder.


Works Cited:

All of the videos here were made using footage from the excellent Stellarium app.  Check it out, it's free!

Kicking It In Crested Butte and a Little Geology Lesson

Over the summer, my family and I took a driving trip to several sites in Colorado that we hadn't been to before, or at least not in awhile.  I never got around to sharing pictures from that trip, but now that I have some free time on my hands, I've decided to go back and share some of the cooler pictures from that trip!  Let's start in the awesome and beautiful Crested Butte!

First off, a little geology lesson!  According to some of the signs placed along the path near town, Crested Butte* is something called a laccolith.  As you can see on the diagrams below on the sign, laccoliths look kind of like pimples that form at some places on the earth's surface.  First, layers of sedimentary rock were deposited.  Next, igneous rock in the form of magma melted its way through several of the underlying sedimentary layers, as you can see in the second picture.  The presence of more matter caused the overlying sedimentary layers to be pushed up, while the underlying layers remained flat.  

Over time, the magma cooled and crystallized, forming a granite-like igneous rock, with crystals of feldspar mixed in.  By using radiometric dating, geologists have determined that these rocks were formed around 30 million years ago, during the Oligocene Epoch.  Over those last 30 MY, erosion and weathering have broken down those layers of sedimentary rock that once covered the laccolith, and exposed the intrusion.  The intrusion is what makes up what you would walk on and see when you are on the mountain. 

A picture of some of the rocks near the summit of Crested Butte.  You can see a little pika peeking out from behind a rock in the center of the picture!  Interestingly (at least to me), the last time I talked about either pikas or the Oligocene Epoch was in the same post, the "Top Ten Mammals That Look Like Something They Aren't (Part 1)," a fun post if there ever was one!

Crested Butte (the mountain) has been further isolated from the surrounding mountains due to the influence of glacial forces.  Telltale signs of past glaciation are abundant in and around Crested Butte, including the u-shaped valleys, polished bedrock, giant boulders in places where they have no business being, and moraines (defined below), amongst other lines of evidence, all point to past episodes of glaciation.  Geologists have dated most of the moraines as about 22.5 to 16.5 thousand years old, during the last Ice Age, and believe that glacial retreat occurred rapidly about 15,000 years ago.  Even older glacial deposits date back to around 100,000 years ago!  

The scenery was truly spectacular between the town and where we were staying, up near the mountain resort, which in turn was next to the very confusing home rule principality of Mt. Crested Butte.  At times, the path turned into a boardwalk, which helped to preserve the wetlands in the area.  

Towards town, we passed over the Slate River.

A shot of the bridge over the Slate River in the foreground, with Crested Butte in the background.

As you can imagine, the area was populated by numerous birds, several of which I got pictures of.  I am fairly confident that this first one was a female mountain bluebird (Sialia currucoides).

We also saw a ton of killdeer (Charadrius vociferus), a fascinating bird, the adults of which will feign injury to draw predators away from fledlings, nests, eggs, and the like.  I've included a video which shows one of these animals doing its injury feigning!  In case the internal link or whatever it's called isn't working, click HERE to view the video.

Here are the pictures I took of the many killdeer running around!

A few more shots of the amazing scenery!

The next day out the window of the hotel room, we saw a pudgy dog walking by with a neck pillow looking thing around its neck.  A little research revealed that this was a KONG Cloud E-Collar, which pretty much serves the same purpose as the cone that you put on dogs and cats after surgeries or the like.  

Here is another picture of the dog.  This time it is relieving itself.

We ate breakfast at a fun little place along the creek!  I had a pancake that was ridiculously enormous.

There were lots of very pretty flowers all over town, including these yellow or wood poppies (Stylophorum diphyllum).  

I don't remember which building it was exactly, but one of the buildings in town had the mounted head of what is supposedly the world's largest rack of elk antlers, shot in Crested Butte in 1899 by a man named John Plute.  The antlers were certified as the largest in the world in 1961.  They definitely did look pretty large!

We'll be looking at more pictures from Crested Butte later!  See you then!

*Point of interest and possible confusion: Crested Butte can refer both to the town with a population of around 1,000, or the mountain with an elevation of 12,168 feet.  If you hear someone talk about Mt. Crested Butte, then they are most likely referring to the home rule principality by that name.  I don't really know what a home rule principality is, and a little bit of research nearly put me into a deep, trance-like state.  

Crested Butte on Dwellable

Works Cited:

A Nightly Game of Celestial Proportions: The Winter Solstice and the Chumash

My research paper for my Ancient Astronomies class was all about the Astronomy of the Chumash Indians of southern California.  I had originally planned on sharing each section of the paper in order here on the blog, but since today is the winter solstice, I thought I would skip ahead a few posts and share a bit about the Chumash in regards to the solstice a little early.  Don't worry, we will come back and revisit it later once we talk more about the Chumash, but for now, here is the excerpt from my paper, slightly edited to make it easier to understand with our current level of knowledge.

One thing that was very important for the Chumash was a nightly game played by several of the celestial beings that were very important to them. The game was called peon, and when played by the two celestial teams, it was a high-stakes game indeed, as the game was thought to affect the “future of the entire biotic world.” One team consisted of Sun and Slo’w (Golden Eagle, Venus as the Evening Star), while the other team consisted of Sky Coyote and Morning Star (Venus when it rises before the Sun), and Moon was the scorekeeper. The teams played each night, and on the night of the Winter Solstice, the scores were tallied to see who won the most. If Sky Coyote and Morning Star won, then the following year the earth would be bathed in rain by the Two Thunders (associated with Venus as the Morning Star), and there would be an abundance of food. However, if Sun and Slo’w won, then the “spoils would be human lives.”

The Winter Solstice was not a fun day for the Chumash. This was the time of year that they believed “Sun was especially angry at them.” Although it does not explicitly say in the text, it seems as if humans would have reason to fear regardless of whether Sun won or lost the peon game. If Sun won, then human lives were forfeit; if Sun lost, then he would probably be fairly unhappy, and might take out his anger upon humans. 

The Winter Solstice was also thought to be a time when the supernatural powers inherent within humans was needed “to aid in the cosmic rebirth of the universe.” The shaman-priests of the Chumash would do their best to make sure that “order and balance” was restored to the universe, and life “for all things” was maintained. Requests and pleas from both commoners and the elite, as well as public and private rituals, were employed to “'pull’ the sun back again on a northward course."

My paper was several pages longer than the maximum requirement, and I had already made the print really small, so I didn't get a chance to go into a little more detail regarding the last line above, where the Chumash would "pull the sun back again on a northward course."  My astronomy professor, John Stocke, described how the Chumash would point ceremonial poles that were perfectly straight right at the sun, so that the shadow left on the ground was a perfect circle, as small as it could be.  Then, the individuals holding the poles would "pull" as hard as they could, trying to pull the sun back up in the sky.  

Happy Winter Solstice everybody, and let us hope that the Sun does not win!

Works Cited

Round 1: Winter Trivia Contest 2013

Welcome to Round 1 of our Trivia Contest of Winter 2013!  Below we have the questions that make up Round 1.  I discussed the rules in our last post, which you can read by clicking HERE.  Each question is worth 2 points, unless otherwise indicated.  Below the actual questions, I will include an answer sheet.  You can copy and paste the answer sheet into an email or a Word document, and email them to me at tnaturalworld1@gmail.com.  In your email, please also include your team name and the names of your team members.  All answers for Round 1 must be received by Saturday December 28th!  Here are the questions.  Good luck!

1.  Which of the following is NOT an archosaur? 

A.     American Alligator

B.     Tyrannosaurus rex

C.     Pteranodon

D.    Komodo dragon

E.     Stegosaurus

2.  Though they are called the “Buffaloes,” what is really the mascot of the University of Colorado in Boulder?

3.  In terms of their names, name the odd one out:

A.     Dracorex

B.     Guanlong

C.     Triceratops

D.     Hippodraco

4.  What dinosaur is pictured here?  (1 point for a relatively close answer, 2 points for the correct answer.)

5.   Is Megalodon still alive today?  Should we trust Discovery Channel?

6.  Which of the following birds is made up? 

A.     Hammerkop

B.     Screwdriver-bill

C.     Helmeted Hornbill

D.     Shoe-bill

E.      Spoon-bill

7.  Which of the following species of snake is most closely related to the milk snake, Lampropeltis triangulatum?

A.     Corn Snake

B.     Anaconda

C.     Rattlesnake

D.    Kingsnake

E.     Pit Viper

8.  Which of the following is NOT a textbook case of convergent evolution:

A.     Thylacosmilus/Smilodon

B.     Musk Deer/Chinese Water Deer

C.     Mammoth/Mastodon

D.     Gray Wolf/Thylacine

9.  What in the world is THAT!  (1 point for a relatively close answer, 2 points for the correct answer.)

10.  For almost every single constellation that we recognize here on Earth, the stars that make up that constellation almost always have no physical relationship with each other, and just appear to be close together from here on Earth. Name the one major exception, known to the Japanese as “Subaru.”

11. What shape is wombat poop? 

12.  True or False: On average, hyenas scavenge more than lions.

13.  Some people think that the discovery of fossilized Protoceratops bones in the Gobi Desert was the inspiration behind what mythical creature?

A.     Dragon

B.     Griffin

C.     Mermaid

D.     Cyclops

E.      Centaur

14.  What’s wrong with this story: “As the giant man used his pocketknife to help him circumnavigate the great jungles of the Amazon Basin, he was startled by the abundant diversity of life.  He saw everything from piranha, macaws, and anaconda, and even saw a black leopard attack a javelina!”

15.  Dermal armor is a feature seen by all of the following except:

A.     Giant ground sloths

B.     Armadillos

C.     Pangolins

D.    Glyptodonts

E.     Ankylosaurs

F.     Clouded leopard

16.  All of the following dinosaurs have been discovered in the Morrison Formation, which has outcrops in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and several other states.  All, that is, except for which one? 

A.     Utahraptor

B.     Apatosaurus

C.     Stegosaurus

D.    Camptosaurus

E.     Allosaurus

F.     Gargoyleosaurus

17.  What is pictured here?

A.     Mosasaur

B.     Dinosaur

C.     Pterosaur

D.    Ichthyosaur

E.     Plesiosaur

F.     Dolphin

18.  What strange feature seen in the young hoatzin sets it apart from any other living birds, and forges a resemblance with its extinct ancestors like Archaeopteryx?

A.     Tentacles

B.     Claws on wings

C.     Teeth in mouth

D.     Marshmallows

E.      Flightlessness

19.  How many species of penguin live and breed in the Northern Hemisphere, above the Equator?

A.     Two, the African and Galápagos Penguin

B.     None, everyone knows penguins live at the South Pole

C.     None, everyone knows penguins live at the North Pole

D.    One, the African Penguin

E.     None, everyone knows penguins live in Antarctica

F.     One, the Galápagos Penguin

G.    None, penguins don’t exist

20.  What Triassic animal is pictured here, courtesy of Sam Lippincott?  (1 point for a relatively close answer, 2 points for the correct answer.)

Photo Credit: Sam Lippincott

21.  Why is it ironic when people kill bull snakes, mistaking them for rattlesnakes?

A.     Because bull snakes ARE rattlesnakes

B.     Because bull snakes kill and eat rattlesnakes

C.     Because bull snakes are more venomous than rattlesnakes

D.     Because rattlesnakes and bull snakes live on different continents

E.     Because bull snakes don’t exist

22.  A blast from the past: having been around for hundreds of millions of years, what is the name of this “living fossil?”  (1 point for a relatively close answer, 2 points for the correct answer.)


23.  Which of the following is a habitat that you would NOT expect to find a kangaroo in?

A.     The Australian Outback

B.     In the forest canopy of New Guinea rainforests, 60 feet above the ground

C.     Swimming in the shallows of the Great Barrier Reef, consuming kelp and other             oceanic plants

D.    The Australia Zoo

E.    Oh, kangaroos definitely exist, I would just expect to find them in all of these                   locations.  After all, they ARE kangaroos.

24.  Which of the following is NOT a term used in reference to a past mass extinction? 

A.     K/T Event

B.     Cambrian Explosion

C.     The Great Dying

D.     Deccan Traps

25.  Scientific names too hard to remember?  That’s not the case for this “river horse.”


Now, here is the answer sheet.  It really is not that complicated, just copy and paste this into an email and send it my way at tnaturalworld1@gmail.com!  

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