Mysteries So Bright

He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness,and the light dwells with Him. (Daniel 2:22 ESV)

There are some really interesting stories about the stars and clocks. Two tales come to mind. One is Galileo and the first study he made of Jupiter. And then a century or two later, the story of the British watchmaker, John Harrison.

Galileo took his first successful telescope and turned it on the planet Jupiter on Jan. 7, 1610. He recorded the sight in his notebook, making a sketch of the planet which had become larger than a pinpoint of light in the eyepiece. But he also noticed three stars near the view of the planet that happened to be in a straight line, with that line passing through the center of Jupiter.

The second night he looked again, and something seemed wrong. He faithfully sketched this new view, comparing it with the first one, and the stars were not in the same arrangement that they had been the first night, although they still were in a straight line. Had he made a mistake the first night?

He could not wait until the 3rd night, but alas! It was raining that night. Later in the week, he was able to look again at Jupiter and these strange stars and see that the arrangement was indeed different from either of the other two sketches. What was going on?

It took him several days finally to catch on. These points of light were not stars, but four moons of Jupiter orbiting quite close to the planet, with the moon (now called Io) nearest Jupiter, making a complete circle around the host planet in a mere 42 hours. Note: frequently you can only see 2 or 3 of them, because one or more of them are behind or in front of the planet, which is why it took several days to see all four.

What was really significant about this, and it got him in trouble with the church hierarchy, was that here was a clear example of something in orbit around a body other than the earth. Much debate was going on at that time because many believed that the whole universe revolved around the earth, including the sun. But Galileo was able to agree with Copernicus that the earth is not at the center of everything, and here was proof in the Jovian system. (Jove = Jupiter).

The second story is about the first clock made accurately enough to carry on a ship and yield accurate navigation data on a round trip voyage from England to the New World. I will write about that story soon.

And how did they check the clock for accuracy? By the moons of Jupiter! This was in 1714, and by then tables for the times of the motions of these 4 moons of Jupiter were published for navigation, with accurate predictions of these motions for several months into the future.

So, once again, here is a beautiful example of the Designer of the universe giving us a hidden source of knowledge – a mystery – that has been revealed to mankind. In fact the Greek word translated as mystery in the Bible means something hidden that has been uncovered. Isn’t our Lord wonderful!

Arc to Arcturus

And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem… (Luke 24:32-33 KJV)

Easter Sunday evening,  I decided to see how it would be to walk at dark like the 2 disciples did on the road from Emmaus back to Jerusalem, 3 days after Passover, as related in the Luke passage.  This year we had about the same Passover to Sunday arrangement of days that they had at the time of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus.

At dusk I started walking into the 40 acres of woods behind our house along an old path that I frequent, trying not to use the flashlight in my pocket.  This was not exactly the same thing the disciples experienced, since there are few trees in that part of Israel and I think their road was easier to see than this narrow path through the tall trees.

Soon I was struggling to see the path at all, but I looked up, and the brighter stars had burst forth, soon to be followed by a myriad of others.  I was comforted that I could use the stars to help navigate as I deviated from my customary path to go over to the edge of a large beaver pond I had discovered a few days ago.  I picked out a bright star in the South to get my orientation so I could retrace my steps, keeping it to my right, thus walking in a easterly direction.  The woods and brush are thick there, but I made it to the edge of the water and enjoyed hearing the frogs croaking and some other night sounds.

By this time I could tell the bright star I had picked out was Sirius, also called the “dog star”, in the constellation Canis Major (“the big dog”).  I also found the stars Arcturus and Spica.  I recalled with amusement the Intro. to Astronomy course I taught circa 1975 at Piedmont College in Georgia.  That summer night class consisted of two  rather unenthusiastic guys who, I believe, took away only one thing from the class: “Arc over to Arcturus and spike over to Spica.”

And that little mnemonic is exactly what I used Sunday night to identify these stars when I got to a part of the journey where I could see enough of the sky to use the trick.  The picture above has a diagram of the Big Dipper, Bootes, and Virgo.  You take the Big Dipper’s handle and imagine an arc extending from the handle over to a bright reddish star, which is Arcturus in Bootes.  And then you continue the arc,  “spiking” over to Spica (which rhymes with “spike a “).  To see Sirius,  you keep turning toward the western part of the sky and notice it as the current very bright “evening” star at about the same altitude above the horizon as Spica.

Maybe this will help some of you to get started in finding your way in the night sky.  It is very satisfying to take up this hobby and be able to name the constellations and the bright stars you have seen all of your life.  Also, as you become familiar with them,  it is easy to pick out the planets because they travel slowly through the constellations,  “messing up” the patterns you have gotten used to.  For example,  Saturn is in Leo this year,  clearly causing the “Lion” to look different.

By the way,  my usual one hour walk took almost two hours in the dark.  I did use the flashlight a few times, but did pretty well getting back to my home in the dark.  It gave a new perspective on the 2 mile or so path,  a quiet and beautiful memory in my heart.

Jupiter, Venus, and the Moon over Oahu's Ko'olau mountains.

Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
the world and those who dwell in it!
Let the rivers clap their hands;
Let the hills sing for joy together…(Ps. 98:7-8 ESV)

Our solar system moves with wondrous complexity. All of the planets revolve around the Sun at different rates, all of the bodies rotate on their axes, the moons revolve around their respective planets. Some call this motion the dance of the planets.

But what is in our solar system? The sun (named Sol), of course, the 8 or 9 planets (depending on what you call Pluto), the many moons of the planets, the asteroids, the meteoroids, the periodic comets, an abundance of debris and dust – mostly natural, but some man-made – all of these are captivated by Sol’s gravitational pull.

An aside: my granddaughter’s third grade class voted to reinstate Pluto to the planet status. Pluto’s demotion to a dwarf planet due to its small size ( done by an international committee of astronomers) apparently has not gone down well with some members of the elementary school set. I think I agree, even though, I have never been able to find it in the sky. I will have to get back into that endeavor … maybe after getting my garden started for the spring.

Here is an amazing fact: with only a very few exceptions, the orbital motions – the revolutions of the planets and moons around their “parents”, and the rotations of these bodies on their axes – are all in a counter-clockwise direction as seen from the north star. In other words, if you could fly out to Polaris (our north star) and look “down” on the solar system, you would see practically all of the rotational motion moving in the same counter-clockwise direction, rather like a ballroom full of dancers all twirling in the same direction.

This orderly motion makes it possible to predict where everything will be in the future unless some outside object intrudes into the system. What are some of the easier predictions?

The most obvious motion is the daily rotation of the earth on its axis, which makes the sun and moon move across the sky from east to west, but likewise the stars and planets move at about the same rate across our sky, also from east to west. But because we are also traveling around the sun once per year, the stars and planets rise (and set) about 4 minutes earlier each day. It is this motion that causes different stars to appear overhead at different times in the year.

At the same time, the moon is revolving around the earth at a rate of about 28 days, so that it rises and sets about an hour later each day. An intricate addition to this orbital dance is the motion of the planets, each of which gradually moves among the stars westerly across our sky. It takes, for example, Jupiter about 12 years to orbit the sun, and since there are 12 constellations around the sky’s equator, it moves about one constellation per year in its orbit.

At present Jupiter is in the constellation Capricorn. Next year at this time, it should be in the constellation Aquarius (I am having a difficult time confirming this away from home at this time, because most of the internet sources talk about astrology instead of astronomy – we need another article to talk about that!)

Anyway, all of this makes it exciting to look up after the weeks of cloudiness and rain with which we have been blessed in central Virginia and see an unexpected bright light among the “fixed” stars, and wonder what it is. Is it Jupiter or Mars or Saturn, or maybe something else?

This article supposed to appear in the Caroline Progress on April 2, 2009, and will be copyrighted by the newspaper.

(Photo on Steve Spangler's blog)

(This article submitted to Caroline Progress)
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10-11

I read years ago that you can find meteorites right in your own yard.  And I finally have done so, even though they are so small that a microscope is needed to see them.

What are meteorites?  Usually that term describes meteors (“falling stars”) that have partially survived their fiery entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.  Most of these “rocks” are very dense and a good percentage of these are attracted to magnets because they contain iron.

Scientists state that hundreds of tons of this outer space material fall to the earth every year.   And most of this material is in the form of micrometeorites: dust-size particles that are best seen under the microscope.  A lot of these contain iron and are easy to separate from “earth dust” by a magnet.

Which brings me to how I have found some the last few weeks.  Rain and snow are good sources for these alien particles because rain drops and snow flakes usually form around a nucleus of dust in the atmosphere, and hence are likely to contain a micrometeorite.

My procedure is to put out a clean mixing bowl to let it fill with snow or rain and then pour the resulting water through a coffee filter.  The filter is then laid on a plate to dry – I usually use a toaster oven to speed up this part.

Next I take a sticky note and lightly run the sticky edge over the filter paper, hoping to “capture” the residual dust.  I then put this under a microscope using a glass slide atop it to help keep the paper flat.

The search through the dozens of particles is a little tedious, but when I happen upon a particle that is round and shiny, as those in the photo, then I feel pretty sure I have found a micrometeorite, especially if it tends to move when I bring a small magnet up close.  I have thus far found about half a dozen tiny, round, black, shiny particles – all less than 1/10 of a millimeter in diameter. (I put a scale in the microscope view to estimate that).

I continue to stand amazed at the variety of wonders in all of creation.  It is a great time to be alive and search for these hidden mysteries.