Science Megathread

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I have a small interest in astronomy, or at least stargazing, so I took advantage of the new moon a few weeks ago to see the Perseid meteor event. Of course, I made only about 20 counts in two days of observations, but it was pretty inspiring nonetheless.

Since then, I've been learning about constellations. This week has been pretty poisonous to stargazing on account of the full moon and the general smogginess of TX in the summer, but I glad I made the effort. TX lies far enough southward that a number of constellations of the southern hemisphere are fully visible here, like Sagittarius and Scorpius (a stunning one). But I regret not starting earlier this year: at the end of spring, even most of Centaurus  (but not alpha-Centauri -- that star cluster is not visible north of Mexico) and some of Crux the Southern Cross are just visible on the deep southern horizon. I will have to wait until December (at 2 AM) before I can see either.

[Storebought]

After a month of trial and error in finding the best site, I've finally found the Old Man Star, Canopus.

The article was written in February; at this time of year, Canopus rises about 45 min before sunrise.

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3,700-year-old Babylonian tablet rewrites the history of maths - and shows the Greeks did not develop trigonometry



Sarah Knapton, Science Editor
24 August 2017 • 7:00pm

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I thought it was understood the ancient Greeks adapted the knowledge they received from their Asian colonies and organized it and made it systematic. Their alphabet, religion, and astronomy certainly were not original creations.