- Mar 26, 2020
Flattening That Other Curve
Most people have seen the graph exhorting citizens to lessen the spread of coronavirus in order to prevent a surge from overwhelming our health system. We have to "flatten the curve" by acting boldly now in order to lessen imminent calamity. This graph is necessarily simplified because it is a generalization without specific data. Nonetheless, the validity of the predictive science remains. In practice, we assign real numbers to the graph. Today, for example, most news me
- Mar 24, 2020
Astronomical Debt
The US national debt exceeds 23 trillion dollars. That's $23 with twelve zeroes after it. What would $23 trillion look like? At US Debt Clock.org you can get a running live tally. How do we wrap our head around such large numbers? Here's a modified analogy from a 2012 blog post when the debt was rocketing past $16 trillion and an election neared to choose a President for the next four years: Astronomy used to be the provenance of really big numbers, but purveyors of and s
- Mar 22, 2020
Time Zone and Saving Time Debate
Every year when people have to change their clocks to accommodate Daylight Saving Time renewed criticism arises calling for abolishment of the practice. Sometimes the argument is in concert with discussion about time zone changes for cities or states bordering a neighbor with a different time zone. In 2005 I wrote an analemma-intensive response to a newspaper columnist's claims. When we switched to Daylight Saving Time (DST) in 2020, I saw it more as Night Saving Time in th
- Mar 21, 2020
Biding Time At Night
As the continent goes dormant, people have a lot of time on their hands. We can watch events on the same metronome of life that we previously tolerated, or we can find events on longer time scales that we're now willing or at least time-enabled to watch. I don't purport to know what I'm talking about here, for I'm a newbie to pandemic responses. However, I propose we collectively watch a few celestial events unfold over time as we are unaccustomed to observing. We only hav
- Mar 12, 2020
Earth Day Includes Earth Night
As Earth Day celebrates 50 years in 2020, embrace earth night, too, for half of all life occurs from sunset to sunrise. Stargazers will find celestial highlights before and after daylight hours on April 22. A new moon occurs that night (10:25 pm EDT), so natural moonlight will not interfere with the observing. Lyrid Meteor Shower In the opening hours of April 22, the Lyrid meteor shower peaks. Meteor showers are generally better after midnight because the observer is looki
