Category Archives: Astronomy

Counting Nearby Stars

Posted on 31-August-2013 by mathscinotes

In my previous post, I casually stated that there are 61 stars in the region within 5 parsecs of the Sun -- at least according to the Gliese Catalog of Nearby Stars. I did not state where you could get … Continue reading →

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Radio Communication Between the Stars

Posted on 29-August-2013 by mathscinotes

Introduction A phone call from a cancer epidemiologist a few months ago got me thinking radio communication over long distance. This researcher was a sharp guy who immediately saw the dynamic range issues associated with cell tower communication -- the … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, General Mathematics | 7 Comments

Voyager 1 and Gliese 445

Posted on 30-June-2013 by mathscinotes

Introduction I was reading an article about the Voyager 1 space craft nearing the edge of interstellar space. This article was so interesting that I ended up reading a number of articles on the subject (one example) and they all … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy | 9 Comments

Fireflies and Supernova

Posted on 10-June-2013 by mathscinotes

Introduction Scientists always face the problem of making their work accessible to the public. Accessibility is crucial to scientific research continuing to receive funding. Part of this accessibility is creating analogies that relate scientific data to aspects of everyday life. … Continue reading →

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Atmospheric Filtering of Sunlight

Posted on 6-June-2013 by mathscinotes

Introduction Today, I was asked a question about the amount of visible optical power that actually reaches the Earth's surface. I also need to compute the illuminance of this optical power, which tells me how bright this light appears. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, General Science | 1 Comment

Star Visual Magnitude Math

Posted on 31-May-2013 by mathscinotes

Introduction I have been reading a number of interesting astronomy articles lately. These articles often refer to the apparent and absolute magnitude of a celestial object or event (example). I thought I would work through a bit of the math … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, General Science | 1 Comment

Exoplanet Orbit Example

Posted on 14-May-2013 by mathscinotes

This is an exciting time for astronomy -- we are just now beginning to obtain spectra from exoplanets. It seems as if new exoplanet discoveries are being announced every week.

I was reading an article on Space.com about some great work on obtaining the spectra from planets orbiting HR 8799 (Figure 1). While looking at the image, I thought it would be interesting to see if I can duplicate some of their orbital calculations. Continue reading →

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How Big is Phobos When Seen from the Surface of Mars?

Posted on 1-May-2013 by mathscinotes

The thought of alien worlds with multiple moons has always intrigued me. I am listening to the audio book "A Princess of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I downloaded the audio book from Libravox, which provides free downloads of readings from classic works. Normally, I do not listen to much science fiction, but I watched the movie "John Carter" and there was something I liked about the story. Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy | Tagged | 2 Comments

Neat photos from the International Space Station

Posted on 5-April-2013 by mathscinotes

Neat photos from the International Space Station Some co-workers and I are practicing speaking German while at work. One of these co-workers found some great photos on the Der Spiegel web site, which is a site we use for practice. … Continue reading →

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Asteroid Belt Mass Distribution Analysis

Posted on 3-March-2013 by mathscinotes

Introduction The meteor explosion over Russia really interests me and I have been reading as much about it as I can. While reading about meteors and asteroids, I encountered the following statement. The total mass of the asteroid belt is … Continue reading →

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