How to remember the Zodiac!

So I asked the greater planetarium community last week for whatever mnemonics they use to remember the order of the Zodiacal constellations.  As a reminder, the constellations are:

Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces

It’s a lot of words.  Any mnemonic would be really long as well.  Memorizing that mnemonic would probably take more effort than just memorizing the list.  Still, I was optimistic.

However, what I got back from them wasn’t exactly memorable.

Now given, what responses I got were well thought out and creative, no doubt.  They just weren’t really — memorable.  For instance, I received one response that read, “A Tense Grey Cat Lay Very Low, Sneaking Slowly, Contemplating a Pounce.”

That one would be the easiest to remember by far!  The problem is in the flow of the thing.  Remember the one about the planets?  “My very eager mother just served us nine pizzas.”  See how the rhythm makes all the difference?

So I took myself to task to create a mnemonic device on my own!  Turns out that’s a lot harder than it sounds.  I spent a good part of my weekend staring at my keyboard and perusing a thesaurus.  In the end, none of the ones I came up with flowed at all.  None.  I’m a failure at writing catchy mnemonics it seems.

But…  (hehe)  after much frustration I *did* happen to make a few slightly more memorable!  Here’s what I came up with:

Around Thanksgiving, grandpas condone letting vivacious little spry sprouts carve a pumpkin.

Active tectonic gyrations could launch volcanic lava skyward, surely causing a panic.

Any time granny covets Leo’s vegan lunch, she should cut a pizza.

Antsy tribbles give captains love.  Valued lush Scottie shouts, “Cut all power!”

As trusty gopher Chekov locates vessels, logical Spock studies cute aquarium personnel.

Anakin truly gone, corrupt Lord Vader labeled Solo-shaped carbonite, “Airmail Parcel.”

After Tatooine, grouchy Chewbacca luckily veered left steering safely clear around Porkins.

Acid trips give class lectures vivid life something something …cool astral plane!

Obviously, I should’ve spent more time getting actual work done.  But what I ended with is one that I really might try to memorize for personal use.  It seems the most …relevant.

“A time gone, cowboys loved viewing little stars, so cold and pretty.”

Umm, now that I think about it, I think I’ll go for the “Leo the vegan” one instead.

 

Update:  It’s been many years since I wrote this, and I have to say that last one has stuck with me!  Thank you to the folks who have added their own.  The key to making astronomy accessible to the public is to make it easy to remember what the sky looks like from night to night.  Clear skies!

The best of the Perseids

I’ve seen a lot of pictures of meteor showers over the years, but this guy has some real winners.  Like this one…

His name is Pierre Martin, and I’ve been following his ubiquitous meteor observing reports for years.  …including *this* year in which I saw way fewer Persieds than normal while he saw >100/hr at one point.  Quite an amazing guy in my book.  Of course, he IS from Canada, so we’ll have to take into account the conversion rate.  Click the picture to check out the rest of his flickr photoblog.  [you want to do this!]

Planetary grouping for the Perseids

You can see by this image I stole from Sky & Telescope that we’re due for a really cool planetary grouping in the west over the next few days.  It’ll be a real challenge to pull Mercury out of the glare of the setting sun (if not impossible without binoculars), but see if you can spot the other three planets this week.  They’ll be approaching the horizon around 9:30, so you’ll have to look before then.

And be sure to catch Jupiter rising in the east around 10pm.  It’s the brightest thing in the sky from that time until dawn this week, so you can’t miss it!

After 10pm you can start looking for Perseids.  The peak is Thursday night/Friday morning, but you can catch elevated rates of meteors all week.  Perseids tend to be quite fast, and the brighter ones look yellow to me.  About a third of them will leave persistent trains, which can leave an indelible memory for any witness.  Remember, even though they can light up the sky and leave a brilliant streak across the heavens, they’re rarely larger than your fingernail.  And Perseids almost never make it to the ground.  Each one will burn up at least 25 miles over your head.  Amazing, huh?

Let me know if you see something spectacular!

Boring title.  Awesome topic!

Perseids 2010!

The spectacular Perseids meteor shower is almost upon us!  This year the best rates for the American continent will occur on the morning of Friday, August 13.

Remember last year? I told you all about the really good rates, but even I didn’t go out for more than a casual look.  Most likely, neither did you.  We had a glaringly bright full moon that just made observing near impossible!  This year the rates are still high; and — good news, everyone! — there’s no moon to worry about.

The meteors within this shower were shed from comet Swift-Tuttle, which passes across Earth’s orbit every 135 years.  The last time it was here was 1993 when observers in Europe saw 200-500 meteors/hour!  We won’t get nearly that number this year, but the rates will still be substantial.  And with the peak occurring just two days after new moon, the only thing keeping you from seeing a smattering of your own Perseids will be the weather.

The Perseids will be falling all night with an expected rate of 60 meteors/hour.  Remember that as with most meteor showers, you will sometimes go for 5-10 min. without seeing a thing, then four or five will zip across the sky all at once!  As the evening turns toward deepest night, the rates will increase dramatically; and near dawn you can expect almost 120 meteors/hour.  Remember that the farther north you are, the higher the radiant will climb and the more you’ll be able to see.  But also the farther north you are, the sooner night turns into day.  So those living around 30 – 35 degrees north latitude (MY latitude!) probably get the best overall show.

So set aside some time Thursday night to relax outside with a reclining lawn chair and some bug repellent.  You don’t want another year getting by without watching this ancient event.  It’s really special.

…

Most folks, like yourself, only want to lay back and see how many they can count.  What a serious observer like me would do is take good notes and file a detailed report with one of the major meteor organizations.  (how nerdy am I?)  But there *is* a group in Britain trying to get the public to help them gather data by using Twitter.  I have a bit of a problem with this as I would prefer people to not take their eyes off the sky long enough to punch characters on their phones.  Also, unless your phone has a deep-red-only display, you’ll kill your night vision the moment you look at the screen.  But… maybe it’s a worthwhile effort.  And if we can get a bunch of people actually interested in looking beyond just the pretty and trying to contribute some real science — well, who am I to complain?

Here’s their warm-up video.  It’s a little on the “sensational” side, but awesomely entertaining!

[You gotta watch it fullscreen!]

Orbital Time Killer

I’ve debated offering you this site for a week now.  It’s simply a flash app to simulate various orbital models, but man it’s fun!   And addictive!

[deep breath]  Okay, here ya go.

My Solar System

…and you were never heard from again.