Monthly Archives: April 2014

General

Musical Interlude

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I enjoy all types of music. In fact if I can tap my toes to it then chances are I’ll enjoy it, and I like all the tunes listed below.

I’ve been kicking around the idea of posting some astronomy and or space related songs for quite some time and only recently decided that I needed to go ahead and make it happen, so here they are.

I do want to preface the songs below by stating that I’m in no way advocating that this is a “definitive” list or or anything close to that. The songs below are simply ones that I happened to pluck from my library, enjoyed and hopefully you’ll enjoy as well. Again, all have some type of astronomy/space theme or setting, and they are in no particular order. Okay well, I did attempt to arrange them in a random order that I felt flowed better but that’s about it

So sit back, pop in your ear buds or slip on the headphones and let the music take you away, far away. I hope you enjoy them.

Eclipse, Moon, Planets

Mars @ Opposition & a Total Lunar Eclipse

This month Mars is at opposition (opposite the sun in the sky as seen from Earth). This means our planet is closer to Mars and thus Mars is brighter (-1.5 mag) in our sky, well placed for telescopic observation and generally a lot more interesting to view. Here are some keys dates. On April 8,  2014 Mars will be at opposition (distance to earth: 0.621 AU, brightness: -1.5 mag, diameter: 15.08″). On April 14, 2014 Mars makes its closest approach to Earth (distance to earth: 0.618 AU, brightness: -1.4 mag, diameter: 15.16″). This will be a great time to get out and observe the red planet through a telescope, it’s polar ice caps and light and dark regions, and also how the planet changes over time. It’s not uncommon for dust storms to occur and totally change how we see the planet.

Moon and Mars on morning of 4/15/2014
Moon and Mars in Virgo early on the morning of 4/15/2014.

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