<<< Return to Newsletter Archives list Monday, August 31, 2009 September eNewsletter from the Minnesota Planetarium Society In this issue from the Minnesota Planetarium Society: Jupiter and Venus Dominate September Skies ExploraDome is First of its Kind Big news for September…we have made our move to the Central Library at 3rd Street and Nicollet Mall. Although we are still getting settled and working out some kinks, we are happy to be here and thankful to Hennepin County for their generosity in our lease. Our newest employee, Mike Linnemann, has been working diligently with retiring Development Director, Sandra Larson to transfer all physical and electronic files to our new location. His responsibilities are broad in scope covering both development and administration. Coming up in our October newsletter, you'll be able to read about Sandra's wonderful work getting the Minnesota Planetarium Society off the ground. August 31st is our fiscal year end as well as the end of summer. Kids are headed back to school. This fall, Joel Halvorson will man the ExploraDome as Sally Brummel is almost a new mother! We are all excited for Sally. Will she have a boy or a girl? Stay tuned. Our NEW Address is: 300 Nicollet Mall ,Room 270, Minneapolis, MN 55401. Angus M. Vaughan, President Jupiter and Venus Dominate September Skies Look around the horizon at about 10pm in early September or about 9pm late in the month. The Big Dipper lies low in the northwest so “arc to Arcturus” the bright star low in west. Sagittarius the teapot sets in the southwest while bright Jupiter dominates the southeast and is awake all night. Cassiopeia lies less than half way to the zenith in the northeast and bright Vega seems almost to be a beacon directly overhead. For the early risers, Venus dominates the morning sky at 6am in the east. Sep 1-2 Waxing gibbous Moon with bright Jupiter all night What were conditions like in that very first minute, 13.7 billion years ago, when the entire Universe emerged from the Big Bang? Until now, cosmologists had little experimental data to rely on. But in August, the first results on this critical time were announced using data from the U.S. Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO, http://www.ligo.caltech.edu) and the European VIRGO detector (European Gravitational Observatory, http://www.ego-gw.it/virgodescription/indice.html). According to key LIGO team member Vuc Mandic, Asst. Professor at the University of Minnesota, these first results already rule out some of the candidate theories to describe that very first minute. Mandic searches for the random fluctuations in the gravitational wave background, tiny ripples in space itself, that resulted from the cataclysmic Big Bang. Their upper limit (nothing is yet detected) also rules out some of the predicted exotic ``strings", long, thin imperfections in space-time. These new tools for studying the Universe are sure to bring us deep new understandings in the decades to come. ExploraDome is First of its Kind Did you know that the ExploraDome is the first dome of its kind in the world to travel around to schools? The Minnesota Planetarium Society is proud of its role developing the ExploraDome. In fact, the success of the ExploraDome in Minnesota prompted the NASA Godard Space Flight Center to acquire an identical dome that is now being used to travel to schools and museums in other parts of the US, just like the ExploraDome. As we prepare for our third full school year of operation, we look forward to returning to familiar schools, and visiting new schools. In fact, fall is the ideal time to schedule the ExploraDome. A visit before earth or space science units can alleviate many of the visual challenges students will encounter. It also is a wonderful way to prepare students for the joy of star gazing under our beautiful, cold, dark Minnesota Winter skies. |
