The Power of the Force! (Astrology Part 2)
30 May 2009, 00:07 UTC
Which has more influence on you at birth: the planets of the solar system or your doctor? For thousands of years people have tried to use the locations of the planets at the time of a person’s birth as a means of predicting life’s future events. We’ll take a close look at the idea from an astronomical viewpoint to get perspective on the merits of the power of Planetary Force. What about Uranus and Neptune, only discovered since the invention of the telescope, and unknown to the ancients? How about Pluto: unknown, then a planet, now not a planet? And what about the Earth: closest planet to us, but not used in astrological calculations? We will examine the gravity of the situation. Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Url: www.iris.edu Patrick McQuillan earned a B.S. degree in Physics from the College of William and Mary. His senior research project involved determining the period of variable stars, most notably Alpha Auriga. This was at a time when collecting data meant going to the roof of the physics building, locating the research star by hand, and tracking the star manually by following a guide star in the finder scope. No GPS-auto-guiding-from-a-climate-controlled-remote-location! In the twenty plus years since then, he has explained astronomy to the general public as a Planetarium Director, the Education Manager for Challenger Center for Space Science Education, a NASA Solar System Ambassador, and currently explains Earth Science as Education and Outreach Specialist for IRIS. You can view current earthquake activity using the Seismic Monitor located on the IRIS website. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPONSOR: Joseph Brimacombe
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is a project that is publishing one podcast per day, 5 to 10 minutes in duration, for all 365 days of 2009. The podcast episodes are written, recorded and produced by people around the world. We are looking for individuals, schools, companies and clubs to provide 5 - 10 minutes of audio for the daily podcast. You can do as few as 1 episode or up to 12 episodes (one per month, subject to our editorial discretion). Our goal is to encourage people to sign up for a particular day (or days) of 2009.
