The pre-tourist, locals “shoulder” spring and fall seasons will provide public viewing sessions on most Friday evenings, starting on Friday, May 14th. For a small donation, locals and students will be able to view planets, stars, nebula and galaxies through the big, dome-housed telescope and a smaller amateur telescope located outside. The gates will open at 8:00 pm and no reservations are required. It’s still chilly, so dress warmly. A “Summer Nights Program” will be held on Friday and Saturday nights starting on July 2nd. Viewers are invited to come and enjoy a mini-lecture on a variety of interesting astronomy topics and then view the night sky through the 30” telescope and several amateur telescopes. Gates for the Summer Nights Programs will open at 8:00 pm. Suggested donation for the Summer Series is $5.00 for adults and $3.00 for children.

New this viewing season will be monthly – Members Only – events. These events will include socializing with other members and knowledgeable astronomers, astronomy presentations, a chance to use the facility’s scopes or learn to use your own scope, and special viewing sessions. Several levels of membership are available at the Gunnison Valley Observatory. The observatory is located at 2804 County Road 38 (Gold Basin Road). From Gunnison, go west on Highway 50 from town, then turn left on the road to Hartman Rocks, and continue around the airport then travel south for about a mile. The observatory is on your left. Information on all of the general community and special member-only viewing nights is available on the GVO website at gunnisonobservatory.org or on the Valley-wide community events calendar at gcbcalendar.com. As is heard at the observatory: Carpe Noctem – Seize the Night.

Recently I’ve learned about chemtrails. Theoretically, chemtrails differ from contrails because they are composed of biological or chemical materials that are purposefully laced into the atmosphere. Chemtrails reportedly persist longer in the atmosphere than contrails, are often observed in ‘X’ patterns, sometimes transform into cirrus clouds and have been the object of much suspicious ire since 1997. There is considerable documentation from government, scientific and military institutions refuting the existence of chemtrails. This fact serves to reinforce reaction of conspiratorial paranoia amongst theorists that believe the government is purposefully trying to harm them.

I do not go in for paranoid theories. Any theory can be evaluated and its functional information reduced to a comprehendible degree of clarity.  For example, there has been a rampant amount of rhetoric since 2001 over government complicity in 9/11. Complicit or not, the result was that government security failed to protect its citizens from a concerted effort of harm. That the world is often a dangerous place full of self-serving and misguided people, people that are psychologically drawn to positions of power over others, is not a conspiracy. It is helpful survival knowledge.

In the case of chemtrails, here in Gunnison County we could use a mass spectrometer for atmospheric chemical analysis. Thus, we could scientifically understand exactly what we are observing. Spectrometers are exceptionally valuable for analyzing atmospheric chemicals. It’s how we know the atmospheric composition of other planets and our own. We also know that Gunnison County participates in weather modifying cloud seeding experiments. So, locally, we do in fact have people purposefully lacing the atmosphere with chemicals towards the experimental end of generating more snow pack. For the concerned, minimal Internet research can bring you into contact with the responsible parties.

It makes no sense to worry over unfounded malicious intent. Be it contrails or chemtrails, individual or industrial pollution, there are plenty of toxins entering our environment of which we are aware. Back in late January 450,000 gallons of oil spilled into a Texas river, this week we have the sunken oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and its’ oil spill. Authorities have resolved to setting it ablaze stating that it’s more ecological. Genius. So much for authority. Clearly, by accident or intention, we are hyper-mixing our global environment in a toxic fashion. Unfortunately, for either the paranoid or the discrediting skeptics, tragedy of the commons is not a conspiracy. It is our legacy.

Despite scientific efforts to slice away our subjective cultural identities from data analysis we are all subject to the culture we are immersed in. To become alienated from our culture is to dance with madness. Many cerebral science fiction concepts, from the original 1970’s Russian film Solaris to the very recent Sam Rockwell vehicle Moon, deal with individuals that are sliced away from their previous cultural environment. Deep schizophrenic madness inevitably follows. If you were to become isolated on an exploratory trip to Jupiter, how would you occupy your mind and body so that you would not become insanely depressed or psychotic? To be severed from our culture and then be expected to perform meaningful analysis or to function normally is unreasonable.

Which brings us to the scientific split of the gene and the meme. The gene is our personal biological culture; it sets us up with probable biological reactions. The meme is the external cultural counterpart to the gene hypothesized by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 publication The Selfish Gene. Theoretically genes and memes influence each other like the double helix dynamic of DNA. Dawkins proposes that memes, like genes, desire to replicate themselves to prevent their obsolescence. It matters not, to the gene or the meme, whether the material is pertinent to viable success within the greater cosmic experience.

My favorite example of a meme that I have studied extensively is the – Bless You – meme. Sneezes are genetic responses. Research on the origins of why people say bless you, or anything at all, in response to a sneeze reveals that there is no authentic reason. Yet, throughout the world with documentation going back to at least 2000 years ago, it is some kind of cultural blasphemy to let a sneeze go ignored. Why? There is no reason whatsoever, other than that it’s been culturally conditioned. This activity is its own form of madness called rational irrationality by the economist Bryon Caplan in his book The Myth of the Rational Voter. When culturally conditioned behavioral response overrides functional real world application we have dangerously set our independent minds on cultural cruise control.

The task of the scientist in the new millennium will be to find the balance between the dangerous insanities of cultural hyper-alienation and pre-programmed irrationalities. Meanwhile, if I don’t acknowledge a sneeze it is because I am conducting important research. Gesundheit.

There is considerable action in the Gunnison Valley skies these days – some predictable and some less so. Since most humans I know tend to prefer predictability we’ll begin with the Lyrid meteor showers.

The Lyrids are visible between April 16 and April 26 each year. They usually peak on the evenings of April 21 and 22 around midnight when the constellation Lyra breaks the eastern horizon moving higher in the night sky. This is the time when the Earth is moving head on into the path of the meteors giving the best results for meteor watching.

On the less predictable side, we had some major solar activity kick up last week. I check the space weather online every day at the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center website: www.swpc.noaa.gov, and cross-reference it with the terrestrial weather patterns that we experience here on the surface. The sun plays an amazing and under-appreciated part in our local climate. It is a part that humans on Earth, despite the best efforts of the narcissists and megalomaniacs, have absolutely no control over whatsoever and that we can only partly predict.

The sun goes through a solar cycle of high-energy and low energy outputs that span approximately 22 years. So, every 11 years we expect a solar maximum and over the following 11 years we expect a solar minimum. However, this is not an exact process. In fact, the sun has been excessively calm over the last several years, more so than predicted. Earlier this year the sun kicked up its activity and this previous week precipitated the most sustained geomagnetic storm activity in years.

The Earth is shielded from the blistering radiation of the sun by our magnetosphere, if it wasn’t we would not exist here. As the energy of the sun alters so our magnetosphere alters. Like hurricanes and tornadoes, geomagnetic storms are graded on a scale of 1 to 5, with a G1 storm being the weakest and a G5 storm being the strongest. A storm of G3 or stronger can have the effect of pushing the aurora borealis down into lower latitudes offering a chance to see the northern lights from our Colorado repose. Several years ago I observed the northern lights as I was driving home from Denver. The atmosphere over the Maroon Bells glowed red, so red that I thought there was a major forest fire just to our north. This past week there were sustained geomagnetic storms for the first time in years reaching a power of G3.  Did anyone notice the sky glowing last week?

New Year's Sunrise Mt. Crested Butte Courtesy: Kevin McGruther

Last season under the big dome at the Gunnison Valley Observatory I was explaining to a group the nature of how we know the distances to the stars. When I paused an astute couple asked me if knowledge of the scientific specifics ruins the magic of stargazing.

From my research-based point of view the distances to the stars are not fixed. Professional documentations in the field of astronomy yield striking differentials amongst the calculated distances. This is a result of differing calculus, differing points of reference and differing observational tools. I explained that while we can arrive at a proximal understanding of our surrounding astronomical environs there is no absolute comprehension, nor can there be. I continued that ultimately conception must come back to our unique personal interpretations, heavily groomed with external input, allowing for a more bi-focal understanding of our surroundings. It is this dual conception – scientific reference information interwoven with personal interpretation – that truly inspires. At this point fellow GVO volunteer and Gunnison Mayor Stu Ferguson called out: You’re not a scientist. You’re a philosopher!

CB Mount Emmons / Red Lady Bowl Courtesy: Kevin McGruther

Stu spoke the truth. Research into the origins of the natural sciences, including physics, reveals that the field of natural philosophy is the fundamental inspirational taproot. Isaac Newton, the great physicist of old, entitled his seminal work -Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy- because he’d never heard the word science before. In fact, one finds that the term science doesn’t even officially enter the English language until about the 1830’s, though concepts of what we now know as science have been bandied about since antiquity.

Philosophy is largely the study of the motions of the self. Natural philosophy proposes the extension of self-study into the motions of our surrounding environment. Indeed the word science itself is rooted in Latin – meaning knowledge. It would be foolish to attempt to know our environment without knowing ourselves and likewise to the contrary. Every great thinker that has graced the future with timeless insight has found their own center and proceeded to weave their understandings of themselves into their surrounding fabric. Philosophy without knowledge of physical motions leads to endless ridiculous ideologies. Science without self-awareness finds itself psychopathically disjointed from helpful purpose. With respect to Descartes it is not “I think therefore I am”, it is “I act thoughtfully therefore I proceed.”  Of course, I have +/- 300 years of hindsight that he did not.

There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle. - Einstein

The extreme winter climate of the Gunnison Valley is slowly warming with the coming of the vernal equinox, which translates to more comfortable night sky viewing for the local astronomers. My family and I had several sky viewings over the last week from our parking lot up in Mt. Crested Butte. I have some green laser pointers that I use at the observatory for exhibiting the locations of specific astral points. They are great to use to show my 4 year old the stars, name them and then hand the laser to him. Not only does he enjoy wielding a real light saber in the night sky but he can also name many of the stars in the sky as well while pointing them out.

These days in our early evening skies we find the constellation Leo in the east over Crested Butte Mountain around 7:30 PM. It appears as a sickle that opens to the south towards Gunnison. Leo’s prominent star is Regulus at the base of the sickle. Regulus is one of the first stars my son learned by using the laser pointer. In the vicinity of Leo at about the same time look for a very red object, that would be the planet Mars. In the twilight hours of morning we have a crescent moon setting in the west over Kebler Pass and it is pairing up nicely with the bright planet Venus lately.

Laser pointers work much better than arms and fingers for pointing out the wonders of the night sky. They also exhibit the failings of our personal points of views: just because I can see something and point to it doesn’t mean that others know exactly what I may be talking about. It often takes an extension outside of ourselves to assist others in comprehending our individual perspectives. This week marks the birthday of Albert Einstein, born in 1879. Einstein was an iconoclastic intellectual rebel. He worked apart from the intellectual community of his day. No point of view in particular is better than any other unless we have an effective extension illuminate it for others. By working outside of conventional education systems Einstein was able to light up his mind like a laser pointer and project it through his equations. I recommend The Quotable Einstein for anyone interesting in a non-technical understanding of the great thinkers’ mind.

But wait. Under scrutiny every year the progressions of the seasons are variable. The weather patterns that we experience are seldom exactly the same and are only fleetingly predictable. Each year we must deal with the man-made imposition of daylight savings time. Every few years we have two full moons within a month. Time flies, and drags. Upon inspection fundamental beliefs that we take for granted, like time, are individually erratic. The job of science is the search for this missing universal reasoning.

New Year's Full Moon rise over CBMR / Image Courtesy Kevin McGruther

The end of 2009 greets us with the occurrence of a New Year’s Eve blue moon. The contemporary definition of a blue moon is when two full moons occur within a single calendar month. This hasn’t always been the case. Traditionally moons are counted inside of their seasons with an expected 3 full moons per quarter. Occasionally a fourth full moon intercedes and is referred to as a blue moon. Traditionally speaking then, the full moon of December 31 will not really be a blue moon but is actually the first moon of the new winter season.

The blue moon serves as reminder that our manmade calendars, clocks and conceptions of time are fallible. The efforts of the engineers who’ve provided us with the working model of time that we use are not to blame. It’s a big problem. And yet, ultimately the model of time is flawed and needs reworking. If it were not flawed we would not need special calendar calibrating tricks such as the changing of February every 4^th year. We would not have an “extra” full moon every 2½ years. We would have no need for daylight savings time. Our modern conception of time does not account for all the appropriate variables or we wouldn’t have these discrepancies or need these tricks to keep the game running. Time is personal to every particle in space and quite defiant to human attempts to define it universally, like gravity.

Enjoy the New Year’s Eve full moon.

I tried to research unifying constellations and asterisms that have to do with the end of the year holidays and found it difficult to find any connections other than the northern hemisphere’s winter solstice. Further research on the winter solstice shows that it is probably the most celebrated and observed time of year around the entire world, regardless of theology or geography.

Monday, December 21 at 8:47 AM Mountain Standard Time the north half of the Earth will be tipped away from the sun at its most extreme. Each year this instance in time signifies at once the shortest northern hemisphere daylight and the movement of the Earth’s tilt back towards the rebirth and warmth of spring and summer. It is universally, though most times subconsciously, an understanding of the simultaneous end and the beginning of the seasons.

The marvelous story of Christ is heavily steeped in symbolism of this nature through his birth, growth, repression/execution and rebirth. Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, commemorates the revolutionary uprising against the brutal repression of Jewish tradition back in 200 BCE. While Hanukkah is not an out and out observance of the astral plain one can see a parallel grand theme of the nature of birth, growth, repression, revolution and growth that mirrors the nature of the Earth’s annual travels around the sun. In fact, this theme is found all over the world in literature, art, theology throughout time. It is unifying in this regard.

Whatever the constellations may be doing we are all a part of this planet and are together in observing its’ motions through space and time. I can’t imagine a better reason to celebrate or participate in the holidays.

Courtesy: Torsten Bronger

It is easy early evening sky gazing these days. We have a full moon this week to contend with so there are really only a few very bright objects that we can focus in on.

Over Crested Butte to the east we have the bright and obvious Pleiades smudging a large white spot on the cosmic darkness right after dark. My wife and I were admiring it from our elitist star gazing hot tub last week*. She asked me what the very bright red star trailing the Pleiades over the horizon was and I said that I did not know. Now, “I don’t know” can be the most powerful statement a scientist can make, as long as it is followed up with research to try to ascertain the knowledge.

So I followed up. And I checked the handy interactive sky chart at SkyandTelescope.com. It is a valuable tool for the aspiring astronomer to chart and learn the motions of the local night sky. It is free and asks for your zip code and whether or not daylight savings time is being observed. It then provides an hour-by-hour clickable projection of our night sky in motion: planets, Moon, significant stars and constellations.

The Sky & Telescope interactive sky chart informed me that the star in question was Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus, the bull. It turns out that Aldebaran is the 12^th brightest star in the night sky found roughly on the bull’s eye of Taurus.  The ESA Hipparcos satellite has it placed at a distance of about 65 light years from our Sun. There are significant and diverse cultural associations from ancient times affiliated with it. And Aldebaran is Arabic for “the follower” because it appears to follow the Pleiades. Duh -apparently.

I observe that curiosity and humility are the best foundations for acquisition and retention of knowledge. The field of astronomy is exceptionally curious and humbling. There is so much information that no single brain can contain and compute it all.  No way. Asking questions, seeking information and sharing the results is of more value than any other personal physical conquest or metaphysical construction of pretentious pride. I could be ashamed for not having known such basic astronomy knowledge. Instead I’d rather share what I have learned and will not now forget. Probably.

*To join the Elitist Hot Tub Astronomical Society (EHTAS) you know where to find me, or maybe not.

Fritz Zwicky at Work

Dark matter.

No astronomer can see it. No scientist has proven its existence. The majority consensus suggests that dark matter comprises the vast majority of the universe. Dark matter remains hypothetical but most scientists in the world are scrambling for the glory of describing it, kind of like clerics and God. Am I the only one observing the elevation of the illogical in the name of science here?

In 1933 Fritz Zwicky of the California Institute of Technology used the virial theorem to calculate that observed galactic motions did not equate to the expected mass. He then made the assumption that there must be much more mass in the system that cannot be directly observed: dark matter.

There are a few big problems with this type of an analytical leap. The first is that the virial theorem is a generalizing calculus function. It allows a given amount of energy for a given amount of potential force bound space. Unfortunately, generalizing calculus functions given incomplete variables, much like prejudicial generalizations in life, yield misleading if not outright bogus results. The exponential result of such miscalculations can be professionally embarrassing. The second problem is that the virial theorem itself is not a proof and certainly not a law, therefore it is questionable as to its’ validity and efficacy, especially considering the unknown mechanics of space and time, i.e. gravity. Gravity is an incomplete variable; its force knows no bounds. It is everywhere and nowhere, like dark matter.

Major engineering efforts are being employed right now, from NASA’s Fermi space telescope to the recently back-online CERN Large Hadron Collider, to probe the energies of macro and micro space and observe and verify the existence or nature of dark matter.

It is great scientific reasoning to question longstanding assumptions when modern theories are found lacking and the illogical is employed to fill in the gaps. There is little difference between purported science and conjectural theology when we are not allowed to question the fundamental assumptions and redress them. Debasement of our collective knowledge is the result. Questioning the fundamentals becomes necessary.

Gravity breaks down in the face of quantum physics. Einstein could not completely figure it out. No one has. Perhaps it is time to admit that a better model of the mechanics of the cosmos is necessary, one that readily intuits the nature of celestial mechanics rather than making it up ad hoc.

Perhaps.