Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from ...

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SHADOWS IN THE SKY 123 time that adds up. As it gets farther away, it appears smaller in the sky. That means eventually it will be too small to completely cover the Sun during a solar eclipse. Instead, we’ll get an annular eclipse, a solar eclipse where the Moon’s size is somewhat smaller than the Sun, and you can see a ring of Sun around the dark disk of the Moon. We get these eclipses now because the Moon’s orbit is elliptical, and if the eclipse occurs when the Moon is at the highest point in its orbit, the eclipse is annular. But, eventually, these will happen all the time. The corona will forever be hidden by the glare of the Sun and solar eclipses will be interesting, but lack the impact they have now. That’s why, in the beginning of this chapter, I said that total solar eclipses are a coincidence of space and time. Given enough time, they won’t happen anymore. PPP I can’t leave this chapter without busting up one more misconception. It is an extremely common story that Galileo went blind because he observed the Sun through his telescope. I have said this myself, even once on my web site. Andy Young e-mailed me about it and set me straight. Galileo did indeed go blind. However, it was not due to observing the Sun. Galileo realized rather quickly that looking through his small telescope at the Sun was a quite painful experience. Early on he only observed the Sun just before sunset, when it is much dimmer and safer to see. However, he later used a projection method to view the Sun and observe sunspots. He simply aimed his telescope at the Sun and projected the image onto a piece of paper or a wall, casting a much larger image of the Sun. This method is far easier and produces a large image that is easier to study as well. Certainly, using a telescope to observe the Sun can indeed cause damage to the eye, since a telescope gathers the sunlight and concentrates it in your eye (much the same way that you can burn a leaf with a magnifying glass). However, this sort of damage occurs very rapidly after solar observation, and Galileo did not go blind until he was in his 70s, decades after his solar observations. There is copious documentation that during the intervening years
124 SKIES AT NIGHT ARE BIG AND BRIGHT his eyesight was quite good. Galileo suffered from cataracts and glaucoma later in life, but this was clearly not from his telescopic observations. Galileo’s observations of sunspots on the Sun caused quite a stir; the Catholic church had considered the Sun to be unblemished and perfect. Together with his observations of Jupiter, Venus, the Moon, and the Milky Way itself, he revolutionized our way of seeing and thinking about science, ourselves, and our universe. Yet we still can’t get simple stories about him correct. Maybe we are the ones who are sometimes blind.
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Bad Astronomy PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
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Bad Astronomy PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
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CONTENTS Introduction 1 PART I Bad
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CONTENTS vii Recommended Reading 25
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2 BAD ASTRONOMY luminous, against a
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4 BAD ASTRONOMY who fully well knew
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6 BAD ASTRONOMY But if they cannot
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PART I PPPPPP Bad Astronomy Begins
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1 PPPPPP The Yolk’s on You: Egg B
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 13 and they mak
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 15 ished announ
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 17 Of course it
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 19 with the wea
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2 PPPPPP Flushed with Embarrassment
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FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 23 much
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FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 25 Equat
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FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 27 still
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 29 press my heigh
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 31 friend about w
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 33 Incidentally,
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 35 So you might c
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38 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON and t
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40 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON body
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42 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON red l
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44 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON top o
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46 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON photo
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5 PPPPPP A Dash of Seasons: Why Sum
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50 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Clear
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52 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Equat
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54 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Howev
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56 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON the S
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58 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON These
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60 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON the d
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62 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON That
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7 PPPPPP The Gravity of the Situati
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66 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON is co
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68 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON a poi
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70 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON you
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Page 91 and 92: 80 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON exact
Page 93 and 94: 82 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON The P
Page 95 and 96: 84 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON But n
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Page 127 and 128: 13 PPPPPP Shadows in the Sky: Eclip
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Page 153 and 154: 16 PPPPPP When the Universe Throws
Page 164 and 165: PART IV PPPPPPP Artificial Intellig
Page 166 and 167: 17 PPPPPP Appalled at Apollo: Uncov
Page 168 and 169: APPALLED AT APOLLO 157 My question
Page 170 and 171: APPALLED AT APOLLO 159 Admittedly,
Page 172 and 173: APPALLED AT APOLLO 161 These belts
Page 174 and 175: APPALLED AT APOLLO 163 solid-state
Page 176 and 177: APPALLED AT APOLLO 165 However, you
Page 178 and 179: APPALLED AT APOLLO 167 flow well be
Page 180 and 181: APPALLED AT APOLLO 169 One of the m
Page 182 and 183: APPALLED AT APOLLO 171 The shadows
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 173 they put tog
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WORLDS IN DERISION 175 Many people
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WORLDS IN DERISION 177 Today, we wo
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WORLDS IN DERISION 179 do now for t
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WORLDS IN DERISION 181 This premise
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WORLDS IN DERISION 183 Venus’ orb
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WORLDS IN DERISION 185 or mainstrea
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19 PPPPPP In the Beginning: Creatio
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IN THE BEGINNING 189 want to believ
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IN THE BEGINNING 191 squarely at th
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IN THE BEGINNING 193 tem started ou
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IN THE BEGINNING 195 it’s natural
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( a.) ( b.) ( c.) IN THE BEGINNING
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IN THE BEGINNING 199 their lives, e
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IN THE BEGINNING 201 ence isn’t l
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MISIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 203 la
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MISIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 205 In
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MISIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 207 an
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MISIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 209 Ne
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MISIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 211 ni
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MARS IS IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE 213 Th
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MARS IS IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE 215 as
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MARS IS IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE 217 Mi
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MARS IS IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE 219 of
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PART V PPPPPP Beam Me Up We’ve tr
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22 PPPPPP Hubble Trouble: Hubble Sp
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HUBBLE TROUBLE 225 The Hubble Space
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HUBBLE TROUBLE 227 A DROP IN THE BU
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HUBBLE TROUBLE 229 for space telesc
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HUBBLE TROUBLE 231 staking your sci
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HUBBLE TROUBLE 233 also used to say
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HUBBLE TROUBLE 235 can assure you t
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STAR HUSTLERS 237 That’s a tall o
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STAR HUSTLERS 239 the names aren’
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STAR HUSTLERS 241 I’ll note that
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STAR HUSTLERS 243 The star “Phili
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24 PPPPPP Bad Astronomy Goes Hollyw
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BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 247 ar
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BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 249 si
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BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 251 it
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BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 253 Tr
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BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 255 In
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BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 257 Si
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260 RECOMMENDED READING with the ma
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262 RECOMMENDED READING One of the
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264 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Vergano, for gi
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266 INDEX “Astrology: Science or
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268 INDEX earthquakes, 130, 182 pla
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270 INDEX Islam, 58-59 “It’s Sp
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272 INDEX neutrons, 34 in stars, 98
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274 INDEX Sirius, 100, 107 size con
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276 INDEX triangles, 148 true scien
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