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

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VIEW FROM EARTH full moon PHASE THE NATION 61 first quarter waxing gibbous waxing crescent waning gibbous EARTH third quarter waning crescent VIEW FROM EARTH new moon light from the Sun The Moon’s phases are an effect of geometry, and not due to the Earth’s shadow on the Moon. In this diagram, the Sun is off to the right. The position of the Moon is shown in the inner circle, while the phase seen by someone on the Earth is shown in the outer circle. The Moon is new when it is closest to the Sun in the sky, and full when it’s farthest from the Sun. The other phases happen as the Moon orbits the Earth. sky. If the full Moon is high in the sky, it must be near midnight (halfway between sunset and sunrise). If it’s getting low in the west, sunrise cannot be far behind. You can get even fancier with the quarter-Moon phases. The first-quarter Moon is one-quarter of the way around from the Sun, and is high in the sky at sunset (90 degrees away from the Sun). So it rises at noon, and sets at midnight. It’s another common misconception that the Moon is only up in the sky at night. When it’s at first quarter it can be seen easily in the afternoon sky; the thirdquarter Moon can also be seen in the sky after sunrise, since it sets at noon. Another obvious feature of the Moon is that its brightness changes with phase. This seems pretty obvious; after all, there is more of it lit up when it’s full than when it’s half full. You might think that it is twice as bright then.
62 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON That turns out not to be the case. Like everything else in astronomy, there’s more to this story. Careful measurements of the Moon’s brightness show that it can be up to ten times brighter when it’s full compared to its first quarter. There are two reasons for this. One is that when the Moon is full, the Sun is shining straight down on it from our viewpoint. When the Sun is directly overhead here on Earth, there are no shadows, and when it’s low in the sky shadows are long. The same is true for the Moon. There are no shadows on the surface when the Moon is full. When it’s at first quarter there are lots of shadows, which darken the surface, making the Moon look less bright overall. When the Moon is full, those shadows aren’t there, and so it has more than twice as much lit surface from our view than when it’s at first quarter. The other reason has to do with the Moon’s surface. Meteorite impacts, ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, and the violent temperature changes from day to night on the Moon have eroded the top centimeter or so of the lunar surface. The resulting powder is extremely fine, like well-ground flour. This powder has a peculiar property: it tends to reflect light directly back to the source. Most objects scatter light every which way, but this weird soil on the Moon focuses much of the light back toward the source. This effect is called back-scatter. When the Moon is half full, the Sun is off to the side as seen by us. That means the lunar soil tends to reflect that light back toward the Sun, away from us. When the Moon is full, the Sun is directly behind us. Sunlight that hits the Moon gets reflected, preferentially back to the Sun, but we are in that same direction. It’s as if the Moon is focusing light in our direction. This effect, together with the lack of shadows, makes the full Moon much brighter than you might expect. Even the new Moon can be brighter than you expect. Normally, the new Moon is dark and difficult to spot. But sometimes, just after sunset, you can see the crescent Moon low in the sky. If you look carefully, sometimes you can see what looks like the outline of the rest of the Moon, even though it’s dark.
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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
Page 22 and 23: 1 PPPPPP The Yolk’s on You: Egg B
Page 24 and 25: THE YOLK’S ON YOU 13 and they mak
Page 26 and 27: THE YOLK’S ON YOU 15 ished announ
Page 28 and 29: THE YOLK’S ON YOU 17 Of course it
Page 30 and 31: THE YOLK’S ON YOU 19 with the wea
Page 32 and 33: 2 PPPPPP Flushed with Embarrassment
Page 34 and 35: FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 23 much
Page 36 and 37: FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 25 Equat
Page 38 and 39: FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 27 still
Page 40 and 41: IDIOM’S DELIGHT 29 press my heigh
Page 42 and 43: IDIOM’S DELIGHT 31 friend about w
Page 44 and 45: IDIOM’S DELIGHT 33 Incidentally,
Page 46: IDIOM’S DELIGHT 35 So you might c
Page 49 and 50: 38 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON and t
Page 51 and 52: 40 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON body
Page 53 and 54: 42 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON red l
Page 55 and 56: 44 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON top o
Page 57 and 58: 46 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON photo
Page 59 and 60: 5 PPPPPP A Dash of Seasons: Why Sum
Page 61 and 62: 50 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Clear
Page 63 and 64: 52 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Equat
Page 65 and 66: 54 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Howev
Page 67 and 68: 56 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON the S
Page 69 and 70: 58 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON These
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Page 75 and 76: 7 PPPPPP The Gravity of the Situati
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Page 79 and 80: 68 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON a poi
Page 81 and 82: 70 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON you
Page 83 and 84: 72 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Moon,
Page 85 and 86: 74 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON that
Page 87 and 88: 76 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON galax
Page 89 and 90: 78 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON that
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
Page 97 and 98: 86 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON of th
Page 99 and 100: 88 SKIES AT NIGHT ARE BIG AND BRIGH
Page 111 and 112: 100 SKIES AT NIGHT ARE BIG AND BRIG
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112 SKIES AT NIGHT ARE BIG AND BRIG
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13 PPPPPP Shadows in the Sky: Eclip
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16 PPPPPP When the Universe Throws
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PART IV PPPPPPP Artificial Intellig
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17 PPPPPP Appalled at Apollo: Uncov
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 157 My question
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 159 Admittedly,
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 161 These belts
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 163 solid-state
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 165 However, you
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 167 flow well be
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 169 One of the m
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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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