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

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CONTENTS Introduction 1 PART I Bad Astronomy Begins at Home 9 1 The Yolk’s on You: Egg Balancing and the Equinox 11 2 Flushed with Embarrassment: The Coriolis Effect and Your Bathroom 21 3 Idiom’s Delight: Bad Astronomy in Everyday Language 28 PART II From the Earth to the Moon 37 4 Blue Skies Smiling at Me: Why the Sky Is Blue 39 5 A Dash of Seasons: Why Summer Turns to Fall 48 6 Phase the Nation: The Moon’s Changing Face 57 7 The Gravity of the Situation: The Moon and the Tides 64 8 The Moon Hits Your Eye Like a Big Pizza Pie: The Big Moon Illusion 77 PART III Skies at Night Are Big and Bright 87 9 Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star: Why Stars Appear to Twinkle 89 10 Star Light, Star White: Stars of Many Colors 97 v
vi CONTENTS 11 Well, Well: The Difficulty of Daylight Star Sighting 103 12 The Brightest Star: Polaris—Just Another Face in the Crowd 111 13 Shadows in the Sky: Eclipses and Sun-Watching 116 14 The Disaster that Wasn’t: The Great Planetary Alignment of 2000 125 15 Meteors, Meteoroids, and Meteorites, Oh My!: The Impact of Meteors and Asteroids 133 16 When the Universe Throws You a Curve: Misunderstanding the Beginning of It All 142 PART IV Artificial Intelligence 153 17 Appalled at Apollo: Uncovering the Moon-Landing Hoax 155 18 Worlds in Derision: Velikovsky vs. Modern Science 174 19 In the Beginning: Creationism and Astronomy 187 20 Misidentified Flying Objects: UFOs and Illusions of the Mind and Eye 202 21 Mars Is in the Seventh House, But Venus Has Left the Building: Why Astrology Doesn’t Work 212 PART V Beam Me Up 221 22 Hubble Trouble: Hubble Space Telescope Misconceptions 223 23 Star Hustlers: Star Naming for Dummies 236 24 Bad Astronomy Goes Hollywood: The Top-Ten Examples of Bad Astronomy in Major Motion Pictures 245
Page 2: Bad Astronomy PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
Page 6 and 7: Bad Astronomy PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
Page 10: CONTENTS vii Recommended Reading 25
Page 13 and 14: 2 BAD ASTRONOMY luminous, against a
Page 15 and 16: 4 BAD ASTRONOMY who fully well knew
Page 17 and 18: 6 BAD ASTRONOMY But if they cannot
Page 20 and 21: 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
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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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72 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Moon,
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74 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON that
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76 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON galax
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78 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON that
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80 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON exact
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82 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON The P
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84 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON But n
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86 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON of th
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88 SKIES AT NIGHT ARE BIG AND BRIGH
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100 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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