Introduction and Monthly Reminders
The weather so far this March has been off the rails! Utah started the month off with a few major rain and snowstorms, blocking the Total Lunar Eclipse on the 3rd from view, of course. I was hoping for clear skies, but wasn't surprised by the timing of the storms and cloud cover. After the storms, the temperatures shot up to 60°+ for the daily high with many clear nights.
I'm hoping that the clear weather and mild temperatures continue so that I, and all other stargazers, can enjoy the night sky. I am anxious to get my telescopes back out under the stars where they belong! Observers can still count on seeing many of the DSOs from the Messier Catalog during the remainder of March. The New Moon phase is quickly approaching, making it a great time to view these faint fuzzies. During the New Moon phase, the Zodiacal Light will be easy to spot in the west after sunset. A camera capable of taking long-exposure images will also be beneficial.
Music and Astronomy
I have always had a great love of music and almost constantly have something playing. Even now, as I write this post, I have my Stargazing Ambient playlist on in the background. Perhaps some of my readers will find it surprising that astronomy and music are connected. I'm not talking about musicians writing songs with astronomy-related lyrics, like Space Oddity by David Bowie, or music written with the heavens in mind, like The Planets by Gustav Holst, or even astronomers being popular musicians like Brian May, an astrophysicist who is also a member of Queen. I'm talking about how music and astronomy are both based on vibrations and waves.
Sounds are created by vibrations in the air that the ear can pick up. These vibrations can be caused by any number of things, a few of which could be from me attempting to play a song on a guitar, the sound of my telescope eyepiece hitting the ground when I drop it, and the choice, usually explicit, words that come out of my mouth when this happens. All of these vibrations are just sound waves traveling through the air at frequencies measured in Hertz (Hz) that the human ear can detect. Frequency determines the sound we hear. A high frequency is a higher-pitched, shrill sound, like a siren or whistle. A low-frequency, low-pitched sound could be, for example, thunder or a bass drum. It is important to note that the volume is not related to the frequency or pitch of a sound, regardless of how it sounds to the human ear. The low E string on my guitar, when tuned correctly, has a frequency of approximately 82.4 Hz. This frequency does not change, no matter how hard or soft I pluck the guitar string. Similarly, if I pluck the high E string, it produces a frequency of approximately 330 Hz, a much higher, shrill sound compared to the low E string. Again, this pitch does not change if I pluck the string hard or soft.
When studying the night sky, astronomers are looking at different light, radio, or gravitational waves, depending on the instrument, if any, that is used. Light waves, like sound waves, come in many different frequencies, with the human visible range between 380 and 750 nanometers (nm). The violet color corresponds to the lower end of the visible spectrum, 380 nm, while red corresponds to the high end at 750 nm. While observing the night sky, it's easy to see that stars have different colors, meaning they emit light at different wavelengths. For example, Aldebaran, the red star in Taurus, has a color wavelength of approximately 741 nm, while Procyon, the brightest star in Canis Minor, has a wavelength of approximately 440 nm, corresponding to a blue-violet color. Interesting fact: several of the brightest stars in the sky, such as Sirius, Rigel, and Vega, have peak wavelengths in the ultraviolet range, which is outside the visible spectrum for humans. However, because these stars produce so much light, some of it "leaks" into the visible spectrum for humans to see.
Math is all around us, including in music and astronomy. In music, there is often harmony between the notes played on instruments and the sound of the singing voice. One simple example of harmony can be demonstrated using a single string on a guitar. It does not matter which string, but I will use the low E string as an example. As mentioned earlier, when in tune, the frequency of this string when plucked is 82.4 Hz. I can then press the 12th fret, which produces another E note, an octave higher, at 164.8 Hz. The 12th fret on most guitars essentially makes the string half as long, so it has a frequency, or pitch, twice as high, creating a 2:1 ratio. Since both of these are an E note, they are said to be in harmony. There are several other types of harmony, but I just wanted to demonstrate the octave.
Astronomy also offers examples of harmony amid chaos. The first example that comes to my mind is the three largest inner moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, and Ganymede. For every four orbits Io completes, Europa completes two, and Ganymede completes one. This is known as an orbital resonance and can be expressed as a 4:2:1 ratio in this example.
In the past, I shared a link to different sounds in space, such as the sounds of the planets. Since space is a vacuum, how do we get these sounds? The sound of the planets was created by collecting electromagnetic, radio, and plasma-wave data and translating it into a frequency humans can hear. Some people find these sounds scary or creepy, but I find most of them quite relaxing. This is the best link I could find to demonstrate the sounds of our solar system; it even includes Pluto! Recently, images from space have also been converted to sound. While it's not the actual sound picked up from the cosmos, it is still quite fascinating. The process involves taking an image and converting the location, color, and brightness of each pixel into sound. For example, a star on the top of the image will have a higher note than a star on the bottom of an image. The brightness translates into a louder note, while the color could be a different instrument. Both of these techniques are called sonification. Here is the link to NASA's Sonifications page, which includes the sounds. They even let you create your own!
In review, music is patterns of sound frequencies, while astronomy is patterns of light frequencies. Both of these reveal that the universe is a deeply mathematical and rhythmic place!
Artemis II Update: This spacecraft and four astronauts are expected to launch on April 1st, with the SLS returning to the launchpad around March 19th. The intended mission is to fly around the Moon before returning to Earth.
Show that you support dark skies by being one of the first Utahns to get a Dark Sky license plate! Visit Dark Sky Utah to apply for a new license plate for your vehicle.
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| Now get outside and look up! |
