Taxes and the Universe
Coming up soon is April 15, the traditional date taxpayers join astronomers in being obsessed with numbers.
All posts by Bob Berman
Global warming update and maybe check your home’s CO2 too
The Earth’s carbon dioxide level was 326 parts per million when I moved to Woodstock in 1972. By 1989, when my daughter was born, it had reached 352 ppm. Now this week in March 2021, it stands at 416 ppm. What’s worse, it used to rise by one ppm per year. It currently increases by three ppm annually.
The dark side of the full moon
When the Full Moon arrives next Saturday night, the 27th, let’s finally learn its brightness. For, in the mass media the past 20 years or so, all sorts of make-believe things have been presented about the Full Moon.
What telescope should you buy?
It’s the most frequently asked question in amateur astronomy. Here, an astronomer offers some guidance.
See the year’s best meteors this weekend
This Sunday night, December 13, we’ll see the year’s finest meteor shower. These are the Geminids and they deliver a meteor a minute.
Night Sky: God and the geniuses
I’m periodically asked if I’ve seen evidence among the stars of a Creator. I always dodge such questions, directed my way for over 30 years. They arise because many, when searching for the Big Picture in this huge confusing universe, think astronomers may have a heightened perspective of what’s going on.
Gloomy mysteries of November
Many feel ‘downbeat’ starting around now, with a strange heaviness striking a large minority of the population in November. Its underlying mechanisms are fascinating.
Night Sky: Five-minute wonders
This is a good time because the moon is absent this weekend. And there’s a bunch of cool stuff to see and it’s all very easy to find. I’ll prove it.
Carbon dioxide explained
If you know any skeptics regarding carbon dioxide, or who are not freaked by the earth’s still-new milestone of hitting 400 parts per million, just point upward any night, and show them how it operates elsewhere in the universe.
The moon meets the planets
Unlike this spring and most of the summer, all four of the classic bright planets are now hovering close to their maximum possible brilliance. But just to make things unnecessarily easy, the moon is about to highlight each one by hovering alongside it.