Share the Stars

One of the good Christian traits is sharing. In science, "the process of discovery is not complete until results can be shared with others" (Keck Observatory).

Last October 14-16, I attended a youth retreat of our church. As part of the organizers, I decided to add stargazing to our list of activities. I brought my telescope along since most of the youth have already expressed an enthusiasm for stargazing. Some have even made it a point to text me whenever a bright star appears in the night sky. I was able to show them the moon, Jupiter, the Pleiades (seven sisters). I wasn't able to show more due to obstructing clouds and a fever.

I have shared my love for astronomy to my church friends and they have shared the enthusiasm with others. I recall even in one of the stargazing sessions of the physics department that one of them came back 3 times, each time bringing someone new.

Sharing astronomy to the world is fun. You get to make people wonder what else is out there. When people wonder then they become more interested. It's a wonderful way to promote astronomy. I recall, before, during the IYA that there were even those who were 'dinumog ng street children' during one of their side walk telescoping events. The science of astronomy is loved by all, not only the academically inclined but also by common folk. You'll be amazed at the individuals who get caught up in the sharing of astronomy.

The other night, I was at Mabinay attending a Church workers assembly, I was reading a fully illustrated book entitled Smithsonian's Intimate Guide to the Cosmos. A pastor who was sitting beside me wanted to take a look. I've only began to read that book but he was already asking questions about all the pictures. We discussed Mars rovers, landscape of Venus, black holes, the giant impactor theory, solar sails, etc.

Astronomy is fascinating!

How Did You Know?

The other night we had a stargazing session where the highlights of the night was the Moon, Jupiter and Mars. When pointing out the planets, a common question that arises from the students is "How did you know?"

Fair enough, there have been those who make wild guesses as to what planet they are actually looking at, so it is just right that a critical thinker might be skeptical.

So how do we KNOW?

It is part of the astronomer's (or amateur astronomer's) job to be familiar with the night sky. Knowing where the planets are during a night comes with the territory. While explaining to the Physics 25 students, I pointed out the line in which the Sun, the Moon and the planets pass. This line is the ecliptic. Along these line extends a band we commonly know as the zodiac.

Now, the stars and the constellations in the zodiac have already been identified, along with their magnitudes. Now if a star is found in this path that doesn't belong to the constellation - that is usually a planet. When the planets are closest to the Earth, they usually shine with bright magnitudes (such as Mars and Jupiter on that night). When this happens, they become easy to identify.

Now, a little something on the planets: You can never see Mercury and Venus during midnight. You usually see Mercury in transit with the Sun, and Venus usually appears as a morning or evening star (during sunrise or during sunset). Now, only three more planets are visible with the naked eye, those are: Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The unique red-orange glow of Mars can distinguish it from the other two. Saturn on the other hand, due to distance, does not shine as bright as Jupiter and Mars. The remaining planets, Uranus and Neptune, are telescope object. It means they can only be observed via telescopes.

Astro-Journal 01

Physics – Astrophysics – Astronomy

Let’s start by defining these three terms:

Physics – science concerned with the laws that govern the structure of the universe, and the forms of matter and energy.

Astronomy – astronomy is primarily an observational science concerned with the motions, positions, distances, distributions, and physical conditions of celestial objects

Astrophysics – the study of physical properties and composition of celestial objects using the known laws of physics. In the simplest sense, astrophysics is physics + astronomy.
It began with the development of spectroscopy in the 19th century, which allowed astronomers to analyze composition of stars from their light. Astrophysics view the universe as a vast natural laboratory in which they can study matter under conditions of temperature, pressure, and density that are not unattainable on Earth.


I wanted to take astronomy as a major when I get to college, but since astronomy wasn’t offered in schools I knew, I took the closest thing – Physics. I could remember swiftly passing through astronomy topics in our general science in high-school, and not reaching astro topics in our high-school physics. This made me crave for more knowledge on astronomy since I was really interested. I could even remember taking my fourth year classmates to the physics department and encouraging them to take the course with me.

Taking physics as a major, I get introduced to various concepts and topics covered by physics. Most of the topics or fields we cover are actually used in astrophysics and astronomy. Like physics, astronomy covers essentially the same thing, only with focus outside our planet. If you were not really interested, you wouldn’t see the strong connection between physics and astronomy: how optics and radiation are the strongest tools in measuring and observing the celestial, how matter and gravity affect everything, how temperature and luminosity describe to us the nature of stars, how nuclear energy give power to the stars and galaxies, how relativity makes us understand black holes, how particle physics tells us where all the matter in the universe comes from, how practically most of the knowledge we have on astronomy is defined by the laws of physics
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As of now, I am an amateur astronomer who is still getting in the hang of knowing the wonders of the night sky. I wasn’t a first-section student in high-school and I’m not that fast with math. But, being a physics major does help me understand the concepts I encounter in my further readings.
How the science of physics and astronomy is intertwined really fascinates me.