 Venus transits across the bottom of the Sun in this photo taken during the last transit in 2004.
(Photo©NOAA) LAST CHANCE FOR THE TRANSIT OF VENUS! (Unless you manage to live until 2117.) Astronomy
lovers alive today have been blessed with 2 Transits of Venus, and unless your great great grandparents were astronomers or
celestial navigators, you probably never heard about the one in 1882. Nevertheless, if you missed the last transit on June 8, 2004, there's still time to plan for the next
on June 6, 2012. What you see after waiting patiently is a tiny tiny black dot crossing the face of the sun, breathtaking
when you think that once it was a significant way to measure our distance from the Sun and one of the reasons Capt. James
Cook (among others) sailed to the Pacific in 1778. Betchart Expeditions will take you to the Big Island of Hawaii to witness the phenomenon. Hawaii
is appropriate because Kailua-Kona was settled by sailors following stars from Tahiti a thousand years ago. Hawaii is a magical island not only
because it keeps producing new land from volcanoes,some of which are underwater, but because its lava-rich land nourishes
magnificent flowers and huge tree ferns between its volcano summits at either end, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. Clear skies
at night reveal the universe which you will come to know as part of your life after visiting the Keck Observatory and the
14,000-foot summit of Mauna Kea at sunset and descending to look through telescopes at the Onizuka Visitor Center. The importance
among Hawaiians of stellar and maritime navigation is conveyed at the 'Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii. Altogether, this 8-day trip will open
your mind to new ways of living on a planet in the universe. Guides at each point are experts. Plan ahead, take lots of pictures
for your descendants. About $3,500, plus air. See: www.betchartexpeditions.com/s_pacific_hawaii2011.htm For more information on the Transit, see www.transitofvenus.org/ |
Climb this temple at dawn? You have the option on this trip. Maya Temple at Tikal, Guatemala. (Photo©craigchiassonphotography). JUNGLE KINGDOMS OF THE ANCIENT MAYA
According to some beliefs,
2012 will witness vast global changes, if not the absolute end to life as we know it. Part of the information contributing
to the change comes from hieroglyphic calendars preserved on Mayan stelae from before AD 900, after which the Maya culture
disintegrated and Mayans apparently dispersed. You can get to the bottom of some of the story early in 2012 and judge for yourself by joining Dr Bruce
Love, a Mayan hieroglyph expert, on an Archeological Institute of America trip to Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras. For 10 days, you will focus deeply on
the vanished Olmec and Mayan cultures at seven preserved sites, some deeply embedded in the jungle. Begin by understanding
the Olmecs in southern Mexico at Villahermosa with a visit to Palenque. Olmecs inhabited Central America 1,000 years
before the Maya and developed a calendar based on astronomical observations. Move up in time and travel south to the classic Maya site
of Tikal in Guatemala, where an estimated 50,000 people once thrived. From your jungle lodge, if you really want to, climb
Temple IV before dawn to see the sunrise and watch the jungle come alive around you with squealing spider monkeys and screaming
howler monkeys calling out the day. The tall stela at Quirigua will be the subject of an after-dinner lecture on the Mayan Calendar and 2012. From there you travel to Copan in Honduras,
the so-called Athens of the Maya. Twelve days total, about $3,900 double occupancy; $645 single suppolement. January 21
to February 1, 2012. Air extra. Call 800 748 6262; see: http://www.archaeological.org/tours/americas/3937. |
The star in question: Zuben-el-Genubi, shown here with its companion star visible during a lunar eclipse.
(Photo©Francois du Toit)
THE ECLIPSE OF A 2ND MAGNITUDE STAR BY AN ASTEROID 300 MILLION MILES AWAY SEPTEMBER 16, 2012 IN
MALI. This trip genuinely can be described as far out. With Ring of Fire Expeditions based in Houston, Texas, travelers
join Paul D. Maley from the NASA Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society on an 8-day trip through Mali tracking an asteroid
as it eclipses the bright star in the constellation Libra, Zuben-el-Genubi known also as Alpha Libra. The asteroid, named
363 Padua, discovered in Padua in 1893, is about 30 miles across. The length of the eclipse will contribute data that will
measure the shape and size of the asteroid. The key here is the length of the eclipse, expected to be
about 2.1 seconds long, + or - 5 seconds, which can be captured on a camcorder by a quick photographer. This all takes place
in or near Segou, Mali, under crisply clear skies. It's appropriate that it happens near Dogon Country which has had a long
tradition of the Dog Star Sirius and its companion star that alters its celestial path every 50 years. This knowledge, held
by Dogon elders, has been thought by some to have been passed down for centuries preceding Galileo. Even
if you blink during the crucial moment, you still have all of Mali at your disposal. The other 7 days are filled with visits
to the centers of the Great Empire of Mali, with its extraordinary mud architecture and ceremonial dance masks. Traveling
in an air-conditioned 4-WD van that carries 4 passengers, you visit the Great Mosque at Djenne, the ancient market at Mopti
on the Niger River, on which you have a sunset sail. In Timbuctu, visit the salt market, once weighed in gold, and spend a
night in a Tuareg camp in the Saharan dunes not far from the city. Spend two days and a night in fascinating Dogon Country
(read as much about it as you can before you go). Eight nights
in the best hotels available; most meals; 3 bottles of mineral water a day; all travel in the van: about $3,100 if you pay
by credit card, $3,000 if you pay cash. Air fare to Bamako extra. See: www.eclipsetours.com/padua.html
For questions about details of the trip, please contact Noble Collins at 800
929 9004; or collinsn@travelleaders.com. For questions about details of the astronomy, please contact Paul D. Maley at 281 978 5474 (in Houston, during
the day); or pdmaley@yahoo.com. Note: a portion of the
astronomical observation might be tax deductible for U.S. citizens.
|
CITIZEN SCIENTISTS NEEDED
to do the work that only humans can do (as opposed to
computers): analyze the nuanced images sent back by some amazing telescopes in space. Here's the deal: You go to the Zooniverse (http://www.zooniverse.org) and become a Zooite by signing on to one of the current projects (many more in the works) to help sort data captured
by the Hubble Space Telescope, for example. Projects vary widely, and you can join according to your strengths and interests. Citizen scientists are being asked
to match whale sounds, for example (not as easy as it sounds); participants into codes can help decode a fragment of a manuscript
found south of Memphis, Egypt. There are lots of others, in space, on earth, under the water. You work at home on your own computer, and you are helping to advance knowledge derived
from some of the most sophisticated technology on earth. Set up login information on the Zooniverse site and get to work! Horsehead Nebula, dust cloud in Orion, at the
edge of our Milky Way. (Photo © igorfp)
|
