More than Just Stars

More than Just Stars

By Mitchell Whittier
Keystone Science School Field Instructor

Look up. All around us are massive spheres exploding into storms of fire and light. These glorious object are constantly, shining light on an otherwise dark and empty universe. The light emitted travels unfathomable distances to reach our eyes here on the surface of Earth. Have you noticed?

Many of our students at Keystone Science School come to our campus from urban settings where light pollution hides the majority of the shining stars.  On clear nights in the mountains, they look up and are often stunned by the seemingly infinite numbers of stars.  We are lucky to live in a place that provides such amazing views, both day and night. Our students can view the planets and stars through the high-powered telescope in the Keystone Science School observatory, but all you really need to appreciate the majesty of our mountain night sky, is a warm coat, a little patience, and our light collecting eyes.

When traveling in the wilderness, hikers need to take maps to guide their journeys.  It’s no different when exploring the night sky.  There are many Internet sites that provide free sky maps. A good one we use skymaps.com. Find one, print it out, and wait for a clear night. Find a dark spot away from lights and tall buildings and give your eyes a few minutes to adjust to the darkness. Try to use a red light to view your sky map, as it will not ruin your night vision powered by the sensitive rod-shaped cells in our eyes.  The naked eye is surprisingly powerful and will allow you to see many stars and constellations.  A pair of binoculars is a great tool to see objects that your eyes alone cannot while still giving a wide enough view to find constellations. 

For your first viewing, try to find the well-known constellation Orion, visible in the Southeast of the early evening sky.  The three stars of Orion’s belt fall in a straight line and are the easiest way to identify the constellation. The bright star Rigel, one of the brightest stars in the night sky, represents one of Orion’s legs, and his two shoulders are represented by the stars Bellatrix and Betelgeuse, which is reddish in color. Betelgeuse means ”armpit of the great one”. Other bright stars make up the two arms, one holding a shield and the other a club. The famous Orion Nebula is located in Orion’s sword hanging from his belt and is so bright that the naked eye can easily see the fuzzy patch of interstellar dust.

Orion is one of the most ancient constellations, formed approximately 1.5 million years ago. It inspired many stories in Native American and Greek mythology and literature, including the story of Orion and Artemis. Legend says that Orion, a great hunter who was half-man, half-god, fell in love with Artemis, the daughter of Zeus, king of the gods. Artemis’ brother Apollo, in an attempt to protect his sister from the powerful hunter, sent a scorpion, called Scorpius to kill Orion while he slept. Artemis, deeply saddened by Orion’s death, became very angry with her brother, who then agreed to put Orion’s body in the sky so she could remember him always.

There are many, many other stars and constellations to explore in the clear night sky over the Rocky Mountains – all you have to do is look up. Have fun and enjoying challenging yourself!

SIDEBAR: STAR FACTS
The colors of stars are determined by their temperature
The closest star to Earth, besides our Sun, is Proxima Centauri, located 4.2 light-years away.
Stars often come in pairs (known as binary stars), orbiting a common center of gravity
When stars appear to “twinkle,” it’s actually turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere refracting the light we see.
Most objects in the sky were mapped with telescopes equivelent in magnitude to a simple pair of binoculars. So find a pair and maybe you could start the next great story in the sky!

Keystone Science School offers a weekly opportunity for the public to view the stars from our observatory.  This program, Starquest, provides a chance to learn about celestial objects from our resident instructors and to get an up-close and personal view through our amazing telescope.  For more information, call us at 970.468.2098 or visit .keystonescienceschool.org.

By Mitchell Whittier
Keystone Science School Field Instructor

Keystone Science School: Snow science 101 - There's more to those flakes than meets the eye

 Keystone Science School: Snow science 101 - There's more to those flakes than meets the eye

Dave Miller

School Program Director

Keystone Science School

Freshly-fallen snow is a big part of what makes Summit County winters magical. It marks the excitement of winter holidays, school breaks and, of course, skiing and snowboarding. We spend a lot of time in the snow at Keystone Science School. Not only do we cross-country ski and snowshoe from our campus, but we look at snow up close and examine it on a scientific level. By doing this, we've learned that snow is much more than simply frozen water crystals that fall from the sky — it is a sophisticated world that changes with every footprint, gust of wind, temperature change and shift of atmospheric pressure. All of these changes create what is known as snow metamorphosis.

You don't have to be a scientist to understand something about snow metamorphosis. We all make observations about snow all the time without even knowing it. Have you ever noticed, for example, how sometimes the snow is just perfect for making a nice round, heavy snowball, whereas other times it refuses to stick together and just falls apart in your gloves? Or how sometimes when you ski the snow is really light and fluffy, but other times feels like you're plowing through wet cement? Here's how to tell what kind of snow is in your backyard:

Grab a magnifying glass and some kind of dark cloth (this could be as simple as the back of your gloves). Take a handful of snow and place it on the cloth, then gently shake it so that the flakes separate and you are able to view them individually. Take a look with your magnifying glass and describe what you see. Does the snowflake have several pointy sides? Does it have rounded edges? Does it look like a miniature pillar or column? Chances are that a snowflake in Summit County has pointy sides, which is classified as a faceted flake. Faceted snow is typically fluffier and produced in drier intercontinental regions such as Colorado and Utah. The other major type of snow, called round snow, is typically formed in wetter regions such as California and Oregon, and tends to create a thicker, more cohesive type of snowpack (ever heard the term “Sierra cement?”).

As the snow piles up on the ground, it continues its metamorphosis as it's affected by wind, melting and re-freezing. To see what we mean, try digging a snow pit. Take a small shovel or other utensil and dig a big trench of snow that goes all the way to the ground. Then use the edge of the shovel to smooth one wall of the trench from top to bottom. Now you can start to identify individual layers of snow, which can be created by high winds, melting and freezing, or new snow. To find the layers, take a thin tool (such as a popsicle stick) and run it down the smooth snow wall from top to bottom. Anytime you feel a difference in the snow (where it starts to get softer or firmer), mark that as a layer, working until you get to the ground. Then grab your magnifying glass and look at the snow grains found at each layer. What do you notice?

You've probably found that the layers contain snow grains of different types and sizes. For example, when water vapor rises from the warmer ground and freezes to faceted snowfall above it, large, loose grains knows as depth hoar can be created. Depth hoar is an indicator for avalanche risk, because it is creates an unstable, loose base for the snow above it which can lead to a large slide.

Snow science is important not only in determining whether the snow in our backyard will make a good snowball, but also in gauging travel safety. The exercise above is very similar to the one used by experts in charge of deciding whether an area is safe for skiing or travel. Remember to always check conditions before heading out into the backcountry. Enjoy the winter!

For more information, please contact Keystone Science School at (970) 468-2098 or visit us on the web, www.keystonescienceschool.org.