Observatories near Topeka

Crane Observatory is on the fourth floor of Stoffer Science Hall, at 17^th Street and Washburn Avenue. There is ample free parking in front of the building in Lot 1. Use the southwest entrance to Stoffer Hall and take the stairs to the fourth floor. At present, the observatory is not wheelchair accessible.

The observatory is named for Zenus Crane, who in October 1901 anonymously donated $50,000 for its establishment. His identity was revealed after his death in 1917.

Check out this week’s night sky  before you go to Crane Observatory. Contact the Washburn Department of Physics and Astronomy at 785-670-2264 to learn more.

Another is in Lawrence Kansas at 500 Lindley Hall, KU

Clyde W. Tombaugh Observatory

These are a couple observatories very close to me and I also have my own telescope so that is always an option. Everyone needs to get their own telescope the sky has so much to offer and there is so much to discover!

Viewing Constellations in Kansas

The significance of the zodiac stems from the fact that the ecliptic -- the narrow path on the sky that the Sun, Moon, and planets appear to follow -- runs directly through these star groupings. Since ancient times, the Sun, Moon, and planets have been known as special astronomical objects -- they "wander" through the background stars of the zodiac, which remain fixed with respect to each other.

In Kansas we can see all the Zodiacs if we have the right conditions and it is the correct time of the year !



stardate.org

New Controversial Sign!

According to 13zodiacs.com "The new theory that has come into existence is said to be based on change in alignment of the Earth. It is said that the moon exerts a gravitational pull due to which the position of the earth is slightly altered and hence even the zodiacs have to be adjusted accordingly with the earth to be in line with the changes and thus came into picture the Zodiac star "Ophiuchus"."People born in between November 29th and December 17th, come under this sun sign. This news started to spread like wild fire when someone from the Minnesota Planetarium Society named Parke Kunkle put forth a new concept that supports this theory and introduced the world to 'Ophiuchus'. The constellation of Ophiuchus is the only sign of the Zodiac which is linked to a real man. This man lived in ancient Egypt around the 27th century BCE, and his name was Imhotep. Many of the same attributes of Imhotep can also be found in the Biblical Hebrew man Joseph, son of Jacob.  Imhotep is credited with many accomplishments including the knowledge and use of medicine.  It is said of Imhotep that he brought the art of healing to mankind. This zodiac sign is symbolized by a man who is holding a snake and this is said to represent "Imhotep" of Egyptian history where the snake stands for medicine."  This is such a new idea and is upsetting a lot of people which is understandable thought it will not effect those born before 2009.

Picture from silverstreamsgardens.com

Capricorn

Capricorn falls from December 22nd to January 19th.   The Capricorn zodiac sign is often interpreted as being either a goat or a sea-goat, or a half goat with a fish fin.  On the website god-and-monsters the story of this sea goat goes as follows, Pricus is the father of the race of sea-goats, who are known to be intelligent and honorable creatures who live in the sea near the shore.  They can speak and think and are favored by the gods.  It is a long story about Pricus going forward in time and seeing the future of his race and returning to warn them of the dangers of living on land and how they will all become goats rather sea-gaots.  However the story ends with all the sea-goats being killed when they go to land expect for Pricus who is  is allowed to live his immortality in the sky as a constellation.

Some positive traits may be: 
Faithful
Ambitious
Self-controlled
Determined
Responsible
Sincere
Some negative traite may be:
Shy
Pessimistic
Awkward
Detached
Self-centred
Gloomy
Stubborn













This picture is from atrologyweekly.com

Scorpio

Scorpio falls from the dates October 23rd November 21st, and in all ancient cultures was imagined as a snake.  Some ancient Greek tails tell of Scorpio the great scorpion being sent from Earth to triumph in killing Orion or (Orion's Belt) after Orion a great hunter who claimed he would kill every animal on earth. The Scorpio constellation is actually placed exactly opposite to Orion appearing that Orion runs since he is never in the sky when Scorpio is.  Scorpio is located in the southern hemisphere and actually the most southern located constellation and is located in the center of the galaxy. Scorpio can be viewed most easily in the hot summer nights of July and August in the Northern Hemisphere.

Some positive traits could be:
Focused 
Brave
Balanced
Faithful
Ambitious
Intuitive
Some negative traits could be:
Jealous
Resentful 
Secretive
Manipulative

















Picture from Topastronomer.com

Sagittarius

The constellation Sagittarius fall from November 21st until December 21st.  This constellation is located in the southern hemisphere and can be viewed almost any summer night there, however here in the northern hemisphere it is best to observe on summer nights with low heat along the horizon.  The ancient legends beileive this to resemble an archer and is often depicted and has storied of this archer being half man half horse archer. The archer is aiming at Scorpio who killed Orion.  According to space.com this is the 15th largest constellation in the sky covering 867 square degrees!

Some positive traits could be:
Strait forward
Intellectual
Philosophical
Large Hearted 
Adventurous

Some negative traite could be:
Careless
Tactless or rude
Superficial
inconsistent
Over confident







Picture from unawe.org

Libra

picture from sciencephoto.com

Libra symbolizes a scale and falls from Sept 23rd to Oct 22nd

Strengths can be
- Diplomatic
- Graceful
- Peaceful
- Idealistic
- Hospitable
Weaknesses can be
- Superficial
- Vain
- Indecisive
- Unreliable

Virgo

Strengths can be
- Analytical
- Observant
- Helpful
- Reliable
- Precise

Weaknesses can be

- Skeptical
- Fussy
- Inflexible
- Cold
- Interfering

Picture from horoscope-sign.com

Leo

picture from Dennis Mammana

Leo the lion falls from July 23rd to August 22nd.  

Cancer

Cancer symbol is a crab and falls from June 21st to July 22nd.  According to mythology In the myth, Hera sends the crab to distract Hercules while the hero is fighting the Lernaean Hydra, the serpent-like beast with many heads and poisonous breath, represented by Hydra constellation. When the crab tries to kill Hercules, the story goes, Hercules kicks it all the way to the stars.

In another version, the crab gets crushed instead and Hera, a sworn enemy of Hercules, places it in the sky for its efforts.

However, she places the crab in a region of the sky that has no bright stars, because despite its efforts, the crab was not successful in accomplishing the task. Cancer does not have any stars brighter than fourth magnitude.

Info from costellation-guide.com
picture from astrologyclub.org

Gemini

The mythology behind Gemini is that they are the twin sons of Zeus and Leda the wife of a Spartan King named Castor and Pollux. The constellation is visible in the northern hemisphere in the winter and in the southern in summer. This is a special sign to me because it is my sign my birthday is June 14th. Gemini falls May 22nd to June 23rd.

Strengths can be:
They are adaptable and very versatile. Highly intellectual with good communicative skills, spontaneous, youthful, and talkative.

Some weaknesses can be

They are changeable, inconsistent, restless, inquisitive, sometimes cunning and secretly nervous.

Picture from gemenizodiacsign.net

Taurus

Taurus's symbol is a bull and this is a great illustration of this constellation falling from the dates April 20th to May 21st. The word taurus in latin means bull.  It can be viewed in the northern winter skies Nov. through March but is most visible in January it is thought to be one of the most visible constellations.  In a number of ancient writings, Taurus the bull was thought to bring protection which was a commonality it held through multiple cultures.



Strengths can be :
- Dependable
- Persistent
- Loyal
- Patient
- Generous

Weaknesses can be 

- Stubborn

- Laziness
- Possessive
- Materialistic
- Self-indulging

Aries

To take a look forward Aries will be the next sign which falls from March 21st to April 19th. According to the Tropical system of astrology, the Sun enters the sign of Aries when it reaches the northern vernal equinox, this coming from crystallinks.com Aries is the start of the Zodiac Cycle spanning 0-30th degree and is represented by the element fire. Though not all cultures thought Aries to represent a ram most do and studies by astronomers have found that some main stars in jupiter have planets rotating around them as I learned from an article from Kim Zimmermann reporting on space.com. 
Some strengths of Aries can be:
- Independent
- Generous
- Optimistic
- Enthusiastic
- Courageous
Some weaknesses of Aries can be:
- Moody
- Short tempered
- Self-involved
- Impulsive
- Impatient








Traits are from http://zodiac-signs-astrology.com/zodiac-signs/aries.htm
Picture from imgbuddy.com

Rolling Stoned

Birth Stones relation to the Zodiacs started back with the beginnings of Astronomy.  The stones were thought to hold powers or energy that enabled the person possessing the stone abilities .  The stones were originally classified by color somehow relating to the constellation and or the time of year.  In ancient times and even today it is thought to positive to carry your stone on you for it allows for a connection of the energy within ourselves and the universe.  Whether you believe in the energies crystals posses or not I thought it would be cool for everyone to learn what their stone is. Each sign has multiple stones. Here are some of the basics:

Aries-Diamond
Taurus-Emerald
Gemini-Pearl
Cancer-Ruby
Leo-Peridot
Virgo-Sapphire
Libra-Opal
Scorpio-Topaz
Sagittarius-Turquois
Capricorn-Garnet
AquariusAmethyst
Pisces-Aquamarine

Picture is from ringwithlove.com

Hello Pisces

This is an Image I found on Pinterest

Pisces is from Feb. 19th to March 20th Pisces seems to be one of the oldest constellations in the sky. The ancient Syrians saw this region as representing two fishes bound by a cord, one fleeing toward the western horizon and one fleeing northward.


Some strengths for Pisces may be:
- Compassionate
- Adaptable
- Accepting
- Devoted
- Imaginative

Some Weaknesses may be:
- Oversensitive
- Indecisive
- Self-pitying
- Lazy
- Escapist

Pisces ruling planets are Neptune, Jupiter

Constellation Hunt

This link will take you too Google.sky where you can click on the constellation tab where they lay them out length wise . As the previous video I had you check out and easy way to picture the constellations is a group of 12 pictures rotating around the earth...but far more complex. Check it out
https://www.google.com/sky/

Check this out

 This video is about 10 minutes or so the first 4:00 minutes have to do with Zodiacs and is very informative. You need to check it out!

Constellations

Here are pictures of the constellations so you can check out the sky any look for them.

I will get into more details and stories as the blogs continue and we move from sign to sign!

This photo is from this historum.com

Aquarius

  Picture From logo-kid.com

Here is the constellation Aquarius or the "water bearer". The stars were thought to resemble a person that is pouring out water from a jug.   The 11th sign Aquarius is from January 20th through February 18th.   The element for Aquarius is air.

Since its the last day or night of Aquarius this year i thought I'd put the horoscope directly quoted from Aquarius horoscope Feb 19 2015

The Sun's return to your income sector yesterday and first full day here today and especially with the Moon here as well, giving you a nose for money, ensures that you won't drop the ball as Mars leaves today and as Venus gets ready to leave tomorrow. Until now Venus and Mars have been on a mission to boost your confidence, a sense of entitlement and of what you're fighting for, whereas it's now that the real journey begins. Hold onto a sense of what's possible while realising that in order to turn desires into reality you've got to get real.


If you are an Aquarius see if these words resemble some of your strengths and weaknesses and let me know what your thinking!
Strength 
-Witty
- Clever
- Humanitarian
- Inventive
-Original

Weaknesses
- Stubborn
- Unemotional
- Sarcastic
- Rebellious
- Aloof



Ruling Planets are Saturn and Uranus 

Take A Look Up

It is only natural to wonder what is up above. In a article I was reading called the Crystals of the Zodiac  by  Crystal Vaults this website explains a simple way to understand the Zodiac signs. As we know the earth is always moving and rotates around the sun. Ancient Babylonian astrologers observed these in 12 separate periods or signs of the Zodiac roughly about a month long. However in ancient times the year began in Aries the Vernal Equinox which is around March 21st, from there they observed the suns movement. So imagine a circle of 12 star constellations surrounding Earth which were given symbols they resembled. If you go outside and looked at the sun, right behind the sun would be the current sign that would then be visible at night time. It was as simple and as complex as that and from there began studies by civilizations for thousands of years. Heres a list of the 4 groups related with elements referring to the seasons.

Fire Signs: Aries, Sagittarius, Leo
Water Signs: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
Air Signs: Libra, Aquarius, Gemini
Earth Signs: Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo

And a list of the 12 Zodiac Signs with corresponding dates so you can find yours and let me know what you are.

Aries 21 Mar 19 April

Taurus 20 April 21 May

Gemini 22 May 20 June

Cancer 21 June 22 July

Leo 23 July 22 Aug

Virgo 23 Aug 22 Sept

Libra 23 Sept 22 Oct

Scorpio 23 Oct 21 Nov

Sagittarius 22 Nov 21 Dec

Capricorn 22 Dec 19 Jan

Aquarius 20 Jan 18 Feb

Pisces 19 Feb 20 Mar

http://astrology.findyourfate.com/zodiac-properties.htm