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Getting Started in Stargazing Tonight

Getting Started in Stargazing Tonight

Our movement and change through time and space are fundamental characteristics of what it means to be alive. Imagine a world where everything was still, no time, no past, no future, nothing. Without movement and change, absolutely nothing would exist. As much as the entropy of change eventually dooms us all, it also gives us life. There is no life without movement. There’s no life without change, time, and space. The stars and planets give an overwhelming perspective on movement, change, space, and time. It’s fundamental to how we live our lives. Look at your watch. Have you ever wondered why an hour is 60 mins? Why are there 24 hours a day? Seven days in a week? Why do we have months, seasons, or years? Who made up the rule that months are around 30 days? Where did your zodiac sign come from? Where did “military time” come from? The Greeks,…

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5 Reasons Why Titan is A Better Destination Than Mars
Titan Composite, Monochrome and False Color

5 Reasons Why Titan is A Better Destination Than Mars

Titan is a cold, icy world surrounded by a thick, hazy, orange atmosphere. Standing on its surface would resemble standing on the planet Vagra II of Star Trek TNG. Although there’s more than likely no black gue serving as the embodiment of evil oozing about its surface, it’s also unique in that it is the only place we know of other than Earth to have bodies of surface liquid on its surface.We’ve had a long history of observing Titan. Most of our telescopes perceive it as a fuzzy orange ball of light, near Saturn, however, multiple missions have given us new insight into this beautiful world and why it makes for an intriguing destination for interplanetary discovery, even more so than Mars.Since its discovery in 1655, Titan has been visited by Pioneer 11 in 1973, Voyager 1 in 1980, Voyager 2 in 1981, and the Cassini in 2004.Cassini–Huygens mission, launched by NASA,…

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Why Halo Will Never Return To The Glory Days
Halo Infinite: Master Chief and the Weapon

Why Halo Will Never Return To The Glory Days

We will never get the old Halos back, even if they did everything the consensus fandom wants them to do. Why?Because it’s not about order-taking and just doing what people want you to do. 343 has to believe in, abide by and take autonomous actions centered around the core concepts of Halo. Otherwise, they are just doing things without understanding why they are doing them.They will never have the moral high ground to push back on excessive requests because they don't share the same goals and values as the fandom. When you’re aligned with your fandom and have their trust, you’re allowed the cache or creative freedom to take risks and experiment because you all want the same things at the end of the day. You all share the same vision.Not being aligned is like a bad relationship with some good moments, bad moments, and some really bad moments. 343 made it…

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Why Halo 4 is the Worst Halo Game
Halo 4 Master Chief

Why Halo 4 is the Worst Halo Game

I'm one of Halo's biggest fans, expressing my awe for the Halo universe with the blog post: Why I Fell in Love with Halo a while ago. However, I could never get behind Halo 4. I was beyond disappointed with the game's release in 2021. Halo 5 also had a shaky story, but it felt more like a Halo game. Halo 5's gameplay was much better, and at least the Covenant were themselves again. Hopefully, Halo Infinite continues on the path of returning to a true Halo game. Until then, I'll outline a few points of why I dislike this game so much.Halo 4's Enemies are a Step BackwardsMost if not all of Halo 4's enemies are lifeless robotic, incoherent drones with no personality. This applies mainly to the Prometheans but can also be applied to the Covenant. The Prometheans are nothing more than bullet sponges. The Prometheans hop or transport (cheap…

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Why I Fell in Love with Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo 3 Game Play - Quincy Bingham

Why I Fell in Love with Halo: Combat Evolved

Halo has been one of my favorite pastimes over the last decade. I remember the first time I picked up a controller at my friend's place in the earlier 2000s. I had no idea what I was playing or doing, but the game somehow was soothing to play. It had the perfect balance of a beautiful open world ripe for exploration but also a first-person shooter with just the right amount of difficulty. The game was set in the future on a mysterious ringworld you crashed into while being chased by aliens determined to destroy your ship. You weren't the captain of this ship or even a known military leader. But you were a human, super-soldier, awaken for dier situations such as these. As the story goes, we humans were space-faring and settling foreign worlds, but still engaged in the self-destructive behavior of divisive politics and civil wars. We were still…

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OSIRIS-REx Exciting Mission to the Asteroid Bennu
Asteroid Bennu from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx

OSIRIS-REx Exciting Mission to the Asteroid Bennu

The movie Don't Look Up was interesting if not weird. However you feel about the movie, its premise of a comet is coming to destroy Earth is low, but not impossible. That's one of the main reasons NASA launched the OSIRIS-REx Mission to explore the asteroid Bennu. It's not a comet, however, the asteroid is close enough to cause damage. "OSIRIS-REx" is an acronym that stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, and Regolith Explorer. The OSIRIS-REx mission sent a space probe to Bennu back in December 2018 to "touch down" on the near-Earth asteroid Bennu some 200 million miles away to collect a sample and return to Earth in 2023. Yes, 200 million miles is NEAR Earth. The $1.16 billion OSIRIS-REx mission will be the first American spacecraft to return samples from an asteroid if the mission is successful. Bennu is one of the millions of asteroids in our…

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The Polarizing Reasons Pluto is Not a Planet Anymore
Icy mountains on the surface of Pluto. Photograph: New Horizons/NASA

The Polarizing Reasons Pluto is Not a Planet Anymore

Pluto was previously considered a planet since its discovery in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. Pluto had little resistance to its classification as the ninth planet upon its discovery.This may have been a slight case of confirmation bias since the presence of a "ninth planet" or "planet X" was hypothesized by Percival Lowell. Lowell believed that the apparent discrepancies of Uranus were the causation of another planet beyond Neptune.Pluto was within only 6 degrees of the predicted location of the ninth planet predicted by Lowell. However, Lowell predicted that this planet would be around 6.6 the mass of Earth.As telescopes improved, we were able to learn more about Pluto. In 1950, Gerard Kuiper observed Pluto as a spherical world using a 200-inch telescope at Mount Palomar. Kuiper estimated that Pluto's diameter was around 5,900 kilometers.In 1965, Pluto passed near a star allowing astronomers to conclude that Pluto was a small body. As…

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Why Saturn’s Moon Mimas is so Awesome

Why Saturn’s Moon Mimas is so Awesome

Mimas is Saturn's seventh moon and one of the most mysterious objects in the Solar System. One would think that Mimas inspired the Death Star from the 1977 film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, but the movie was made three years before the crater's discovery by Pioneer 11 in 1979.Voyager 1, Voyager 2, the Cassini probe in 2010 have visited Mimas since its discovery. Mimas, however, did make a pop culture appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 5, Episode 19, The First Duty. The episode featured the moon when Wesley Crusher was beamed to Mimas in an emergency after some suspect piloting Wes and pals, but that's another issue."Mimas" was derived from the "Giants" in Greek mythology. But don't confuse the Giants with the Titans. Both groups have the same mother and father, Gaia and Uranus. Although they had the same parents, how the Giants came into this world is just a tad bit…

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Super Planet Crash – The Ultimate Space Game

Super Planet Crash – The Ultimate Space Game

Have you ever wondered how different masses in space interact with each other gravitationally and how stable solar systems form? Then you will want to check out the game Super Planet Crash. Super Planet Crash is a browser-based gravity game that originated from an open-source program used by astronomers to detect planets outside of our Solar System born out of the work of Yale Professor of Astronomy, Greg Laughlin and Stefano Meschairi at UC Santa Cruz. This fun and addictive game lets users create their planetary systems utilizing several different astronomical bodies, including Earth-like masses, Super-Earths, Ice Giants, Giant Planets, Brown Dwarfs, and Dwarf Stars. How To Play Super Planet Crash At the game's opening, players are given a single Earth-like mass that has been assigned an arbitrary orbit around a central parent star. The challenge is for players to create their solar system by continuing to add additional masses within a…

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The Solar Republic Game Play Instructions and Rules
Solar Republic Card Game - Model Laura Harwood

The Solar Republic Game Play Instructions and Rules

The Solar Republic game is a great game for those familiar with the common games of Spades and Euchre but also appreciate a little “space” in their card games. The game was created with an affinity for space exploration, astronomy, and astronomical symbols. Imagine a future, not quite dystopian, but by far not a walk in the park. We are space-faring but still human. Our technological advances have allowed us to thrive in places we would have never dreamed of. The adventurous are truly going where no man has gone before, setting up settlements and colonies throughout the Solar System. Land is the new currency. The more you own, the more you can secure a future for yourself and your family amidst constant unrest. You have three goals. Demonstrate your Prowess. Explore the Unknown. Conquer the Solar System. The Solar Republic Game Play in 5 mins The deck consists of 52…

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