April 18, 2020

SATURDAY … in the park …

MAY 16 … 2020

Mark your calendars for a really fun event … to  enjoy … as millions of people will be out looking into  sky..    trying to see … ~this~ … faux News … imagined image.

BASED ON A BBC REPORT:
Fun hoaxers are claiming that on May 16, 2020 … Venus, Jupiter and a crescent Moon will   ~ magically~   align and look like a smiling face looking down on us,  it’s supposed to be a “quite a rare astronomical phenomenon”   … and that it’s even hoak-ily called an occultation .

Can you say …  “Fake News” ?

Why?  …. Venus, Jupiter and the Moon will be in entirely different parts of the night sky on May 16, 2020.

= = = =
The worst lies are embroidered with lots of details … to suck people in.
It did not happen in 2008 … nor is it an occultation.   (Occultations are defined as when one celestial object is hidden by another.)

REAL Occultations   are a fun kind of celestial event … like when the moon is positioned between Earth and Venus –   with Jupiter lurking in the background …

If it does happen at some point…
you might see  one eye being  …  more twinkly …   than the other.**
= = = =
Real Science…

** ~ Why   could  ~ “one eye   be    more twinkly    than the other ~  ???

It’s due to regular    “wavy” … rhythmic … partial-thermal lensing effects    in our sky’s atmosphere,   ( not due to the inherently-random “turbulence” that Lucy’s & Physicists incorrectly insist on ) …

Instead …. Think   wavy    rhythmic    atmospheric air molecules,    dancing,     waving … between you & far-off dim Jupiter.

Yes … Physicists & other theoretical    Know-it All’s … love parrot the old saw:

“ Only stars twinkle … ”

= = = =

Just like Lucy …  older brothers… and older sisters …  & physicists …
abusing   their perpetually-younger brothers   … like Linus  …

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All the   Lucy’s   of the world …  love to   ~proudly ~ announce:
“Planets do not twinkle … ”

and  then,   they opine …

” … THAT’s how you can tell the difference between a planet and a star … ”

= = = =
But just like   bossy-Lucy   …   insisting that everybody   must believe    what she imagines …

Instead …
In the real world …  (versus  artificial  Physics-land ) …
People who actually look at the sky,

…. Know     that some planets    twinkle   …

despite what years of Know-It-Alls  have told us about “Stars twinkle … Planets don’t ”

= = = =

Why?

Why look for Jupiter “winking” at us … on May 16’th  ??

When   Jupiter   & Saturn    lie lower in our skies … nearer the horizon …      rhythmic partial-thermal lensing   (NOT random-turbulence)  … rhythmic partial-lensing   from rising warm air   in our atmosphere … briefly   deflects   (re-directs)    the dim light rays from Jupiter & Saturn     off to other angles    …  for the person next to you see …

Rhythmic partial thermal lensing (due to rising heated air)   moving the light beams

…  is  exactly  the same as watching the “heat waves”  ripple in the air … above a hot asphalt road …   that bends & distorts … and ripples what we see ….

So  yes,     Charlie Brown …
It is sometimes  best    to ignore     the loud-bossy  Lucy’s  of the world …

because what think you see … might actually be real …

regardless of what Lucy is telling you.

…  Because  rhythmic    partial-thermal-lensing    … by hot rising air …

… doesn’t even need a hot-asphalt road …    to create a little wonder & mystery …

and yes … Linus …

That   “twinkling”  effect     from warm air    rhythmically  gyrating  the light we see    is not       the random, swirling  “turbulence” that Physicists, Engineers & other Lucy’s  insist on    …

Instead,  there are many kinds of  various real wold events….    that real scientists enjoy … including    rhythmic  partial-thermal lensing ….   and         twinkly   PLANETS   !!
😉

Dr.  Steven M. Fry
Ph.D.  Spectroscopy …   aka    The Science of Light … 

Read on, MacDuff …