A Google+ Hangout
For those of you who take part in the Google+ Hangout called Learning Space, at CosmoQuest. I’ll be a guest there today. Check the link for Learning Space for the start time this afternoon. We’ll be talking about my new book Astronomy 101, a cool app project I’ve been working on called Starmap Media, fulldome shows, and lots of other cool astronomy outreach I’ve done. This’ll be my first Hangout as a guest, and I’m looking forward to joining Nicole “Noisy Astronomer” Gugliucci for an hour of great conversation!
You have a lovely wedsite……I’m trying to find out how I can tell when the core of the Milky Way Core passes over me and what the circadian clock/time is compared to my PST (Pacific Standard Time) here in Citrus Hts, CA 95621.
I read that some sensitive folks can tell when the Milky Way Core passes over us on a regular basis and can be calculated using circadian time and the PST time I would be observing it from.
The best way for you to find out when the core of the Milky Way passes over your location is to get a program like Stellarium (stellarium.org) and use it to see the sky from your location. You can also do this with the iPhone/iPad based app called Starmap (www.star-map-fr).
The core of the Milky Way is more than 26,000 light-years away from us. It has no appreciable effect on our planet or our bodies. It’s just too far away. The Moon is much closer and the best it can do is stir up the tides. So, no, there’s no credible link between circadian rhythms, etc. to the center of our galaxy. The core simply a regiong with a larger collection of stars than the disk and spiral arms. It does have a fairly quiescent black hole at its heart, but that also has no effect at this distance.
To read more about our Milky Way and its core, check out this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way