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Postednon December 22, 2013
Postednon December 22, 2013n
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nOnnthis date in 1891, an asteroid was discovered.
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nGranted,na lot of asteroids had already been discovered.nAstronomers—professionals and amateurs—had been staring intontelescopes and spotting asteroids for almost a century by 1891.nHowever, this discovery was like no other, because Max Wolf spottednthis particular asteroid using photography!
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nAstrophotography,nto be exact. n
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nWolfnwas an expert at spotting astronomical bodies, often usingnphotographs taken of telescopic images. He discovered several comets,nsupernovae, dark nebulae, and dim-yet-nearby stars. He alsondiscovered 248 asteroids!
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nButntoday commemorates his first asteroid find. Wolf had noticed that antime-exposure photo would reveal asteroids as short streaks, becausenthey had planetary motion with respect to the stars. Stars are innmotion, too, but they are so far away, they seem fixed in the sky.n(Although of course the earth is in motion, rotating on its axis, sonthat the stars seem to circle around the North and South Pole! It’snall very complicated, isn’t it?)
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nSo…ifnWolf discovered an asteroid using photography, you would expect thenasteroid to be named Wolf, right?
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nActually,ndiscoverers often get to name the lands and astronomical bodies theyndiscover, but they don’t always name them after themselves. In thisncase, Wolf named this particular asteroid 323 Brucia. This was tonhonor a woman named Catherine Wolfe Bruce; she had donated $10,000nfor the construction of the telescope he used.
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nDidnyou notice…His name was Wolf, hers was C. Wolfe Bruce. That’snpretty coincidental, don’t you think?
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nEnjoynAstrophotography
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nHeren is a gallery of Hubble Space Telescope images.
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nHeren is an article entitled “The 27 Most Mind-Blowing Space Photos ofn 2013 Will Put your Life on Earth in Perspective.”
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nAlsonon this date:
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Anniversary of the formation of the U.S. Golf Association
Anniversary of the formation of the U.S. Golf Association
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NationalnHaiku Poetry Day
NationalnHaiku Poetry Dayn
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nAnniversarynof first string of Christmas lights
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nFirstnday of winter in Hong Kong
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest pages on:
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nDecembern holidays
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nDecembern birthdays
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- Historicaln anniversaries in December
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nJanuaryn holidays
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nJanuaryn birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in January
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