No matter where we go

We have to remind ourselves to look up at the sky, but it remains a wondrous place. It's the same sky that everyone else on the planet sees. We've only got one moon and one sun, and anyone who looks at the moon sees the same moon that we see -- across all generations too.

It was a fellow cyclist who pointed out a recently released web site that has quickly become my favorite for checking out what is currently in the sky. There is much more that this website can do -- and I encourage you to explore it -- but checking out the sky is a great example of what this recent tool can do.



I obtained the image above by typing "sky chart" into WolframAlpha. The website knows where you are based on your IP address and uses this to tell what the sky should look like from your location.

If I want to know where Saturn is located, I type "sky chart Saturn". Since Saturn has just set for the evening, it tells me when it will rise next: "next rise | 9:56 am EDT | Monday, August 3, 2009". The sun will be up at that time, so we'll get a better view after the sun sets. I try "sky chart Saturn 9:30PM"



Saturn is low in the sky after the sun sets, so this won't be a good time of year to look at Saturn's rings. We'll have to wait until Saturn is on the other side of the Sun and becomes a "morning star", rising before the sun.

The Perseid Meteor Shower is peaking next week. I entered "sky chart Perseus 3AM" since the best time to see meteor showers is just before the sun comes up. This shows the constellation at 3AM over Atlanta. From this, we know to face NorthEast to get the best view of meteors.



I mentioned that WolframAlpha is a general purpose computational engine. I thought I would explore what knowledge it had about the bicycle.



Apparently, the bicycle is rather closely associated with the word "excruciate" and also with the "calendar method of birth control". The connection with "excruciate" needs no further elaboration, but I really wish I could follow the links that lead from "bicycle" to "birth control". That could explain a lot.