We should have a national holiday where, for one night, cities turn off most of their lights, enough to ward off the light pollution, but still keep things operational.
I actually heard that a blackout in Los Angeles caused panic when people saw the Milky Way for the first time Aww shit, I just realized that during the blackout after Hurricane Sandy, I could've done some skywatching, but instead I went inside cuz bugs
Joseph Schmitz yeah, there were also a few blackouts in New York, most recent 2003, one of these day's I'm going to go out to some rural place and have a look at the milky way.
Is it sad that I've learned more from crash course than I have from school? EDIT: Wow that’s a lot of likes! Four years later and here I am still looking at crash course for school help. Stay safe during the quarantine everyone ♥
It's probably because the guys who do these are far more interesting then your average teacher. I learned more from 7 episodes of the Biology playlist than I did from 2 months of biology class.
Well, one, teachers don't exactly have lots of chances when it comes to outakes. Teachers also have to keep a group of people under control. Teachers aren't exactly entertainers, for example, teachers can sound boring as they have to work almost 12 hours a day, prepping work and activities. Finally, a teacher can't really talk at you for 50 minutes, both you and the teacher will get bored.
Even in small cities you can´t really see the sky, the first time I got far from the city and saw the bright cloud of stars and the glow behind them I wasn't sure what I was seeing, I mean, I knew it was the milky way, but pictures in school books don't come close to preparing you to see it, it was f'ing epic, no wonder why ancients believed in gods and magic...
I REALLY LIKE YOU AND YOUR YELLOW SHIRT!!! We should hang out some time at the jungle gym or the slide or the money bars or maybe we could just walk through the playground ...but not on Monday's cos I have violin practice and my mum picks me up early...but any other day would be fine :D ...I like bald heads :D
"But bears don't have tales." The story behind that constellation explains why the creators of the constellation put the tail on it... constellations hold more value if you know the stories behind them. They are the "stories in the sky", and there is value in learning those stories, even if they are myths. They provide a bridge from you to the ancient astronomers; it's almost empathetic.
+Andy Lin Hi there! Could I request you to check out my blog, www.curiositycrunch.blogspot.com , do leave a comment/feedback, thanks so much! Stay curious:)
Question: If I lived on the equator for say, 25 years and then i moved to the North Pole, would i detect a noticeable effect of not rotating on the surface of the earth from the furthest distance from the earth's axis? sure i would be spinning like a top on the North Pole, but would there be a noticeable difference? Just wondering
can you explain why stars appear upside down in southern hemisphere compared to northern hemisphere? I used to live in northern hemisphere and always noticed that Sirius is on the left side of the Orion but now that I live in Australia, Sirius appears on the right of Orion! and the whole thing is upside down.
Bit disappointed that he didn't talk about how planets got their name; planet means wondering star. Originally planets were thought to be stars and because of their strange motion in the sky they seem to wonder. The motion they have is due to them orbiting the sun instead of the earths motion as it turns on its axis.
When you spoke about light pollution I remembered when I heard about when there was a blackout in a big city and all the lights went out, the police station kept getting calls from people freaking out about the "big colorful streak in the sky". It was the milky way.
I'm not surprised. By now at least 95% of humans not only keep their heads down to the ground but burying their faces in their electronic toys. That's probably they're afraid to look up. The sense of wonder is fading away for some.
two weeks agot we had a nation wide blackout in my country that lasted for 12 ours... I rushed outside to finally see the sky as it should look... it was completely covered by clouds!!!!
I want to learn so much about the space. It gives me chills when I learn something new in this topic. This subject is so vast yet interesting. I could work for NASA as a scientist if given an opportunity for free.
I went outside nude complete with bare feet at night once to check on the progress of a lunar eclipse. I stepped on a banana slug. After hopping back into the house on one foot and taking over a half hour to clean the slime off, the totality was over. At least wear shoes!
The funny thing is, in some circles, being naked under the sky is known as being "sky-clad". Some people think that it has mystical significance. Still cold, though.
I went to Death Valley, CA this week, which is known for the best place to see the Milky Way here in southern California...I screwed myself over by not checking the Moon Phase and it turned out it was a full moon on the night I was there. The moon was SO bright we couldn't see the Milky Way as bright as we'd hoped. Anyone thinking of star gazing, check your moon!
Look for mountains in arid regions. Drier, thinner air helps, and nobody wants to live on a mountain in the desert. That why so many observatories are in Chile; the Atacama desert has high mountains and is the driest place on Earth.
When I grow up (I'm 14 now) I want to be an Astronomer, my friends laugh at me and say that it's not a real job, and that I will not amount to anything if I try to follow this dream, idk why I'm posting this but if you also have this dream don't give it up because your so called friends say it's stupid, Astronomers play an important role in today's society, so get out there and achieve your dreams, as I want to achieve mine!
I completely agree, I'm currently 13 and my dream is to become one too. I feel like the future of humanity depends on it. Astronomy is so unique and different from most fields because you study something that is unknown. I really hope that I get my dream job, it's not even about the money or whatnot, for me it's the passion and just knowing something that is truly beautiful and amazing.
+Alecx Gwynn All my life, I've wanted to be a doctor. Last month, I was watching an Astronomy video about the Solar System. My dad noticed how intrigued I was by the video. I was literally putting my face in the screen. It took me 13 and a half years to finally figure out what I really wanted to do. I wanted to become an Astronomer. True Life Story
+Nanni Narayanan :D That was good! Sure, at those times people were more creative because there weren't schools and places they could learn, they didn't know so they had free time because no technological stuff was invented and they could think more! :D
+Nanni Narayanan Well, actually I'm in Turkey, so that's some hard just... don't worry about it, change will be in time, I improve myself, I know it's hard but I'm trying to do my best :)
Kevin Stitely I kinda had the opposite reaction, this guy talks a bit too slowly for my taste. Fortunately I can just speed him up to 1.25x normal speed, I do love that RU-vid feature.
Greg Miller See the settings gear, just to the left of the button that lets you change the size of the RU-vid screen? Speed is a setting you can change there, from 0.25x to 2.0x regular speed.
This was so interesting! Light pollution really does suck - I grew up in NYC, so I basically never saw a single star. In my late teens I'm living in NJ and on a good night I see only a couple of stars (like maybe 5). It fascinates me that people live in places where they can look up and see that many stars every (clear) night. Hopefully one day I'll experience that in person :)
That was crazy to me too. I knew that people in more rural areas saw more stars in the sky but I always thought it was to do with how much light at that time and not a long term thing or even the extent it was hindering our view of the sky. Being from Vegas where Paradise has what are probably thousands of lights going up into the sky, the difference is huge.
Will Black yeah it's just something I can't wrap my head around - being able to step outside every night and there are more stars then there is black/orangeness.
Alanna R. hahah I can't imagine living further from the city though! I love living in crowded places. Rural places kinda scare me a bit.. so does the open starry sky because it makes me realize how insignificant and small we are to the rest of the universe.
Imagine all the morons that call 911 because the whole city has a power outage, seeing strange flickering lights and multicolored clouds in the night sky with absolute clarity and not knowing what they are. (That has actually happened)
There are a bunch of names with astronomical origins. Draco is a constellation of a serpent, Regulus is a star in the constellation Leo, and Bellatrix is a star in Orion.
Yes, it is! His brother Regulus and cousins Bellatrix and Narcissa are also named after stars in the sky, Draco Malfoy and his aunt, Andromeda Tonks, are named after a constellation and a galaxy respectively.
This is why I sometimes think the, 'crash course,' approach has drawbacks. All this information about naked eye observation was correct, BUT, I have two problems. 1) The presentation failed to stress certain in order of avoid confusion. For example, he said that at the North POLE you'll never see stars in the southern hemisphere. But zero of the viewers live at the North Pole, and because it went by so fast, with no special stress, I'll bet many came away thinking he said, that in the northern Hemisphere, nobody sees stars from the southern celestial hemisphere... which is totally not true. Depending on your latitude, you DO see stars from the opposite hemisphere at different times of year. And this leads to my second problem... 2) Because this is a, 'crash course," the subject of naked eye astronomy will never be visited again. This means that the above example of north south dynamics will never be touched on again... which is a shame. Because THAT'S where all the confusion lies for people, and THAT'S the stuff teachers never explain, leading to generation after generation of people who end up not caring because it all seems too confusing. Another example: He mentioned that Polaris never appears to move all night long. We've heard that before. What he failed to mention was that Polaris never appears to move (from whatever latitude you're observing from) all YEAR long. And that would've been a great starting point to explaining why at certain times of year we see different constellations at night... because we're in different parts off our orbit, which means different parts of the sky are blotted out by the sun each day, and revealed each night... DUE TO THE FACT that Polaris can never move... because, angular momentum. That would've been educational. Instead, this was just regurgitating stuff that has been taught since forever and will never lead to anything but the same confusion among the public. # # #
To your point 1, I think there was some stress given to it, but I would have liked if Phil had said something like "and if you live somewhere in between, you see something in between." But to the second point, I think you need to give the show some benefit of the doubt here. They haven't touched on the seasons yet. The episode was mostly focusing on what you could see in the sky in one night, and it would be a little out of place to just throw the seasons in there. I think in future episodes (maybe the next?) they'll get to the seasons and the axial tilt of the earth, and that Polaris doesn't appear to move, AND the precession of the Earth, and how Polaris really does appear to move in the sky over very long periods of time.
From what I've seen of other Crash Courses on this channel, they do refer to previous material; I think John even mentioned something from CC World History in CC World History 2. It may not be the case in this series since it's a different host, but we should give them the benefit of the doubt.
killahtizoe He said over the course of a whole day, all the stars would be visible. There is a big difference between saying you can see all the stars, and the time it takes to see all of them.
I think your point 1 is kind of a stretch. You are assuming you know what others will think they hear/understand. For example, it never entered my mind to conflate the north pole with the northern hemisphere. As to point 2, you are assuming you know what the rest of this series will be about/talk about. It is true that these crash courses can't touch on everything...hence 'crash course'. Its to get you interested and maybe go and learn more.
In the civilization(s) that noted the constellation as a Bear with a long tail...Maybe there WAS a bear species with a long tail then and they've since died out (likely killed off by humans)? Though there would likely be some evidence of this somewhere and I've never heard of a long-tailed bear. Just a thought. More likely artistic license, of course.
I've always heard that the story behind Ursa Major's tail is that she was was thrown by her tail into the sky as a punishment from ancient (Greek, I think) gods.
I bet when you don't have tv, books, internet, or anything to look at all night long besides your fire, the people around it, and the sky, you come up with some pretty interesting ideas and stories about the sky.
I want to be an astronaut, I'm doing well at school but I don't think that's enough, ik its difficult and unlikely but space just fascinates me so much
+katie jane you know you can choose what ever career path you want and still make space part of it ; I mean take whatever field come to your mind and search about it's relation with space you will find it related . EVERYTHING in our life is related to the space but they don't teach you that in school ; even ECONOMIC has a lot to do with space .
Katie that's not what Reema meant. Reema meant that if you're interested in space you don't necessarily have to be an astronaut to make space part of your career. You can be an engineer, a computer scientist, a biologist, a economist, a business person - anything - and still pursue a career in space; especially given how a good number of private companies have emerged in the space industry. We will need all sorts of expertise - engineers to implement technologies to get us into space, around space and build facilities in space, biologists to examine the growth of crops/animals in space, psychologists to study the effects of space on human behaviour, economists to incorporate the space economy into the traditional Earth macroeconomy, lawyers to work on the new legal challenges that space will bring... etc. You get the idea. Stay open!
The major Bear has a tail on purpose! You see, there's a myth that Zeus put his "colombina" who was turned into a bear to the sky. And while he was pulling her he stretched her tail. I knew that since I was a kid and watched a presentation in our local planetarium.
The thought bubble at 4:40 mentions the dark ages as being not very scientific and takes a dig at Christianity with the cartoon. The caricature of the dark ages being an era of intellectual or scientific oppression at the hands of the church has been thoroughly debunked by historians. It's crap and I expect more out of crash course. The dark ages are called so because of the lack of surviving art and writings that would otherwise help us understand what society was like at that time. On the contrary what we little we do have was in fact preserved by the church. Furthermore many historians seem to think that the church probably helped provide what little cohesion Europe had at that time. The fact that this little dig made it into an astronomy video, coupled with recent remarks by Neil Tyson deGrasse, makes me think that the field of astronomy is the flagship of the church bashing trend in science. If you're going to church bash at least get your facts straight.
And still today religion i slowing down science...why cant you people realize that you only stick to religion because your parents indoctrinated you just like their parents did to them?
Guy On A Computer yup. Crash course is exactly where I first learned that the dark ages are NOT characterized by stifled progression due to church oppression.
Adam Baker Yeah. Hell, it was a period of great progress everywhere except for Europe, and that was only because Europe had little international relations with Empires in other nations. And even IN Europe, Monasteries translated great libraries of knowledge, and performed research. Hell, Universities came about during this period too. No wonder the term "dark ages" is now seldom used.
Thank you very much for making this video, Phil. I though it was really interesting to learn about how stars appear to be moving on the sky and in which patterns they move. I live pretty far North. I live in Sweden a bit south of Stockholm but the terrible thing is that I live in a city, although it’s pretty small compared to bigger cities in the world like London, New York and New Dehli (in Norrköping, there are only ca. 140 000 people) light pollution is a BIG problem. I can barely see _any_ stars at night and it really pisses me off. This is probably the worst thing with living in the city, although the street carts here are pretty good...
***** Well, I guess I should be considered lucky. According to _Wikipedia_ (goo.gl/3MxfUZ), the population density of the Netherlands is the 31 highest in the world but Sweden has one of the lowest, being in the 197th place in the table. Sometimes, one wishes that one lived in Suriname: it has one of the lowest population densities in the world and lies very near the equator. This makes it the perfect spot for star gazing, you don’t have to worry about light pollution and you can see both the ‘North’ stars and the ‘South’ stars. It could also be a good place for you to visit since you already speak the language: Dutch. (goo.gl/BFKjbc)
***** Yes, Greenland maybe, or Iceland! Greenland is very cold whilst Iceland is a little bit warmer. Now that I think about it, it’s probably better to go to a country that is really far North or really far South on the globe, like Iceland or Australia, in order to see the Northern or Southern lights. The family of a friend of mine lives in a cottage 42 km from town, on the countryside. Honestly I don’t visit him that often nowadays but when I visit him and when we stay late, the sky is beautiful! You can see very many stars, if not all of them. It was there I first discovered that the stars in the sky move though the night.
***** Actually, I have never been to Iceland but I really would like to! The nature! The skies, the language! The music! Oh, I love it all (except for the former prime minister that stole money from the people but that’s a story for another time). After finishing learning Russian and German (in a few years), I plan to learn Icelandic and when after I graduate from a university (maybe in 2026 at the latest), I plan to move to Iceland or at least take a LONG vacation there. I imagine spending the nights studying the stars and the days studying Icelandic. I am 14 years old now and I want to work with theoretical physics when I get a little bit older, I think it will be astrophysics or cosmology. I am also very interested in linguistics, the study of languages, so learning different language will be my hobby. Yeah, that is what I plan to do in the future. If you don’t mind me asking, how do you imagine astronomy or any astro- subject being a part of your future life?
As a two time Alaskan fisherman I can attest there are still places you can see the sky in all its glory. 5 miles off the Aleutian islands there is no light pollution. You can't see your hand in front of your face. You can see the sky the way our ancestors saw it. The nights when the ocean was calm and reflected the sky are the nights I will never forget.
The main disadvantage of living north of the Arctic circle is that I never get to see the summer constellations, but on the flip side, I do get to see the winter stars pretty much as much as I want. (Also, when I lived in a larger town for a while, I did notice that the sky appeared darker because of all the light pollution, and that I struggled to find a lot of the familiar constellations I'm used to seeing here.)
What if we lived on the very last star of one of the spiral arms.. Would there be a large dark void in one side of the sky? What would the milky way look like in the sky, looking at it from the 'very edge'?
Hi, I'm from Brazil and want to know how you guys put the Portuguese subs present in episodes 1 & 2. I wanna collaborate with the subtitles production to reach my friends on Brazil with this GREAT science content.
terralynn9 Thanks for the answer. Maybe it's just the crappy laptop speakers I'm using here but I don't hear the fifth note. Or better, I don't hear the fourth note. I just hear a whole tone upwards, a major third down and then a perfect fourth down. But if there was an octave drop in between, that would make the last tone a perfect fifth upwards which is indeed the sequence from Close Encounters.
I just had a look at the spectrum. I'm pretty certain there is no octave in the melody. It's D6 E6 C6 G5 where it should be D6 E6 C6 _C5_ G5. However, It _is_ the same tone so maybe Thought Bubble felt like they could simplify the sequence in that way. Either way, I find it really interesting that you heard that because to me it sounds and feels really different without the octave drop, even though I can totally see how one could argue that it's the same melody. Fun fact, at different times in the movie they play two transposed sequences: G A F F C and B♭ C A♭ A♭ E♭ (www.imdb.com/title/tt0075860/trivia?item=tr0659211).
Little harsh on astronomy's ancient origin of astrology. Pattern recognition is illogical to assume as it would mean the ancients of a few cultures just-so-happened to see random patterns of animals accidentally organized into 12 sanctioned parts of the year to make each represent a clean month. The ancients didn't look up into the sky at Capricorn for example and said to themselves "hey, that looks like a goat mermaid doesn't it?". I get that humans tend to make fun at others presumably to make themselves look more respectable, but that's just an awful practice that needs to end. It's arrogant, illogical, and unfair to our history that included certain metaphors and easy-to-remember symbolism to help us to better understand our world. That is the parent of modern science, we should be more respectful of that. Gods are just the personification of the forces of nature. It's a poetic beginning to the natural sciences.
two weeks ago we had a nation wide blackout in my country that lasted for 12 ours... I rushed outside to finally see the sky as it should look... it was completely covered by clouds!!!!
Why there is no pause between sentences in the talk. Human brain requires such pauses to understand the substance of what is said, especially for people from non English native language countries.. There is no advantage in talking like oral diarrhea. This is a big problem with the Crash course channel. Otherwise very useful videos.
As someone who has never studied any astronomy before (or at least not since primary school), I'm loving this so far, especially this episode. Really clear and easy to follow, but I still feel like you covered a lot! ^^
I live in a quiet and small part of Southwest Germany. There's a bigger city next to us, about 10km. Due to that City, I live in a Class 4 light pollution on the Bortle scale. If it wouldn't be there, it would've been a class 2. I honestly wish it wasn't here. I just wanna sit outside all night watching the stars. With Binoculars, I can see up to 5.8mag. Still, I hate that city.
Look up at the night sky at some point and learn where the visible planets are (Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Mercury). Try and keep track of them night-to-night or week-to-week for a few month. It's *really* cool watching them move around each other and seeing the solar system in motion.
I've been looking forward to another episode of this series! Funny I checked so soon after it got uploaded :) Really can't wait to watch the entirety of this series, Astronomy is one of my biggest interests.
Kinda unfortunate the Great Power Outage (in some big city, pretty sure L.A.) wasn't mentioned. The whole city lost power and thus lights, and people started calling emergency services in fear of the "huge thing that suddenly appeared in the sky," what the rest of us call The Milky Way.
