A VIEW FROM THE MOON: First Footprints on the Moon — 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11 Robert E. Strong July 20, 2019 For untold generations, human beings had looked at the moon and wondered ... What was it? Was it a God? Was it a place? What was it made of? Did anyone or anything live there? Only poets, writers, philosophers ...
A VIEW FROM THE MOON: SMART-Center Turns 25 — 50 Years Ago (Part 2) Robert E. Strong May 28, 2019 Recap: In Part 1, we find my youthful 10-year-old self, 50 years my present-day junior, has been called to the principal’s office without apparent reason or explanation. Worried I had done something wrong I was...
A VIEW FROM THE MOON: SMART-Center Turns 25 — 50 Years Ago (Part 1) Robert E. Strong April 30, 2019 In elementary school, I labored under the common misconception that persists with most youngsters unabated to this day. I thought that “Science” is the accumulation of random facts and figures about a field of ...
A VIEW FROM THE MOON: Practice Makes Perfect — 50th Anniversary of Apollo 9 Robert E. Strong March 18, 2019 As the rocket blurred into the clouds, I watched the joyful exuberance of the hundreds of kids around me all still spellbound by the launch of Apollo 9. As I kept turning, this view was quickly replaced as th...
A VIEW FROM THE MOON: Big Idea — The Fractional Gravity Experiment (Part 3) Robert E. Strong February 27, 2019 (Editor’s note: In the last two weeks, we read about the Big Idea (Part 1) and Big Idea (Part 2). Today, Robert E. Strong wraps things up. Did his "Big Idea" make the cut? Read on ... ) For over third of a c...
A VIEW FROM THE MOON: Big Idea — The Fractional Gravity Experiment (Part 2) Robert E. Strong February 19, 2019 (Editor's note: Last week we read about the Big Idea (Part 1). Today, Robert E. Strong recaps that article and moves on to Part 2.) As a recap from Big Idea: The Fractional Gravity Experiment (Part 1): ...
A VIEW FROM THE MOON: Big Idea — The Fractional Gravity Experiment (Part 1) Robert E. Strong February 12, 2019 It is always amazing to me how a single small event can alter trajectories that appear to be set firmly on a specific course. Perhaps our perceived life’s course is an illusion. The idea that we are set on a ce...
A VIEW FROM THE MOON: Total Lunar Eclipse — Sun, Earth, Moon Syzygy Robert E. Strong January 19, 2019 Allow me to introduce you to one of my favorite words, a word that may be new to most of my gentle readers: “syzygy.” Syzygy (pronounced: sizz-ah-gee) is the alignment in a straight line of three or more c...
A VIEW FROM THE MOON: The Golden Anniversary of the Apollo 8 Earthrise Image Robert E. Strong December 15, 2018 1 For the vast majority of the human tenure on this planet, the surface of the Earth — or very near the surface — was the sole domain of human direct first-hand experience of the universe. Other than the occasion...
A VIEW FROM THE MOON: Why Can’t We See the Footprints on the Moon (Part II) Robert E. Strong November 24, 2018 In our last installment, Where Are the Footprints on the Moon?: Part I, we discussed that because the Earth’s moon is big and very far away, you just cannot see small objects on such a huge scale. The footprint...
A VIEW FROM THE MOON: Where Are the Footprints on the Moon? (Part 1) Robert E. Strong November 15, 2018 1 Nearly a third of a century ago, on a tropical island in the South Pacific far, far away, I started organizing weekly educational and public StarWatches as the laboratory portion for a high school astronomy cla...
A VIEW FROM THE MOON: An Introduction Robert E. Strong October 16, 2018 Years ago, nearly 46 to be more exact, I was a freshman in high school. I was 14 1/2 years old, it was a Saturday morning, dawn was shining on the still sleepy city of Richmond, (East) Va., and I was heading to...
Reinstating Pluto as a Planet Robert E. Strong August 17, 2015 The July 12, 2015 article about Pluto was the start of a four-part series (Is Pluto a Planet?). The goal of the first article was the hope of rekindling a scientific and public conversation of “what a planet is...
Is Pluto a Planet? Robert E. Strong July 12, 2015 Do you know what a planet is? Most of us can tell the difference between a planet and a star and the difference between a planet and an asteroid or comet. Astronomers, like everyone else, like to group/class...
