New Sundials!

Hello everyone,

Today, I just have a quick update on Comet Leonard, now that it is visible in the evening skies, and also an announcement about two new paper sundials that I'm particularly proud of.

Comet Leonard Update

I hope you've been keeping your eye on the lovely Jupiter-Saturn-Venus triplet in the evening skies. For North American viewers, Comet Leonard is now visible very low in the southwestern evening skies, below and somewhat to the right of Venus. It will be directly below Venus in a couple of days.

The uncertain question, as it is with most comets, is: How bright will it get? I haven't seen Comet Leonard yet myself, because it has been pretty cloudy and hazy here lately. (And I was also too lazy to get up at 4 AM.) But according to at least one report from the last 24 hours, Comet Leonard is now easily visible to the naked eye! This is cause for cautious optimism. For one thing, it may be a lasting effect, or it may have just been a brief burst. For another thing, it will never rise very high above the horizon, and dim fuzzy things are always difficult to spot in the horizon haze. On the other hand, even if it is difficult to see with the naked eye, it may still be a beautiful sight in binoculars.

So if you can find a place with dark clear skies, and a clear view of the southwestern horizon, and especially if you own a pair of binoculars, you may want to go comet-hunting in the next few evenings. I'm having a hard time finding reliable information, but this webpage provides several nice maps of where to look. And as I mentioned last time, the software Stellarium can be configured to show you exactly where to look at any time from any location on earth.

New Sundials!

If you'd like an activity to do with your kids related to the upcoming solstice (December 21), what about making a sundial? I recently completed designs for two paper sundials that I am especially proud of. Both of them are modeled after Ancient Greek sundials — the first scientific instruments in history — both of them amount to inverted models of the sky overhead, and both of them allow you to track the sun between the solstices and equinoxes, as well as through the divisions of the day. They also both come with optional maps. I made a youTube video to introduce them, and if you'd like printouts or more information, you can follow the links from there.

This will probably be my last newsletter of 2021, so Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

John