Very Cool! The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D

Skywatchers Delight

The following comes from FRED SCHAAF For The Press:

The time has finally come. The next two weeks offer us what is probably the grandest pairing of two planets in our lives. It also is a near-replay of what some scholars believe was the most spectacular appearance of the Star of Bethlehem.

The most important night is June 30, for that is when the two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, come closest of all to each other in the sky. They come almost as close to each other next Tuesday as they did on June 17, 2 B.C., when Magi in Babylonia or Persia would have seen the two merge into one single blazing light as the pair descended to the horizon in the exact direction of Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

How close in the sky? Even if next Tuesday night isn't clear, Venus and Jupiter will be amazingly close together for the entire two weeks that start tonight. No close pairing of these brightest planets in our lifetime has been so prolonged. But how close is close, in the sky?

To answer that question, we must talk about "angular measure" in the sky.

Your fist at arm's length is about 10 degrees wide, your thumb at arm's length about 2 degrees wide. Venus and Jupiter are 4 degrees apart tonight. But amazingly, they will be less than 2 degrees apart for eight nights - all the way from this Saturday through the Fourth of July. We'll reveal how close their closest encounter will be later in this column.

When and where to look each day? Look above where the Sun went down each day and you'll see the two planets. Venus is so bright now that you should be able to see it easily with the naked eye even quite a while before sunset, say 8 p.m. Jupiter is less bright, so you may not see it first glimmer into view until about 8:45 or 9 p.m.

Tonight: Look for Jupiter 4 degrees upper left of Venus. By the time the sky is pretty dark - say 9:30 p.m - you also should be able to glimpse a much dimmer object, the star Regulus (the heart of Leo the Lion), about one fist-width at arm's length to the upper left of Jupiter.

This weekend: Venus and Jupiter become less than 2 degrees apart on Saturday. On Sunday evening, by the way, be sure to observe the moon in the southeast with a bright point of light very near it - the planet Saturn. But even better will be Venus and Jupiter on Sunday - just over 1 degree apart.

Next Monday: Venus and Jupiter are now close enough for their globes to be in the same telescopic view. By amazing coincidence, the two globes have almost the exact same apparent size these next few days, when they are closest in the sky. But Jupiter is fully lit while Venus is less than half lit (though far more radiant in surface brightness). If you don't have access to a telescope the days the two worlds are closest in the sky, you can attend the South Jersey Astronomy Club "Skywatch" on July 3 (or, rain date, July 5). This particular observing event will be held outside Egg Harbor Township Public Library at 7:30 p.m. Be sure to check sjac.us for directions and further information, including the weather call.

June 30: The climax - conjunction day. A "conjunction" is a temporary pairing of heavenly objects. On this day of the actual conjunction, the planets are separated by only a third of a degree - that's almost seven times smaller than your thumb held out at arm's length. The two planets, Jupiter just upper right of Venus, will almost appear to have their rays touching on this incredible evening.

July 1: Venus and Jupiter still only a bit more than ½ degree apart.

July 2: Venus and Jupiter 1 degree part and most nearly side by side.

July 3: SJAC Skywatch (see above).

July 4: Planets 1.9 degrees apart.

July 5: Planets less than 2½ degrees apart.

July 6: Planets 2.7 degrees apart.

Fred Schaaf is a local author and astronomer. He can be reached at: fschaaf@aol.com.

Venus and Jupiter above St. Peter’s Dome in Rome on Sunday June 28, 2015.  Credit: Gianluca Masi

Fr. Robert Barron comments on "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey"

Fr. Robert Barron on Scientism and the Existence of God

Incense: Anti-Depressant

Religious leaders have contended for millennia that burning incense is good for the soul. Now, biologists have learned that it is good for our brains too. An international team of scientists, including researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describe how burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression. This suggests that an entirely new class of depression and anxiety drugs might be right under our noses.

Hat tip to Laudem Gloria.

Pope Benedict: Faith and Science are not opposed

The following comes from the CNA:

A “friendship” exists between science and faith, said the Holy Father during his catechesis on Wednesday morning in which he spoke of St. Albert the Great, “one of the greatest teachers of scholastic theology” and the patron of those who study natural sciences. He used the saint’s example to urge young people to seek God’s guidance for their “life project.”

As a teacher, scholar and writer in the 13th century and “being a man of prayer, science and charity,” said the Pope, St. Albert “enjoyed great authority in his interventions, in various events of the Church and of the society of that time.”

There was “something of prodigious” about the culture of the Dominican, the Holy Father said, explaining that beyond philosophy and theology his “encyclopedic interests” included every other known discipline at that time including physics, chemistry, astronomy and even botany and zoology.

Pope Benedict said that this teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas still has much to teach us, particularly, he pointed out, “St. Albert shows us that there is no opposition between faith and science.”

St. Albert, the Pope remarked, “reminds us that there is friendship between science and faith, and that scientists can, through their vocation to study nature, follow an authentic and absorbing path of sanctity."

“A man of faith and prayer,” he was able to “ serenely cultivate the study of natural sciences and advance the understanding of the micro and macrocosm” and doing so “to nourish (his) thirst and love for God.”

His dedication to the sciences was not accidental. The Bible, pointed out the Holy Father, “speaks to us of creation as the first language through which God ... reveals to us something of himself.”

Referring to the Book of Wisdom in particular, he said that the “phenomena of nature, endowed with greatness and beauty” are affirmed, “they are like the works of an artist, through whom, by analogy, we can know the Author of creation.”

All scientists who are inspired in their work like St. Albert was, see a world that “appeared and appears as the good work of a wise and loving Creator,” the Holy Father noted.

“Scientific study is thus transformed into a hymn of praise,” he observed.

At the beginning of his address, the Holy Father had recalled St. Albert’s path to finding his vocation, following his calling from his native Germany to the Dominican order in Padova, Italy.

Drawing inspiration and a lesson for today’s youth from the experience of the 13th century saint, Pope Benedict XVI said, “often, in the years of youth, God speaks to us and indicates to us the our life project. As for Albert, also for all of us personal prayer nurtured by the Word of the Lord, the association with the Sacraments and the spiritual guidance of illuminated men are the ways to discover and follow the voice of God.”

Climategate: Science Is Dying

The Future of Food

I have to say this is not something I have given a lot of thought. You might think about trying to eat healthier or trying to cut down on processed food, but what if everything we eat has been processed? What are the long term affects? We have a lot to think and pray about.  I saw the first segment of this at Patrick Madrid, but I wanted to see all of them!  We have a lot to learn.