Welcome to Learn the Night Sky - a podcast where you’ll be looking up with me into the night sky. In this first episode, you'll learn some basics such as the motions of the skies, how to navigate and orient yourself, I’ll show you what to observe in the last week of April and at the end of this episode, we compare paintings from Mars' and Venus' love affair and think about Mayan Astronomy.
References and more info:
If you wanna know more about the concepts of the meridian, zenith, ecliptic, celestial sphere, magnitude, and measuring distances, I highly recommend this awesome series from Eyes on the Sky on Youtube (Stargazing Basics 1-3): https://youtu.be/XUbG8jboh4M
Astronomical events mentioned:
Month of April: https://www.space.com/16149-night-sky.html
Calendar of Astronomical Events from In-The-Sky.org: https://in-the-sky.org/newscal.php
Best of 2023: Night sky events not to miss - https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/best-of-2023-night-sky-events-not-to-miss/
Mars + Venus love affair paintings:
Look at these two paintings and tell me that Botticelli's painting is not boring! Also, Mars doesn't look that handsome to me in both.
Sandro Botticelli's Venus and Mars (1485): https://thatmuse.com/2021/11/12/when-love-conquers-war-botticellis-venus-and-mars/
Joachim Wtewael's painting (1604–1608): https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RFE
Ancient Mayan Astronomy:
Interesting article about the Maya and the Stars: https://www.thoughtco.com/ancient-maya-astronomy-2136314
Any questions or feedback? Write to learnthenightsky@gmail.com