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Twinkle, Twinkle Little Stars

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Contributed by: Penny Sheltz on 6/24/2008

Captain Larry Rudner and his wife Marlene had a program on how to identify stars and constellations named thousands of years ago.
Thirty people learned about the skies over Florida and other areas, Monday June 23, at the North Palm Beach Anchorage Park Activities Building.
Larry Rudner is a retired Aerospace Engineer, and has a Master Mariner Certification from the US Merchant Marines.
He co-authored a book on Celestial Navigation, is an instructor at the US Power Squadron and lectures on cruise ships that have taken him to every hemisphere.

The program started with the Disney song, "When You Wish Upon a Star."
Captain Rudner explained how to find the brightest stars which are measured by magnitude which means brightest temperature not size and he said there are only 21. He told the difference between planets and stars and that both twinkle but planets twinkle more.
Rudner quoted Karl Sagan who said " There are more stars in heaven than all the grains of sand on all the beaches on earth" which surprised the audience but Rudner reminded them that the Milky Way has trillions of stars and that there are trillions of galaxies.

Rudner talked about the constellation pattern of stars viewed from the earth and that there are 88 in total, liike the Big Dipper, and Orion the Hunter. He showed Orion with his sword and a Nebula at the bottom., and explained a Nebula is the birth of a star composed of gaseous pieces of dust that come together in a heat blast. Then talked about the Polaris, North Star and that the earth is tilted
23 1/2 degrees to give us seasons. He shared many Greek and Arab names like Capella, Betelgeuse, Vega, Rigel, Sirus, Pollux, etc

Rudner gave the members of the audience a chart that showed how to convert Star time to Watch time that he said will be accurate for the next 1000 years. Since there is no latitude or longitude in space on earth, he said locating celestial bodies is done with Declimation which is like Latitude and Rt Ascension which is like longitude. He spoke about the Southern cross that is so popular and visable in the Southern hemisphere like our North Star is always visible in the Northern hemisphere. He covered the various phases of the moon and the audience wished the sky was brighter and not so cloudy so they could practice what they learned.

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