I hope for these posts to serve as a general introduction to what science is, tailored for those of you who have had little exposure. It’s never too late to learn.

• Evidence vs. Belief

Yes, the moon landings happened. Even if you already believe me, I think you’ll find the evidence that they happened to be interesting. It’s really fascinating how difficult it would have been to fake such a thing with the technology of the 1960s.

Coming Soon!

People confuse these all the time. There’s no shame in it, especially considering that most sciences include the suffix “-logy,” meaning “the study of.” The suffix “-nomy,” on the other hand, means “the naming of.” So, literally translated, “astrology” means “the study of stars” and “astronomy” means “the naming of stars.” That’s…not even remotely what these two terms actually mean. Astrology is a religion in all but name; it’s generally referred to as a psuedoscience (that is, fake science). Astronomy is far more than just the naming of stars. It’s the science of the entire universe, and I have a whole section of this blog dedicated to it.

• Pseudoscience

If you have some of your science facts confused, you’re definitely not alone. Lots of people, including me, start out misinformed on how things work. This blog exists to help people find the right answers, but these Common Misconception posts will directly address commonly misunderstood science facts.

• The Reason for the Seasons
• What Causes the Lunar Phases?
• How Lightning Strikes
• What Makes a Star Blue?
• Black Holes: What the Movies Get Wrong

If someone reading this blog sends me a specific science question–which you can do here–I’ll link to it here, as well as in any other relevant science topic pages.

• The Secrets of Magnets
• What is Gravity, Anyway?
• Life vs. Rocks: What Makes Them Different?
• How Were Atoms Discovered?

• Where Are We?
• Mapping the Sky
• The Celestial Sphere
• What is Precession?
• The Ecliptic
• Stars: Naming and Brightness
• The Reason for the Seasons
• Orbit and Climate
• Milankovitch and Climate

• Lunar Phases and Motion
• The Lunar Eclipse
• The Solar Eclipse
• The Annular Eclipse
• Solar Eclipse Sights
• The Eclipse Seasons
• The Saros Cycle
• What Causes the Lunar Phases?

• Archaeoastronomy
• From Classical Beginnings
• Aristotle’s Universe
• The Ptolemaic Universe
• The Copernican Revolution
• Tycho Brahe, the Observer
• Johannes Kepler and Planetary Motion
• Galileo and the Telescope

• Galileo and Motion
• Newton’s Laws of Motion
• Newton and Gravity
• How Orbits Work
• Moving with the Tides

• The Spectrum of Light
• Refracting & Reflecting Telescopes
• Telescope Powers
• Light Pollution
• A Telescope Tour
• Info in a Rainbow
• The Hubble Space Telescope
• How Deep-Sky Catalogs Work

• The Building Blocks of the Universe
• Atoms and Radiation
• Stars and Radiation
• The Atomic Spectrum
• Types of Stars
• The Doppler Effect
• What Makes a Star Blue?

• Our Sun: The Photosphere
• Our Sun: The Chromosphere
• Our Sun: The Corona
• The Battery of the Sun
• The Proton-Proton Chain
• Solar Weather

• Distances Between Stars
• The H-R Diagram
• Just How Big Are Stars?
• Star Types Demystified
• Binary Stars
• The Average Star
• Stellar Evolution Demystified

• What is a Nebula?
• What is a Nebula Made of?
• What are Molecular Clouds?
• Where Did the Interstellar Medium Come From?

• Black Holes: What the Movies Get Wrong
• Discovery of the Milky Way
• Structure of the Milky Way
• The Milky Way Demystified
• The Different Shapes of Galaxies