History of the Kaleidoscope

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The kaleidoscope was invented in 1816 by Sir David Brewster (1781-1868) of Scotland.  Brewster was a child prodigy, built a telescope at age 10, and entered the University of Edinburgh at age 12 where his primary studies were optics and the physics of light.  For more information click here.

I enjoy and have a few kaleidoscopes.  What do you collect?

Asteroid Passes Close to Earth

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Yesterday and today people in both the northern and southern hemispheres are able to easily see the asteroid 2005 YU55 as it passes close to Earth.  An event of this type--when we will know in advance about an object this large that will pass this close to Earth--will not happen again until 2028.

For more information, see the websites of UniverseToday.com and SpaceDaily.com, which has an animation of the trajectory.

Where is the Driest Desert on Earth?

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The Atacama Desert is a 600-mile (1,000 km) strip of land on the South American Pacific Coast, running through Chile and Peru.  Outlying less-dry areas of the desert run through Bolivia and Argentina.  The Atacama Desert is the driest desert in the world with no rainfall having been recorded since rainfall records began being kept.  It is also the highest desert on earth, and one of the coldest deserts on earth.  Since certain bacteria and sea-life fossils have been found in gypsum boulders (similar to rocks on the planet Mars), it is believed that the Atacama Desert was once underwater.

For more information in addition to the above links, see the websites of the Gypsum Association and the ALMA telescope, which is the Atacama Large Millimeter Array telescope erected in the Atacama Desert by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Steam Powered Church Organ

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Pope Sylvester II (946-1003), also known as Gerbert, built church organs powered by steam, a great innovation of the time, which eliminated having people force air through the organ pipes by physically operating bellows while another person actually played the organ keys.

He also constructed the precursor to Galileo's telescope, and became one of the first great collectors of books.

For more information, see the websites of Christian Classics Ethereal Library, and Encyclopedia Britannica.