Nathan Bickmore

PHYS 1040
Fall 2015
Astronomy Conversation Paper
"The purpose of life is the investigation of the Sun, the Moon, and the
heavens," stated by the famous Philosopher Anaxagoras. I find it absorbing
to broaden my knowledge about astronomy and to better understand how
everything works within the universe. During this paper, I will be providing a
narration about a conversation that occurred between a few of my family
members about several topics within astronomy. The two main topics in
which we discussed were constellations and the Moon. I was hoping that we
could use this conversation as a growing experience to better understand
each others' views. I will be giving an account of where the conversation took
place, how I thought of the topics, who was included in the conversation,
which topics were discussed, the participants reaction to the topics, and
some things that I would have changed if I repeated the assignment.
The conversation took place on the 5th of November at my house after
I had made it back from work at about 9:00 PM. On my way home I looked at
the sky and saw the Big Dipper. Amazed by the formation of this truly
incredible constellation, I hurried home to talk about it. I got ready for my
family to arrive in order to begin our conversation. I was amazed by their
punctuality and eagerness with the appointment I had set. The conversation
took a little over an hour and we followed the outline of ideas that I thought

would be great topics to discuss and hopefully learn from. A few days earlier,
I had done a significant amount of research on what topics I wanted to
discuss with my family. I researched many ideas about astronomy on my
own, as well as having reading through a few of my favorite sections in the
Cosmic Perspective, and had asked various co-workers what topics they
found most interesting about astronomy.
My brother Eric, Mom, Dad, and I started the conversation talking
about constellations and what everyone knew about the constellations. I was
very surprised at the fact that my dad started to name about 5 of them and
Eric knew several as well. Constellations that were named were Orion's Belt,
Scorpius, Delphinus, Gemini, and Cancer. I wasn't expecting them to know so
many due to them being my family and I myself didn't know many
constellations. We went on to discuss the history behind the constellations
and how in ancient times mariners actually used the constellations while
traveling by sea to help them navigate. We also discussed a few of the gods
that form some of the shapes and pictures of the constellations. After about
20 minutes, my brother changed the subject a little and talked about how
the constellations are a lot easier to see when there is no light pollution to
distort our view of space from earth. It was mentioned that a few of the best
places to see the constellations were in the mountains, outback and in
Antarctica because of the lack of light pollution. I felt like the conversation up
to this point was being followed pretty well from what I had planned.

My family members got a little bit more into the conversation and
enthusiastic about the next topic that was brought up, the Moon. We went on
to talk about the attributes related to it, such as phases, eclipses, and the
creation of it. We began talking about the 8 phases of the Moon and how
solar and lunar eclipses happen. We explained how solar eclipses happen
when the Moon gets positioned in between the Sun and Earth so that a
person only sees the moon as a black circle with a ring of light around it. We
also elaborated on the lunar eclipse which consists of the Moon becoming
darkened due to its position passing into Earth's shadow. My mom was
unsure about how all of the phases worked so we talked about how the
phases of the moon work and how its cycles. About every 28 or so days the
Moon cycles between Full Moon, Waxing/Wanning Gibbous, First Quarter,
Waxing/Wanning Crescent, New Moon, and Last Quarter. Eric then started
talking about how scientists believe the Moon was formed. Surprisingly, he
knew that the Moon was created by a collision that blasted Earth's outer
layers into orbit and the material came together to form the Moon (Cosmic
Perspective pg. 161)
After about 50 minutes, we opened the Cosmic Perspective text book
and turned to the section of constellations and how they map out our view of
the solar system. My dad started to make references to religious theories and
voicing his perspective that he believes God's hand is in all of the creation of
the solar system. I then asked them how they thought the conversation went
and they expressed their sincere enjoyment and gratitude for being a part of

this conversation. I would have liked to change a few things about the
conversation by including more topics and a more detailed discussion about
the facts of the topics and not simply our viewpoints or opinions. This
conversation was a good way to understand everyone's view point and
understanding about astronomy, because we very rarely have these kinds of
discussions.
The conversation benefited everyone that participated, including
myself. I saw that there were many things that were learned and many
thoughts and ideas that were expressed to further the knowledge and
understanding of all of us. I would like to have more conversations like this
with others and continue to find other perspectives about constellations and
the Moon. This conversation has helped me understand how people
understand astronomy without necessarily taking an astronomy class.