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10/11/2022 – Ephemeris – Ada Lovelace Day
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Ada Lovelace Day, Tuesday, October 11th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 11 minutes, setting at 7:05, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:54. The Moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 8:02 this evening.
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), or more properly Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, was the daughter of Lord Byron and worked for Charles Babbage, a brilliant mechanical engineer and mathematician in the early 19th century. She is considered the first computer programmer. She devised a way to use the same punch cards that were used on the Jacquard loom to store and run her programs, even though Babbage was unable to complete his mechanical computer the Analytical Engine in the mid 1800s. This day is set aside to celebrate the accomplishments of all the women of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, (STEM). The computer language, Ada, was named after her, and was created for the US Department of Defense.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Portrait of Ada Lovelace by Margaret Sarah Carpenter, 1836
Part of Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine on display, in 1843, left of centre in this engraving of the King George III Museum in King’s College, London. Unknown engraver.
Trial model of a part of the Analytical Engine, built by Charles Babbage, as displayed at the Science Museum (London). By Bruno Barral (ByB), CC BY-SA 2.5.
10/12/2021 – Ephemeris – It’s Ada Lovelace Day!
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Ada Lovelace Day, Tuesday, October 12th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 7:02, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:56. The Moon, at first quarter today, will set at 11:50 this evening.
Saturn has stopped its retrograde or westward motion against the stars of Capricornus and today has resumed its normal eastern motion.
Ada Lovelace, or more properly Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, was the daughter of Lord Byron and worked for Charles Babbage, and is considered the first computer programmer. She devised a way to use the same punch cards that were used on the Jacquard loom to store and run her programs, even though Babbage was unable to complete his mechanical computer the Analytic Engine in the mid 1800s. This day is set aside to celebrate the accomplishments of all the women of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, (STEM). The computer language Ada, named after her, was created for the US Department of Defense.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT-4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Ada, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852) considered the first computer programmer, even though the machine she wrote code for was never completed. Credit: Science & Society Picture Library.
Part of Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine on display, in 1843, left of center in this engraving of the King George III Museum in King’s College, London. Unknown engraver.
10/13/2020 – Ephemeris – Mars at opposition and Ada Lovelace Day
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Ada Lovelace Day, Tuesday, October 13th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 4 minutes, setting at 7:00, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:57. The Moon, 3 days before new, will rise at 4:50 tomorrow morning.
Mars will be in opposition from the Sun this afternoon and will officially enter the evening sky and begin rising before sunset. Ada Lovelace or more properly Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was the daughter of Lord Byron and worked for Charles Babbage, and is considered the first computer programmer, even though Babbage was unable to build his mechanical computer the Analytic Engine in the mid 1800s. This day is set aside to celebrate the accomplishments of women of science, technology, engineering and math, STEM. This year three women were awarded Nobel Prizes: Two in chemistry, and one shared with two men in physics. The computer language Ada was created for the US Department of Defense.
The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addenda
Mars Opposition
Inner solar system on October 13, 2020 showing Mars at opposition from the Sun. The Sun, Earth and Mars are in a straight line. Note the motion of the planets and space probes are counterclockwise. Mars was closest to the Earth a week ago. It is moving away from the Sun in its orbit. Its closest point to the Sun, called perihelion, at about the 2 o’clock point in its orbit. The Mars 2020 Rover “Percy” has a bit more than 4 months to go to reach Mars. Credit: NASA Eyes App https://eyes.nasa.gov/.
Don’t worry, that the Mars 2020 is behind both the Earth and Mars. In being sent to Mars, it is now moving slower than the Earth, but faster than Mars, which it will reach on February 18, 2021.
Ada Lovelace
Ada, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852) considered the first computer programmer, even though the machine she wrote code for was never built. Credit: Science & Society Picture Library
Trial model of a part of the Analytical Engine, built by Charles Babbage, as displayed at the Science Museum (London). By Bruno Barral (ByB), CC BY-SA 2.5.
Women winning the Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physics
The 59 second program length of Ephemeris prevented me from naming the Nobel prize winners. Here they are.
Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on CRISPR-Cas9 as a way to edit genomes. Andrea Ghez shared the Physics Prize with Roger Penrose who got half the prize for discovering that black holes were a prediction of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, and Reinhard Genzel for the discovery of the supermassive black hole in our Milky Way galaxy. Ghez and Genzel shared the other half of the prize.
10/08/2019 – Ephemeris – Ada Lovelace Day
Ephemeris for Ada Lovelace Day, Tuesday, October 8th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 21 minutes, setting at 7:10, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:50. The Moon, 3 days past first quarter, will set at 3:21 tomorrow morning.
Ada Lovelace Day, is an international celebration of the achievements of women in STEM, science, technology, engineering and math. Ada Augusta King, Countess of Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, born in 1815 is considered the world’s first computer programmer, writing a program on Jacquard loom punch cards for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine. Unfortunately the Analytical Engine never made it past the planning stage. The recently completed incredibly successful Cassini Mission mission had three women in top roles: Project scientist, Linda Spilker; Spacecraft Operations Team Manager, Julie Webster; Imaging Science Subsystem Principle Investigator, Carolyn Porco, plus many more. STEM fields are still male dominated but lets encourage women to enter them too.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Ada, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852) considered the first computer programmer, even though the machine she wrote code for was never built. Credit: Science & Society Picture Library
Part of Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine on display, in 1843, left of center in this engraving of the King George III Museum in King’s College, London. Unknown engraver.
Trial model of a part of the Analytical Engine, built by Charles Babbage, as displayed at the Science Museum (London). By Bruno Barral (ByB), CC BY-SA 2.5.
10/09/2018 – Ephemeris – Ada Lovelace Day
Ephemeris for Ada Lovelace Day, Tuesday, October 9th. The Sun will rise at 7:50. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 17 minutes, setting at 7:08. The Moon, 1 day past new, will set at 7:53 this evening.
Ada Lovelace Day is dedicated to Lord Byron’s daughter as the first computer programmer more than a century before the computer as we know it was invented. She worked with Charles Babbage as he designed his Analytical Engine, which would have been the world’s first truly general purpose computer, mechanical though it was. The day is also dedicated to women in the STEM fields: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Two days from now, the 11th will be the International Day of the Girl, promoting the education and possibilities of 52% of the population that aren’t male. Some of the female astronomers I follow on Twitter are astrophysicist Dr. Katherine Mack as @AstroKatie, planetary radar astronomer Alessondra Springmann as @sondy, planetary scientist Carolyn Porco, @carolynporco. These are a few, and in my field of computer programming, I celebrate the late Admiral Grace Hopper.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The analytic Engine was designed to be programed with punch cards.
10/10/2017 – Ephemeris – Ada Lovelace Day
Ephemeris for Ada Lovelace Day, Tuesday, October 10th. The Sun will rise at 7:51. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 14 minutes, setting at 7:06. The Moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 11:01 this evening.
Ada Lovelace Day is a day set aside to celebrate women in STEM, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Ada Augusta King, Countess of Lovelace, born in 1815 is considered the world’s first computer programmer, writing a program on Jacquard loom punch cards for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine. Unfortunately the Analytical Engine never made it past the planning stage.
The recently completed incredibly successful Cassini Mission mission had three women in top roles: Project scientist, Linda Spilker; Spacecraft Operations Team Manager, Julie Webster; Imaging Science Subsystem Principle Investigator, Carolyn Porco, plus many more. STEM fields are still male dominated but lets encourage the girls to enter them too.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Ada, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852) considered the first computer programmer, even though the machine she wrote code for was never built. Credit: Science & Society Picture Library
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 