FROM THE MAGAZINE SHELF

FROM THE MAGAZINE SHELF is the first installment of a new feature of the FOUNTAINDALE LIBRARY REFERENCE BLOG.  Many of our customers are familiar with the popular general interest magazines that our library carries. What these postings will highlight will be titles that you might find of interest, but haven’t yet picked up to read.

SKY & TELESCOPE has been published since 1941 and is written in a style that has appeal to both amateur and professional astronomers. Among the types of things this monthly publication covers are: current happenings in astronomy and space exploration, events in the amateur astronomy community, reviews of astronomical equipment, books and computer software, amateur telescope making, and astrophotography.

The April 2012 issue features an intriguing article titled Did the Moon Sink the Titanic?  by Donald W. Olson, Russell L. Doescher & Roger W. Sinnott. I was tipped off about this by a piece written by Jim Forsyth in the March 7, 2012 issue of the Chicago Tribune. New research done by forensic astronomers indicates that the moon’s unusually close approach to the  earth on January 4, 1912 may have produced  high tides strong enough to cause  a large number of large, fully grown icebergs to break away from Greenland and float into the north Atlantic shipping lanes by April, when the Titanic made her ill-fated maiden voyage.

As we approach the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, the article sheds light on some data that many have never known about and adds more intrigue to the sinking of the ship that many said was unsinkable.

You may find the April issue of Sky & Telescope in our Magazines and Newspapers area on the 2nd Floor of the library.  You can also access it, with your Fountaindale Library card, in our InfoTrac electronic database.

-Tom D.