Copywriting Procedures

Copywriting Procedures

Within this article on copywriting procedures, we will look at how to structure your copywriting when working for a client.  There has been a great deal of copywriting done through the years and it is not necessary to reinvent the wheel every time you want to write copy.  We will specifically be focused upon the sales letter because this could have the greatest impact for you, especially if you decide to do SEO copywriting.

One particular school of thought speaks to making your website one large online sales letter.  Continuing in this train of thought, this could present a great opportunity for you. You could write for both off-line businesses as well as for online business using the format of a sales letter.

Within a sales letter, there are three main components that will make a difference whether or not your product will sell.  The first component is the headline.  If you do not grab your prospects' attention right away, you will have wasted your time in developing the rest of the copy.  The second component of a sales letter is the offer.  This part is important as you must be explicit with the offer to give the prospect what he or she now wants.  It must be something that will entice the prospect to take action upon the completion of reading the letter.  The final component of a sales letter is the postscript.  This is the second most read portion of a sales letter after the headline.  When you are writing this, this is the extra incentive that you will be using to motivate your prospects to take advantage of the offer that you presented right away. When you are focusing upon writing a sales letter, you should take each particular step of the sales letter in order.  You do not sit down and just writes a sales letter completely through but rather take it step by step.  This entails writing the headline followed by writing the offer and then followed by writing the postscript.  Following these copywriting procedures will ensure that you will have set yourself up for great success.

If you do not have a great deal of experience within copywriting, make sure to follow the examples of copywriting procedures set up by some of the foremost experts.  One of the key authors who you should look into is Dan Kennedy.  He has written some great books over the years and is a great resource for you to use.

Hopefully this article on copywriting procedures will help you in becoming a better copywriter.  The key behind successful copywriting is to use the formulas that have been developed while putting your own spin on what you're writing.  Copywriting procedures are important because people have developed these in a certain method to be successful for a reason.  There is no need to reinvent the wheel because this will only be frustrating for you in the long run as you'll find that you have less sales while putting in more effort.  By taking the time to follow operating procedures, you'll set yourself up to maximize potential sales when developing a sales letter.

Copywriting Rates

Within this article on copywriting rates, we'll look at how much you can make both employed as a copywriter as well as what type of copywriting rates you can charge if you are a freelancer.

If you are employed as a copywriter, you can make a small amount or large amount of money depending on your expertise and how you sell yourself.  The average writer in 2005 earned roughly around $60,000 including bonuses, according to Advertising Age.  This was quoted at the following website: http://www.collegeboard.com. 

As far as copywriting rates go when you are a freelancer, this is a hard question to answer.  Some people charge on a per project basis while others charged on a per hour basis. Here are some facts from a study done back in 2005 so adjust these figures slightly for the purposes of this article.  If you like to learn more about copywriting rates up front, here is the link for that: http://www.excessvoice.com/copyfees.htm. If you write a sales letter that is supposed to generate leads, most freelancers charged somewhere between $1000 and $2000.

If you were to charge for writing a website home page, this often would bring in between $300 and $400 for you. Copywriting is a very good profession as about two out of every five people earned somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 a year in gross income.  Be sure that you take advantage of purchasing these survey results because it could allow you to earn a great deal more money.  You could find that you are grossly undercharging your services in this could provide an immediate boost to your income without having to do any more work.

The figures that were quoted here were based upon the median of copywriters surveyed so if you have specific knowledge and experience that others do not and this can be quantified, you could charge a higher price than what the market could bear.  This would allow you to have a greater gross income. Taking the time to learn more by your field and develop experience within a particular niche can give you a competitive attitude which would allow you to charge more for your services.

Hopefully this article on copywriting writing rates has given you some knowledge on what kind of rates you could charge.  If you want more information on particular activities that you currently engaged in, look up the survey which is listed under the link provided above. 

All of the rates that were listed in here were the median rates remember.  This is the critical point that is being re-emphasized in this paragraph because it should give you an idea of what you could potentially charge.  Rates within markets can always change so you must make sure that you're keeping up with what others are charging so that you make sure you are not shortchanging your self.  The rate that you charge for services is contingent upon what the market is willing to pay as well as how well you sell yourself.

Copywriting Tips and Tricks

Within this article on copywriting tips and tricks, we will look at how you can take a sales letter and maximize its usage in eight different ways.  This comes directly from a book written by Dan S. Kennedy, titled The Ultimate Sales Letter. This book comes highly recommended as he is one of the foremost experts on copywriting with in the world today.

Copywriters have a very interesting niche in that you can use your own writing to help you develop leads.  If you find that you had many inconsistent advertising methods, think about developing a sales letter to help bring in qualified leads.  If you develop a successful sales letter, you can send this out in quantities which you pre-determine.  The beauty of this is that you can quantify the amount of work that you want to do in a given month and mail out that many sales letters.  After having used a consistent sales letter for a certain period of time, you will know what the response rate is and this will allow you to know how much business you should potentially get from mailing a certain number of letters.  This can make sure that you always have clients coming into the door when you want them to.  It can also help you better pattern the business after your life and lifestyle so that you can pick up the pace when you have extra time and slow things down when other parts of your life become busier.

If you have quite a few clients who are telemarketers or you would like to start developing telemarketers as potential clients, you may want to look into developing a sales letter for one of these companies.  Telemarketing has become much more expensive and more inconsistent these days due to new laws and it is an industry with very high turnover.  Developing a sales letter to send to qualified prospects in the beginning can make telemarketing more effective for these companies and potentially reduce turnover.  If you are able to quantify the savings in training employees as well as in better sales, you will find yourself called upon by many telemarketing companies because you will have put yourself in their shoes and can understand the business struggles that they go through.

The final way that we will use a sales letter and one way in which you could increase your business is to focus upon dentists and doctors office.  Often these professionals are consistently looking for new clients and this could be a way to help them out.  You could use a sales letter to help stimulate referrals.

These were just a few of the ideas that came from this great book.  If you are looking at copywriting and have been in the field for awhile, this article can be very valuable because it can offer new places to look for business.  Hopefully this article on copywriting tips and checks will benefit you with more dollars in your bank account.

Copywriting Demand

Copywriting Demand

Within this article on copywriting demand, we will look at how much work there is out there for someone who wants to do freelance copywriting as well as the demand for copywriters as a profession.

Copywriting demand will always be strong. Demand will always be strong whether the economy is strong or weak. In past decades, it was easy to get away with a strong product and some marketing. With the emergence of globalization, there is a greater deal of competition in all markets and the way to stand apart is through marketing. For many consumers, the only way to be able to discern the differences between competing products is through the marketing. This ensures that copywriters are needed. Any good company which wants to send a consistent message to a target audience will always be employing copywriters. Some companies not looking ahead to the future may cut their advertising budget when they hit weak sales but that is not a smart move. If a recession comes along, demand may go down by a small margin for copywriters but it would pick right back up when the economy turned around.

There is always need for copywriters so no matter what happens within the country, companies will want to make sure that they have copywriters to work for them. There is a growing demand for copywriters in one particular forum and that would be on the Internet. With the Web up past four billion web pages, the demand for search engine copywriting has continued to increase. It is harder to get your web site indexed and search engine copywriting give you a better chance of being indexed. To do this, the search engine copywriters must write well to ensure that two audiences, the people searching and the search bots, are appeased so this provides more opportunities.

If you are looking into copywriting, there are a great many opportunities within this field. You can work for an advertising agency or you can decide to work for yourself. Many jobs are available all over the country for copywriters and you will find that this copywriting demand will stay at about the same pace and continue to grow with the pace of the economy.  If you go out to the website, monster, you will find that there are currently more than 500 jobs are available for copywriters. This is just a small piece of the job market.  There are many other ways that you can find copywriting jobs currently at this time. This should give you an idea of how there is demand for copywriters.

Hopefully this article on copywriting demand will help you out. If you are a copywriter, you should find that no matter the condition of the economy, you will always find work. Even when the economy is in a recession, some companies' sales are increasing and they may have a need for more copywriting work. With the demand of the whole market, you should always find yourself needed by someone. Good luck in finding a copywriting job but you will find that this is something that will often not be needed because of copywriting demand.

Copywriting Jobs

There are a great deal of copywriting jobs out there today.  Within this article today, we will look at the future of copywriting jobs as well as where you can find more information.

The number of copywriting job is enormous. As of February 10, 2007, if you did a keyword search of "copywriting", there were 509 open jobs. This is only a small part of the market and you could find many other copywriting jobs on other websites as well. With the evolution of the Internet, there are more and more jobs available to write good web content among other things on the Internet.  Often many copywriting jobs can be found where you will find a plethora of advertising agencies and a good example of this would be in New York.  Within your area, there will be a good number of smaller marketing agencies where you may be able to find work as a copywriter.  The number of opportunities for a copywriter is very high and this is a great feel to work in.

Copywriting salaries usually range from $41,000 a year up to $56,000 a year or more.  From this website, 41,000 represented what the 25th percentile are making on average within the field whereas the people earning 56,000 a year were in the top 75%.  This is a rough gauge on what you could potentially make if you decide to take a copywriting job.

To look just be on the realm of grabbing a job as a copywriter, you could also look at doing some freelance copywriting.  If you're not happy with the amount of money that you could make within the copywriting field, you could look at supplementing this on the side by bidding for projects at either of these two following websites: www.elance.com or www.directfreelance.com. On either of these two websites, you are able to bid on projects that are listed as well as set up a profile to showcase your best work.  You can create search criteria so that jobs that meet what you want can be e-mailed to you.  This is a great way to supplement your income.

Copywriting jobs are out there for the taking.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, copywriting jobs will grow in line with the general economy over the next decade.  This means that you will see probably about average growth for the industry but you could see a great deal more growth if you focus on Internet copywriting.  This is a very flexible industry in which you have potentially a greater chance at dictating your terms and conditions and how you would like to work.  This is something that you can look into when you start talking with a potential employer.  Do not underestimate also the opportunity to work as a freelancer because you could command higher rates and this would increase the amount of flexibility you would have within your life.

Copywriting Lyrics

Within this article on copywriting lyrics, we will look at this particular field a little more closely. 

Copywriting takes on a similar form no matter what niche you are writing for.  This is exactly true when copywriting lyrics. When you are working at copywriting lyrics, you are writing a message to a certain audience.  To do this, you must understand the way  that your audience thinks and acts and what sort of message is going to appeal to them.  Many people write songs every year but these are not played on the radio because it is not something meets with the audience's thoughts and feelings.  People who are good at copywriting lyrics know what their audience wants and gives it to them.

You will be working to get a message across but you also are working to provide instant recognition of a song.  A good example of this would be Beyonce's new song, "Irreplaceable."  In this song, one of the main lyrics within there is "To the left, to the left."  If you are to hear this on the radio without knowing what the song sounds like, this provides instant recognition of the song.  This helps build the knowledge and awareness of the particular singer of the song.

Copywriting lyrics does not necessarily have to be just about the sales.  The ability to put words together in a manner that move people is a talent that very few people have.  Words have the ability to carry you to different places or to bring you down and this is what music can do every day.  When you are copywriting lyrics, you are sending a message to people if they are truly listened to the entire song.  Often we cannot remember the entire words to the song so that is where the hook or the chorus can come in.

Any time you are copywriting, you are working to persuade an audience in one form or another.  Copywriting lyrics is very similar to writing articles in a newspaper because you're putting across a certain message.  When you're writing lyrics, you are speaking from the perspective of a particular person and trying to get a certain message across to an audience.  This audience will be moved hopefully in that they will like the song as well as think about purchasing the album.  These are two critical steps that go in tandem with each other.

Hopefully this article on copywriting lyrics has given you some insight into the subject.  Copywriting lyrics is meant to achieve the same purpose as any other form of copywriting: build an awareness of a particular singer.  It is hard for someone to remember the words to an entire song but most people can remember a short phrase or statement from a song.  This can be a great way to help an artist's sales.  Remember that copywriting can have several different focuses with the writing.  This is not something that is normally focused on but a message can be used in different manners.

Atkins and Exercise

Atkins and Exercise

There is a lot of attention paid in the Atkins diet plan towards food and cooking. It’s true that your food choices on the diet are of utmost importance. But a lot of people make the mistake of ignoring exercise. The newly released Atkins food pyramid shows the importance of exercise. It shows an increase in food options with increased activity. Exercise is important on the Atkins diet, and important for everyone’s overall health.

Exercise is beneficial to body, mind and soul. It has many major benefits, even at limited levels. It not only burns fat but it boosts your metabolism and increases circulation. Daily exercise helps your body eliminate toxins through sweat glands and lymph systems. It is especially important to all low-carb weight loss programs because it regulates blood sugar levels.

Physical exercise is essential for Atkins diet success. Without exercise, your body isn’t configured to process carbohydrates successfully. Research has shown that sedentary individuals have extreme insulin reactions to even moderate amounts of carbohydrates. This means that exercise doesn’t only help you lose weight, it will help you keep it off too. Exercise will teach your body how to process the carbohydrates in your diet. When you exercise regularly, you’ll be able to eat more carbohydrates over time because your body will use them efficiently.

There are two basic types of exercise: aerobic exercise and anaerobic exercise. The best regimen combines these two forms each week.

Aerobic exercise’s primary goal is to increase your heart rate. This causes your body to consume more oxygen and it gives all of your cells a fresh supply of oxygen. If you’ve been without physical activity for a while, many of those cells have been deprived. Aerobic exercise will regenerate them and help you feel better in times when you aren’t exercising.

If you’ve been inactive for a while, it may take some time to get used to your new aerobic workouts. You may want to get some advice from your primary care doctor or a professional aerobics instructor. Make sure to start slowly to give yourself time to adjust to your new movements. It’s essential that you learn how to stretch and warm up correctly in order to avoid muscle strain. Some good beginning aerobic activities include walking, golf, tennis and dancing. These activities won’t cause a lot of strain on your body, but they will get your heart moving. Start slowly and set small goals for yourself. For example, if you are starting a walking program begin by walking four blocks. Then increase your training to five blocks, then six. Your body will respond well to the exercise…after all your body was meant to move!

Anaerobic exercise includes any activity that isn’t technically aerobic. Most of the exercises in this category build muscle mass. Weightlifting and strength training are examples of anaerobic exercises. Working out with weights is an important part of losing weight. As you lose fat, you’ll need to replace it with muscle in order to stay lean. Don’t be afraid of working out with weights. You won’t need to become a bodybuilder. Weight bearing exercises like isometrics and resistance training will help improve your bone density, your posture and your fat burning potential.

If an exercise program is not part of your weight loss efforts, you are setting yourself up for failure. Make a commitment to incorporating exercise into your weight loss efforts and you’ll see the results immediately.

Atkins and Intestinal Problems

The major complaint of those who use the Atkins diet is the intestinal problems that are associated with reducing carbohydrates. These problems can include constipation and diarrhea. These symptoms can happen to anybody at some point, but those who follow a low-carb diet are especially prone. 

Most commonly dieters will experience diarrhea during the early days of induction. This is a result of the body getting rid of excess carbohydrates. It also marks the beginning of the ketosis process. So in actuality, experiencing diarrhea at the beginning of the diet is a good thing. It indicates that you are on the road to becoming a fat burning machine.

Constipation is a side effect of lack of fiber in the low carb diet. Whole grains, legumes and fruit are the normal sources of dietary fiber, and they are all restricted on the Atkins diet’s initial phases.

However, you shouldn’t be scared off from the low-carb way of life because of these issues. There are simple solutions that can prevent and help with these symptoms and allow you to continue with staying on the diet plan.

The first tip is to make sure to include the proper amount of low-carb vegetables in your daily diet. In the induction phase, you can eat up to 20 grams of carbohydrates per day. This is roughly equal to 3 cups of salad vegetables. Some people are tempted to use their carbohydrate grams on cheese or artificially sweetened soda. Eating acceptable vegetables is a vital part of maintaining intestinal health while following the Atkins plan. It’s also important to drink a minimum of 8 eight-ounce glasses of water per day and get exercise. Both of these steps can help with intestinal programs. 

If you are experiencing constipation specifically, then there are many methods for relief. When you switch from a diet full of processed and refined sugar products, your body will need some time to adjust to this new way of eating. You’ll need to make sure to up your fiber intake with acceptable vegetables and fruits (certain fruits are allowed after the initial induction phase). You can also try a fiber supplement like sugar-free Metamucil. 

Make sure you are eating enough fats and oils. Constipation can be a result of too little fat in your diet. Adding tablespoon of olive oil or flax oil to salads or other vegetables can help your intestinal health. Also, try to incorporate a variety of vegetables in your salad. Pale iceberg lettuce does not have much fiber in it. Try dark green lettuces or have a serving of dark green steamed veggies (broccoli, asparagus or spinach are good choices).

If these tips don’t work, try cutting out all salt from your diet for a couple of days. This includes pickles, mustard, diet soda, ham, bacon and bottled salad dressing. This will decrease your fluid retention and sometimes helps with bowel movements.

Diarrhea should not be a problem after the first week of the Induction plan. However, on rare occasion, it does persist longer. First, analyze your diet. If you are eating low carb protein bars or other sugar free products, eliminate them. They may contain sweeteners like glycerine, sorbitol and malitol which are known to cause diarrhea and gas. Homemade low carb desserts may also be a cause of problems. Most of them use maltodextrin, an artificial sweetener used in baking. Maltodextrin is made from corn and can cause problems for some people.

If you are not used to eating raw vegetables everyday, this may be a cause of diarrhea. Understand that your body will adjust to the vegetables and the intestinal side effects won’t last forever. Make sure you are chewing your raw vegetables thoroughly. Also, using lightly steamed vegetables rather than raw can be a solution to this problem.

Intestinal problems are common during the first portion of the Atkins diet. Keep in mind, however, that these problems will go away within the first few weeks of the new way of eating. If the problems persist, try the previously mentioned tips to get relief.

Atkins and Appetite Suppression

Atkins and Appetite Suppression

One of the most common, and surprising, effects of following the Atkins diet is appetite suppression. Many followers of the plan report that the between meal hunger pangs they used to experience fade away very quickly. This makes it easier to stay on the diet and continue to lose weight. While other diets have their followers starving between meals, the Atkins diet offers relief from constant hunger. The Atkins diet, with its specific combination of foods and ingredients, has powerful appetite suppressing effects.

The first key component is the amount of protein in the Atkins diet. Protein, more so than carbohydrates, has the power to satiate hunger. If you’ve ever eaten a carb heavy meal and then felt hungry afterward, you know that carbohydrates don’t have much staying power. Protein, when combined with a small amount of healthy fats, can keep you feeling full for long periods of time.

One of the most powerful appetite suppressing foods on the Atkins diet are eggs. Eggs are a great form of quick and easy protein. A recent study showed that eating eggs for breakfast would actually stave off hunger pangs through the rest of the day. The research concerned two groups of women. One group ate eggs for breakfast and the other had a breakfast of bagels and cream cheese. The calorie count for both breakfasts was exactly the same. The subjects kept track of what they ate the rest of the day and answered questions about their levels of hunger and satisfaction throughout the day. The results showed that the women who ate the eggs for breakfast felt more satisfied throughout the entire day. They ate less at each meal than the women who were in the bagel group.

Eggs contain about 6 grams of protein each. This helps to even out blood sugar and produces a feeling of satisfaction. Both of these factors help to curb cravings. Egg yolks also contain lutein and xenazanthin. These nutrients have been shown to have incredible effects on eye health. So it’s important to eat the whole egg, and not just the white. Eggs contain choline that is important in brain functioning and memory. These nutrients are just an added benefit to the appetite suppressing qualities.

Broccoli and cauliflower, two of the acceptable vegetables on the Atkins program, also have appetite-suppressing effects. These vegetables are very bulky and they help make your stomach feel full. When your stomach feels full, it will actually create a chemical response in your body. Your body will reduce its appetite because it believes that your stomach is full of high calorie foods. This will happen regardless of what is in your stomach. You can achieve the same results with water and psyllium husk fiber. Both broccoli and cauliflower provide bulk in your diet and are essential vegetables on the Atkins plan.

The Atkins diet focuses on eating small protein balanced meals a few times per day. This will help keep your blood sugar stabilized and avoid carbohydrate cravings. With high carbohydrate diets, you are riding the wave of carbohydrate highs. After you eat, you feel great and full. Then a few hours later, you come crashing down and are hungrier than you were previous to eating the carbohydrate. This cycle continues and, over time, you will eat more and gain weight. The protein, fat and vegetable meals of the Atkins plan put your blood sugar back in balance. They provide just enough of each type of food, with a proper amount of carbohydrates (from the vegetables). The vegetables provide quick carbohydrate energy, and the protein gives the meal staying power. This combination helps suppress your appetite.

The Atkins diet is actually a craving control diet that can help suppress your appetite. If you’ve had a problem with carbohydrate cravings before, this new way of eating will help control those cravings. The more you eat on the plan, the better your cravings will be controlled and the easier it will be to follow the diet.

Atkins and Diabetes

The Atkins diet principles lay the foundation for a healthy, more balanced way of eating than the standard American diet. Its emphasis is on using good carbohydrates in balance with adequate protein. This is in stark contrast to what most Americans eat on a daily basis. The average American eats lots of processed foods that have hidden sugars and highly processed carbohydrates. This has put most Americans on the road to diabetes and pre-diabetic conditions. What is sad is that diabetes has a predictable set of stages and that they can be easily recognized.

The road to diabetes has to do with something called the glycemic index. All carbohydrates are rated on this index with regards to the level of insulin reaction they produce. Foods that have a high glycemic index rating will cause your pancreas to release a lot of insulin to break down the amount of sugars and carbohydrates (which produce high amounts of glucose). The refined carbohydrates and sugars that make up the vast majority of the American diet rank very high on the glycemic index.

We are able to more readily digest these foods as children, because our bodies function more efficiently in our youth. There may have been side effects, like weight gain and mood swings, but they didn’t stand out. As we age, however, these symptoms begin to grow and become more prevalent. The nation-wide obesity epidemic is a result of high-carbohydrate diets and unstable blood sugar levels.

Many people who are overweight are also insulin resistant. Insulin resistance means that the insulin is not doing its job in removing glucose from the blood stream. The pancreas gets over worked and it releases massive amounts of insulin, sometimes 20 times more than the body actually needs. This results in the blood sugar dropping to extremely low levels. This sets off a chain reaction in the body that leads to a release of adrenaline to correct the blood sugar problem.

With age, blood sugar and insulin difficulties become more aggravated. The condition is called “hyperinsulinism” and is a precursor for type II diabetes. It is normally accompanied by high blood pressure and high triglycerides.

After years of using a high-carbohydrate diet, you will finally become fully diabetic. Insulin is the body’s primary fat creator and extra pounds usually accompany late onset diabetes. Pre-diabetic conditions, if not treated effectively, will lead to diabetes indefinitely.

However, there are easily identifiable warning signs to diabetes that appear early. Your family doctor can perform insulin level tests that will let you know if you are at risk for pre-diabetic conditions, and studies show that low-carb diets like Atkins can help. Controlling your blood sugar is one of the most effective methods to controlling pre-diabetic conditions.

The Atkins diet helps effectively control blood sugar. The combination of proteins, fats and good carbohydrates will keep your body satisfied without the roller coaster effect. Controlling carbohydrates in quantity as well as type will help limit the insulin spikes. This will let your pancreas work in the way that it was meant to be, and it will decrease the likelihood of your developing pre-diabetic conditions. It’s a vicious cycle that, if left unchecked, can lead to diabetes later in life. When the Atkins diet is followed effectively it produces stable blood sugar throughout the day and helps you stay off the road to diabetes.

What if They Let YOU Run the Hubble?

What if They Let YOU Run the Hubble?

It is probably the dream of any amateur astronomer to be able to be the boss of one of the great multi million dollar telescopes even if it was just for one hour or for a few shots.  Sure, we can have a lot of fun with our binoculars.  And as we improve our personal equipment set, we get better and better at pinpointing what we want to see in the sky.

But there is only so far we can go within the constraints of a family budget in building the perfect telescopic operation.  Probably the next level then is to work together with others in your astronomy club.  By pooling our resources, we can make more progress both in acquiring much more sophisticated equipment and in synchronizing our telescopic operations.

All of this is good and its fun to tweak it and play with it always finding improvements.  But when we are sitting back and dreaming, it’s those big institutional size telescopes that really grab our interest.  Maybe you have had a chance to visit one at Kitt Peak, Arizona, Mauna Kea, Hawaii, Palomar Mountain, California or Mt. Locke, Texas to name just a few and as you walked around jaw dropped to your shoes, you thought, maybe if I could just run it for an hour, how awesome would that be?

The good news is that while these huge observatories are not going to let you come in and turn the gears of the mightiest telescopes yourself, many of them will perform specific observations for you and allow you to “see through their eyes” via the internet for that short observation.  This is a powerful option for an amateur astronomer and one you want to prepare for carefully.  Here is what you do…

1. Begin compiling a list of the great telescopes of the world, their locations and how to contact them.  Google will help you with finding lists of these observatories to contact by pointing you to specific directory sites like http://astro.nineplanets.org/bigeyes.html

2. You can start by submitting your request to a specific observatory.  Now here is where you have to do your homework.  If you have a specific celestial event you wish to observe, there will be particular telescopes around the globe that will be in the best position to get those shots for you.  So study up and find just the right telescope and when the perfect moment for that observation would occur.  Get out ahead of this homework as you need to submit your request in plenty of time for it to go through approval and for them to get back to you and to interact with you to nail down what you are going to have them look at.

3. There are two ways you can direct the operators of the telescopes.  You can give them specific coordinates to focus on and a specific time frame to perform the observation.  The other way is to give them a star, a planet or a particular star system to observe and let them figure out the coordinates.  That might be easier because you know what you want to see.

4. Now you sit back and wait for the email that the observation is done.  You will not be able to watch them do the observation dynamically.  That would be nice but it just isn’t possible yet.  These are telescopes, not web cams.  But they will post the pictures from your observation on a particular web location and email the results to you for study.

It’s pretty cool, free and customized to what you requested.  And you can brag to your friends as you make color copies of your shots that you had Kitt Peak do these up for you personally.  And you would not be lying.

Asteroids

There is a lot of exciting stuff going on in the stars above us that make astronomy so much fun.  The truth is the universe is a constantly changing, moving, some would say “living” thing because you just never know what you are going to see on any given night of stargazing.

But of the many celestial phenomenons, there is probably none as exciting as that time you see your first asteroid on the move in the heavens.  To call asteroids the “rock stars” of astronomy is simultaneously a bad joke but an accurate depiction of how astronomy fans view them.  Unlike suns, planets and moons, asteroids are on the move, ever changing and, if they appear in the night sky, exciting and dynamic.

Like rock stars, asteroids have been given their fair share of urban myth and lore.  Many have attributed the extinction of the dinosaurs to the impact of a huge asteroid on the earth.  This theory has some credibility and, if it is true, it evokes some pretty startling images and foreboding fears in the current reining species on earth, the human race.

The fact that asteroids are fast moving space debris only makes their movement and activity more interesting and exciting.  Unlike a moon, planet or star, the odds that an asteroid could hit the earth are entirely reasonable and in fact, there are many documented cases of small asteroids making it through our atmosphere and leaving some pretty impressive craters in the earth’s surface.

Popular culture has happily embraced the idea of an asteroid impact.  The idea has spawned many a science fiction story adding the idea that alien life forms may ride asteroids to our world and start a “war of the worlds” situation.  But by far, the most talked about concept that has captured the imagination and the fears of science fiction fans and the general public is of another asteroid hitting the earth that could wipe out life as allegedly happened to the dinosaurs.  In fact, the movie “Armageddon” was based on this idea and the concept that somehow mankind could avert that catastrophe with technology.

But probably the best way to calm our fears and replace science fiction with science is with understanding and knowledge.  The truth is, there has been a lot of study of asteroid activity and the serious scientific community has gained significant knowledge of these amazing celestial bodies.  A number of probes to asteroids have been conducted which have given us a wealth of information about their composition and how we might predict their behavior.  

We now know that the majority of asteroids we get to witness come from an asteroid belt that exists between Mars and Jupiter.  It is from this community of asteroids that many of the notable asteroids emerged.  Scientists have gained significant knowledge about the composition of asteroids and separated them into classes including class S which comes of the part of the belt that is closest to Mars, classes C, D and V which are classified by composition and a class called “Centaurs” whose flight patterns take them closer to Jupiter and Uranus.

Some of the probes NASA has conducted on near flying asteroids have performed some pretty amazing studies of these eccentric celestial bodies.  In 1994 the Galileo probe got within 1000 miles of the asteroid Ida and discovered that Ida actually had its own moon.  

Other probes have fired impactors into asteroids and even landed on an asteroid to produce some amazing scientific data for us.  There is much to learn about asteroids in our love of astronomy and that knowledge only makes our enjoyment of seeing them in the cosmos even more exciting.

The “WOW” Hobby

The “WOW” Hobby

Some people sometimes view hobbies as sometimes silly or frivolous pastimes.  And it’s true some hobbies are like that.  But it is healthy to have a hobby because it diversifies our interests and keeps us active and fun to be with.  But many hobbies are for the few that really get into that area of study.  Stamp collecting or rock climbing are valid hobbies.  But to be sure, these are not hobbies that just anybody will get into.

Astronomy, by contract, that you could say everybody gets into at some point or another.  It is safe to say that everybody at some point has looked up at a magnificent night sky and said “WOW.”  At that moment, even if was only for that moment, that person became an amateur astronomy hobbyist.  They had that “Wow” moment in what can only be described as the “WOW” hobby.

That common experience is what makes astronomy one of the most exciting and popular hobbies of them all.  Any hobby has to have a few “wow” moments.  Whether it’s hitting that strike in bowling or finding that perfect stamp, there has to be a moment when the bell rings.  Well astronomy has many “wow” moments that occur virtually any clear night in the stars.  From the coming of an asteroid shower to just figuring out another constellation, there is so much to do and play with in astronomy that you can be a hobbyist your whole life and never get bored.

Besides the excitement of astronomy, another reason it makes a great hobby is that it is easy and cheap to get started.  Unlike skiing for example, to just start enjoying astronomy, all you need is the night sky.  But there is no end to the levels of complexity and sophistication you can get to as you move along in astronomy as well.  So like any good hobby, astronomy is endlessly fascinating and tremendously addictive because there is always more you want to learn and more you can do to make your knowledge and experiences more interesting and fun.

A great side benefit of how many people are into astronomy is that it is a tremendously social hobby as well.  This is unusual for a hobby that is associated with a science, that is executed by staring up in the sky by yourself and that is not competitive.  But in any town or city, there are at least a few and probably dozens of astronomy clubs and associations that meet regularly to discuss astronomy.

This is the perfect way to introduce a new recruit to the hobby of astronomy.  These clubs thrive on sharing their love of astronomy with new members, kids and those just learning how to explore the stars.  Most astronomy clubs schedule regular “safaris” to go out away from the lights of the city and get a good night of sky watching done.  Going on such an outing with a big group of enthusiasts is the type of experience that will take a passive interest into astronomy and change it into a healthy obsession.

By going out with a group, you can rub elbows with people who know the night sky, can help you learn how to spot the great constellations and how to train your eyes to see the really cool stuff going on over our heads virtually every night.  Astronomy is a passion that is shared equally by everyone from children, to college students to serious scholars in the field to even professional astronomers who work at exploring the universe full time.  On any given night, you or your child may be sitting next to an award winning professional astronomer who will happily provide a private lesson looking up at the cosmos just for the sheer fun of shared learning.

The great thing is that everything we have talked about here costs virtually nothing.  You can get started with your love of astronomy and learn as you go so when you are ready to make some investment in equipment, you have learned from others what is just the right thing for you.  Sure, eventually you will want some astronomy magazine subscriptions, a star map or two and binoculars or a telescope.  But those things come as your love of the hobby matures.  Meanwhile, get out there, meet others who share your excitement about star gazing and get to know a hobby that never stops making you say “WOW”.

The Universe through a Child’s Eyes

There is something about parenthood that gives us a sense of history and a deeply rooted desire to send on into the next generation the great things we have discovered about life.  And part of that is the desire to instill in our children the love of science, of learning and particularly the love of nature.  

Your fascination with the universe and how to explore it as we so often do in the field of astronomy can be highly academic and dry as maybe it was if you took a course in astronomy.  But when you get out there in the field at night, your equipment is just right and the night sky comes alive with activity, there is no other experience like it for majesty and pure excitement.  And that is the kind of experience we want our children to come to love as much as we do.

It’s actually not a big jump from play to learning for children when it comes to learning about the natural world, science and astronomy.  Exploration is a natural part of being a child and growing up in a fascinating world and universe.  So if we can find ways to take that natural desire to explore and instill a life long passion for astronomy, we will have given our children a truly great gift.

So with a few simple family activities, we can instill that love of astronomy in our offspring.  Here are some ideas.

* Make star gazing part of family life.  You already love to go outdoors as often as possible to enjoy the stars.  So don’t let that be your private passion.  Get everybody into the act.  The kids will love it and look forward to those nights as much as going to the circus.

* Make each new experience in growing into astronomy a fresh threshold.  So the first experiences might be what you experienced as a kid, just laying on your back out in the country with the panorama of the stars overhead trying to take it all in.  Go ahead and challenge them to count the stars.  It’s a fun exercise and one they will save to use as a joke on their kids when they do this same thing in a few decades.

* Take them along the road of learning, introducing binoculars so they can focus on particular areas of the night sky.

* Now they are hooked and want to know about why some of the stars are brighter than others.  They have no idea they are going to astronomy school and don’t even know it.  You can tell them about the constellations as you point out how to find them by keying off the North Star.  By being able to find things in that mass of stars and knowing there is such a vast amount more they can pick out, they are ripe for learning from star maps and about how the galaxies work.  

* Think of their excitement as they notice the changes in the night sky.  The phases of the moon and the effect of the rotation of the earth on the position of the planets.  Help them find their favorite celestial bodies each night.  Before long they will learn to chart the movement of the stars just like the early astronomers did.

* Now you will get caught up in the excitement of finding new things to reveal to your excited crew of fledgling astronomers.  When you reveal that you are going on a safari to see an eclipse, a meteor shower or the once in a lifetime appearance of a comet, that gift will as big as anything you might spring on them for Christmas.

The wonders of the night sky will captivate your children the way it has you for years.  And you will have done them the greatest favor you ever could do by making them lifelong lovers of the universe.

The History of Astronomy

The History of Astronomy

If you have a passion for star gazing, telescopes, the Hubble and the universe and this thing we call “astronomy”, you are far from alone.  Of course, we know that astronomy is a highly respected science that has produced some of the most amazing accomplishments of the twentieth century.  On top of that, it is a thriving area of fascination and one of the most exciting hobby areas going with thousands of astronomy clubs and tens of thousands of amateur astronomers watching the stars every night just like we do.

But did you know that astronomy is one of the oldest and most respected sciences of them all?  As far back as before the times of Christ, the wise and thinking people of societies of the time were looking at the stars and finding ways to track and chart them.  We who love the hobby of astronomy can chart a proud history of astronomers that tracks across millennia and through virtually every culture in civilization.  So for the sake of having some really good trivia to toss around at astronomy club next week, let’s highlight some of the big moments in the history of astronomy.

For many centuries the science of astronomy was not distinct from the practice of astrology.  For clarity, astronomy is the study of the stars, planets, and the universe with a clearly scientific approach.  Astrology is the study of the zodiac signs and how they influence our growth, our personalities and our daily lives.  In modern times, we as people of science discount the astrological side and focus on the astronomy of the heavens.  But they were one study for millennia before the age of science made them separate.

There is historical evidence that astronomy was a recognized science as far back as the Babylonian civilization hundreds of years before Christ.  But the study of the stars was not limited to one country.  There were similar movements going on in China, India, and Ancient Egypt and all over the Arabian Peninsula.  The integration of astronomy and religion is so prevalent that we see it in the Christmas story in which the Magi, Zoroastrian priesthood probably from the equivalent of ancient Syria, followed a star to the Christ child.  These astronomers were also astrologers and it was that mixture that lead them to be part of this historic event.

The first book on astronomy was written by Ptolemy during the Greek empire.  Since that historic publication, the who’s who list of great astronomers charts a path right through the center of modern science including Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Sir Issac Newton, Jung, Michelangelo, Benjamin Franklin and more recently even Einstein and Stephen Hawkings would join that noble list.  It seemed that from the renaissance on to this day, virtually any man or woman of intellect dabbled in astronomy at least somewhat and it has always been considered a sign of the learned to know about the universe and things astronomical.

Astronomy has had an impact on so many areas of our lives that we really don’t recognize.  Many words in our language had their roots in astronomy such as…

* Influenza which comes from the Latin root word for influence.  This reflects an early belief that the position of the moon and stars may influence health and cause or cure disease.

* Disaster which comes from the Latin for “bad star”.

* Lunatic which has the root word "Luna" in it which is the Latin word for moon.  This highlights the long held belief that is even prevalent today that irrational behavior and even wild and dangerous things happen during a full moon.

Astronomy and its interrelationship with astrology has also influenced culture, education and religion to a very large extent over the centuries.  In the English language, the first two days or our week, Sunday and Monday are a reference to astronomy as their literal interpretations would be “The Day of the Sun” and “The Day of the Moon.”  

So if you have found astronomy becoming a consuming passion in your thoughts and what fascinates you about the world we live in, you are in great company as this area of study has been a major part of culture and thought virtually since the dawn of civilization.  And it will continue to fascinate mankind for as long as those beautiful stars shine over our heads.

The Night Sky

No matter how far along you are in your sophistication as an amateur astronomer, there is always one fundamental moment that we all go back to.  That is that very first moment that we went out where you could really see the cosmos well and you took in the night sky.  For city dwellers, this is a revelation as profound as if we discovered aliens living among us.  Most of us have no idea the vast panorama of lights that dot a clear night sky when there are no city lights to interfere with the view.

Sure we all love the enhanced experience of studying the sky using binoculars and various sizes and powers of telescopes.  But I bet you can remember as a child that very first time you saw the fully displayed clear night sky with all the amazing constellations, meters and comets moving about and an exposure of dots of light far to numerous to ever count.

The best way to recapture the wonder of that moment is to go out in the country with a child of your own or one who has never had this experience and be there at that moment when they gaze up and say that very powerful word that is the only one that can summarize the feelings they are having viewing that magnificent sky.  That word is – “Wow”.

Probably the most phenomenal fact about what that child is looking at that is also the thing that is most difficult for them to grasp is the sheer enormity of what is above them and what it represents.  The very fact that almost certainly, virtually every dot up there in the sky is another star or celestial body that is vastly larger that Earth itself, not by twice or ten times but by factors of hundreds and thousands, can be a mind blowing idea to kids.  Children have enough trouble imagining the size of earth itself, much less something on such a grand scope as outer space.

But when it comes to astronomy, we do better when we fall into deeper and deeper levels of awe at what we see up there in the night sky.  Some amazing facts about what the children are looking at can add to the goose bumps they are already having as they gaze eyes skyward.  Facts like…

* Our sun is part of a huge galaxy called the Milky Way that consists of one hundred billion stars just like it or larger.  Show them that one hundred billion is 100,000,000,000 and you will se some jaws drop for sure.

* The milky was is just one of tens of billions of galaxies each of which has billions of stars in them as well.  In fact, the Milky Way is one of the small galaxies.

* If you wanted to drive across the Milky Way, it would take you 100,000 years.  But you can’t get there driving the speed limit.  You have to drive five trillion, eight hundred million miles per year to get all the way across that fast.

* Scientists calculate that the Milky Way is 14 billion years old.

These little fun facts should get a pretty spirited discussion going about the origins of the universe and about the possibility of space travel or if there are life on other planets.  You can challenge the kids to calculate that if every star in the Milky Way supported nine planets and if only one of them was habitable like earth is, what are the odds that life would exist on one of them?  I think you will see some genuine excitement when they try to run those numbers.

Such discussion can be fun, exciting, and full of questions.  Don’t be too hasty to shut down their imaginations as this is the birth of a lifelong love of astronomy that they are experiencing.  And if you were there that first moment when they saw that night sky, you will re-experience your own great moment when you was a child.  And it might set off a whole new excitement about astronomy in you all over again.