G8 – A Star for Mom’s Birthday on grade -03

With more frantic typing with your father as a co-pilot, you find a list of stars and their characteristics. You know you need to find a star that is fairly bright, enough so you can actually see it. You need to look at how brightly a star appears to shine in the night sky. To do this, you need to research two different characteristics. The first characteristic is luminosity, the measurable property of a star’s brightness independent of distance. The concept of magnitude includes the factor of distance. For example, two identical stars having the same luminosity can have different apparent magnitudes depending on how far away they are. The closer stars will have greater apparent magnitudes, or appear to shine brighter, than stars farther away.

Your mom’s favorite color is light blue, so the second characteristic you need to research is the temperatures of the stars that are bright enough to see in the night sky. Stars that are cooler burn with a more reddish color. Stars that burn at very high temperatures have an apparent blue color, which would be perfect to keep Dad out of the doghouse. For a light blue star, you need to find one that is between 10,000–30,000 degrees kelvin, and so the search is on.

After searching for several hours, going back and forth between the company’s website and your astronomy websites, you think you have found the perfect star to name in honor of your mother on her birthday. You slide the keyboard over to your father so he can type in his credit card number.

After putting his information in to make the purchase, your father turns and asks if he is finished. You look back and roll your eyes, shake your head and make a guttural sound to show your astonishment at his comments. A few more taps on the computer’s keyboard and you bring up another site.

“Here it is Dad. This is where Tim’s dad took his wife for a weekend,” you explain to your father.

“A bed and breakfast?” he asked, as he once again shows his pragmatic side.

“Yes,” you respond in a firm tone, as if you are speaking with your younger sibling. “You can use the money you have to pay for a very nice weekend. I have no doubt we can find a telescope for you to borrow. You can set it up one night while you are there and show Mom the star you picked out especially for her.”

“But there is one problem. How will I know if I show her the correct star?” your father asks.

“Geez Dad, it really is simple. Just find a star in the sky and tell her that is the one! Just think… dead flowers… symbolism!”