Welcome to Gemini’s 12 Days of Solstice! This is a joyous countdown to the longest, or shortest (depending on which hemisphere you live in) day of the year! Visit our blog each day from December 10 – December 21 for Gemini-themed crafts, cartoons, playlists, videos and much, much more.

Day 10: Gemini Fun Facts

Here at Gemini Observatory we measure diameters, heights, weights and thickness in meters, centimeters, tons and microns. But sometimes it is just more fun to measure them in walruses! For today’s gift, check out these fun facts about Gemini Observatory and its telescopes.

“I hope these fun facts help you visualize Gemini Observatory and its telescopes!” -Anonymous male Atlantic Walrus

• A single 8.1 m Gemini primary mirror weighs about 24 tons. That is the weight of 24 male Atlantic walruses or 2526 female Andean foxes!
• The Gemini primary mirrors are 8.1 meters in diameter and 20 centimeters thick. It would take 1,355 soccer balls to cover the entire surface but only 1 soccer ball to make up its height!  
• The secondary mirrors are 1.0 meters in diameter. 14 tennis balls laid end-to-end would cover its diameter!
• Gemini North and South are the only large telescopes in the world with silver-coated primary mirrors. The coating of silver is only 1/2000 the thickness of a human hair! 
• The vents on the walls of the dome can be opened as wide as 10 meters. This is the length of the end zone on an American football field or a tad smaller than the distance from penalty spot to goal line on a soccer field!                    
• Gemini North sits atop Maunakea, which when measured from the ocean floor is the tallest mountain on Earth at 10,230 meters. That is taller than Mount Everest by almost 5 Eiffel Towers! 
  
• Collect all of our data centers together and you have 200 terabytes of data. This is the same as 57,000,000 million mp3s or 380 years of continuous music! 
  

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for the next installment of Gemini’s 12 Days of Solstice countdown!

Welcome to Gemini’s 12 Days of Solstice! This is a joyous countdown to the longest, or shortest (depending on which hemisphere you live in) day of the year. Visit our blog each day from December 10 – December 21 for Gemini-themed crafts, cartoons, playlists, videos and much, much more.

Day 9: Sundial Time

Here’s a great way to celebrate the most valuable player of any solstice event – your very own sundial! Download Sky and Telescope’s Southern or Northern hemisphere template and follow the simple steps below.

Supplies: Northern or Southern Hemisphere template, paper, scissors, pencil or straw to act as a gnomon (noh-mahn), your latitude on planet Earth.

1. Cut along the dotted lines from the outside of the paper.
2. Make a crease along the solid horizontal line with the line on the outside.
3. Make a crease along the solid vertical lines with the line on the outside.

4. Pick the line with the closest latitude to yours and fold with the line on the inside.

5. Tape the triangles created by your latitude fold flush to the back of the rectangular portion of the paper, ensuring that the latitude fold line is perpendicular to the cut edge of the rectangle.

Once you tape the triangles down, you set the sundial surface parallel to the celestial equator. The celestial equator is a projection of the Earth’s equator onto the sky.

6. Poke the pencil or straw through the hole at the top of the dial, this becomes a gnomon. The gnomon is what casts a shadow onto the sundial surface telling the time. For accuracy, ensure that the gnomon is perpendicular to the sundial surface.

In this step, you set the gnomon parallel to the Earths’ axis.

7. Place your creation outside with the gnomon pointing south (in the southern hemisphere) or north (northern hemisphere) and tell the local solar time with your new creation.

Extra Credit: Decorate your sundial! Ideas include glitter, stickers, sunglasses, stars and/or magnetic field lines!

Is it winter in your hemisphere with clouds that block the sun? Don’t worry, it’s the same for us at Gemini North. Wait 6 months and use your sundial at your summer solstice!

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for the next installment of Gemini’s 12 Days of Solstice countdown!

Welcome to Gemini’s 12 Days of Solstice! This is a joyous countdown to the longest, or shortest (depending on which hemisphere you live in) day of the year. Visit our blog each day from December 10 – December 21 for Gemini-themed crafts, cartoons, playlists, videos and much, much more.

Day 8: Gemini Glamour Shots

What better way to appreciate the pursuit of astronomical knowledge then celebrating the beauty within our Universe? Today we present to you a selection of Gemini Observatory’s images, both old and new. From dancing galaxies and stellar nurseries to elegant snapshots of the telescopes themselves, we hope you enjoy. Click on each image below for a larger view. These and more stunning images from Gemini can be at the Gemini Image Gallery.

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for the next installment of Gemini’s 12 Days of Solstice countdown!

Welcome to Gemini’s 12 Days of Solstice! This is a joyous countdown to the longest, or shortest (depending on which hemisphere you live in) day of the year. Visit our blog each day from December 10 – December 21 for Gemini-themed crafts, cartoons, playlists, videos and much, much more.

Day 7: A Crafty Cube

Today we have a Gemini photo cube for you to build. All the images come from the Gemini Image Archive.

To build your own cube: download the  high resolution template from here, cut around the outline, fold and connect sides by applying glue or tape to the white tabs and attach to the neighboring side. Enjoy!

Gemini Interns (left to right) Tyler Cohen, Sylvia Kowalski and Prabhani Rajakaruna love their crafty cube!

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for the next installment of Gemini’s 12 Days of Solstice countdown!

Welcome to Gemini’s 12 Days of Solstice! This is a joyous countdown to the longest, or shortest (depending on which hemisphere you live in) day of the year. Visit our blog each day from December 10 – December 21 for Gemini-themed crafts, cartoons, playlists, videos and much, much more.

Day 6: A Laser Beauty

For today’s solstice gift, we feature a beautiful image of the Gemini North telescope during laser guide star (LGS) operations. This time-lapse image consists of roughly 40 images stacked together in Photoshop to create a star-trails image, with an attenuation on the earlier images making the earlier images appear to fade out.  Shot near the summit of Maunakea, the glow of nearby town Waimea can clearly be seen reflected in the low cloud cover. Also prominently featured in the image are the new photovoltaic panels which have been installed at both of the Gemini Observatory’s summit facilities (and at the Hilo Base Facility).

You can find the high-resolution version of this and many other images on our Image Gallery.

Image Credit: Joy Pollard

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for the next installment of Gemini’s 12 Days of Solstice countdown!