Monday night, Danny and I went out to buy 2 mirrors for a homemade periscope. We ended up buying two 99¢ cosmetic mirrors. Last night we made the periscope.

One of the greatest challenges was to figure out the length of cardboard that would be used to support the main mirror. I knew the diameter of the tube was exactly 3″ and that the angle had to be 45°. Seems like sine or cosine would help. After a lot of doodling, the formula x = 3″ ÷ sine(45) would give the correct length. Worked perfectly.

That may be my first practical use of sine.

On our mirror hunt, Danny noticed a bright star near the moon. It was a hazy night, and the light was so bright, that I suggested that it was an airplane. I couldn’t even see any other stars.

Then as Nicole and I drove home from Tuesday night Sunday school, we noticed the star again, The night was clearer. I figured it had to be a planet. Over at Jim and Barbara O’Callaghan’s, I had noticed a big telescope. Nicole called Aaron to ask her if they could look at this star/planet. Turns out their telescope wasn’t working, but Jim said it was Venus. We also called Fernbank and got confirmation from the planetarium man. This is the best view of Venus we’ll have for eight years.

Tonight, we went to the planetarium show “The Skies Before Columbus” hoping to get a peek at Venus through the big telescope. The show was good, but we have to wait until Thursday or Friday evenings when telescope viewing is open to the public.

All-in-all we’ve had a couple of nights of mathematical and scientific achievement.