Observatioanl Study week 9/22 - 9/28

This is a very bland observational post since this entire week has been stormy and cloudy. The first 4 days of the week was constant rain and lightning. And the rest of the days were dark, cloudy and plain gloomy which amounted to zero night sky visibility for the entire week. On one of the mornings, though, I was able to see the moon for a little while before it set. Other than that.... I have no new info, experiences, or statements to make.

APOD 1.5

This weeks APOD is a photo that was released on September 22nd and is really amazing. It is called "Apollo's Anamella"

This is a time lapse photo taken by a camera over the course of an entire year. Every 24 hours, this camera would take a photo of the sun on one piece of 35 mm film.That right there is an achievement since the person had to find a place that would not disturb this camera at all. The curve that the multiple suns make up that looks kind of like a skewed infinite symbol is called a Analemma. The average length of a day is 24 hours but this photo allows us to see that, because of the elliptic curve of the rotation, the hours vary by a little bit that makes a big difference over time. This is a sort of symbolical photo since the structure under the multiple suns is actually the temple of Apollo which is the god of the sun. The point where the two loops meet in this stitched photo is actually the time of the equinox. This photo captures how there is so much we don't even notice in our skies every day and how much a little change from a perfect circle in our rotation can make such an amazing difference over the course of a single year.

Sources for important people project

My person that I will be doing my project on, assigned by Mr. Percival, is Giovanni Cassini and my sources are as follows

http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Cassini.html

http://www.space.com/18902-giovanni-cassini.html

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=fl_sarhs&tabID=T003&searchId=R2&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=4&contentSet=GALE|CX2830900805&&docId=GALE|CX2830900805&docType=GALE

http://www.nndb.com/people/258/000095970/
 

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/98187/Gian-Domenico-Cassini

Observatioanl Study week 9/16 - 9/21

This week was not actually not bad in seeing the stars and the moon. There were fewer clouds and it was dark enough to see quite a few things in the sky. I watched every night and saw the moon go from a waxing gibbous to a full moon to a waning gibbous. See as the moon is a major source of light pollution, I did find thinks more difficult to find like constellations and planets. On some nights, I went several times and noted the approximate positions of the things in the sky and could clearly see how they changed so much in only a few hours. I keep finding it easier and easier to point out constellations without assistance the more I practice. I even took my little sister out on Wednesday to our backyard to show her the different stars, constellations and planets using my dads binoculars.

APOD 1.4

This weeks APOD is from September 15th and is titled: Wings of a Butterfly Nebula!

This is actually an image of two stars in the center letting off gas to transform from a normal star to a white dwarf. This type of nebula created by the gas is called m2-9 aka butterfly. This photo is taken from 2100 light years away (thats 1.23448496 × 10¹⁶ miles!!!) but we can still see all the amazing colors and beauty in this photo. That also means, though, that we are looking into the past by more than two centuries and it probably looks very different up close now. This amount of gas actually takes thousands of years to dissipate. I chose this photo because I believe it really envelopes how space can be perceived as scary but also can be very beautiful. As the apod says, it really seems that stars always look the most amazing as they die with the colors and the power that they emanate. I think that the thing I like the best about this is that, even though we know so much about these things, we still know almost nothing about it's physical features and processes of this type of nebula. I like to think about what our sky would look like if earth was one of the thousands planets in this nebula. I imagine it kind of like the northern lights but way more colors and multitudes more vivid. And the funniest thing is, I once again unknowingly chose a Hubble image again. This looks like something right out of a science fiction movie with the amount of drama and uniform chaos that surrounds these stars. Just Amazing.

Observational Study week 9/9 - 9/15

This week, it has been cloudy most nights with little to no visibility. But there have been some days that, with the help of the star walk app, I have been able to see, identify and note things about stars and planets in the night sky over my house. By the time I am awake enough to even think about looking outside, the sun has already risen so need to do my observations at night. I have noticed that Venus and Saturn seem to be getting a little closer together each night and that I can see Mercury a little longer than I used to. I am also noticing that it is becoming increasingly easier to spot and link stars that make up constellations, such as Scorpius, Hercules and the Summer Triangle. Speaking of the Summer Triangle, when I was first able to spot it, I was surprised by just how bright the stars were that made it up. Now I can't even look at the night sky without automatically seeing it every single time. Like I said, it has been cloudy most nights this week, so I don't have many noticeable observations. But, I'll keep looking every night!

APOD 1.3

My third astronomy picture of the day is from the 7th of September. The photo is taken from the "Ice Forest" in the Andes Mountains with several constellations in the sky.

I really liked this apod since it was not only beautiful, but it is also interactive. The picture has a mouse over feature that shows the starts with lines and titles connecting them. This fascinated me because this is the one of the driest places on earth in this desert even though it has hundreds of ice spikes sticking out of the ground. I just love how the moonshine is actually shining off of them as it makes the entire picture far more beautiful. Even though this photo does not have any constellations that we have gone over yet, I still recognize several of them such as Orion and Pegasus. I really wish that our skies were that clear at night, but the lights and the altitude make this a rare occurrence. As Mr Percival said, this is almost comedic with how these ice structures are in the desert even without rain for years.

Observational Study #2

I finally a clear sky over my house. It has been raining all day and the clouds cleared long enough for me to get a good look. The moon is just past new as a waxing crescent but was not visible for long (only about a half hour). It is actually quite dark where I am and with no moon, it is even easier to see (using my dads binoculars and the star walk app on my phone) stars and even a couple of constellations. I got to see Sagittarius and Scorpius which are two of the few constellations we have learned about in class. Seeing as it is still summer, I am still surprised that I was able to see anything. Even now, I had to go inside as the clouds came back and it is raining even now. I'm hoping that as the cooler months come around and summer turns to fall, I will be able to see more at night and more often. But for now, I will have to make due. I found a picture online to show about how clear it was (this is not a photo I took, it was taken from Google images as a way to show how clear it was)

APOD #2

Today I chose to select the APOD image found on the date September 4th 2013 seen below

This is actually an evaporating Protostar that is crushing together to form a full sized star. The blue colored cloud-like thing is energetic light and dust that is being blown away. At this point, there is no way to tell how the star will end up, how big it will be, what color, or even where is will be. I chose this because I thought it was really cool how this showed a star being formed as well as the amazing blue color mixed with the gold of the star near and within it. Once again, the amazing photo that I choose is taken by Hubble. It really shocked me to learn just how big it is... it is currently over a light year long and getting longer. It may one day actually explode in a supernova before it fully forms if it gets to big!

Observation of the Night Sky 1 (9/3/2013)

I was sure that I was never going to be able to see the stars as it has been raining every night for hours and has been cloudy every other time. But tonight I looked out and saw a clear sky. I live in a secluded place so I don't need to worry about city lights and I was amazed by how much I could see. The moon was practically invisible as it is currently a waning crescent very near to becoming a new moon. Using the app Starwalk on my phone, I was able to find Saturn, Venus, the constellation Cassiopeia, Neptune and even used some binoculars to see SEASAT (an orbiting satellite designed for remote sensing of the Earth's oceans). All in all, it was really nice to see the night sky again.

APOD 1.1

I chose the picture on June 24th 2013. It is an image of the Porpoise Galaxy and I chose this since it actually looks like a penguin. It is pretty funny as it is blue and has a star right where the eye would be on a penguin and it has a large glowing object underneath that looks exactly like a penguin egg. After reading the explanation underneath, I found out that this is actually two galaxies that smashed into each other to form the shape. It used to be one spiral galaxy and one elliptical galaxy that just got too close to each other. This amazing image was actually taken by the Hubble telescope which is no surprise to me as it seems that all amazing images of space are by the Hubble.