Great World Wide Observation

Last night, I went out and used the Great World Wide pdf document on Mr. Percival's site to gauge the magnitude visibility in the night sky near my house. After following the scale, I was able to see all six of the main stars in the northern cross which means that I had a magnitude of about 4 which is much better than places that suffer from light pollution.

Observational Post 10/20 - 10/26

This past week has been pretty uneventful since four of the seven days has been so cloudy that it is impossible to see the moon, let alone the stars. On the other three days though, it was clear enough to see the usual stars and to watch the movement of some planets across the sky throughout the night. I recently bought a new pair of binoculars that allow me to see some larger and/or brighter things like the Moon, Mars, or Venus much more clearly and in greater detail. It is becoming apparent that summer is finally going and fall is coming as the skies are becoming clearer and much cooler by comparison to how it was before. Next week, daylight saving time ends which will mean that the sky will get dark sooner and that the winter nights are approaching which will allow for better stargazing. But for now, I have to make due with the rare and far between clear nights where only so much can be seen.

APOD 2.1

Today is officially the first submission of the second quarter! This APOD is from October 21st of the astronomy picture of the day website. It is an image of Saturn from an angle that one could never see from earth.

This is a photo from above Saturn taken by the robotic Cassini Spacecraft that is orbiting the ringed planet to this day. That black circle that you see on the left side of the rings is not a problem with the image... no, it is the shadow of the planet on its rings. I really like this picture because I never really think of the rings as a solid or near solid but instead as a gas. This photo is one of few that shows that full expanse of all the rings and is really representative of just how big the rings are in comparison to the planet itself. Just another incredible photo of a distant planet in a place out of our reach.

Observational Study 10/13 - 10/19

Well, there is not much to tell this week. As the moon has been getting bigger and bigger until climaxing in a full moon, there has been little to no visibility of any stars or planets. It has also been very cloudy every night to the point that even the moon is either hazy or not visible. On Friday night, I attempted to view the meteor shower that Mr. Percival told us to look for but I had no luck as it was way too bright and cloudy to see anything. I may have seen one or two meteors fly by, but it may be my imagination. Sorry I don't have any better info to write about this week, but its the weathers fault... not mine. I'll keep a look out, and keep my fingers crossed for clearer skies.

APOD 1.8

Todays APOD is from the actual APOD site today because the government is back in business! It is taken from October 16th and is a picture of Draco the constellation.

It is actually a very close up view of it and shows the three galaxies that are within Draco from our point of view from Earth. This group of galaxies is called the Draco Group and is found in the upper right corner of the constellation. The galaxies are called (from right to left) are edge on spiral NGC5981, elliptical galaxy NGC5982, and face on spiral NGC5985. The coolest thing is that this is taken in one telescopic view that is only a little bigger than half of the full moon which tells you just how close these are to each other from our point of view. These galaxies are all about 100 light years away from us. If you look closely enough, you can see that a lot of the stars in the background are actually more galaxies that are just tinier from us as they are further away. I chose this picture not only because it looked cool, but also because it seemed appropriate that I did a picture on a relevant topic in our class. We just took a constellation quiz where one of the two new constellations was Draco!

Observational Study 10/7 - 10/12

This week was actually very good for viewing the stars. Like last week, I was able to see tons of stars and almost all of the constellations we have studied so far. This week ended with the moon being at waxing gibbous and nothing but clear skies all week. As Mr. Percival told us, I have been keeping an eye out for Venus' movements and noticed some changes. Using my own observations as well as the star walk app for assistance, I see that Venus is slowly moving away from the ecliptic as well as the moon each night. But I also noticed that constellations are changing position slightly every night until they are starting to fall below the horizon and out of view. Not much else has changed since last week, but I will keep an eye out.

APOD 1.7

Todays APOD is from today, October 11th 2013 It is an image of a spiral galaxy from the side and is truly amazing.

This galaxy spans over 100,000 light years and is currently 30,000,000 light years away! This galaxy is very similar to our own galaxy in shape as well as content. The spots in the background are actually all different galaxies and if you try hard enough, you can actually discern some of the less bright ones' shapes. The white glow surrounding the galaxy is actually dust that has been shot out by stars' supernova explosions and formation activities. I really enjoyed this photo not only because it is beautiful, but also because it looks kind of like the eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings.

Giovanni Cassini Biography

Giovanni Cassini also known as Giovanni Domenico, Gian Domenico Cassini, and Jean Domenico Cassini is a very famous astronomer who has made many discoveries and innovations that have greatly benefited the world of astronomy. He was born in Italy in 1625 in a Roman Catholic family, Cassini worked in the family business of astronomy by making maps including one of the first topographic maps of France using Frisius’s technique of triangulation. At a young age, he studied rotational periods of planets before moving to France upon invitation by King Louis XIV. In 1648, he began work in the Panzano Observatory with instruments he bought from the Marquis Malvasia. Using these, he observed a comet in 1652 and named it after the Duke of Modena. He actually used methods set up by Galileo to make the first accurate measurements of longitude and used that to measure the size of France. Cassini is the first person to observe four of Saturn’s moons, Iapetus in 1671, Rhea in 1672, Tethys in 1684 and Dione in 1684. He named them Louisian Stars after King Louis. Iapetus had variations in brightness, which he accurately ascribed to the presence of dark material on one hemisphere, which is now called Cassini regio in his honor. In 1672, Cassini collaborated with a man named Jean Richer who went to Cayenne so they could both make observations of Mars and to calculate the parallax to find the distance between Earth and Mars. This actually allowed for the first estimations of the dimensions of the solar system. He also discovered the Cassini Division in the rings of Saturn in 1675 as well as the Great Red Spot on Jupiter in 1665. In 1712, Giovanni Cassini died in Paris, France thus ending the list of a long series of discoveries and observations made by an amazing astronomer.

Observatioanl Study week 9/29 - 10/6

The clouds have finally cleared! After weeks with little to no visibility of the night sky from clouds and rain, it has cleared and I can finally see! This week I have gone out almost every night and seen nothing but clearness and stars. I was able to see almost all of the constellations including Cepheus, Hercules, Corona Borealis, Vulpecula, Aquila and many more. I saw the summer triangle and planets like Uranus, Venus and Neptune. I found out that the Star Walk app that I use sometimes has photo recognition, which means that I can hold my phone up to the sky and the app will connect the constellations and name the planets with a live video feed from my back yard. It has become even easier to notice stars and constellations even when I am just walking my dogs. I thought at first it would never happen, but it has.

APOD 1.6

Today's APOD is from the date 10/02/13 on the NASA website

The above picture is of the visible colors created by the sun. This can be obtained through using a complex and high tech stereoscope. A stereoscope is designed to use either a prism or of a kind of film to split light into a visible spectrum for the viewer. The black lines that are seen between the radiant colors are called absorption lines. A basic stereoscope can only see a few lines but this is clearly a highly advanced technological one that can read the data on a far more expanded scale. In fact, it was taken by an observatory called the McMath-Pierce Solar Observatory. This image proves that the sun radiates all visible and several non visible spectrum of colors. Even today, we still have not identified all spectral absorption lines even with our advancements in science and engineering. I chose this image because I like the way that it shows that nature is full of hidden amazing things that we don't even see or know exist yet.