Observational Study 11/17 - 11/24

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. This week I got to see the moon go from waxing gibbous to full moon to waning gibbous which made the few days that were clear pretty difficult to see anything from all the light.

APOD 2.5

Today I chose to select the APOD image found on the date November 17th 2013 seen below

 This is an image of the tail created by the Comet McNaught. This was taken in 2007 with a long duration camera exposure with a wide angle lens so that one can see its entire length. This was taken from an observatory in Australia by the discoverer of the comet Robert McNaught. This comet is actually the brightest one to pass near the earth in several decades with its brightness magnitude of negative five. A new comet that I have been monitoring called ISON is approaching and is expected to be even brighter than this assuming that it doesn't explode from the suns heat. The main reason I chose this photo is not only because it is a stunningly beautiful picture, but it is also relevant to the quarters project in class. I am going to present comets and meteors and I have learned a lot in my research. With my new knowledge, I actually can point out parts of the comet above by name such as the nucleus.

Observational Post 11/11 - 11/16

I have noticed some pretty interesting things lately in my time outside at night. I was able to see a couple of meteors that fall through the sky and burn up for a couple of seconds. These "shooting stars" are normally next to impossible to predict for the average Joe like myself but I find that the more time I spend outside, the better the chance I get of seeing something really cool. I, of course, have been able to spot most of our current constellations but have noticed something peculiar... I have noticed that I am able to spot things like planets and specific stars much easier even without technological help. I guess all of this time outside has actually taught me how to do things off the book. I have also noticed that, as we approach the winter and cooler months, that a lot of the stars are particularly bright and are actually twinkling more from the atmospheric disruptions. All in all, a pretty good week for stargazing. 

APOD 2.4

Today's APOD is taken from November 9th and is an image of a comet called Lovejoy.

The bright stars near the comet is called the M44 star cluster but better known as the Beehive cluster. This is currently the brightest comet in our night sky and is actually visible from the naked eye. NASA is showing this picture to get people excited about the upcoming ISON comet that has recently become much brighter and will probably be visible to people with the naked eye.The green color the comet has is coming from the coma of the comet aka the center and is radiating with heat from passing near the sun. Lovejoy is currently about half of an AU away from us and a little over 1 AU from the sun.  That white glow at the bottom of the photo is actually a really bright star called Delta Cancri. The main reason I chose this photo is because I am studying comets and meteors for my astronomy project for the quarter and am actually learning a lot from both the internet and the textbook.

Observational Post 11/4 - 11/10

This had been a very boring week so there is not much to say. I have been going out every night to look at the stars and make observations but there aren't any real observations to make. I watched the moon go from being out every night to setting very early with the sun which has made the nights very dark and good for star viewing. I can still see most of the constellations that I have in the past as well as Pegasus and Andromeda which is always cool to see new constellations. Sorry I don't have more news or cool astronomical observations but every night has been uneventful since that partial solar eclipse. Until next week, I'll keep looking up at the stars.

APOD 2.3

This weeks APOD is a photo of the partial solar eclipse that occurred last Sunday

This is taken from New York at sunrise and is just visually stunning. The sunrise was an hour earlier due to the daylight saving time ending. I chose this photo because I got to see the same thing, start to finish, from Florida in my backyard. While America only saw a partial eclipse, off the coast off Africa people were able to see a total eclipse. This was something that people payed thousands of dollars and spent weeks preparing to be able to see the total eclipse while I got to see some of it from my back yard. The reason that it was partially eclipsed here and fully eclipsed in Africa is because this was a hybrid eclipse. That means that parts of the Earth saw the moon at an odd angle in some places creating partial eclipses. This is just another wondrous thing about the stars and the planets that are super beautiful and incredible just think about and even sometimes have the privilege to see.

Observational Post 10/27 - 11/3

Well this was an eventful and special week! Not only did daylight savings time end which means that everyone will be able see more stars at a much earlier time in the afternoon. But there was a very special solar eclipse today that occurred directly at sunrise. I got up to see it but was only able to see the sun over the the obstructions by the time it was almost over. Still, it was an amazing event that few will ever see. This weeks night skies were also very clear so I was able to see a lot of stars, constellations and even the space station fly overhead for a couple of seconds. Now that summer is completely over and winter is approaching, the night skies will be much clearer and the stars will be easier to see. Plus as time goes on, new constellations will be visible as we rotate around the sun. Until next week, I will continue to look up and see new and interesting things in the night sky.

APOD 2.2

Today's APOD is the first post of November and the last one before daylight saving time ends! It is from October 31st and is a photo that is taken on Earth but looks out of this world!

This photo was taken on a volcanic site in Iceland and shows just how amazing our planet is. It is also kind of appropriate that this spooky photo was chosen to be displayed on the 31st of October as that is Halloween, the spookiest holiday of the year! This place is named Hverir and is located in the Northeast of the country. The green lights in the sky are an auroral display caused by a geomagnetic storm. The gas clouds are caused by the lava just underneath the vents located on the surface. I really like this picture because it shows me just how amazing our world is and how amazing it must look from space with the lights and movement and uncommonly known geological parts of the surface.