APOD 2.6

A Quadruple Lunar Halo Over Spain 

This photograph captures a snowy road, Puerto de Navacerrada, near Madrid, where falling ice crystals caused up to four lunar halos to appear around the moon.  These are caused by the moonlight refracting through the ice crystals which populate high thin clouds in the air. Hexagonal, column, and distant ice crystals caused 22 degree, circumscribed, and 46 degree halos to form, respectively. A quadruple halo is very rare, especially for the moon. 

Stargaze

If I am able to attend the stargaze on Sunday December 9th, I would like to view through the telescope:

1. Jupiter
2. Asteroids Vesta and Ceres
3. Albireo
4. M81
5. Helix Nebula 7293
6. M42 Great Orion Nebula
7. Vega
8. M31 Andromeda Galaxy
9. M1 Crab Nebula
10. Gamma Andromeda

Observation 8

Thursday November 29th, 2012
1:00am
East Laurel Road
Cloudy, with a full moon

Through the dense clouds on this morning, I saw the full moon, about at zenith. Looking up, I noticed a very bright object so close to the moon that I was amazed that it still shone so bright in the moon's glow. I knew it had to be a bright planet. With the help of my handy skymap app, I learned that it was Jupiter, an amazing sight to see with a bright beautiful full moon overhead. Of course, it was too bright to notice any distinct constellations, but I searched for the bright stars in the sky which I tried to recognize.

APOD 2.5

Super Moon vs. Micro Moon

This image shows the most recent full moon, a Micro Moon, compared to the Super Moon that occured on May 5th of this year. The recent full moon occured very near to apogee, the moment when the moon is the farthest away from earth in its orbit. May 5th saw a Super Moon occuring at perigee, when the moon was about 50,000 kilometers closer to the earth in its orbit. This Super Moon looked even bigger than the sun from the viewer's point on earth. The next full Micro Moon does not occur until January of 2014. The size difference of the moons is very noticeable in a side by side comparison, but the last full moon looked as big and bright as any, to a viewer from earth.

APOD 2.4

Moon Shadow Sequence 

This photograph, compiled from a multitude of separate images taken over a long period of time, shows the sequence of the solar eclipse that occurred on November 14th in Australia. It was taken from Queensland. The photograph shows how the moons shadow partially obscured parts of the sun as it rose, resulting in the total solar eclipse which can be seen in the center of the sequence, where the bright solar corona glows. From this area, the solar eclipse lasted about 2 minutes as the sun moved up across the sky. Then, you can see the shadow of the moon slowly ebb as the sun moves out of its path. I love this photo, as it seamlessly shows the path of the moon and the sun as they seem to collide and then move away.

Observation 7

Thursday November 8th, 2012
8:30pm
East Laurel Road
Clear dark skies

The most noticeable and recognizable objects in the sky to me are now the Great Square of Pegasus and Cassiopeia. I can always pick out these shapes in the nighttime sky. Today I also noticed a bright object low in the east which I guessed and later discovered to be Jupiter. Towards the west, the distinct shape of the Summer Triangle was visible. I notice it is further and further in the west every night as summer constellations set and fall ones rise. I came outside to look at the sky right when Sagittarius was setting in the west and the only bright stars on the other half of the sky were Fomalhaut in Piscis Austrinus, Polaris, and the shapes of Pegasus and Cassiopeia. I also noticed a flickering bluish star in the east, close to Jupiter.

APOD 2.3

Saturn's Moon Dione in Slight Color 

This image was pieced together with about 45 photographs taken by the NASA fly-by mission with the robo-spacecraft Cassini. It shows how Saturn's 1122 kilometer diameter moon Dione has more craters on one side than the other. This is partially because Dione revolves much like the Earth's moon, meaning that one side of it is always facing towards Saturn. Although scientists believe the side that faces Saturn should be less impacted by craters, that is not the case. One explanation says that some of the impacts that created the craters were so strong they could have spun Dione on its axis so that it permanently changed the side that faces Saturn in revolution. Dione has a lot of texture across its surface, with cliffs of rock and ice, but the fact that all this structure and crater damage occurs on the exact side that it shouldn't is still a mystery to many astronomers.

APOD 2.2

The Red Spider Planetary Nebula

This planetary nebula, named the Red Spider for its long weaving red web of filaments and gases, formed this unique structure because it began as a normal star which ejected its outer gases to become a white dwarf. In fact, it contains one of the hottest white dwarfs ever observed. Our own sun will actually one day become a white dwarf star like this, but not for 5 billion years. It is estimated to be about 4,000 lightyears away. Winds in the central stars move around 1000 kilometers a second, expanding the nebula and causing the gas and dust to collide, making atoms caught in the collisions radiate light.

Observation 6

Thursday November 1st, 2012
6:30am

East Laurel Road
Clear dark skies with minimal clouds and a waning gibbous moon

Clearly in the north-east I noticed the big dipper, Ursa Major, inverted in the morning sky. Later this evening I also saw The Great Square of Pegasus, high overhead, nearby what I think were a few bright stars from Cassiopeia. The bright moon made most observation almost impossible, as only a few of the brightest stars in the sky were visible.

Friday November 2nd, 2012
 
This morning I saw the moon very near what looked like an extremely bright star. That star was not a star, but the planet Jupiter which was at its closest point to the moon.

APOD 2.1

The Medusa Nebula

The Medusa Nebula is named for its long, looping, snakelike filaments of gas. It is a planetary nebula located in the Gemini constellation, 1,500 lightyears away. When small stars burn off all its hydrogen in the core, the outer layers begin expanding in a very unstable phase of the star's evolution. Eventually, much of the star's mass is ejected, while the central star continues to emit very high energy radiation, causing all the surrounding gases to glow.  This is how the Medusa Nebula was born.  It is subject to very rapid transformation as it evolves. The nebula is around 4 lightyears across.

APOD 1.8

 

Aurora Over White Dome Geyser 

This image was captured in Yellowstone National Park where the geyser pictured exploded in front of a picturesque landscape of stars.  The colors of the aurora is what makes it unique.  The red aurora occurs with atoms high in the earth's atmosphere when they fall from an excited to ground state.  The green occurs in the same situation, except with atoms that are lower in the earth's atmosphere.  The carefully planned photograph captures the wonders of the earth and the sky in one composite image.

Observation 5

Sunday October 14th, 2012
8:30pm
East Laurel Road
Clear dark skies with minimal clouds and a New Moon

Although City lights dimmed most of the stars I could see, the Summer Triangle was clearly seen overhead.  In the East to Northeast I saw the Great Square of Pegasus, and further North, the constellation Cassiopeia. Both were very clear.  I tried to look to the left to see Cassiopeia's king Cepheus, but it was only faintly visible.

Biography of Christen Severin Longomontanus

               

Christen Severin Longomontanus was born in Longberg, Jutland, Denmark in 1562. He was born Christen Severin and gave himself the Latin name of Longomontanus as a Latinized version of his hometown, as he became a more renowned astronomer. His parents were poor peasants who could not afford a proper education for their son. Christen’s father died when he was eight years old, and his uncle took over his upbringing until he was sent back to work with his mother as a farmer and laborer. He was determined to learn, however, and convinced his mother to allow him to study during winter when there was not much work as a farmer. He worked with the clergyman of the parish for some months until he finally got up the nerve to run away in search of knowledge and education.


He went to Wibourg where he attended grammar school. Soon, he went to Copenhagen for a secondary education, which was possible with the positive reputation he earned at grammar school. He did not complete his basic education until 1588 due to his lack of funds. In fact, he paid for much of his schooling through manual labor. In 1589, he met Tycho Brahe, who took him in as an apprentice in the astronomical observatory of Uraniborg. For eight years, he was an invaluable assistant to Brahe. He went off to university in Germany but soon met again with Brahe in Prague in 1600, to help him complete the Tychonic lunar theory, which included the discovery of fluctuations in the inclination of the moon’s orbit and changes in the longitude of the moon.


Longomontanus left Brahe to get his master’s degree, and get a professorship at the University of Copenhagen. He served as chair of mathematics from 1607 to his death forty years later. He began construction of an observatory in Copenhagen, but died before its completion.


While he was not a particularly advanced thinker of his time, Longomontanus was still invaluable in developing many of Tycho Brahe’s models and theories. He took responsibility for organizing and continuing Brahe’s work after his death as well. His texts were published based on Brahe’s observations and evidence, but involved Longomontanus’ calculations and work, which were the most up-to-date and accurate of the age.


Longomontanus served primarily as a teacher at the University of Copenhagen, and an apprentice to Brahe. He made no significant discoveries of his own, but he made valuable contributions to Tycho Brahe’s work. He also published “Astronomica Danica” in 1622, describing the various astronomical systems of Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Brahe.

APOD 1.7

Nauset Light Star Trails

This photograph is intriguing and very well executed. Star trails can be photographed using very long exposure times to document the movement of stars in the sky over long periods of time. This photographer documented the trails with 30 minutes worth of exposure, showing 7.5 degrees of rotation. The center of the circle, where the stars don't move much, is the North Celestial Pole with the circumpolar stars that are always above the horizon in the Northern Hemisphere where this picture was taken. It requires careful planning and a steady tripod to achieve a photograph like this one, which illustrates Earth's daily rotation in the solar system.

Observation 4

Wednesday October 10th, 2012
8:00pm-10:00pm
Blackburn Point Rd
Clear dark skies, with fifth magnitude visibility

This observation session was a great success, with the help of discussion, direction, and tools to augment my view of the sky. The telescope offered great views, especially of the bright orange Antares and M11, the Wild Duck Cluster. It was amazing to be able to view the arc of the Milky Way Galaxy overhead, as well as the faraway Andromeda galaxy, both through binoculars and the telescope. I enjoyed being able to identify many of the constellations we have learned in class, and noticed that they seem much larger and more spread out in the sky than on paper and maps. Sagittarius's teapot shape was especially distinct in the sky. I was also lucky to see one meteor flash across my view.

APOD 1.6

 

Goat Aurora Over Greenland 

The Shelios Expedition was a project which sought to observe auroras in Greenland with the increase in aurora due to solar activity. The sun is expected to reach solar maxima somewhere in mid 2013. Increased solar activity correlates with increased sun spots. There will be a large increase in solar wind and storms which can interfere with satellites, affect the climate, and affect the frequency of auroras. This particular aurora, pictured above a farmhouse in Greenland, moved very rapidly, creating different strange shapes and images in the sky. The captured photograph resembles a goat's head, which is why it is affectionately titled the Goat Aurora. 

Observation 3

Monday October 1st, 2012
12:00am
East Laurel Road
Clear skies with minimal clouds at the horizon

The full harvest moon, overheard nearly at zenith, brightened the entire midnight sky, making star-gazing a difficult task.  I did however see a few faint stars. Among them was a bright object due east: Jupiter.  Easily the second brightest object in the sky after the moon, Jupiter was still visible in the southeast around sunrise at 6:00am. At sunrise, the moon was about to set, about 45 degress high in the sky at 6:30am. Clouds at the horizon quickly hid the moon from view, but I was able to enjoy a few minutes while the bright moon was clearly in view due west.

Observation 2

Friday September 28th, 2012
7:00pm
East Laurel Road
Near sunset, the sky was cloudy and bright

Driving east, I suddenly noticed how large and bright the moon was in the evening sky.  It was not yet sunset, yet the moon had just risen, meaning it is nearly a full moon.  I attempted to photograph what I saw, with the following results.

APOD 1.5

NGC 2736: The Pencil Nebula

The Pencil Nebula, named for it's distinguished long and slim shape, is a remnant of a supernova explosion that occured about 11,000 years ago.  This supernova occured when a star in the constellation Vela grew 250 times brighter than Venus, to be visible in the daytime sky.  Gaseous debris from this huge supernova have been left in the sky.  This nebula is only a small part of the total debris (which is about 100 light years across), but distinctive enough to have gained its own name.  It is about 5 light meters long and about 800 light years away.  The nebula is made up of strong bright concentrations of gas and smaller patches of diffuse gas.  The nebula is so bright because the shock wave from the supernova continues to move at 500,000 kilometers per hour, slamming it into gases and interstellar debris.  However, 500,000 kilometers per hour is nothing compared to the millions of kilometers per hour at which the supernove shock wave travelled at first.


APOD 1.4

A Solar Filament Erupts

Solar filaments are long, thin regions of dense gas.  Pictured is the arc of plasma and gas material that was flowing between two sunspots right before it erupted into space.  This filament was about 200,000 miles across, nearly the distance from the moon to Earth, and it travelled 900 miles per second.  Filaments are usually seen on the surface of the sun before they erupt, causing Coronal Mass Ejections which shoot electrons and ions, some of which reached Earth, affecting its magnetosphere and creating auroras 3 days after the eruption.  The sun is expected to have a maximum amount of activity the next two years, causing more Coronal Mass Ejections and auroras.  The peak is said to happen next year, which will be followed by intense solar storms and flares.  This could possibly damage satellites and cause power blackouts, but cause no real damage to humans.  Certainly, there will be plenty of beautiful auroras to view, in extreme latitudes, due to so much solar activity.

APOD 1.3

Milky Way Over the Bungle Bungles

This panoramic photograph shows some of the wonders of the earth and the sky. The Bungle Bungles in Western Australia are the product of years of sandstone, rock, and sediment, shaped by wind and rain erosion.  In the sky, one can clearly see the band of the Milky Way, which is the disk in the spiral-shapped galaxy where the brightest stars and our sun are. In this band are star clusters, emission nebulae, reflective nebulae, dust, and dark matter.  Surprisingly, astronomers say that this amazing sight is visible almost anywhere, as long as it is a clear night away from city lights. In adequate darkness away from urban lights, a bright strip of sky marks the shape of the galaxy within which the Earth exists. However, due to the great amount of light pollution that is now threatening dark star-gazing skies, many areas of Europe and the United States no longer have the opportunity to experience such an amazing view of something thousands of light years away from us.

Biography of Christen Severin Longomontanus: Sources

Severin, Christian." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 12. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. 332. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 11 Sep. 2012.

Westfall, Richard S. "Severin [Soerensen, Longomontanus], Christian." The Galileo Project. Department of History and Philosophy of Science, n.d. Web. 11 Sept. 2012. <http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/severin.html.>

"Christian Longomontanus (Danish Astronomer)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 11 Sept. 2012. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/347617/Christian-Longomontanus.>

Observation 1

Saturday September 8th, 2012

5:00am to 6:00am 

Laurel Road, East of I75,  Facing directly East
Sky was clear, with minimal clouds visible passing over the bright Last Quarter moon

I am lucky to live away from most city lights, being past I75 and closer to the edge of Myakka State Park. From my bedroom window I can see most of the sky. For observation purposes I went outside for a better view.

Almost directly overhead was the moon in the last quarter phase. The closest bright object to the moon was Jupiter.  Nearer to the horizon was Venus, easily the brightest object in the sky after the moon.  

It is a great feeling to recognize objects in the night sky.  With my limited knowledge of where the planets and constellations would be this week, and the help of an iPhone app to identify the things I saw, my first deliberate observation session was a success.

APOD 1.2

M45: The Pleiades Star Cluster 

The Pleiades Star Cluster, or Messier object 45, is also called the Seven Sisters, due to the 7 main bright stars in the cluster.  This photo of the stars shows clearly that they are near bright blue, reflective nebulae.  These nebulae are colored as such from the reflection of the stars within them.  The Pleiades are around 380 light years from Earth, according to parallax measurements.  About 3000 stars exist in the cluster, although only the main seven can be seen with the naked eye.  These seven stars, however, are so bright that they are nearly always visible, even from a brightly lit city (in winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere).  Greek mythology says that these seven stars are the daughters of Atlas and Pleione.  The cluster is estimated to be about 100 million years old and will survive for another 250 million years before dispersing due to gravitational interactions with surrounding objects.

APOD 1.1

Colorful Clouds Near Rho Ophiuchi

To me, images of nebulae and colorful cloud complexes can truly augment one's understanding of how vast and fantastic the universe is.  I learned that this cloud complex contains more than 3,000 times the amount of mass as the sun.  It is nearly impossible to reach an understanding of that amount of material somewhere in the sky.  I was attracted to this picture because one of this week's constellations, Scorpius, contains the star Antares which appears in picture as the bright orange-ish star in the lower center.  Furthermore, the colors in this nebula are more than the human eye can even perceive.  The many processes occuring in this mass make the sky a bright concentration of amazing colors.  Dust, lit up by starlight, causes a blue reflection, while gaseous clouds with ultraviolet rays from stars create the redder colors.