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.
Friday, November 30, 2012
APOD 2.5
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.
Friday, November 16, 2012
APOD 2.4
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.
Friday, November 9, 2012
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.
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
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.
Monday, November 5, 2012
APOD 2.2
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.
Friday, November 2, 2012
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.
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.
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