APOD 2.6

December 9, 2010                                           M81 and Arp's Loop

After seeing this swirling body which is exactly what I imagine when I think of the possibilities of space, I immediately chose this to do my APOD on.  The focus of the picture is on spiral M81 which is one of the brightest galaxies in Earth's sky and is nearly the same size as the Milky Way.  This galaxy is located 11.8 million light years away in the constellation Ursa Minor, which as we learned contains the current North Star Polaris.  The blue spiral arms surrounding the inner yellow core are sweeping dust lanes.  On the right edge of the galaxy lies what is known as Arp's Loop, which has a tidal tail made up of material pulled in from M81's gravitational pull interacting with that of the large neighboring M82.  Recent research of Arp's loop in infrared have matched earlier research, giving belief that some of Arp's loop may be located within our own galaxy.

APOD 2.5

November 25, 2010                                                Stardust in Aries

This picture covers nearly 2 degrees across the sky, right next to the Zodiac and constellation Aries.  The blue dusty reflection at the lower right hand corner of the photograph is a nebula surrounding a star known as vdB 13 located 1,000 light years away.  In the upper left hand corner lays vdB 16 which again is surrounded by a bluish nebula.  The dusty material makes up a molecular cloud that lays home to many hidden newly formed stars and stellar objects.  These give the molecular cloud a high density core which allows for protostars to begin forming around.

APOD 2.4

November 18, 2010.      Spiral Galaxy M66

This spiral galaxy, better known as M66, is located 35 million light-years away and spans for over 100,000 light-years across. This galaxy is well known as part of the Leo Triplet of galaxies, also containing M65 and NGC 3628, all of which can be seen from the same field of view.  The spiral arms seen in the picture are formed from a mixture of dust particles as well as blue star clusters. Also in the mix of these spiral arms are pink masses of energized hydrogen gas, giving it the pinkish glow coming through the blue. Some of the brighter stars seen are in fact stars found in the Milky Way, however some of the fainter and more distant objects are actually other galaxies found near by, as explained by the Leo Triplet.  It is believed that the gravitational forces acting between these galaxies are the cause of the attraction that causes spinning and results in the spiraling effect, making galaxy M66 such a spectacular sight.

Great World Wide Starcount

November 10, 2010.
Observing from my backyard, Northern Sarasota.

While looking for the Cygnus in the Southern Triangle from my backyard, located at a latitude of 27.37387 degrees and a longitude of -82.55629 degrees according to the site's Geocoder, I compared my view to the magnitude charts on the website and determined that from my house, my view was equivalent to Chart 3.  This may be the result of neighboring lights still turned on in my viewing radius limiting the sight of the lesser magnitude stars.

APOD 2.3

November 12, 2010.        NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula.

This amazing picture was taken of the Iris Nebula located 1,300 Light Years away in the constellation Cepheus and spans about 6 Light Years across.  This really intrigued me as it seems that a good number of the pictures I choose each week are located near or in Cepheus and I am still trying to find out why this is.  Apparently, the picture is supposed to be representative of flowers, although I did not get that impression.  It greatly exemplifies the great colors and symmetry that can occur in these Nebulae and thus NGC 7023 is a good model.  The bright object in the upper right hand corner is a hot, young star, while the surrounding transparent clouds are dusty nebular materials. The bluish color around the star is a result of the dust particles reflecting starlight, which usually comes out to be a similar color.  The surrounding dust takes on a more faint red look as a result of these particles reflecting some of the star's ultraviolet radiation.  Recent observations using infrared technology by the Spitzer Telescope are leading astronomers to believe that this Nebula may contain PAHs, or advanced and complex carbon molecules.

APOD 2.2

October 30, 2010.     Ghost of the Cepheus Flare.

Being Halloween time, it is only fitting that the APOD I chose was of a ghost.  This picture is actually titled the Ghost of the Cepheus Flare, and since we recently learned about the constellation Cepheus, or the King, it was even more appropriate to choose this picture.  The brown shadow that forms the ghostlike apparition is actually a cosmic dust cloud that is being reflected in the starlight.  The bright blue object shown in the picture is actually the Cepheus Flare located 1200 light years away in the northern part of the milky way.  The core of the cosmic dust cloud that forms the apparition is actually collapsing upon itself and it much like the process of a binary star system.  While I found this picture to be one of the most interesting yet, there was little information provided about it and the links were of little relevance so it was hard to gather much information about the topic.

APOD 2.1

October 28, 2010.                 Mirach's Ghost.

The photo shown above is of the gallaxy known to astronomers as Mirach's Gallaxy for its location along the line of sight to the bright star Mirach.  The gallaxy itself is very faint and fuzzy, so it is hard to make accurate observations about it, however its presence is still well known to astronomers.  Mirach's Ghost, or NGC 404, is actually a dwarf lenticular gallaxy in the constellation Andromeda, however the glare from Mirach or Beta Andromeda located only a few arc seconds away inhibits clear view.  Mirach is a red giant star, and is suprisingly much larger than our sun, however it is much cooler so while it may shine brighter, it does not produce nearly as much heat.  The gallaxy got its name from the diffraction spikes caused by the glare of the bright star when viewed by astronomers.  In the picture, the bright center star is Mirach, and above and to the right, the smaller more distant blur is NGC 404, or Mirach's Gallaxy, estimated to be around 10 million light years away.

APOD 1.8

October 18th, 2010.    It came from the Sun.

This picture was taken by the SOHO satellite that orbits the sun. Rising from behind the sun is a solar prominence, or a bright feature extending outward from the sun in a loop shape. Prominences are anchored to the sun in the photosphere and extend toward the Corona.  The technical definition of a prominence is a thin cloud of solar gas held to the surface of the sun (in the photosphere as previously stated) as a result of the Sun's magnetic field.  Prominences are closely related to filaments, however they are differientiable based on their position around their sun which in turn affects their coloring. Filaments are cooler than air and thus appear dark, however prominences like the one shown above are located on the surface edge of the sun and appear brighter than the space behind them.  There are two types of prominences; they can either be quiescent or eruptive. A quiescent prominence lasts up to a few months, but an eruptive prominence like the one in the picture above typically only last a few hours.  After this time, they will erupt causing a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) and dispersing hot gas throughout the Solar System.  As our sun continues to approach solar maximum in its cycle over the next few years, many more filaments and prominences are expected to occur.

Observations Week of 10/18/10

October 18, 2010.

Observing from my back porch in northern Sarasota.
Viewing time 8:05 p.m.

In the east was a very bright waxing gibbous moon, approaching a full moon in a few days.  Even further east and a tiny bit south of the moon was a very bright object that looked to be in two parts. At first I assumed that it was the International Space Station but after consulting with Heavens Above I realized that the ISS was only visible from around 6:40-6:45p.m. two hours previous. Therefore, I believe that the bright portion is possibly Jupiter with the lesser magnitude portion possibly a faint outline of Uranus located very close by.

October 22, 2010.

Observing from restaurant parking lot in northern Sarasota.
Viewing time 8:30 p.m.

In the East as we left the restaurant was a very full moon that brought about a family discussion about whether it was full or not. This forced us to go home and research to find that the moon was actually in its last waxing gibbous state, and tomorrow would be the full moon.

October 23, 2010.

Observing from my driveway in northern Sarasota.
Viewing time 8:00 p.m.

Finally, the long awaited day of the full moon had come.  The moon was very bright to the due east and illuminated much of the sky around it making it difficult to see many other stars around.  Along with this, many lights from my neighbor's houses were blocking further observation of lesser magnitude stars.

Johannes Kepler Biography

William Martin

Mr. Percival

Astronomy Pd. 1

October 15^th, 2010

Johannes Kepler Biography

Johannes Kepler was born in 1571 in a town called Weil in Wurmberg, now located in Southwestern Germany.  In his early life, Kepler was very interested in religion and received a degree in theology, later entering the University of Tubingen, at the time renowned for its Protestant teachings, where he graduated in 1591. At this school, Kepler became very advanced in mathematics, and went on to take a teaching position at a small school in Austria. However, his small numbers of students gave Johannes much free time to pursue his newfound interest, astronomy.

A dedicated believer in Copernicus’s heliocentric theory, Kepler tested many of Copernicus’s observations for accuracy and accounted any errors and discrepancies to miscalculations or observations but was unwilling to move away from Copernicus’s theory. In 1600, an astronomer by the name of Tycho Brahe noted Kepler for his skills in mathematics and invited him to Prague to use Brahe’s observations to calculate the distances of the planets.  Brahe was known for taking some of the most consistent and detailed observations on record, and thus when he passed away shortly after in 1601 he left much for Kepler to work with and analyze. 

In 1610, Kepler got word of Galileo’s recent invention of the telescope and made a version for his own personal use shortly after. With this, he confirmed Galileo’s assertion of Jupiter’s planets and verified many other observations, taking some of his own along the way.

  Using his observations, Kepler finally strayed from the common beliefs of Aristotle and Copernicus and came to the conclusion that planets orbit in ellipses rather than circles. After recalculating the distances of the planets using Brahe’s observations, the numbers seemed to fit and Kepler had made one of the most important discoveries in astronomical history.

Using his newly found discovery, Kepler was able to establish three main laws, widely known as the laws of planetary motion. The first law states that the orbits of the planets are ellipses, with the sun as one focus of the ellipse.  The second law explains that the line joining the planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times as the planet travels around the ellipse. Kepler’s final law stated that the ratios of the squares of the revolutionary periods for two planets is equal to the ratio of the cubes in the semi major axes, or better known P^2 = R^3.

           Although he died in 1630, because of his great contributions to the field of astronomy, Kepler is still regarded as one of the most important astronomers and mathematicians to ever live.  The impacts he made still form the backbone of astronomy and are used on a regular basis.

APOD 1.7

October 9th, 2010.                Global Star Cluster NGC 6934

What an amazing picture this was! Even before looking through the rest of this week's pictures I knew that I would choose this image for my weekly post. This picture is of a globular star cluster, or a spherical collection of thousands of stars that orbit a galactic core and are bound by the force of gravity. There are two types of star clusters, globular and open. While open clusters only have up to a few hundred stars loosely packed, as we can see from the picture globular star clusters have up to millions of stars packed tightly together. Oddly enough, many of the stars seen are even older than the galactic disk that they orbit. NGC 6934 was discovered in 1785 and estimated to be about 50 kilo-light years. This core happens to lay in the center of Delphinus, the Dolphin constellation that we learned about which contains Job's coffin.  This picture was taken from the well known Hubble Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys and spans over 50 light years, focusing on stars estimated to be over 10 billion years old.

APOD 1.6

October 8th, 2010.  Two Planet Opposition.

This picture demonstrates an important concept in astronomy that we discussed in our previous chapter, opposition.  Opposition means that the planets were aligned opposite of the sun with Jupiter and Uranus orbiting close enough to be seen in Earth's sky (still thousands of millions of kilometers). The conversion factor website linked to the picture was very interesting as it really put the absurd numbers of light years we hear into perspective so that we can accurately gauge about how large these numbers actually are.  Uranus is the planet located in the top right with the greenish tint, and the two minuscule dots above it are its moons. Theses are only 2 of Uranus' 5 larger moons and are named Oberon and Titania for characters in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The larger planet located on the right side of the photograph is Jupiter which is surrounded by its 4 Galilean Satellites named after Galileo's observations of the orbiting moons. Starting from the bottom left and working up the the top right, the names of the moons are respectively; Callisto, Europa, Io, and on the opposing side of the planet rests Ganymede. 

APOD 1.5

September 26th, 2010. Arp 188 and the Tadpole's Tidal Tail.

This picture represented the kind of sight that first initiated my interest in astronomy. A swirling galaxy followed  by a long tail like feature demonstrate the endless possibility of events that can occur in our solar system.  This picture was taken by the well known Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Since the Hubble is in orbit, it allows for much closer and more precise pictures of whatever it is targeting in its view.  This picture is actually of the spiral galaxy Arc 188,  or better known as the Tadpole Galaxy due to its resemblance of the creature.  Its long tail is made of bright blue star clusters and spans for over 280,000 light years.  It giant galaxy is believed to have formed by a smaller galaxy crossing paths with the larger circular galaxy, and thus the a huge gravitational force was created. This pulled all of the stars and dust particles out of the spiral galaxy, and as a result created what we refer to as the "tail" on the tadpole. The intruder galaxy that nearly collided with the Tadpole galaxy now remains in orbit within the spiraling arms of the Tadpole.  However, as during the life span of a Tadpole, this galaxy will also mature and lose its tail as the stars cluster begin to form smaller and smaller satellites.

Astronomer Project Sources: Johannes Kepler

Works Cited

"Kepler, Johannes (1571-1630)." World of Earth Science. Ed. K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner.     
              Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 333-335. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 1 Oct. 2010.

"Kepler, Johannes (1571–1630)." Encyclopedia of European Social History. Ed. Peter N. Stearns. Vol. 6:  
             Biographies/Contributors. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. 173-174. Gale Virtual Reference 
            Library. Web. 1 Oct. 2010.

BARKER, PETER. "Kepler, Johannes (1571–1630)." Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early 
            Modern World. Ed. Jonathan Dewald. Vol. 3. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004. 398-401. 
           Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 1 Oct. 2010.

APOD 1.4

September 23, 2010. Equinox and The Iron Sun.

This is a picture of the sun during the equinox, or the time as the sun crosses over the celestial equator.  Twice a year, the sun crosses the celestial equator causing equinoxes and changing the seasons to fall and spring.  Another two times throughout the year, this will occur causing solstices which bring the seasons into summer and winter. The literal meaning of the word equinox is actual equal night, because during the days that this phenomenon occurs, both day and night last for nearly 12 hours.  However, this lasts only for one day as days begin to grow shorter while the sun rises lower and lower in the sky as winter approaches. This picture is taken using ultraviolet light and is characterized by a false yellowish color due to ionized iron atoms. The swivels in the sun are fields of plasma suspended in magnetic fields above solar active regions.

APOD 1.3

September 20, 2010.  Aurora over Norway.

This picture stood out to me as it looked like a picture of fireworks in the night sky, however it was much softer colors and much smoother texture.  This picture is of an aurora above Tromso, Norway.  As the picture was taken over a length of time, the streaks seen inside of the aurora are actually satellites moving through the sky. Auroras are also known as Northern and Southern Polar Lights, the specific ones in this picture being Northern lights or the Aurora Borealis. These auroras are caused by collisions between charged particles and air molecules. They are often predicted based upon the time period of magnetic occurrences near the sun.

Observations Week of 9/20/10

Monday 9/20/10

Observing from my driveway in Northern Sarasota.
Observation Time: 9:00 P.M.
Findings: During my observation session, I saw a waxing gibbous moon a bit north of due eastward with Jupiter located slightly north of the moon. Although unable to be spotted by the naked eye, Uranus was also located very near to Jupiter.  Across the heavens in the western sky was Venus setting at the same time.

Tuesday 9/21/10

Observing from my driveway in Northern Sarasota.

Observation Time: 9:00 P.M.

Findings: During my observation session, I once again saw the waxing gibbous moon although it was very difficult to distinguish from a full moon as the full moon is approaching in the very near future. Again, Jupiter could be seen in the east near the moon although it was now located slightly south of the moon, although my viewing time may have slightly varied and the moon may have moved a more significant distance as it is much closer to us.  Again Venus was located in the western sky.

Wednesday 9/22/10

Observing from my driveway in Northern Sarasota.

Observation Time: 9:00 P.M.

Findings: During my observation session, the moon was again visible due east and it was extremely close to its full moon stage. Jupiter was now noticeably south of the moon and as of the previous days, Uranus again went unseen but located closely nearby.  Today however, I was unable to see Venus setting in the west, possible as a result of trees blocking my view from my observation point in my location.

APOD 1.2

September 10, 2010. Vela Supernova Remnant.

This picture contained a mixture of milky textured blues and reds, colors not common to the atmosphere that engaged my curiosity.  This picture contains the remnants of an explosion of a star in the constellation Vela that occurred over 11,000 years ago.  The constellation Vela, The Sails, was one of four constellations that made up a giant constellation known as Argo.  This caused an expanding shock wave that is still visible by X-Rays to date.  At the center lays a bright and dense core called the pulsar which rests approximately 800 light years away.  The Vela supernova remnant is located in the Milky Way inside of an older and larger supernova remnant called the Gum Nebula.

APOD 1.1

August 28, 2010. Hole in the Sun.

This picture stood out to me as an immediate choice as its unique view of our sun which looks as though there is a gaping hole going through its center.  The hole is called a coronal hole, an area of little density and cool temperature.  I learned that this coronal hole is formed by a magnetic field that allows for higher density plasma matter to exit via the hole.  One common effect of such an experience is that if the coronal hole is facing the Earth, it may create strong solar winds on our planet.  This is also the cause of the X-Rays that we can detect from the sun from the light spectrum.