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.