I arrived at Pine View at around five o'clock. I was one of the first people there, to help Mr. Percival set up. We set up four telescopes and one binocular station. While setting up, Mr. Percival showed us the many different parts and pieces of the telescopes. From the first telescope that Pine View purchased all the way up to "Big Bertha." My friend Nick Hernandez and I manned Pine View's first telescope which was aimed at the Horse head Nebula in the constellation Orion. The only other telescope that I remember what it was aimed at was "Big Bertha," which was aimed at Jupiter and its Moons. As the sky darkened, the brighter objects in the sky began to show themselves. Light pollution was not a problem at all, there were no clouds to be seen, and the Moon was in it's new phase so conditions could not have been better. The first objects we were able to see were Jupiter, Sirius, and Rigel. By seven o'clock, the sky had gotten dark enough so we could make-out many of the winter constellations. Orion, Canis Major, Gemini, Auriga, Canis Minor, Ursa Major, Cassiopeia, and Taurus. By 7:30pm, about 25 people (not including Astronomy students) had shown-up to enjoy the night sky. Mr. Percival used his high powered laser to help the people orient themselves and learn about the stars. He identified many of the other winter constellations, such as Leo, Monoceros, Colomba, Lepus, Eridanus, Fornax, and Lynx. I shared many conversations with people and younger Pine View students, answering questions and teaching what I know. It was a very successful Astronomy Night and I will definitely be attending next year.
Hours spent observing: 3.5x2=7
Friday, March 28, 2014
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
25 Jan. 2014 - Observations
Because I was not able to make it to the Stargaze, I did my own observations. I did them with my girlfriend at her grandmother's house which is out in the more wooded area of North Port, so light pollution was not a problem. The first object that was easily noticeable and almost right over head was Orion. From there I utilized the winter star chart and star-hopping technique to locate Lepus, Columba, Canis Major, Monoceros, Canis Minor, Gemini, Auriga, and Taurus. Constellations that I located without star-hopping were Ursa Major and Eridanus. The brightest stars that I was able to correctly identify were Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Saiph, Rigel, Sirius, Procyon, Capella, Castor, Pollux, Polaris and Aldebaren. Jupiter, located in Gemini, out shined all of these stars combined. From what I remember, the Moon was a waning crescent. Other notable things I identified were the Pleiades, the Hyades, and the Horse head Nebula. I attempted to teach my significant other all of the other miscellaneous items in each of the constellations but the only thing she seemed to remember well was that Orion "fights" Taurus.
Hours spent observing: 1.5
Hours spent observing: 1.5
2 Jan. 2014 - Observations
Tonight's stargaze did not go as planned. The weather was awful and no observations were able to be made. When you looked up, all you were able to see was the under belly of clouds. We waited to see if the skies would clear up, but that did not happen. One astonishing thing that did happen, however, was we saw a single meteor light up the clouds. The meteor was part of the Quadrantids meteor shower that we were there to observe.
Hours spent observing: .5x2=1
Hours spent observing: .5x2=1
Friday, March 21, 2014
APOD 3.8
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| From base to summit, El Capitan is just about 3,000 feet tall. This famous granite mountain is located in Yosemite National Park, a place that I long to visit one day. In the background you can see the trails of circumpolar stars, airplane navigation, and a climbing team. The climbing team reaching the summit is ascending along a climbing route known as The Nose. This route is apparently known for its rigor and danger. Being the adrenaline junkie that I am, maybe one day I will tackle The Nose myself. |
APOD 3.7
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| The Rosette Nebula, pictured above, is on of the most beautiful celestial objects I have ever seen. This image of it was taken using multiple long exposures of very specific colors of Sulfur (red), Hydrogen (green), and Oxygen (blue). The combination of the pictures gives us a magnificent blend of purples, oranges, and yellows. The Rosette Nebula is relatively young, being only a few million years old. It is measured to be over 50 light years across and about 4,500 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros (Unicorn). This APOD stuck out to me, not only because of its beauty, but on today's Constellation Quiz, Monoceros was one of the constellations we had to know. |
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
APOD 3.6
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| For today's APOD we have a picture of Saturn. If this is Saturn, you may ask, where are the rings? Well, the thin blue line that runs horizontally across the picture is the rings. The Cassini spacecraft that is orbiting the ringed planet crosses the ring plane frequently, so these kinds of photographs are not too rare. A photograph of this same thing that may be rare, is one where the Earth crosses the Saturn's ring plane. In 1612, when this happened, the planet's "appendages" just appeared to just disappear. Even the great astronomer Galileo had no idea what happened to the peculiar protrusions we now know are rings. The rings are so thin (besides the moons that appear as blue bumps in the rings in the picture) that when they are seen edge on, they can not be seen. They are confined to a plane much thinner that of a razor blade, which is in part why I chose this photograph. It amazes me how thin the rings of Saturn actually are. I first thought that the rings were made up much larger material, maybe the size of baseballs. But it turns out that I was very wrong. |
APOD 3.5
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| This odd looking dust cloud formation lies 1,500 light years away in the Orion B molecular cloud complex. This Young Stellar Object (YSO), otherwise known as a protostar, is forming a particle beam containing electrons and protons that are being jetted out of the protostar at hundreds of kilometers a second. This occurrence happens frequently, but is rarely viewed by astronomers because this stage in star formation only lasts a few thousand years. Since star formation was a topic which we just concluded in class, I figured I should use this as a benchmark for the end of the chapter. |
Thursday, March 6, 2014
James Keeler Biography
James Edward Keeler was an American astronomer born September 10, 1857 in La Salle, Illinois. As a child he attended public school until him and his family moved to Mayport, Florida in 1869 where he continued schooling at home. Before moving, he viewed a solar eclipse that swept across the nation. This astronomical phenomena had a substantial influence on James and his interests. When he moved to Florida he began surveying the night sky with his father and even built his own telescope which only made his interest in astronomy grow. When it came time to apply to university, Keeler was not accepted to either Harvard or Yale but he was accepted to Johns Hopkins University. There he majored in physics and German, but only minored in astronomy. He immediately jumped into the astronomy world after graduating, working at Lick Observatory in San Jose, California in 1888. While there, Keeler made observations of the corona of the sun and how animals react to the sudden darkness. His most important observation was that of the gap in Saturn's rings. He was actually the first to observe this gap, even before Johann Encke whom the gap is currently named after. The second major gap in the A Ring, discovered by Voyager, was named the Keeler Gap in his honor. Keller left San Jose for Pittsburgh because he was appointed as the director of Allegheny Observatory in 1891. It was there that he furthered his study of Saturn's rings, discovering that different parts of the rings reflect light with different Doppler shifts, due to their varied rates of orbit around the planet. This supported the belief that the rings are made up of many small objects, each orbiting at its own speed. Keeler returned to Lick Observatory as its director in 1898. From 1898 to 1900 he took many photographs of nebulae and clusters using the observatories 36-inch reflector telescope, discovered two asteroids, was awarded the Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences, and was elected president of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. James Edward Keeler died at the age of 42 on August 12, 1900 in San Francisco, California after suffering from two strokes. He left a widow, a daughter, and a son who followed in his footsteps.
After his untimely death, his colleagues compiled all of his photographs of nebulae and published them. Also, one of the asteroids that he discovered was named after him (asteroid 2261 Keeler) along with craters on Mars and the Moon. His Astrophysical Journal which he founded with George Hale remains a major journal of astronomy today, containing information regarding almost every discovered object in space. Now, his ashes rest in a crypt at the base of the Keeler Memorial telescope at the Allegheny Observatory where he is immortalized.
APOD 3.4
For today's APOD, I decided to change it up a bit. If you click on the link above, it will take you to a very cool interactive flash animation that lets you see how things scale in size compared to the known universe. At the beginning of your virtual journey, you start at a ten meter scale either increasing or decreasing by powers of ten. Some of you may have seen the classic Powers of Ten video, which is very similar to this. The animation takes you all the down to 10 to the negative 35th power (one Plancke Length) and all the way up to 10 to the 27th power (the size of the observable universe). On the journey you will see things in space that you may know of such as Halley's Comet, Io, Vega, the Horsehead Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy, and other such interstellar objects. I thought I should select this because it puts everything in perspective for how immense the universe is and how we as humans scale to it.
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