Observations

Visual Magnitude Estimates Exercise
Date: 4/28/10
Time: 9-10 PM
Location: Venice
Conditions: Clear, some clouds in West
Observations:
Eta Ursa Majoris: 1.9
Beta Leonis: 2.3
Gamma Leonis: 2.1
Zeta Leonis: 3.5
Lambda Leonis: couldn't see it
Epsilon Virginis: 2.7
Eta Virginis: couldn't see it
epsilon Corvi: 3.1
Epsilon Bootis: 2.6
Beta Bootis: 3.6

Date: May 1
Time: 8:10-8:50
Location: Venice
Conditions: Clear, still a little light near horizon
Observations:
Venus low in West near Aldebaran, both around 10 degrees high
Orion: low in West, can see Betelgeuse but not Rigel, which is blocked by trees
Canis Major: In SW, Sirius easily visible
Auriga: In WNW, Capella blocked by a small cloud, about 25 degrees high
Ursa Minor: Polaris and two other stars visible in N, Polaris is about 25 degrees high
Ursa Major: could see 5 of 7 main stars in Big Dipper
Castor and Pollux visible high in the West
Procyon: about 40 degrees high WSW
Mars: about 65 degrees high in the W, reddish tint, bright very close to Regulus
Saturn: about 60 degrees high in the SE

Date: May 15
Location: Venice
Conditions: partly cloudy
Time: 8:45-9:45
Mars: Bright and red in the west, about 55 degrees high
Regulus/Leo: about 60 degrees WSW, bright. can see general shape of Leo
Saturn: about 65 degrees high in the South, in Virgo
Arcturus: found by using arc of Ursa Major, about 55 degrees in the East
Spica: about 45 degrees in SSE, found by moving from Arcturus to Spica. Could see other stars around Spica but couldn't make out Virgo
Ursa Major: could see all 7 stars in big dipper, could see overall structure of bear
Hercules: could easily see keystone in ENE about 35 degrees high
Procyon:low in West, about 10 degrees high, hardly visible
Castor and Pollux: about 25 degrees high WNW, couldn't see all of Gemini because it was too low
Ursa Minor: could see 4 stars in little dipper

Date: May 22
Time: 9:05-10:05
Conditions: Clear
Location: Venice
Observations:
Moon: Waxing Gibbous, about 55 degrees SSW, could see a lot of lunar surface features
Saturn: SSW about 65 degrees, only about 10 degrees separating the moon and saturn. in Virgo, used binoculars and could see very faint line that appeared to be rings.
Spica: about 50 degrees high in the South
Mars: red and bright, about 40 degrees high in the West
Arcturus: almost directly overhead, by far the brightest star in surrounding area.
Regulus: about 5 degree separation with Mars, about 45 degrees high, a little south of west
Procyon: just visible over the horizon in the West, only star visible in Canis Minor
Castor and Pollux: WNW about 25 degrees high
Polaris: about 25 degrees in the North, could see 2 other stars in Ursa Minor
Vega: was very low when first started observing, by end of observation time it was about 25 degrees high in the NE
Deneb: In NE, could hardly see it because it was so low
Alberio: ENE, about 10 degrees high
Summer Triangle: could easily see Vega, barely see Deneb, could not see Altair
Northern Cross: could see Deneb, Alberio, and one other star. the others were either too low or too dim.

APOD 4.8 Station and Shuttle Transit the Sun

In this image, there are two small dark spots on the sun. However, they aren't sun spots. They are actually the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Atlantis transiting the Sun. The bigger object is the ISS and the smaller one is Atlantis. The ISS and Space Shuttles are often seen streaking across the sky together during the night, but it is much rarer to see images of the two objects on the disk of the Sun. The two objects are orbiting about 350 kilometers above the Earth's surface. This image was taken about 50 minutes before the shuttle docked with the space station and this mission should be Atlantis' last mission.

Apod 4.7 Tentacles of the Tarantula Nebula

The Tarantula Nebula is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud and is the largest, most violent region of star formation in the Local Group of Galaxies. It is also known as 30 Doradus. It is an emission nebula, indicated by its red and pink coloring which is caused by the Hydrogen Alpha line radiation. Supernova remnants and dark nebula also exist there. The brightest region, which is just left of center is called R136 and contains many of the most massive, hottest, and brightest stars known. This star forming region would take up half of our sky if it were at the distance of the Orion Nebula. This is the most detailed image of this region ever taken.

Apod 4.6 Iguaçu Starry Night

This image was taken at the Iguacu Falls National Park on the border of Brazil and Argentina in the Southern Hemisphere. Many prominent objects are visible in the night sky and in this image, including Alpha Centauri, Beta Centauri, the Coalsack, the Southern Cross, both Magellanic Clouds, the Carina Nebula, Sirius, and Canopus. From our location, only Sirius and Canopus are visible in the constellations Canis Major and Carina, respectively. It is nice to see this image because we have also studied Alpha and Beta Centauri, and both Magellanic Clouds, but have so far not been able to see them in the sky because our latitude is too high in the Northern Hemisphere. Another intriguing feature is the influence of light on the picture coming from Argentina's Iguazú Falls International Airport. The center of the image is very bright from the light coming from the airport, so either the airport must be very close and/or very bright. I didn't realize an airport could cause that much light and affect a region of the sky that is so large.

Apod 4.5 The Antennae

This image parallels with our study of galaxy interactions. This image shows two galaxies colliding in the constellation Corvus, some 60 million light years away. Their collision has triggered rapid star formation near the center of the collision. One of the most interesting features of the image is the presence of two tails extending from opposite sides of the collision. They were created by matter being flung from the scene of the collision by gravitational tidal forces. These two streaks give the constellation its name, The Antennae.

Interacting Galaxies

http://hyakutake1957.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/colliding-galaxies.png
http://cosmology.net/images/Collidinggalaxies5678.jpg
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/images/061019-galaxies_big.jpg
http://www.spacedaily.com/images/supernova-discovered-pair-colliding-galaxies-antennae-bg.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3614/3490531897_6426a8d0e7.jpg
http://www.foxnews.com/images/366647/0_21_galaxies_hubble_6.jpg
http://talklikeaphysicist.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/collidinggalaxy-1.jpg
http://physics.uwyo.edu/~stark/outreach/galaxy/colliding/
http://www.twinlitworlds.com/hubble/pix/jpgsfull/collision.jpg
http://mainland.cctt.org/biolab/images/Colliding_Galaxies_HST_Gif.gif
http://www.noao.edu/gateway/intergal2.gif
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3628/3462762896_e4fdd54774.jpg
http://www.spacedaily.com/images/arp-87-pair-interacting-galaxies-bg.jpg
http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/images/d5/vv150b.jpg
http://www.etsu.edu/physics/wars/arp107.jpg
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_kids/learn_sirtf/images/interacting.gif
http://astro.uchicago.edu/~grodnick/gallery/galaxies/m51-irg_hogg.jpg
http://housefly.astro.princeton.edu/~rhl/PrettyPictures/M51-4x4.jpg

Apod 4.4 The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from the Deep Ocean

This picture is a visual representation of the Bloop, which was a sound recorded in the Pacific Ocean in 1997 using deep sea microphones that had been spy microphones in World War 2. In the graph, time is shown on the horizontal axis, deep pitch is shown on the vertical axis, and brightness designates loudness. It is the loudest sound ever recorded in an ocean at over 150 decibels and was audible 5,000 kilometers away and by two different microphones that were over 3000 miles apart from one another. The sound is similar to that of a blue whale, but the blue whale isn't large enough to create such a monstrous sound. Two potential explanations are that there could be a gigantic life form at the bottom of the ocean that we have yet to discover, such as a prehistoric animal that survived through the extinction periods, or that an iceberg calving, an undersea earthquake, or an undersea volcano caused the noise. Since the bloop was recorded, no other bloops have been heard.

Astronomy Cast Ep. 177: Mysteries of the Milky Way, Part 2

How many spiral arms does the Milky Way have?:
There are man different types of spiral galaxies, from normal and barred, to even smaller classifications in each broader group. The arms are caused by density waves moving through the Galaxy. When you look at the galaxy in different wavelengths, you get different data on how many arms there are. Therefore, blue light was selected as a constant of observation. In blue light, the Milky Way appears to have 2 spiral arms.
Sibling Stars: Did other stars form in our solar nebula? What happened to them?
Everything starts out bound together in a star forming region. Over time, the star-forming region stretches out and the sibling stars start to separate. The best way to match with siblings is to match the Sun's composition with other stars'. Unfortunately, non-sibling stars can match as well.
Mass-extinctions:
Seem to trend every 60 million years. Are we due?
When the solar system goes through the Galaxy's disk, it goes through areas of high and low density, we become susceptible to cosmic rays and higher asteroid rates in the high density areas.
G-dwarfs: dwarf stars in the G part of the H-R diagram. They should be more abundant than large stars, but aren't. Why?
There should be a group of stars formed right after the Big Bang that are almost purely hydrogen and helium, but we haven't found a single one yet. They are called Population 3 stars. One explanation is that without the presence of metals, only giant stars could form out of pure hydrogen and helium. The other solution is that the first stars were so giant that they lived and died before any small stars could form. This prevents any G dwarves from forming, and therefore nothing that formed before the first generation of supernovae is capable of still being alive today because the supernova polluted space with metals.
Where are the intermediate mass black holes? We've found stellar mass and supermassive black holes, but only a couple of intermediate size black holes in the whole galaxy. We don't have enough evidence currently to have any real plausible conclusions.

Astronomy Cast Ep. 176: Mysteries of the Milky Way, Part 1

There are many mysteries in our galaxy that have puzzled astronomers for many years.
Blue stragglers are stars in globular clusters that are not old and neither off of the main sequence nor are red dwarfs. These stars are high mass blue stars on the main sequence that are well above the main-sequence turn off. These stars shouldn't last more than a few millions years, but they are part of clusters that are billions of years old. One theory is that these stars formed later, but this idea does not fit our models of the universe. The other idea is that two stars collided and formed one big, bright, blue star. The two star could also be members of a binary that merged or have had mass-transfers.
Supernovae are supposed to occur every century, however our Milky Way Galaxy has not produced a supernovae since 1680. Dust clouds could have possibly blocked our sight of some of these supernovae.
Another question is whether the Magellanic Clouds are satellite galaxies or not. Due to the presence and uncertainty of dark matter, calculations are not certain about whether the galaxies are related to our own or not. Depending on calculations, the two galaxies could either be unattached and zipping past us, or could be gravitationally bound together around the Milky Way.
Proxima Centauri is believed to be part of the Alpha Centauri system, but it could also be just very close to Alpha Centauri A+B. Alpha Centauri's stars have the same composition, but Proxima Centauri has a different composition. Also, Proxima Centauri is at the farthest point in its projected orbit, so it is uncertain whether Proxima Centauri is connected to Alpha Centauri or not.
Eta Carina is a massive object in the constellation Carina. Eta Carina had a "false nova event" in 1843. Other stars that have gone through this turned into supernovas. Therefore, we could see a supernova from Eta Carina very soon.

David Levy Biography

Kenny Smith
Mr. Percival
Pd. 00
30 Apr. 2010
David Levy
David Levy is a Canadian astronomer who was born in 1948. He married Wendee Wallach-Levy on March 23rd, 1997. He has attended a multitude of universities, including McGill University, Acadia University, Queen’s University, University of Arizona, the University of Tampa, and Hebrew University, where he just in the last few months finished studying and earned a doctorate. Levy has discovered 22 comets, including Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which impacted Jupiter. Levy is also a prolific author and has made a big impact on recent astronomy.
David Levy’s biggest impact on astronomy has come through the study of comets. He ranks third in history in the amount of comets discovered by one person. Altogether, he has discovered twenty-two comets, including nine in his own backyard. The other comets he discovered as part of a team composed of himself, his wife, and Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker. He even aided in the discovery of two other comets, although he is not given credit as one of the discoverers. Levy is the first person to ever discover comets using three different methods: visual, photographic, and electronic observations.
Although Levy is most famous for his numerous discoveries of comets, he has also found many asteroids. His first asteroid discovery was that of asteroid 5261 Eureka. This asteroid was not only the first asteroid Levy discovered, but was also the first Martian Trojan asteroid ever discovered. The Trojan asteroids share Mars’ orbit, so Levy can indirectly be credited with leading to the discovery of all of the Martian Trojan asteroids that we know of today. Together, with Tom Glinos and his wife Wendee, David Levy has discovered over 60 asteroids.
Levy’s most famous discovery was that of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. Shoemaker-Levy 9 was a periodic comet, meaning that its orbital period was 200 years or less. The comet was discovered in 1993 at the Palomar Observatory in California. The comet was the first comet to ever be discovered orbiting a planet instead of the Sun. It is believed that about twenty to thirty years prior to its discovery it had approached too close to Jupiter and had been captured by the gas giant. When the comet was discovered, it had an odd shape that could only be explained by a close encounter with Jupiter in which Jupiter’s tidal forces pulled the comet apart. As astronomers continued to study the comet, it was concluded that the comet would collide with Jupiter in July of 1994. This would be the first collision ever visually observed between two objects in our solar system or in space. Astronomers were ecstatic over the possibility of being able to see deeper into the atmosphere of Jupiter. The collisions occurred on the side of Jupiter invisible to Earth, but the collision sites were visible moments after the impact due to Jupiter’s fast rotation rate. Overall, 21 distinct impacts were observed over a six day period and the collisions formed dark, round spots that were as easy to see as the Great Red Spot and that stayed visible for months after the impacts. The discovery and subsequent impact of the comet shot Levy into instant stardom. He became a household name for several years and was bombarded with requests to do interviews for all of the major television networks.
Levy currently hosts his own radio talk show on astronomy, has written 35 books on a multitude of subjects, mostly on astronomy, is the President of the National Sharing of the Sky Foundation, and is part of the Jarnac Comet Survey in Vail, Arizona. He has received numerous awards for his many astronomical achievements, but he will be forever known for his greatest accomplishment, the discovery of Shoemaker-Levy 9.

Works Cited
"About David." Welcome. 2004. Web. 30 Apr. 2010. .
Arnett, Bill. "SL9." The Nine Planets Solar System Tour. 24 July 1997. Web. 30 Apr. 2010. .
“David H. Levy.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Onlne. 29 Apr. 2010 < http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/338050/David-H-Levy>.

APOD 4.3 Ash and Lightning Above an Icelandic Volcano

The recent volcanic explosions in Iceland have created so much as that they have cancelled flights across Europe. The ash and dust has drifted across Europe and engulfed the whole continent. The ash is still thick that many planes are still left grounded. But what created so much ash? The Eyjafjallajökull volcano in southern Iceland began erupting on March 20, with a second eruption starting under the center of a small glacier on April 14. Neither eruption was particularly powerful, but the second explosion melted a glacier that fragmented lava after it cooled and the lava pieces were carried up with the rising volcanic plume.

APOD 4.2 Spitzer's Orion

The Orion Nebula, M42, is a star forming region some 4o light years across. It is 1500 light years away and is visible in the constellation Orion. The young stars in the nebula experience fluctuations in brightness and the Spitzer Space Telescope is keeping tabs on the young stars. One of the causes for the aforementioned changes in brightness is the presence of dusty, planet forming disks, which can pass between our point of view and the star's light, thus affecting the amount of light that reaches us. The brightest stars in the nebula are part of the Trapezium cluster and all of the stars in the nebula are only about 1 million years old, compared to our sun's age of 4.6 billion years. The image was taken in false color that was caused by the absence of Spitzer's liquid coolant, which ran out in 2009.

Observations

Date: 4/6/10
Time: 8:30-8:40
Location: Venice, FL
Conditions: Dark, Clear
Observations:
Venus: 10 Degrees high in the West
Brightest whole object in the whole sky.
Flickering a little.
Consistent white color
Mercury: 8 degrees high in between the West and WNW
Very faint, to the right of Venus and down a few degrees
Flickering a lot
Color changing between red and white\
**About 3 degrees of separation between the two objects.

Date: 4/7/10
Time: 8:15-8:25
Location: Venice, FL
Conditions: just passed sunset, still fairly bright near the horizon, only about 10 objects visible in total.
Observations:
Venus: 12 degrees high in the West
Very Bright
Mercury:
about 10 degrees high in the West between W and WNW
Sun still not set, so its even fainter than when observed at darker hours. Just barely visible, occasionally escaping from view for a split second because it was so dim.
*** Again about 3 degrees separation between the two objects.

APOD 4.1 Venus and Mercury in the West

All around the world, Venus and Mercury are very close together in the western sky. These two planets have just passed conjunction and are starting to slowly grow apart. The two planets will remain almost as close together as they were at conjunction for a few days, before quickly separating as Mercury plummets to the horizon. This conjunction is ideal for observations of Mercury. Mercury is often hard to identify because it is very faint. Often, the Sun's glare prevents us from seeing the closest planet to the Sun. Even when not obstructed by the Sun, Mercury is faint and hard to identify if you do not look at the sky often enough. However, with Venus' close approach, it is very easy to tell which object Mercury is. Venus is by far the brightest object in the night sky and is very easy to identify low in the west. At our latitude, the best viewing is about 30 minutes after sunset. At this point in time, both Venus and Mercury are fairly bright and easily visible.

APOD 3.8 Detailed View of a Solar Eclipse Corona

During a solar eclipse, the solar corona, the sun's outer atmosphere, is visible. This faint, thin outer layer is not bright enough to be seen on a normal day, only during a solar eclipse. Its not that the corona is not bright, its just that the photosphere, the part of the sun that we see (the surface), is so much brighter than the corona that it overwhelms it and the corona is not visible. The intricate structure of the corona is easy to see with the naked eye, but when it is photographed, the structure is incredibly hard to capture. During the 2008 solar eclipse in Mongolia, this image was taken. This picture is a composite of many images and digital processing. You can easily see layers and the glowing caustics of an ever changing mixture of hot gas and magnetic fields. You can see the shape of the magnetic fields above small pink solar prominences.

Apod 3.7 Yukon Aurora with Star Trails

This image captures, in my opinion, two of the coolest features in the night sky: star trails and auroras. Star trails are created when a camera is attached to a tripod and the camera is left with an open exposure. The camera is centered on the north star, Polaris. As the Earth rotates, the stars slowly traverse the sky surrounding Polaris and when viewed in the camera, you can see the path of the star from the start of the image to the end of it. Auroras occur when reactions between charged particles from the sun and the magnetosphere send particles to the pole, where they interact with the atmosphere, creating colored streaks across the sky. Auroras occur mostly at high latitudes. In areas of high latitude, auroras often occur around the equinoxes. Both the spring and fall equinoxes offer excellent times to see auroras in these high latitude regions. In order to capture both the star trails and the aurora, many short exposure images were combined together to create the star trails so that the aurora could be captured as well.

Astronomy Night

Date: 3/6/2010
Time: 6:40-9:25
Location: Pine View School
Sky Conditions: exceptionally clear, very dark
Observations:
Helped to operate three different telescopes:
1. Operated a telescope directed towards M42. I explained that M42 is located in Orion in Orion's sword and is called the Orion Nebula. I explained how the three bright stars visible are called the Trapezium and provide the energy needed to excite the atoms in the gas cloud surrounding the stars, and that this excitation allows you to see the nebulosity.
2. I helped run the telescope pointed at Saturn. You could easily see the planet and its beautiful rings, and I informed people that you could also see two of Saturn's moons.
3. I also ran the telescope pointed at the binary pair of Rigel. I explained how the brighter star and the less luminous white dwarf are locked in orbit around each other but that the white dwarf is much smaller, so the light it gives off is much harder to see in comparison to that given off by Rigel. I also told people where the white dwarf was located (lower right of Rigel) in case they could not find it.
Also helped setup a few telescopes

Apod 3.6 Exceptional Rocket Waves Destroy Sun Dog

The Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, designed to perpetually observe the sun, launched a few weeks ago. The blurry image of the rocket which carried SDO can be seen near the center of this image, surrounded by unexplained shock waves. There has been much debate over the origin of these ripples and the leading hypothesis is that they were caused by a sonic boom that occurred when the shuttle broke the sound barrier. Also to the right of the image is a sun dog. Sun dogs are extra images of the Sun caused by falling ice-crystals in the Earth's atmosphere. After the ripples had passed, the sun dog disappeared. When the waves hit the ice crystals, they were rearranged, thus destroying the sun dog. It is still under question why other rockets do not produce as noticeable shock waves.

Quarter 3 Biography Percival Lowell

Kenny Smith
Mr. Percival
Pd. 00
2/26/10
Percival Lowell
Percival Lowell was born on March 13th, 1855 in Boston, Massachusetts. He came from a family that produced many famous minds and personalities. He graduated from Harvard University in 1876. Before he decided to pursue a career in astronomy in 1893, he had served in many different fields, including foreign relations and affairs. In 1877, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli had studied an opposition of Mars and he had found what looked like canals engraved into the Martian surface. These observations intrigued Percival Lowell and led him to start a career in astronomy.
Percival Lowell wanted to have the best viewing conditions possible for his observation of Mars at opposition. He wanted to see if Schiaparelli’s canals really did exist. Lowell conducted research and, with a hint from fellow astronomer W. H. Pickering, decided that Arizona would be the best place for his research. The site that he picked was just west of Flagstaff and was situated at an altitude of seven thousand plus feet. Lowell established the Lowell Observatory in this spot. From 1896-1897 he moved the observatory to a site in Mexico, but he soon realized that Arizona had a better viewing ability. Lowell was able to make what he believed to be clear observations of Mars, but his findings were eventually proven wrong. Percival Lowell’s decision to set up an observatory in an area of excellent seeing ability produced great results and inspired other astronomers to do the same. Nowadays, these types of observatories that are far from the light and smog of cities are by far the majority.
Lowell’s observations of Mars led him to formulate a hypothesis about intelligent life on the planet Mars. Percival Lowell believed that a civilization was trying to survive on a dying Mars. He believed that this alternative life form had built canals that went to the polar caps. Lowell presumed that these caps melted annually. Once the caps started to melt, the canals would fill with water and irrigate the crops that were keeping the civilization alive. Lowell observed dark spots on the Martian surface, which he credited to fertilized crops that he called “oases”. Lowell observed an ongoing darkening from poles to the equator as the seasons advanced from winter. This corresponded with his idea about vegetation and the release of water from the polar caps. Lowell started making drawings of the images he saw in his telescopes and released three books containing his findings. His work was highly criticized by his fellow astronomers but the public latched on to his ideas. Lowell’s ideas were largely discredited and were finally proved wrong when Mariner 4 took the first pictures of the Martian surface in 1965.
After his obsession with Mars, Lowell moved on to other planets. While studying Uranus, he discovered a discrepancy in Uranus’ orbit that is not fully accounted for by the pull of Neptune’s orbit. Therefore, Lowell deduced that a “Planet X” must exist beyond the orbit of Neptune. Lowell continually searched and photographed regions of the sky where he expected the new planet to be located. He died in 1916 before he could find the elusive planet. Then, in 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered the mysterious Planet X. This planet was named Pluto and its planetary symbol, a P with the base of an L, is meant to represent not only the first two letters of Pluto, but also Percival Lowell’s initials. Pluto was much fainter and smaller than expected because the discrepancy did not actually exist. The discrepancy was caused by a miscalculation of Neptune’s mass and affected the numbers Lowell used in his calculations.
Lowell also spent time making observations of the other planets in the Solar System, but compared to the time he spent looking for Pluto and observing Mars, these planets did not receive as much attention. Lowell was a daring astronomer who made bold predictions that could have shocked the world. Unfortunately for Lowell, most of his predictions were eventually discredited. If his predictions had come true and if he himself had discovered Pluto, Lowell would most likely be the most famous astronomer to have ever lived. His main legacy is in the realm of observing, for he was the first real pioneer of having good seeing to be able to make accurate observations.
Works Cited:
"Lowell, Percival." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 8. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. 520-523. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 25 Feb. 2010.
"Lowell, Percival (1855-1916)." The Worlds of David Darling. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. .
"Percival Lowell." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 25 Feb. 2010 .
"Percival Lowell." Lowell Observatory. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. .

APOD 3.5 Cassini Spacecraft Crosses Saturn's Ring Plane

The Cassini Spacecraft that orbits Saturn has recently taken an image of Saturn's rings edge on. The rings seem to disappear in the image because their width is so small. The rings have a diameter of over 250,000 kilometers, but they are only one kilometer thick. The disappearance of the rings occurs on Earth every 15 years as the rings and our Earth are edge-on. This particular image was taken in February 2005 when the Cassini orbiter was in direct line with the rings. The image uses false colors so you can easily see the rings. In the rings, you can see small bumps that are actually small moons orbiting in the plane of the rings and some of them actually orbit inside of the rings. The shadow of the rings can be seen reflected on the "surface" of Saturn. These shadows can not be seen today due to Saturn's position in its orbit.

Astronomy Cast Ep. 108: The Life of the Sun

The sun formed 4.6 billion years ago. A giant cloud of gas and dust (nebula) started to contract and formed many young stars. The nebula was cold, which allowed it to collapse. If it was hot, it would not have been able to condense. The sun started out 10 times brighter than it is now. As the sun continued to contract it got fainter and fainter. At first, the sun was just a glowing ball of hydrogen and helium and eventually reached a time when it could start fusion. This is the protostar stage. In the life of the sun, it represents a very small chunk. The sun then settled into a main-sequence star, which it is now. When the Sun first became main-sequence, it was a little hotter than it is now, but it has been mostly constant. Slowly, the sun is starting to get warmer and warmer (over millions of years). Currently, the sun appears to be in a slight cooling stage. The sun will most likely stay main-sequence for another 5 billion years. The Earth is about half way through its life right now. When the sun nears the end of its life, it will get hotter and will evaporate the oceans. In about 5 billion years, the sun will start to run out of hydrogen for fusion and will start to contract. Once the sun collapses, a shell of hydrogen surrounding a helium core will ignite. This phase is the red giant phase. As the sun continues to collapse, pressure from the weight of the material causes the core temperature to continue to rise. Once the core temperature reaches 10^8 degrees, the helium core ignites, otherwise known as a helium flash. The Sun is now a Horizontal Branch Star or the sub-giant phase. The sun now begins to bloat and drop in luminosity. Eventually, all the helium runs out. The star collapses and forms a carbon-cored star surrounded by a shell of burning hydrogen and helium. The Sun is now AGAIN a red giant. The sun could also become a variable star, where the sun pulsates and has a variable luminosity. If the sun does become a variable star, it would be a Mira variable. The sun's atmosphere now reaches to the orbit of Earth. Some of the outer layers are so far away that they can actually be released into space. The sun is now only 4,000 K and the star is red, but the star is so much larger that it has a larger luminosity. The sun spends almost all of its life as main-sequence, and the other stages occur over a combined couple hundred millions of years. When the Sun starts to expel its atmosphere, a planetary nebula will form. The sun starts to run out of energy. All hydrogen and helium burning stop and the atmosphere drift away. The Sun enters the Degenerate Gas Phase, where the helium and hydrogen are packed into a sphere, forming a white dwarf. Although no fusion is occurring, the Sun is still hot. It is releasing heat as it cools to oblivion. The planetary nebula blends in with the surrounding interstellar medium and the dwarf cools to the temperature of space. The sun is now a black dwarf or cold white dwarf. As the sun loses mass, the planets' orbits will expand and the Earth will actually survive the changing phases.

I was amazed by the life our Sun will endure in the future. The constant changing that will occur over such a short period of time after a long life of little variability is truly amazing. It would truly be interesting to see the sun change and see its impact on the surrounding planets. I've learned a lot from this podcast that I previously did not have a clue about and the evolution of stars is incredible.

Astronomy Cast Ep. 160- Eclipses

Eclipses occur when one object passes between two objects in the line of sight and blocks the light given off by one object. Transits are when small things cross a larger but don't completely block all of the light. Occultation is when something in our solar system blocks the light from an object in another solar system. All are forms of eclipses. Eclipses don't happen every month because the moon's orbit is inclined. Solar Eclipses occur at new moon at certain times during the year. The moon is at the exact right distance to have full eclipses. Since the moon's orbit is elliptical, annular eclipses can occur because the moon's angular size is not large enough to completely block out the light of the sun. The changing distances between the moon, Earth, and Sun affect the kind of eclipse that occurs (annular or full). Hybrid eclipses are when some areas see annular eclipses, and some see full eclipses. You have to be in the shadow to see the solar eclipse, while anyone on Earth can see a lunar eclipse. Lunar eclipses occur during full moon. The light we see on the lunar surface during a lunar eclipse is caused by light being refracted by our atmosphere. Lunar eclipses can either occur in the lighter penumbra or darker umbra. Transits of Venus and Mercury can be seen across the sun, and transits of Jupiter's moons across Jupiter can also be seen (and other moon/planet systems). On Jupiter, these transits appear as solar eclipses. We can use transits to calculate the distance between the Earth, Venus and the Sun. This uses trigonometry be using the Earth's diameter as one side of a triangle, the distance as another, and the location of a planet on the sun's disk from different latitudes to create an angle. Pinhole cameras create an image of the eclipse on the ground. Use filters until totality, then you can watch the totality with the naked eye. A lunar eclipse requires no safety precautions. When extrasolar planets travel in front of a star, we can make measurements about the stars and planets because of the variability in light. Thus, we can discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars.

Although I already knew most of the information presented in the telecast, it was very informative and i still learned a great deal about the workings of eclipses. Each minute was very informative to me as an astronomy student.

Apod 3.4 Night Launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour

On February 8th at 4:14 A.M., the space shuttle Endeavor launched from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The mission is headed towards the International Space Station. The launch was originally scheduled for the night before, February 7th, but it was scrubbed minutes before its expected launch time. The mission will deliver the Tranquility module to the ISS. Tranquility will create more room for the astronauts in the ISS and has a large, circular window that will provide enhanced views of space. In this image, you can see large exhaust plumes billowing out of the bottom of the rockets. This night launch is the last night launch for the Space Shuttle program, which will end later on in this year. Only a few more daytime launches are left before the conclusion of this program.

Apod 3.3 P/2010 A2: Unusual Asteroid Tail Implies Powerful Collision

This unusual object was discovered in January by the ground-based LINEAR laboratory. Its unusual shape led to the Hubble Telescope's observation of the object last week. The object appears to be a comet due to its tail, but its 140 meter nucleus is off center, the tail does not appear to be composed of gas, and the structure around the nucleus is different than what normally appears in a comet. Scientists believe that the object formed from the collision of two small asteroids in the asteroid belt. The collision likely occurred at over 15,000 kilometers per hour and then pressure from the sun spread out the debris to form into a comet-like tail. Study of this comet is expected to help increase our understanding of the early solar system because it is believed that similar collisions occurred during the formation of the solar system.

APOD 3.2 Eclipses in the Shade

On January 15th, the longest annular solar eclipse that will occur for the next 1,00o years appeared over Africa and Asia. This particular image was taken in Ellaidhoo, Maldives, which is an atoll island in the Indian Ocean. Annular eclipses occur when the sun and moon are exactly in line but the apparent size of the moon is smaller than that of the Sun. This particular eclipse lasted 10 minutes and 55 seconds. The image displays little images of the eclipse scattered across the sand. The crossed leaves of palm trees created gaps that acted like pinhole cameras. Pinhole cameras consist of a hole that creates an image of the outside space on the opposite side of the box. Because of this effect, you can see lots of tiny images of the eclipse all over the background of the sand.

APOD 3.1 Dark Sand Cascades on Mars

This photograph taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows what appears to be small trees on the surface of Mars. The features in the picture were captured near the North Pole of Mars, which is covered in frozen carbon dioxide. As Spring approached, the carbon dioxide ice started to melt, which made the dark sand on the interior of the Martian sand dunes more visible. When the sand is near the top of the dune, it is common for the sand to streak down the side of the dune and leave dark streaks. These streaks are what many people confuse with trees. The streaks appear to be trees in front of the lighter regions of sand that cast no shadows. When the image was enlarged, it was discovered that the sand slides were occurring while the picture was being taken.

Observations

Date: 1/14/10

Location: Venice, Fl

Conditions: cloudy

Time: 8:30-9:00

Observations:

Mars: about 15 degrees ENE

Sirius: about 25 degrees high in the S, blue, extremely bright, twinkling

Procyon: about 25 degrees high in the East, twinkling a lot

Castor and Pollux: about 35 degrees high ENE

Capella: about 60 degrees NE

Algol: 75 degrees N

Mira: about 55 degrees SW

Orion: SE, about 50 degrees high, Betelgeuse and Rigel very bright

Aldebaran: about 70 degrees ESE

Great Square of Pegasus: 35 degrees high in the West, very bright,

Cassiopeia: could see the M of the constellation, a few other stars of the constellation, about 45 degrees NNW

Pleiades: straight up, very blue

Polaris: North, about 30 degrees, could see bottom stars of little dipper at about 10 degrees N

Could see tip of Phoenix in SSW

Cepheus: 30 degrees NNW

Perseus: about 70 degrees NNW, double cluster could be easily seen

Could see heads of Pisces and Cetus next to Great Square of Pegasus

Observations

Date: 1/13/10

Location: Venice, Fl

Conditions: clear

Time: 8:15-8:45

Observations:

Mars: about 10 degrees ENE, very red

Jupiter: not visible

Sirius: about 25 degrees high in the S, blue, extremely bright

Procyon: about 25 degrees high in the East, no bright stars surrounding it

Castor and Pollux: about 35 degrees high ENE

Capella: about 60 degrees NNE

Algol: 80 degrees N

Orion: SE, about 45 degrees high, all main stars visible except those of the sword

Aldebaran: about 70 degrees ESE

Great Square of Pegasus: 45 degrees high in the West, very bright, used as guide to find andromeda galaxy at about 50 degrees WNW

Cassiopeia: could see the M of the constellation, a few other stars of the constellation at about 50 degrees NNW

Pleiades: about 80 degrees ESE, very blue and bright

Deneb: about 10 degrees NW, no other stars of summer triangle or northern cross visible Polaris: North, about 30 degrees, could see bottom stars of little dipper at about 10 degrees N

Observations

Date: 1/12/10

Location: Venice, Fl

Conditions: partly cloudy

Time: 8:00-8:30

Observations:

Mars: not visible

Jupiter: about 10 degrees WSW

Sirius: about 20 degrees high in the S, blue, extremely bright, twinkling a lot

Procyon: about 20 degrees high in the East

Castor and Pollux: about 30 degrees high ENE

Capella: about 55 degrees NNE

Algol: 75 degrees N

Fomalhaut: about 10 degrees SW

Orion: SE, about 40 degrees high, all main stars visible

Aldebaran: about 65 degrees ESE

Great Square of Pegasus: 40 degrees high in the West, very bright, could not find andromeda galaxy

Cassiopeia: WorM looked like an M

Deneb: about 15 degrees NW, dim

Polaris: North, about 30 degrees, could see bottom stars of little dipper at about 10 degrees N

Observations

Date: 1/11/10

Location: Venice, Fl

Conditions: clear

time: 8:00-8:30

observations:

Mars: not visible

Jupiter: about 10 degrees WSW

Sirius: about 20 degrees high in the S, blue, extremely bright

Procyon: about 20 degrees high in the East, twinkling a lot

Castor and Pollux: about 30 degrees high ENE

Capella: about 55 degrees NNE

Algol: 75 degrees N

Fomalhaut: about 10 degrees SW

Orion: SE, about 40 degrees high, all main stars visible

Aldebaran: about 65 degrees ESE

Great Square of Pegasus: 40 degrees high in the West, very bright, used as guide to find andromeda galaxy

Cassiopeia: could see the M of the constellation, a few other stars of the constellation

Pleiades: about 75 degrees ESE

Deneb: about 15 degrees NW, no other stars of summer triangle or northern cross visible

Polaris: North, about 30 degrees, could see bottom stars of little dipper at about 10 degrees N

Observations

Date: 1/10/10

Location: Venice, Fl

Conditions: clear

time: 9:00-9:30

observations:

Mars: about 15 degrees high ene, very red

Sirius: about 30 degrees high in the S, blue, extremely bright

Procyon: about 30 degrees high in the East

Castor and Pollux: about 40 degrees high ENE

Capella: about 65 degrees NNE

Algol: 75 degrees NNW, not very bright

Orion: SE, about 50 degrees high, all main stars visible

Great Square of Pegasus: 30 degrees high in the West, very bright, could not find andromeda galaxy

Cassiopeia: could see the M of the constellation, no other stars

Pleiades: straight up, very blue, bright

APOD 2.8 New Year Sungrazer

The SOHO satellite. which stands for Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, is a NASA satellite that orbits the sun and its main goal is to make observations of the sun. SOHO comes equipped with a smooth occulting disk that is much bigger than the sun itself is used to block out the intense sunlight that comes from the body of the sun and the outer regions of the star. At the edge of the disk is a sungrazer comet. A sungrazer comet is a comet that orbits extremely close to the sun. Sungrazers often orbit too close to the sun, where strong evaporation and tidal forces lead to the fragmentation of the comet. This recent sungrazer comet was discovered by Alan Watson when he was viewing images taken by another spacecraft, STEREO-A, and is one of the brightest observed so far by SOHO. This particular sungrazer did not survive its journey around the sun. Sungrazers are believed to be members of the Kreutz family of comets, which were formed from the successive breakups of a single comet that passed close to the sun during the twentieth century.

Observations

Date: 1/8/10

Location: Venice, Fl

Time: 8:15-8:45

Conditions: clear

Observations:

Mars: very low, ENE, about 3 degrees high ENE

Castor and Pollux: about 30 degrees high ENE, very bright, Pollux twinkling a lot, more than Castor

Procyon: 20 degrees high in the E

Orion: about 35 degrees high in the ESE, stars of belt very bright, Orion's sword very clear, Betelgeuse and Rigel both bright

Sirius: ESE, 20 degrees high, very blue, twinkling a lot

Aldebaran: about 65 degrees high ESE

Pleiades: about 75 degrees high ESE, appear very blue

Jupiter: about 8 degrees high WSW

Fomalhaut: about 10 degrees high in the SW, hard to see due to high trees in the SW

Great Square of Pegasus: about 30 degrees high in the west, all four stars very bright

Deneb: about 15 degrees high in the NW, can not see the other stars of the northern cross because they are too low and there are houses/ trees in the way

Polaris: about 25 degrees high in the N, can see two bottom stars of the Little Dipper almost directly below

Capella: about 55 degrees high in the NE

Algol: about 75 degrees high in the N

Observations

Date:1/7/09

location: Venice, Fl

Time: 8:30-9:00

conditions: cloudy, bright stars still visible

Observations:

Jupiter: not visible

Mars: about 5 degrees in the ENE

Orion: 30 degrees high ESE, Rigel, Betelgeuse easiest to say, other stars still visible, but were hard to see because of clouds.

Sirius: about 20 degrees in the SE

Aldebaran: about 70 degrees ESE

Pleiades: about 80 degrees ESE

Capella: about 55 degrees in the NE

Algol: about 75 degrees high in the N

3 0f the 5 stars of the M from Cassiopeia visible

Great square of Pegasus in the West, ranges from 30-50 degrees high

Fomalhaut: about 8 degrees high in the SW

Mira: visible in the SSW about 55 degrees high

Procyon: 25 degrees high in the E

Observations

date: 1/6/09

location: Venice, Fl

time: 8:00-8:30

conditions: clear

observations:

Deneb: about 12.5 degrees high in the northwest, relatively dim

Polaris: about 25 degrees in the north, dim, could not see the bottom two stars of the little dipper

Sirius: extremely bright, under Orion, in the east, twinkling more than the other stars around it, looks blue

Fomalhaut: in the southwest, about 12.5 degrees high

Jupiter: about 10 degrees high in the west southwest

Mars: not yet visible

Gemini: about 22.5 degrees high ENE, Castor and Pollux very bright, the stars of the feet of Gemini also visible

Capella: very high, about 50 degrees in the NE

Cassiopeia: WorM is an m, about 50 degrees high in the NW

Algol: about 80 degrees N, can not see enough stars to make out the rest of Perseus

Great Square of Pegasus: about 40 degrees

Orion: about 30 degrees in the ESE

2nd Quarter Biography

Kenny Smith

Mr. Percival

Pd.00

8 Jan. 2010

Johann Franz Encke

Johann Franz Encke was born on September 23^rd, 1791 in Hamburg, Germany. Encke attended the University of Göttingen in 1811 and studied mathematics and astronomy under Carl Friedrich Gauss. Encke then enlisted in the military and did not return to the university until 1816. Almost immediately upon his return, Encke was appointed as an assistant at the Seeberg Observatory, near Gotha, Germany. In 1822, Encke was appointed director of the observatory. In 1823, he married Amalie Becker, with whom he had three sons and two daughters. In 1825, Encke took the position of professor of astronomy and director of the observatory at the University of Berlin. Encke worked for the University of Berlin until 1863. Encke later died on August 26^th, 1865.

While working at the Seeberg Observatory, Encke made many famous observations about comets. In 1817, Encke received the Cotta Prize for his work on the investigation of the comet of 1680. Encke also was able to figure out the orbital period of 71 years for the comet of 1812, which is now called 12P/Pons-Brooks. Perhaps his most famous discovery in regards to comets came when he examined the orbital elements of the comet of 1818 seen by Jean-Louis Pons. Pons suspected that one of the three comets observed during 1818 was the same comet that he had discovered in 1805. Encke calculated the orbital period to be about 3.3 years. Up until this point in history, all known comets had orbital periods of seventy years plus. Encke sent a note to Gauss explaining his findings and Gauss published the note. Encke became famous for being the discoverer of the short period comet. This comet was named Encke’s Comet in honor of Encke. This comet was one of the first comets named after someone other than its discoverer. In 1824, Encke received the Gold Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society in London because of his correct and ground-breaking prediction on the return of this comet in 1822. Encke also received this award in 1830.

While he was professor at the University of Berlin, Encke led and directed the preparation of the star-maps of the Berlin Academy. The maps were finished in 1859. Encke also spearheaded the building of a new observatory at the university. The new observatory was inaugurated in 1835. Encke was the teacher for many well known astronomers, including Johann Galle, who discovered Neptune while he was an assistant to Encke, F. F. E. Brünnow, B. A. Gould, K. N. A. Kruseger, W. J. Förster, Friedrich Tietjen, and K. C. Bruhns. Encke edited the Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch, which is an astronomical almanac that was issued every year from 1776 to 1960. Johann Encke also issued four volumes of the Astronomische Beobachtungen of the Berlin observatory and published several of his papers in Astronomische Nachrichten.

Encke has several other small contributions to the astronomical world. In 1837, he discovered a wide variation in the brightness of the A Ring of Saturn. When it was later discovered that this was caused by a gap between the A Ring and the very small F Ring, the gap was named the Encke Gap, even though Encke was not the true discoverer. Encke used observations from the transits of Venus that occurred in 1761 and 1769 to calculate the solar parallax to be 8.57 arc seconds, which is very close to today’s accepted value. Encke developed methods for calculating the orbits of minor planets and the orbits of double stars. Encke’s name has also been bestowed upon an asteroid, 9134 Encke, and a crater on the moon.

Johann Encke has had an immense impact on astronomy. His accurate investigations into comets made him famous around the world. Encke’s discovery of the short periodic comet sent shockwaves through the astronomical world. His star maps were used by his assistant, Johann Galle, to help discover Neptune. Encke impacted all aspects of the astronomy program at the University of Berlin and helped make the program one of the best around. Although not all of Encke’s contributions were obvious, he truly changed the world of astronomy as we know it today.

Sources:

"Encke, Johann Franz." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 4. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. 369-370. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. Sarasota County High. 8 Jan. 2010 .

"Johann Franz Encke." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 08 Jan. 2010 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/186524/Johann-Franz-Encke>.

"Encke, Johann Franz (1791-1865)." Plichts Website. Ed. Chris Plicht. Web. 09 Jan. 2010. .

"Johann Franz Encke." -- jd --. Web. 08 Jan. 2010. .

"Johann Franz Encke." Cambridge Encyclopedia. Web. 09 Jan. 2010. .

"Johann Franz Encke." NNDB: Tracking the entire world. Web. 09 Jan. 2010. .

Apod 2.7 The Mystery of the Fading Star

Epsilon Aurigae, a binary star and the fifth brightest star in the constellation Auriga, is very mysterious. Every 27 years, Epsilon Aurigae fades and stays dim for 2 years before returning to its normal magnitude. Epsilon Aurigae is being eclipsed by a single star embedded in a dusty disk. The disk is estimated to have a radius of four astronomical units and to have a thickness of .5 astronomical units. Epsilon Aurigae is currently undergoing the two-year long eclipse. Astronomers formed a team called Citizen Sky and are currently collecting data to help explain the nature of the companion star and the state of the brighter star, which couldn't be explained in previous observations. Spitzer Space Telescope, an infrared telescope, has observed Epsilon Aurigae and its data provides evidence that Epsilon Aurigae is a large, but low mass star near the end of its life cycle. The current eclipse will last throughout 2010 and in 2011 Epsilon Aurigae will rapidly return to its normal brightness.

Observations

Date: 1/5/09

Location: Venice, Fl

Time: 8:00-8:30

Conditions: some clouds low in sky, none higher up

Observations:

Constellations:

Orion: 25 degrees high ESE

Casseiopeia: high in the N, WorM asterism appears as an M when looking to the north

Pegasus: Great Square of Pegasus easily visible in the W

Gemini: about 20 degrees high in the East, Pollux and Castor very bright

Planets:

Jupiter: about 10 degrees high in the SW, very bright

looked for Mars, but it was too low to be seen

Stars:

Sirius: very bright about 15 degrees in ESE, blue appearance

Fomalhaut: in the SW about 15 high, did not appear as bright as it did at other times, (E.g. Fomalhaut seemed brighter in November)

Deneb: 15 high in the NW

Polaris: around 25 degrees in the N, not very bright, was almost directly above another bright star by about 15 degrees with very few, faint stars in between

found the two bottom stars of the Little Dipper asterism of Ursa Minor by using Polaris as a guide.

Observations

Date: 1/4/09

Time: 8:25-8:55

Location: Venice, Fl

Conditions: partly cloudy

Instruments: Celestron 10 X 50 binoculars

Observations:

Moon: has not risen yet

Orion: about 25-30 degrees high in the SE, can see Betelgeuse, Rigel, Bellatrix, Saiph, three stars of the belt, and the sword. When using binoculars, the Great Orion Nebula could easily be seen. Orion was surrounded by lots of stars that were visible with the binoculars, but not the naked eye.

Sirius: about 12.5 degrees high in the South East, brightest star that can be seen, appears blue, was twinkling a lot.

Procyon: about 12.5 degrees high in the East.

Gemini: Pollux and Castor very easy to see, the other stars of the constellation were difficult to see. Pollux- 15 degrees high in East. Castor: 17.5 degrees high in the East.

Cassiopeia: WorM asterism high overhead in the North

Polaris: about 27 degrees in the North
Deneb: about 17.5 degrees in North West

Square of Pegasus: in the West, spans from 20-30 degrees high

Pleiades: very blue and bright, almost straight up, in the East.

Mars: about 6 degrees high in the East, very red

Algol: straight overhead in the constellation Perseus, the hero.

looked for Mira high in the SSW, but it was not found