APOD 4.5

This picture shows the space shuttle orbiter Endeavour which has docked at the international space station for the last time.  It is orbiting 350 km over planet Earth.  In the picture the shuttle is moving at 17,000 miles per hour.  The station has a robotic manipulator arm Dextre appear in silhouette.  Endeavor has just finished a 16 day mission. 
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110602.html

Biography - Robert Kirshner

Robert Kirshner was born on August 15th, 1949.  He was a very smart kid growing up and was admitted to Harvard University.  There he received his undergraduate degree in Astronomy, magna cum laude in 1970.  He then went on to get his Ph.D from Caltech also in Astronomy.  Kirshner then got a job at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Arizona.  After working there, Kirshner joined the faculty at Michigan University.  He worked there for 9 years.  During that time along with Augustus Oemler Jr., Paul Schechter and Stephen Shectman,  Kirshner discovered the Bootes void.  This is a region in the constellation Bootes that contains very few galaxies.  This discovery was made by the team of four in 1981.  In 1986, Kirshner moved to Harvard and joined the Astronomy Department.  By 1990 he was the chairman and he served there until 1997.

A lot of Kirshner's work had to do with supernovas, supernova remnants, and the large-scale structure of the cosmos.  This is a very passionate subject taken up by Kirshner as he written over 200 research papers dealing with these aforementioned topics.  He also wrote a lot about the expansion of the universe.  He was even honored with "Science Breakthrough of the Year" in 1998 for his work on the expansion of the galaxy.  He also wrote an article about the subject for a Scientific American Issue in 1999.  He also served on the National Academy of Sciences in 1998.  Kirshner has continued his work on the field doing research on dark energy which may explain the universe's acceleration.  This work earned him the Gruber Cosmology Prize in 2007.

Sources for Biography - Robert Kirshner

"Biographies." The Chandra X-ray Observatory Center :: Gateway to the Universe of X-ray Astronomy!. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/fl/bio.html>


Robert Kirshner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia."Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kirshner>

Zooniverse

Today May 16th, I spent the class period working on Galaxy Zoo: Hubble.

Zooniverse

Today May 2nd, I spent the period working on Moon Zoo.

APOD 4.4

About 60 light-years away in the constellation Corvus, two large galaxies collided.  Their large clouds of molecular gas and dust triggered many star formations.  This scene of cosmic wreckage spans about 500 light-years.  This view reveals new star clusters and matter far-flung from the scene of the collision by gravitational tidal forces.  The galaxy pair has been given the name The Antennae.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110429.html

Zooniverse

Today, April 28th, I worked on Galaxy Zoo Hubble for the class period. 

APOD 4.3

The Large Magellanic Cloud is an amazing sight that can be seen in the dark southern skies and is located in the constellation Dorado.  Its located 180,000 light-years away.  This picture also contains the tarantula nebula which is by far the LMCs largest star forming region.  The Large Magellanic Cloud is about 15,000 light-years across.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110426.html

Zooniverse

Today, April 26th, I worked on solar storm watch for a little while. 

APOD 4.2

This picture shows the Elephants Trunk Nebula.  Some say that parts of the glowing gas and dust clouds appear as monsters.  The entire nebula can be seen as the face of a monster.  But the only thing actually in this nebula is a bright young star that lies almost 3000 light-years away from us.  This nebula appears in a region of the sky equivalent to the width of 10 full moons.  Recently however, over 100 young stars have been discovered in the process of formation.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110425.html

Zooniverse

Today April 18th, I spent the class period working on Galaxy Zoo Hubble.

Zooniverse

Today April 12th, I spent the class period working on Galaxy Zoo Hubble classifying many different images as galaxies and identifying their qualities. 

APOD 4.1

This is an amazing image of NGC 2438, a planetary nebula.  These are formed by the gaseous clouds cast off by a dying sunlike star.  NGC 2438 seems to be located on the outskirts of M46, a star cluster.  The star from the planetary nebula seems to move faster then the other cluster stars.  This is a cool picture that shows a halo of atomic gas that is around 4.5 light-years away.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110407.html

Zooniverse

Today April 7th, I spent the period working on Solar Storm Watch.

Zooniverse

Today, April 5th, I spent the class period working on a few different projects but the majority of my time was spent on Moon Zoo. 

APOD 3.8

This picture shows the newly modified International Space Station.  Recently the space shuttle orbiter, Discovery, traveled to the ISS and added some new components.  One of these new components was the Leonardo Multi Purpose Logistics Module.  This picture was taken by Discovery on its return flight to Earth. 

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110309.html

APOD 3.7

AE Auriga is one of the skies bright stars and in this image is pictured along with the Flaming Star Nebula.  The star is an O-type star and produces an energized glow of hydrogen making it so bright.  Astronomers believe that this star was born in the Orion Nebula.  It is believed to have been ejected from this region along with another O-type star, Mu Colombae.  These two runaway stars have been drifting in opposite directions ever since. 

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110311.html

APOD 3.6

The Mare Orientale is one of the more remarkable features of our Moon.  Mare Orientale is multi-ring impact basin that is located on the extreme western edge making it very had to see from our perspective from Earth.  This basin is over 3 billion years old and about 600 miles across.  It is believed that an asteroid sized object made this basin.  The powerful collision created ripples resulting in its concentric structure.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110312.html 

APOD 3.5

The "Serpent Storm" is a remarkably bright storm in the northern hemisphere of Saturn.  This storm appeared late last year and is stilling going strong.  The storm even circles off the planet.  This image was taken from Georgia with ground-based equipment.  This storm was first noticed by amateur astronomers watching Saturn rising in the predawn skies of early December 2010. 

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110317.html

APOD 3.4

This picture shows the galaxy NGC 3628 from a sideways view.  This galaxy is a spiral galaxy as shown by the dark dust lanes that cut across the middle.  This galaxy is the only member of the Leo triplet of galaxies not in Charles Messier's catalog.  This galaxy is similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy.  Its distorted shape is believed to be caused by its gravitational interaction with two other galaxies in the Leo triplet M65 & M66.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110316.html

Briography - James Keeler

       James Keeler was born in La Salle, Illinois.  After living there on the Illinois River, his family moved to Mayport, Florida.  It was here, in 1869, where Keeler saw his first solar eclipse.  Seeing this phenomena influenced young Keeler.  Keeler's interest in astronomy continued to grow and he ordered a two-inch achromatic lens and two smaller lenses to use as eyepieces.  With these materials Keeler assembled a telescope which he used to observe ships, lighthouses, and many celestial objects such as the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, and some nebulae.
       Keeler's sister, who attended a private school in New York, was a local observatory and she mentioned that she had previously seen Saturn through her brother's telescope.  Philanthropist Charles Rockwell was intrigued by this and brought James up north and helped him apply to several colleges.  Rockwell then helped him gain admittance from Johns Hopkins University in 1877.
       While at College, Keeler viewed a total eclipse of the sun from Central City, Colorado at a height of 8,400 miles above sea level.  Keeler drew a picture of the Solar corona and it was published along with his first scientific paper as a piece of the United States Naval Observatory report of the eclipse.  Upon graduating from Johns Hopkins, Keeler went on to work at the Allegheny Observatory in Pittsburgh with Professor Samuel Pierpont Langley.  There they studied the hitherto unknown region of the solar spectrum.

sources for biography

"James Edward Keeler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Edward_Keeler>


Walsh, Glenn . "Discoverer of Composition of Saturn's Rings: Astronomer James E. Keeler of Allegheny Observatory, Pittsburgh." Astronomer John Brashear of Allegheny Observatory, Pittsburgh. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2011. <http://johnbrashear.tripod.com/bio/KeelerJ.htm>

Observation 3.2

It was 10:40 p.m. on 2/15/11 and was observing the night sky.  Not very many stars were visible but I was able to locate Canis Major by means of the star Sirius and the constellation Orion.  The moon tonight was beautiful as it appeared to be a full moon and it was shining very bright.

APOD 3.3

This picture shows a runaway star, Zeta Ophiuchi.  This star is about 20 times more massive than our sun and it is producing an interstellar bow wave or bow shock.  This incredible picture was captured by the WISE Spacecraft.  Zeta Ophiuchi is traveling at about 24 kilometers per second.  Its strong stellar wind compresses and heats the interstellar material causing it take the shape of the curve.  The only hypothesis for why this star is moving like this is that it was once a binary star and the other star was more massive and it exploded as a supernova.  This supernova then sent off Zeta Ophiuchi to its current motion. 

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110204.html

Observation 3.1

2/1/11 7:35 pm 

At about 7:35 I went outside of my house to prepare for the flare.  I looked in the southeast direction and located the constellation Orion.  I then located the two references stars, Sirius and Rigel.  I then waited for the flare and then a little past 7:40 a bright red light appeared in the sky and it continually got brighter for a few seconds and then quickly faded back out.  This phenomena, the iridium flare, was really interesting to see.  

APOD 3.2

This picture shows the amazing M51 in infrared light.  M51 is a whirlpool galaxy that was photographed here by hubble.  The purpose of this picture is to show the dust that surrounds the galaxy so most of the light from the stars was digitally removed and infrared light was used to highlight that dust.  I also found the picture very interesting because if you scroll your mouse over the picture it shows the optical version which shows an interesting contrast between the two spectra.

APOD 3.1

M78 is one of the many nebulas in the constellation Orion.  It is a very large and bright reflection nebula that is commonly observed by many telescope users.  This is a great image of the nebula as it even was recognized as the winner of the Hidden Treasures 2010 astrophotography competition.  The European Southern Observatory took the picture.  M78 is about 1600 light years and has a bluish center with dark and dusty clouds around it.

Sun Pics

http://images.astronet.ru/pubd/2003/06/19/0001191014/sunspot_nso_big.jpg
http://www.jacanaent.com/Astronomy/Images/Sun/SUN15Spicules.jpg
http://www.jacanaent.com/Astronomy/!Pages/Planets/Sun/!Sun.htm
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/article_images/2002-7-2-sunexplode.jpg

Johann Encke - Biography

Encke was born in Hamburg, Germany.  He studied astronomy at the University of Gottingen but was enlisted in the Prussian army.  Once back from the forces, Encke resumed his schooling while being an assistant at the Observatory of Seeberg.  At this observatory, Encke studied a comet and correctly assigned a period to that comet.  This discovery later won him the Cotta prize in 1817.  This comet belongs in the same family as the Halley's comet.  Encke did many observations and calculations which ultimately led to him discovering the short periodic comets.  This information was sent to Gauss, Olbers, and Bessell.  The discovered comet was also identified as the cause of the Taurids meteor showers.

While Encke put in many hours towards his passion, he also led a personal life.  Encke married Amalie Becker and they had five children, three boys and two girls.  The following year after the marriage, Encke was named a Fellow of the Royal Society

Encke eventually became the leader of the Seeberg observatory in 1822 but was then promoted in 1825 to another observatory located in Berlin.  Due to recommendations from Bessell, Encke became the leader of the new observatory as well.  Encke did a lot of work studying comets and asteroids.  He even added four volumes to the Observations of the Berlin Observatory.  Johann also discovered a disparity in the rings of saturn and this gap of rings was named The Encke Gap.

In 1844 Encke became a professor of Astronomy at the University of Berlin.  A lot of work was expected of him in the area of computing the movement of asteroids.  Later in life his observation ability deteriorated mainly due to his development of brain disease.  Despite this Encke remained the director of the observatory until his death in 1865.  Encke's life was full of astronomical contributions.  Some of these contributions are; the comet Encke, the moon crater Encke,  the asteroid 9134 Encke, and the Encke gap are all important contributions made by the astronomer Johann Encke.

Observation 2.2

10:48 pm - 1/9/11

The sky wasn't clear so I wasn't able to observe as much as I hoped for but I still managed to point out some things.  The most clear and easily identifiable was Orion's belt.  The belt is three stars located very close to each other in a straight line resembling the belt of the hunter.  Due to the clouds that was all I able to identify.  

APOD 2.7

This picture shows a rare phenomena that many believe is a myth.  This rare occurrence is called a green flash.  The flash can only be seen from distant clear horizons and only lasts a few seconds.  As seen by the picture an even rare blue flash can sometime be seen.  These color effects are caused by the earth's atmosphere acting like a prism.  

APOD 2.6

This image is of the Helix Nebula which is in the constellation Aquarius.  Inside this constellation a sun-like star is dying.  This image is a 10 hour exposure of the planetary nebula.  The nebula has an outer halo and a very bright, hot central star.  The nebula is about 3 light-years across.  

Johann Encke - Sources

"Johann Franz Encke: Biography from Answers.com."Answers.com: Wiki Q&A combined with free online dictionary, thesaurus, and encyclopedias. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Jan. 2011. <http://www.answers.com/topic/johann-franz-encke>"


"Wikipedia. "Johann Franz Encke ." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Jan. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Franz_Encke>