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.