Astronomy Cast: Edwin Hubble

This Astronomy Cast episode discussed not the Hubble telescope, but the astronomer behind it all, Edwin Hubble. Edwin Powell Hubble was born in a small town in Missouri called Marshfield n November 29th, 1889. In 1898, his family moved to Chicago and he attended high school.He actually ended up at Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship. he actually ceased his astronomy studies here and studied law. He didn't know what he wanted to do with his life. In 1913, he returned from England and taught at New Albany High School in New Albany, Indiana. Here, he taught Spanish, physics, and math. He also coached the boys' basketball team. set up a small practice in Louisville, Kentucky. However, soon he realized his heart wasn't in law, but in astronomy. He went on to study at the Yerkes Observatory and in 1917, he received a doctorate in astronomy from the University of Chicago. He was a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. His other hobbies included dry-fly fishing and amateur boxing. He served for a short while in the first World War, and then took a job at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California. here he took many photos of Cepheid objects through reflecting Hooker telescopes, concluding that they were outside of our galaxy and determining the presence of several other galaxies such as our own milky way, which had until then been believed to be the universe. Edwin Hubble also devised a classification system for the galaxies he observed, distinguishing them by content, distance, shape, and brightness.

Astronomy Cast: Mysteries of the Milky Way

Globular clusters are thought to be a large group of stars all formed at the same time. Blue stragglers are stars in globular clusters that are still on the main sequence where they don’t belong. They are blue and big and massive stars. They may have formed when two other stars collided or a merger of two stars. Statistics point towards it, but there is no visual evidence.There should be 2 to 3 supernovae every century in the Milky Way. The last one seen was in 1680 and one in 1987 in the Magellanic Cloud. We’re missing 10 supernovae statistically. Some may be hidden by gas and dust and could be hidden where we can’t see them.We don’t know for sure if the Magellanic Clouds are satellites of the Milky Way. They may not be gravitationally bound to the Milky Way or to each other, but sometimes it seems like they are. They have more active star formation than the Milky Way does.

APOD 4.8

This picture, "The Elusive Jellyfish Nebula" is a very interesting one. The nebula itself is described as elusive because it is usually very faint and therefore it is hard to find. This picture is in false-color and it shows the arcing ridge of emission and its dangling "tentacles." The nebula contains two bright stars, Mu and Eta Geminorum. This nebula is supposed to be part of the bubble-shaped supernova remnant IC 443. The Jellyfish Nebula is about 5,000 light-years away, and so this image is about 300 light-years across. The false color shows emissions from oxygen, hydrogen, and sulfur atoms in blue, green and red colors

APOD 4.7

This picture, "Tentacles of the Tarantula Nebula", is a very vibrant picture that grabbed my attention immediately when I clicked on the link for it. The picture has an array of reddish to black and gray colors within it. The article is very interesting, and tells about the Tarantula Nebula. This Nebula is apparently THE largest and most active star forming region that we know of, and lies within the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud. It is so large in fact, that if it was at the distance away that the Orion Nebula is, it would take up an entire half of the sky alone. While perusing the relevant links in the article, I learned that the red and pink colors that can be seen in the picture are caused by emission nebula, with a scattering of supernova remnants and dark nebula.

APOD 4.6

This picture, "Herschel Crater on Mimas of Saturn" was taken by the Cassini spacecraft. Orbiting Saturn is of one of the smaller round moons of Saturn, Mimas. It features the Herschel crater, one of the largest impact craters in the Solar System. The Cassini came within 10,000 km of the moon when it took the picture, setting a new record. The image has been composited with previous images to show detail in the landscape of the moon. It has been false colored and contrast enhanced to show the cratered terrain. The crater itself spans about 130 km. The low mass of Mimas creates enough gravity to keep it spherical, but to also allow features like this exist. Mimas is made mostly of water ice and rock.

APOD 4.5

This image, "A Hall of Mountain Glory" is very interesting and vibrant to behold. The picture itself depicts a very strange phenomenon, which is 3 rainbows almost one on top of the other, in a misty mountain area. However, the mist in this picture is actually a very odd optical illusion that is created by the air in the area. Light is being backscattered off of a cloud passing below the peak of a mountain. The 'fog' itself, would actually seem to dissipate, if one tried to walk through it and experience it. The refraction, reflection, and diffraction of Sunlight on water droplets in the air, is what causes this. While perusing the relevant links in the article, I learned two very different things. One, is that such phenomenons are often called 'Broken Spectres', and also that 'In The Hall of the Mountain King', an orchestral piece which I have heard before, was composed by Edvard Grieg.

APOD 4.4

In this image,"Virgo Cluster Galaxy NGC 4731", the spiral galaxy NGC 1055 is clearly prominent. NGC 1055 rests 60 million light years away and is a dominant part of a small galaxy group near the constellation Cetus. The galaxy spans 100,000 light years, comparable in size to our own Milky Way Galaxy. The stars in the foreground appear spiky and colorful. This "spiky" appearance is actually caused by light deflecting as it passes by the support rods of the reflecting telescope. The spikes steal light away from the central images. In the background of the image are more distant galaxies and also a box shaped inner halo. The halo extends beyond this galaxy's dusty plane.10 billion years ago a a satellite galaxy was disrupted by the larger spiral.

Galaxy Interaction Images

http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/images/hs-2008-37-a-large_web.jpg

http://www.daviddarling.info/images/interacting_spiral_galaxies.jpg

http://www.imagingtheuniverse.com/Galaxies/Canon--400D/2009-05-M51b/636636618_BgpLT-S-1.jpg

http://images.astronet.ru/pubd/2005/03/01/0001203081/ngc1532_gemini.jpg

http://cas.sdss.org/dr6/en/proj/basic/galaxies/images/752-6-410.jpg

http://www.astronomy-blog.com/images/blogs/3-2008/two-galaxies-interacting.jpg

http://www.scientificamerican.com/media/img_gallery/CE97F2A0-AF80-BADE-104D0ECF00733138.jpg

Nightly Observations: 4.1

The night sky of late, has been rather dismal for viewing the celestial objects above. For some reason, the weather has just been quite foggy and cloudy a lot, which makes viewing the sky very hard. This toughness in viewing the sky, is further exacerbated by the fact that this month we have not been given any Evening Sky Maps, which would aid me in identifying the celestial objects which I see overhead. Thus, the depth and intelligence of my observations is severely hindered. Nonetheless I shall make do! The Moon itself recently, has been extremely bright and clear, especially considering that it is approaching its fullest phase. The brightness is a sharp contrast to the number of rather dull stars that are currently visible. While I had heard that the Spring sky is the dullest of all the seasons, there are definitely still many stars to see and look at, and which would surely be of great interest, were I able to identify them. I will note that there are mostly stars that appear to be blue, while there is one overhead that is reddish. This may be a planet overhead, and just normal stars that are blue.

Astronomy Cast: Constellations

This Astronomy Cast discussed the 88 constellations identified so far. In astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. It is also known as a pattern formed by prominent stars within apparent close proximity to one another. A simple definition is a group of celestial bodies, usually stars, which form a pattern in the sky. A star pattern that is not officially classed as a constellation is an asterism. These are all things were are learning in our Astronomy class so it was interesting seeing how much I was familiar with. One of the most commonly known asterisms is the Big Dipper, which is part of the constellation Ursa Major, or Big Bear. Another famous constellation is Orion, the hunter. Most people can point out Orion's belt in the sky even if they aren't aware it's a constellation. The two major first magnitude stars of Orion are Rigel and Betelgeuse. The constellations are divided into four seasons -- Winter, Summer, Spring and Autumn because certain constellations are only visible in the sky certain times of the year depending on the Earth's tilt on its axis and its location in orbit. However, there are some constellations which are circumpolar, meaning they are by the North Pole so are visible all year round. Some of these circumpolar constellations include Cepheus -- The King, Cassiopeia -- The Queen and Perseus -- The Hero. Also, all of the star signs we are familiar with in astrology (eg. Aquarius, Sagittarius) are all constellations under the category "zodiacal." It's so interesting to see how many modern words and names are derived from asterisms, stars, or constellations. One that stuck out to me the most were that Sirius and Bellatrix are both stars and are both characters in the Harry Potter series.

APOD 4.3

This picture, "Venus, Mercury, and Moon" are quite cool in the elements of these three celestial objects that they capture. They track the movement of the planets Venus, which is on the left, and Mercury, which is on the right. The pictures are really great, because often we forget that almost all of the celestial objects are in constant motion of some form, but it is too minuscule to observe with the naked eye. While perusing the relevant links in the article I also found several other APOD pictures that are of a similar content. They are a composition of pictures taken over several days, which track the movement of planets such as Venus and Mercury across the sky.

Astronomer Biography: Eugene Parker

Eugene Parker was born on June 10th, in 1927 and is still alive today, unlike most of the Astronomers we have studied this year!. He is an American solar astrophysicist who received his B.S. degree in physics from Michigan State University in 1948 and Ph.D., from Caltech in 1951. He developed, in the mid 1950s, the theory of the supersonic solar wind, and for predicting the Parker spiral shape of the solar magnetic field in the outer solar system. In 1987, Parker proposed that the solar corona might be heated by myriad tiny "micro-flares", miniature solar flares that occur all over the surface of the Sun.
Parker spent four years at the University of Utah and, since 1955, has been at the University of Chicago, where he has held positions in the physics department, the astronomy and astrophysics department, and the Enrico Fermi Institute. He is the leading authority on the solar wind and the effects of magnetic fields in the heliosphere. His work has greatly increased understanding of the solar corona, the solar wind, the magnetic fields of both earth and sun, and their complex electromagnetic interactions. The theoretical models which he developed in part by looking at comet tails have in recent years been confirmed by spacecraft. His books, especially Cosmical Magnetic Fields, have educated generations of investigators. His most recent book includes the effects of magnetic fields of planets, stars, and galaxies on X-ray emissions. He also wrote about the dangers of space radiation for future interplanetary missions.In 1967, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and as of early 2005 he is still engaged in active research at the University of Chicago. His daughter and son-in-law are both faculty members at Michigan State University.

APOD 4.2

This picture, "NGC:4561 The Umbrella Galaxy" is very pleasing to the eye when one first beholds it. It is particularly applicable to class of late, due to the fact that it is a galaxy, which we have been studying of late. We even did an exercise where we identified galaxies, and I would identify this galaxy as a tightly wound spiral galaxy with many arms. It is also quite interesting, because it deals with a constellation which we will be studying soon, Coma Bernices. It is interesting in that the galaxy,as the name would suggest, has an 'umbrella' around it which baffles many Astronomers. While perusing the relevant links, I learned that this umbrella is actually a collection of tidal star streams.

APOD 4.1

This picture, "Venus and Mercury in the West" is quite, 'picturesque' one might say. The picture depicts a perfect artistic composition of a windmill on the left hand side of the picture. The old style windmill stands in a sharp contrast to the far away and mysterious planets of Venus and Mercury. This picture specifically applies to what we have been doing in class lately, in that in class in the past weeks, we have been discussing the relative positions of several planets which are present in the morning sky lately. Also while perusing the relevant article here, I learned that the planet Mercury is quite rare in the sky, because it is often lost in the glare of the sun.

Nightly Observations 3.3

For the past couple of weeks unfortunately, Astronomical viewing has been quite dismal. The sky has been quite cloudy and hard to distinguish objects in these conditions. However on a few occasions, it has been possible to view the sky adequately. Unfortunately of late there has not been too much of note to report, other than the usual clusters of stars that are always in the same general positions as this time of year. The Moon though, has been non-existent in the night sky at all until just recently, when it appeared again finally. It appeared as a very skinny crescent over the past weekend, and has since been waxing and growing in size and luminosity each night.

APOD 3.8

This picture is quite interesting. "Yukon Aurora with Star Trails" depicts a long exposure picture, of the far North. I have never really been able to comprehend how these pictures are taken, the concept of basically recording the movement of the stars, over several hours on one picture, simply boggles the mind. The especially great thing about this picture, is that the Aurora can be seen quite clearly in the picture. I would very much like to see an Aurora before I die, as it seems to be a phenomenon the likes of which can not be replicated anyhow. While browsing the embedded links, I learned that the Aurora is caused by magnetic field interactions with electrons and ions in the atmosphere. Also, that it is possible to see the Aurora in the lower 48 states sometimes, but only when the Sun has magnetic storms, which enlarge the area of magnetic field interactions to the lower states.

APOD 3.7

This picture, "M78 and Reflecting Dust Clouds in Orion" truly boggles my mind when I look at it. Rather than a picture of astronomical realm, this picture appears to be a battlefield with bombs blowing up and smoke grenades everywhere, to be perfectly honest. I must conclude, that with such glowing color, and incredible detail and texture, that a bit of editing and false color has been added to this particular picture. Nonetheless the picture is very interesting, despite its aesthetic upgrades. It deals with a few things, two of which I am familiar with and the others which I am not. We have studied in our class, Orion and M78 over the weeks, so it is always nice to find Apods on familiar subjects. However I have no knowledge of reflection nebulae, which are apparently quite abundant in this picture. Perhaps it is, that M78 is in fact a reflection nebulae, and I was just unaware of this fact all along! Regardless, I also learned another cool thing about M78 while perusing the embedded links. M78 is actually belongs to the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, and is so incredibly far away, that the image we see is 1600 years old, due to the travel time of light! This is a positively insane concept to think about, and is just incredible to contemplate, that distances that we are dealing with in space.

Nightly Observations: 3.2

Tonight and the past few nights again I have been able to make truly stellar celestial observations! It is really a wonder that I did not make better use of my Evening Sky Maps before this, because they work so perfectly well, that any country bumpkin could use them effectively. I was able to identify with ease, a total of 7 constellations distinctly with its aid! Without the map, I was first able to quickly pinpoint Orion, Mars, and Sirius in the sky, which helped me get my bearings with the map. I was then able to pick out the Twins in Gemini, Procyon and Canis Minor, all of Canis Major, Beteleuse and Rigel in Orion, Capella and even the Kids (I think) in Auriga, continuing from here I noticed Aldebaren and possibly the Hyades in Taurus (though I am not positive about the latter), finally I was also able to barely distinguish Perseus if I craned my neck back very far. What was very surprising also to me though was that I noticed an entirely new constellation tonight! In an Easy-Southeasterly direction I am sure that I picked out the Sickle in and Regulus in Leo, which truly amazed me. Surprisingly though amidst all this celestial discovery, I could not locate the Moon! It appears in no section of the sky, and I wonder where it might be...

APOD 3.6

This picture, "Chasing Carina" caught my eye immediately for several reasons. The picture is very pretty, and has myriad colors within it, though primarily pink-ish and blue. Not only was the picture's beauty what caught my eye, but the article and what the picture deals with is quite interesting too. The picture deals with the Great Carina Nebula, which according to the article, spans a massive 300 light years. This is very relevant to my interests, as we have just identified Carina as a constellation in our quizzes, and also Eta Carina, which is mentioned in this article as well. Eta Carinae is a very interesting anomaly to astronomers, since according to the relevant links, this is a star that has 100 times the mass of the Sun! Also while browsing the embedded links in the article, I learned that Eta Carina is a very peculiar celestial object. It is known for having sudden outbursts of brightness, and then also mysteriously fading as well. Astronomers are not entirely sure why this happens, but they do expect Eta Carina to supernova spectacularly sometime in the next few million years.

Astronomer Biography: Jacobus Kapteyn

Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn was a Dutch astronomer, best known for his extensive studies of the Milky Way and as the first discoverer of evidence for galactic rotation. Kapteyn was born in Barneveld, and went to the University of Utrecht to study mathematics and physics in 1868. In 1875, after having finished his thesis, he worked for three years at the Leiden Observatory, before becoming the first Professor of Astronomy and Theoretical Mechanics at the University of Groningen, where he remained until his retirement in 1921.
Between 1896 and 1900, lacking an observatory, he volunteered to measure photographic plates taken by David Gill, who was conducting a photographic survey of southern hemisphere stars at the Cape Town Observatory. The results of this collaboration were the publication of Cape Photographic Durchmusterung, a catalog listing positions and magnitudes for 454,875 stars in the Southern Hemisphere. In 1897, as part of the above work, he discovered Kapteyn's Star. It had the highest proper motion of any star known until the discovery of Barnard's Star in 1916. In 1904, studying the proper motions of stars, Kapteyn reported that these were not random, as it was believed in that time; stars could be divided into two streams, moving in nearly opposite directions. It was later realized that Kapteyn's data had been the first evidence of the rotation of our Galaxy, which ultimately led to the finding of galactic rotation by Bertil Lindblad and Jan Oort. In 1906, Kapteyn launched a plan for a major study of the distribution of stars in the Galaxy, using counts of stars in different directions. The plan involved measuring the apparent magnitude, spectral type, radial velocity, and proper motion of stars in 206 zones. This enormous project was the first coordinated statistical analysis in astronomy and involved the cooperation of over forty different observatories. His life’s work, First attempt at a theory of the arrangement and motion of the sidereal system was published in 1922, and described a lens-shaped island universe of which the density decreased away from the center, now known as the Kapteyn's Universe model. In his model the Galaxy was thought to be 40,000 light years in size, the sun being relatively close (2,000 light years) to its center. It was only after Kapteyn's death, in Amsterdam, that Robert Trumpler determined that the amount of interstellar reddening was actually much greater than had been assumed. This discovery increased the estimate of the galaxy's size to 100,000 light years, with the sun replaced to a distance of 30,000 light years from the galactic center.

APOD 3.5

This picture, "WISE Infrared Andromeda" caught my eye immediately for several reasons. The picture is very vibrant and has a multitude of colors and depths that can be seen when viewed closely. Not only this, but the content of the picture interested me as well. The picture deals with the Andromeda Galaxy, in the Andromeda constellation, which we have studied and thus is very relevant to my interests. It is very cool to see detailed and scientific pictures about material that we have studied in this class. Furthermore we have recently been learning about infrared light, the way it looks in pictures when observed, and how it emphasizes certain aspects of astronomical objects when observed. The article itself was very educational, and I learned two things which were very interesting to me. The first was that the Andromeda Galaxy is the largest one in its region, and thus it is very important. And the second thing that I learned is that the particular infrared detector used to take this picture, is so powerful that it needs to be cooled by frozen hydrogen.

APOD 3.4

This picture "Star Cluster M34" caught my eye as I was browsing through the APOD articles for several reasons. The picture itself is very interesting, with its depiction of a very dark night sky, encrusted with diamond-like stars and so incredibly radiant and bright, that I very much wish I could go to some place with almost no light pollution to see the sky in its clear and unadulterated form. The picture also depicts an aspect of a constellation that we as a class have studied, and I have witnessed up in the sky. This is the constellation Perseus, or more specifically, the picture depicts the M object that is found in the constellation, M34. While reading through the article and relevant links, I learned a few things about this object in the sky. Firstly, that the stars found in M34 are rather young astronomically speaking, being only 200 million years old. I also learned that most open star clusters share one very similar trait at least, which is the fact that over time, the stars found within the cluster will drift apart due to gravitational tides and interactions with the Milky Way's interstellar dust and other stars.

Nightly Observations: 3.1

So far this quarter my observations have been slightly sporadic. Nonetheless though, I have been able to do a pretty consistent observation of the Southern sky near my Osprey home. Usually when I do my observations, and over the past few weeks, I can at least identify distinctly where the constellation Orion is, thanks to its signature 'Belt' (it is usually found rather high in the Southeastern sky). Also obviously I have been able to find the Moon (hoorah!) which last night and the night before in particular, was a very bright and sharp crescent. Two very new things happened to me this quarter though, that I feel the need to share. One of them actually happened over Winter Break once already, so I was not as surprised when I saw it. This was the appearance of an phosphorescent 'halo' around the Moon on one clear Friday night, which is caused by the Moon's light interacting with ice crystals in the atmosphere. Also this quarter I finally made good use of the Evening Sky Maps which we have been given each month. With this paper, I was very astonished to realize, that I could actually identify almost every constellation of stars what was visible in the sky that particular night. Specifically these astronomical objects included, Auriga and Capella, Gemini and the Twins, Perseus, Taurus and the Pleiades, Betelgeuse and Rigel, Mars, and Sirius. This was a most incredible experience for me, as I got to see first hand just how predictable and cool these constellations are when you can find them and point them out. I was also very surprised to notice, that constellations are BIG (I had vaguely known this before, but never truly realized it) just identifying these 4 or so constellations, took up the entire night sky of stars above my head. Truly using this Sky Map is very helpful, and I will be sure to bring it outside with me in future observation sessions.

APOD 3.3

This picture, "Mars and a Colorful Lunar Fog Bow", is one that is surely a memorable picture in the history of my Astronomy blogging. The picture is very stunning, with its display of a smooth and flowing fog cover, with a large rainbow in the foreground and a dazzling night sky in the background. Especially noticeable in the night sky is Mars, which sparkles brighter than any other object in the sky. The most unique aspect of this picture, is actually the rainbow, or rather 'fog bow' as it is actually. While perusing the relevant links to this article, I learned that fog bows are created by light being reflected off thick fog cover (as one might expect). This particular one however, was created by MOONLIGHT being reflected off the fog, which is incredibly rare. Further making this picture a rarity, is the fact that most fog bows appear to be all white with no color. This one however was inexplicably vibrant with color.

APOD 3.2

This picture "Mars Opposition 2010" is a very odd choice by me for my APOD blog, given my track record with picture selections. Usually I pick a picture based on the fact that it looks cool, intriguing, or just weird. But this picture of the planet Mars, is just a very bland one that would not stand out from a crowd at all. However it is the article that goes along with the picture, and events that have taken place recently that caused me to choose it for my blog subject. It just so happens that we were told by our teacher, Mr. Percival, to look out for Mars in the night sky, as it would be very bright and visible due to it being at opposition. Not only did I learn this, but also while reading the article and browsing the relevant links within, I learned a very interesting tidbit about this astronomical event. When Mars is at opposition, we as humans usually seize the opportunity and launch a probe or object to go and visit or observe Mars. However this is the first time since 1994 that we have not launched ANYTHING at this very opportune moment to observe Mars.

APOD 3.1

This picture "Millennium Solar Eclipse", is a very peculiar one when one first looks at it. It appears to be a giant golden ring in the sky, and a very eye-catching one at that. Upon further reading though I discovered that this is actually a picture of an annular solar eclipse. This might seem rather ordinary, but this specific eclipse lasted for 11 minutes and 8 seconds in its peak area, and will be the longest one for another 1,000 years. As I perused the relevant links within this article, I learned something as to why the edges of the 'ring' appear grainy and rough. This is because the image was taken through a filter that only transmits light from hydrogen atoms, which subsequently transmitted the convection in the Sun's atmosphere.

APOD 2.8

This picture, "A Spherule from the Earth's Moon" is one that is rather weird. It is abnormal due to the fact that it is not an astronomy picture that I would normally select to blog about. The picture itself is very dull and not interesting at all, just picturing a plain grey, pockmarked Moon. My true interest in the picture comes from what I DIDN'T know about the picture when I first viewed it. I had no clue what a 'spherule' might be, and why there would be one on the Moon. I now know that this is actually just a fancy word for 'sphere'. The sphere on the Moon that is of interes, is one made of glass that was formed when meteorite struck the Moon's surface. According to the links that I followed within the article, astronomers can actually use these spheres for a very valuable purpose. They can date and measure the age of craters that are present on the Moon.

APOD 2.7

This picture, "Scenes from Two Hemispheres" is one that interest me greatly for several reasons. First off, I am curious as to how the 'night sky' picture taken on the left, appears to actually occur during the day with a bright blue sky. I was also intrigued however by the fact that constellations when viewed from different (North or South) hemispheres will appear upside down or right side up, depending upon where one is viewing the sky from. And also it is pretty weird to think about the fact that even halfway around the world, two people can be looking at exactly the same night sky and astronomical objects. While perusing the embedded links, I learned a bit more about the constellation Orion, which is in the night sky pictured. I was surprised to find out that the stars in Orion's 'Belt' are stars which I have never heard of before. I was expecting them to be very widely known stars that I would know already.

APOD 2.6

This picture, "A Roll Cloud Over Uruguay" is incredibly interesting to me for one specific reason. This is that cylindrical shaped clouds like this, are very rare and unique to see in the sky. The conditions that are required to create such a phenomenon are quite rare, and those who have the privilege to witness their occurrence should count themselves lucky. While browsing this article I learned several things which I found particularly interesting. First and foremost is that roll clouds are very much like Morning Glory which are famous for their appearance over Australia, in that they are detached from their parent cumulonimbus formation. Also I learned that although these clouds do look a lot like stormy clouds, they are in no way related with the formation of tornadoes.

Astronomer Biography: Giovanni Amici

The life of Giovanni Amici may not be as glamorous or as widely publicized as such Astronomers as Coppernicus, Galileo, or Kepler, but rest assured that his impact on the realm of Astronomy was as significant and notable as any of the ‘Greats’. Born Giovanni Battista Amici in on March 25th of 1786, his life began in Modena, Italy. Once he was old enough, he had the opportunity to study at Bologna, which is one of the oldest universities in the entire world. He focused his studies mainly on mathematics at the time, and soon after finishing his tutelage at Bologna, he took up a job as a mathematics professor in Modena. This may sound like a rather humble job for one who would come to have such a great impact on the Astronomy world, but he soon was recruited to be the inspector general of studies for the Italian duchy. His studying here and later as the director of a Florence observatory would form that foundation for many of his most well-known contributions to Astronomy.
It is rather unfortunate that a man such as Giovanni Amici is so unheard of by most of the population when it comes to recognizing him for his achievements. Few would know it, but Amici was one of the leading contributors to the perfection and refinement of the mirrors and surfaces in reflecting telescopes. This also led him to become an expert on the construction and makeup of microscopes, and was another Astronomical tool which he lent his considerable knowledge and expertise to. Most interesting of his contributions though would have to be the dipleidoscope, which he created on his own in the early 19th century. This creation of his is used to determine when it is exactly noon time, and can perform this feat to a closeness of 10 seconds. The instrument itself is very simple, comprising only a prism and telescope that make two images of the Sun. When these images are directly on top of one another, the local time is precisely noon. Clearly Amici was a very clever man who deserves much more recognition for his accomplishments that he is credited with in this modern age. However on the bright side of this lack of recognition, there is a crater on the Moon that is named after him, which is fittingly called ‘Amici’. This recognition is most likely due to the fact that Amici was a very astute observer of the heavens, specifically double stars, Jupiter’s moons, and the Sun. Overall though, Mr. Amici is beyond due for more remuneration for his great contributions to the world of Astronomy.

Nightly Observations 2.2

In the past several weeks over Winter Break and this week, the celestial sphere has been surprisingly clear and good for observation. The cold weather and lack of rain or lots of cloud cover has created a situation that is quite ideal for astronomical observation. Even on nights when there are clouds and the light pollution is heavy though, there are two very distinctive celestial objects that I can see every night. First and most recognizable is the constellation Orion, whose belt is clearly visible away to the Southeast every night. There is also another very bright star in the Southeast, a bit further up and more South than Orion. I can not precisely identify what star this might be unfortunately, but it is a bright one. Also of note; over the Winter Break on New Year's Eve, I had the luck and privilege to glimpse a phenomenon that I have never before seen in my life. It appeared to be a very large halo ring around the full Moon that night. I later discovered from my all-knowing Astronomy teacher, that this was caused by atmospheric and light interactions with ice crystals in the sky that night. This is by far the coolest thing that I have ever seen in the sky, in my life I would have to say.