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.