Star Gazing

The night of January 2nd I went outside to look at the stars and do some observations. The night was a bit cloudy but I was able to observe the moon very well. I had a telescope pointed at the moon and I was looking at the features of the moon and Venus for an hour. There were many things to observe like the numerous mountains and oceans that are on the surface. It was at the beach where it was completely dark and I could see all of the things that I could not normally see.

William Herschel

Frederick William Herschel was born November 15th 1738 and died August 25th 1822. He was Hanoverian-born British astronomer, technical expert, and composer. Born in the Electorate of Hanover, Herschel followed his father into the Military Band of Hanover, before migrating to Great Britain at the age of nineteen. He became famous for his discovery of the planet Uranus, along with two of its major moons, Titania and Oberon, and also discovered two moons of Saturn. In addition, he was the first person to discover the existence of infrared radiation. He is also known for the twenty-four symphonies, and many other musical pieces, that he composed.

Sun Spots

The Sun has many spots on its surface but in August 2002, they were very big and numerous. Together, the sun spots are more than 30 times bigger than the Earth and are very active. The solar flares are coming out at unimaginable speeds towards the Earth all the time but the Earths magnetic field is preventing the rays from harming us. Back when the church controlled the minds of most of the people, they said that the sun was perfect but in this picture it is evident that it is not. The sun spots are active and alive and could end human civilization in a matter of seconds.

The Shadow of Saturn

This is an actual image taken by the Cassini Spacecraft that is orbiting Saturn. The reason for the spectacular colors is because the satellite is actually behind Saturn, showing us the dark side with the Sun behind it. Since Saturn is made up of mostly gas, it is quite transparent and you can see through the planet to the rings behind it. The dark side of the planet is seen because of the reflection of light from the ring system onto it. New rings were discovered when scientists added false colors to the picture, but the rings are so faint that you cannot see them in the above photograph. Saturn's E-Ring, seen in the picture above is now believed to contain ice particles from its moon, Enceladus. The pale blue dot, just above the main bright rings on the left side is the tiny speck of Earth.

Star Gazing

The night of December 24, I was out for about 2 hours looking at the sky with my little sister. While she was keeping her eyes out for Santa and his flying reindeer, I was busy looking at the constellations and occasional shooting star. While outside, it was a clear night with hardly any clouds and I had a good pair of binoculars. The magnification of these binoculars helped me see the phase of Venus, which was in a waning crescent. I was also able to recognize almost all of the winter constellations we have learned thus far. We were in my back yard in Venice, which gets fairly dark and I am able to see all 2nd magnitude stars as well as some 3rd magnitude stars. The time flew by because all of the interesting things that I saw and the amount of time it took to locate these stars and planets. 

Helix Nebula

Many people are worried about what will happen to our solar system when the sun dies. This photograph shows the Helix Nebula, a dying star that is much like our sun. This picture shows the dying star after a few thousand years, meaning that it has not always looked like this. It is in its final stage of stellar evolution and after this it will either become a black hole or explode into a super nova. It is in the constellation Aquarius and is one of the closest stars to our planet. The whole nebula spans about 6 light years but the middle and most active part of the nebular spans about half. It has a hot, central star that is its core. This complex nebula helps astronomers better understand the life cycles of other stars, including our own.

The Tadpoles of IC 410

This telescopic image shows the faint emission nebula IC 410 in false-colors. It also includes two remarkable inhabitants of the cosmic pond of gas, the tadpoles of IC 410.  The narrow band image data traces atoms in the nebula, with emission from sulfur atoms in red, hydrogen atoms in green, and oxygen in blue. Partly obscured by dust, the nebula itself surrounds NGC 1893, a young galactic cluster of stars that energizes the glowing gas. Composed of denser cooler gas and dust the tadpoles are around 10 light-years long, potentially sites of ongoing star formation. Sculpted by wind and radiation from the cluster stars, their tails trail away from the cluster's central region. IC 410 lies some 12,000 light-years away, toward the constellation Auriga. These tadpoles could be creating a new planet that has the capacity to sustain life because of the rich and organic compounds that can be found in the clouds.