Astronomy

2006-05-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sunspot 875 Flares

An peculiar new sun spot is now making its way across the sun. The sun spot is identified as 875. This regios is larger than earth and is producing huges solar flares. It will only take a few more days for this sun spot to cover the entire face of the sun. Sun spots are hge regions of lower temperatures usually around 4000-4500 K compared to its surround which is at a temperature of 5700K. Also visible within the image is harmless C-class flare. These prominences are small and has little effect on earth. X-class flares are the largest of the sun's solar prominences. It can cause world wide blackout of radio and long-lasting radiation storms.

2006-04-28T06:12:00.000-07:00

Star Clouds over Arizona

The clouds located in the left side of the image are a photogenic deck of Earth-based water clouds composed of ice crystals reflecting the last of the sun's rays as it sets. Behind these clouds are interstellar clouds located with our own galaxy. Billions of stars live there rotation our galaxy once every 200 million years. The upper right part of the image also shows brightly lit jupiter. The image was taken in Phoenix, Arizona.

2006-04-21T06:01:00.000-07:00

NGC 253: Dusty Island Universe

NGC 253 is sometimes referred to as the Silver Dollar Galaxy. This is one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible. Caroline Herschel first discovered this galaxy from mathematical calculations. This constellation lies 10 million light years away at the southern tip of Scultpor. NGC 253 is the is largest member of the sculptor's galaxies at 70 thousand light years and is the nearest to our own local galaxies. Tendrils of dust seem to be rising along the spiral lanes located within the galaxy. Becuase of the ample amount of dust within the galaxy, NGC 253 is a starburst galaxy promoting the creation of new stars. A black hole, near the center of the galaxy is the cause of high x-rays emitting from this galaxy.

2006-04-13T06:07:00.000-07:00

A Sun Halo over Utah

A sun halo is a common sight around the sun. The cause is due to high cirus clouds that contain many ice cristals. When light hits these cristals, it diffracts by a measurement of twenty-two degrees because of the hexogonal shape of the cristals. At a height of 20,000 feet, the diffracted light creates a halo around the sun. These light halos are even visible around the moon.

2006-04-07T06:13:00.000-07:00

Stars and Dust Across Corona Australis

This wide field telescopic vista is looking toward the constellation Corona Australis. The image is approximately 500 light years away and blocks many of the distant background stars of the Milky Way. The darkest part of the stellar dust is about 8 light years long. At the lower left part of the doark dust region lies the nebulae cataloged as NGC 6726, 6727, 6729 and IC 4812. The blue color is due to the high temperature of the stars and its reflection off the dust particles. About 30,000 light years beyond the interstellar dust cloud lies the zodiacal constellation Sagittarius.

2006-03-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

Inflating the Universe
Our universe is still expanding every since its beginning at the "big bang". Scientists believe, however, that our universe's initial expansion began at a growth almost impossible to comprehend. The universe's inital rate of expansion was one trillionth of a second in quantum scale flutuations. This theory was first proposed by Alexander Friedmann in 1922 and was attacked be serious criticism by Albert Einstein. It was not until later that Eistein retracted his statement on the basis that under the equations of general relativity which do allow for an expanding universe. Today the evidence in favor of this theory is mounting especially with the three years of research the WMAP spacecraft has been collecting. The spacecraft detects cosmic microwave radiation, which is the after glow light of the early universe. The image traces the 13.7 billion years of the universe including its trillionth of a second beginning.

2006-03-17T05:58:00.000-08:00

CG4: A Ruptured Cometary Globule

The center image shows a gas comentary globule. Comentary globules are areas where intersellar material is collpasing to form stars. This particular globule has ruptured. Characterizing comentary globules is dont by looking at dusty heads and long tails similar to comets. However, these globules will eventually collapse to form new stars and usually have many heads as opposed to a comets singular head. The galaxy to the left is happens to be placed near the comentary globule by chance. The reason for the heads rupture in globules is unknown.

2006-03-10T05:54:00.000-08:00

Trio Leo

M65, M 66 and NGC 3628 compose the Leo Triplet. All three are large spiral galaxies located within the constellation Leo. NGC 3628 can be seen on edge while the others are angled for a better bird's eye view and can show off their spiral structure. NGC 3628 even shows warping cause by gravitaional interactions between these galaxies. This image spans one degree, equivalent to two full moons, and 500 thousand light years 30 million light years away.

2006-03-07T14:17:00.000-08:00

Pine View Astronomy Night
March 4, 2006
1900-2100 hrs

Pine View access road behind the Astronomy classroom.

Weather: Cloudless sky with moon in its cressent form.

Objects viewed:
M objects: M1, M35, M36, M37, M38, M41, M44, M45
Saturn and its four moons: Rhea, Titan, Iapetus, Dione
Mercury
Pleides
Moon's surface features including: marias, double impact craters, craters
Constellations: Orion, Auriga, Taurus, Lepus, Columba, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Gemini, Ursa Major, Carina, Casseopia, Monoseros, Cancer
Stars: Polaris, Castor, Pollux, Rigel, Beteleguese, Bellatrix, Canopus, Capella, Procyon, Aldebren

Activities: During our observations we compared star clusters by number and by luminosity. M35 in the constellation Gemini was one of the brightes and most dense of the star clusters viewed.

2006-03-03T06:09:00.000-08:00

Inside the Eagle Nebula

The Eagle Nebula gets it shape due to the intersellar medium blocking the full view of the nebula. Within the image there are round globules tall pillars and molecular gas. Several young bright stars are forming in this region helping to push away the intersellar dust that is blocking the light form much of the nubula. M16, The Eagle Nebula's emmission nebula is located about 6500 light years away and spans about twenty light years. Also being formed in this image are open clusters of stars being formed. This image was taken by the .9 Meter telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona.

2006-02-24T05:58:00.000-08:00

Recurrent Nova RS Ophiuci

Last weeek, the start RS Ophiuci was visible to the naked eye. An occurrence that hasnt happened since 1985. RS Ophiuci is in the constellation Ophiucus and it is type of cataclysmic variable star classified as a recurrent nova. Before its naked eye visibility, RS Ophiuci had a magnitude of 11, barely visible to the naked eye. Since 1898 RS Ophiucus hsa gone through four similar outbursts. The cause of the changing mangitude is due to the fact that it is part of an interacting binary. In the binary system there is a white dwarf star with an expanding red giant star. As the red giant throws off material it falls upon the white dwarf star. Once the buildup becomes great enough the white dwarf will give off a rapid release of energy through nuclear burning. Currently the release of energy is slowly down and RS Ophiucus will return to its magnitude 11.

2006-02-17T19:45:00.000-08:00

Phoebe: Comet Moon of Saturn

Once thought to be a comet, Phoebe is now captured by Jupiter's orbit. Cassinni, who fly by the planet in 2004, supported this notion because of Phoebe's eccentric, retorgrade orbit. This could only mean that the current moon was once before a comet or Kuiper Belt Object. Cassinni's data also reported CO2 trapped wthin the rocks making Phoebe chemically similar to Pluto and Triton. Phoebe's irregular surface structures also supports the theory that its origin is from outer space. The image also depicts some of Phoebe's structures including craters, streaks, and layered deposits of light and dark material. Phoebe is apporximately 220 kilometers in diameter or 137 miles.

2006-02-14T14:40:00.000-08:00

Personal Observation
14 February 2006
2000-2100hrs
Nokomis Beach

Weather: Sky relatively clear with few passing clouds. Eastern and Northeastern sky obscured by city lights.

Constellations identified: Orion, Taurus, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Monoceros, Auriga, Columba.

Stars: Procyon, Sirius, Bellatrix, Rigel, Beteleguese, Capella.

No meteors were observed this evening.

2006-02-10T17:48:00.000-08:00

A Sun Pillar in Red and Violet

This image was taken by two amateur photographers that noticed the strange pink column of light during sunset. The two photographed the image near Lake Tahoe in February of 2000. A sun pillar is a vertical shaft of light extending upward or downward from the sun. Typically seen during sunrise or sunset, sun pillars form when sunlight reflects off the surfaces of falling ice crystals associated with thin, high-level clouds like cirrostratus clouds.

2006-02-03T16:32:00.000-08:00

NGC 1999: South of Orion

Located two degrees south of the Orion Nebula lies NGC 1999 and close to Orions M42. This is a classic example of a relfection nebula lit by the sole star V380 Orionis. The star is centrally located and about one third of the way in the nebula. V380 Orionis is a pre-main sequence B9 white star known as a Herbig Be star. It has a mass 3.5 times that of our sun. The color is due to the lights affect on the interstellar dust. Also located in the image are Bok Globules which are dark clouds of dense dust and gas in which star formation is sometimes taking place. Bok globules were first observed by astronomer Bart Bok in the 1940s. Bok Globules are known to be some of the coldest objects in the natural universe sometimes at three kelvin. Stellar jets are also visible, pushing materials at speeds of hundres of kilometers per second.

2006-01-27T16:20:00.000-08:00

New Horizons Launches to Pluto

Launched from NASA headquarters in Cape Canaveral, the New Horizons spacecraft began its nine year journey to our most distant planet Pluto. Withing nine hours of its launched it reach the moon and it is expected to reach the gas giant in the year 2007. New Horizons is one of the fasted spacecraft ever built, using an Atlas V 551 rocket, with a Boeing Star 48B third stage rocket to increase its heliocentric escape speed. The craft can attain speeds of over 75,000 kilometers per hour and will fly within 10,000 kilometers of Pluto. Pluto is the only remaing planet not to have had close up images. Scientists hope this mission will uncover many of the mysteries concering the planet. Once New Horizons passes Pluto is will also visit other Kuiper Belt Objects.

2006-01-20T05:59:00.000-08:00

Sombero Galaxy from the HST

The Hubble Space Telescope's unique position above our earth's atmosphere allows for astronomers to look further and more clearly into space. The image is of the Sombero Galaxy located near the constellation Virgo. IN the image, you can see M104 and globular clusters located within the disk like galaxy. The Sombero galaxy was one of the first found with a large red shift and the light we see from this galaxy is over fifty-million years old. At the center of the Sombero galaxy, astronomers believe there exists a black hole. Dust lanes are visibly present, blocking out the light from stars behind it.

2006-01-13T05:51:00.000-08:00

The Galactic Center

Astronomers using the infrared cameras onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope were able to remove most of the dust and planetary gases to reveal the stars surrounding the Milky Way's galactic center. Visible in this image are many young stars forming in stellar nurseries. From our view from earth, the region of space that contains the Milky Way's center is the constellation Sagittarius and from earth the galactice center is approximately 26,000 light-years away. The galactic center is a place of star formation and intense gravity fields. Located at the very center of the glactic field is a massive black hole that every in our universe revolves around. The mass of the black hole is about two million times the mass of our own sun.

2006-01-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

Hydrogen and Dust in the Rosette Nebula

Located at the edge of the Monocerosmolecular cloud lies the Hydrogen and dust cloud in the Rosette Nebula. The Monoceroes R2 cloud is unique to other cloud formations becase it is not producing stars at the same rate or mass as clouds in the Orion clouds. This area of cloud formation suggests the emergence of a new star within this area. Stellar winds sculpt and organize the clouds of dust and hydrogen to eventually become star. Ultrivolent radiation strips the electrons from hydrogen causing it to become ionized. This in turn makes the clouds appear red because hydrogen-alpha is the most prominent emission line in the spectrum.

2005-12-09T12:05:00.000-08:00

Close up of the Haleakala Observatories

While touring the Island of Maui we headed up the Haleakala volcano and got a close to the observatories on top. The volcano is known as the "sacred house of the sun," but scientists enjoy the dark evenings and the 10,000 foot elevation which allows observers to get above much of the earth's atmosphere. Grote Reber announced the importance of the site for observation in the spring of 1951 because it was easier to access than the higher Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea located on the big island of Hawaii. Scientists use this site not only for stellar observations but also to view earth's man-made satellites including the space station.

2005-12-09T09:05:00.000-08:00

Proxima Centauri: The Closest Star

This image shows earth's closest star Alpha Centauri at 4.22 light-years away. Alpha Centauri is part of the Alpha Centauri triple star system, which consists of the binary Apha Centauri A and B and Proxima Centauri. This star is a red dwarf with only 10% the sun's mass and 0.006% of its luminosity. Robert T. A. was the finder of the star in 1915. The star is named after Rigel Kentaurus, which means "foot of the centaur." Alpha Centauri A is the third brightest star in our sky but is most visible in the Southern Heimisphere. Due to the similarities between Alpha Centauri A and our own sun scientists speculate that it would have a planetary system close to ours, which could contain life.

2005-12-02T09:15:00.000-08:00

Simeis 147: Supernova Remnant from Palomar

This image is the remnants of the supernove in Taurus. Supernova's are the most violent events in the universe and usually occur every fifty years. Two types of supernovas exist. Type II is when a massive star explodes, while type Ia is when a white dwarf collapses in on itself when it pulls in too much material forming a neutron star. This particular super nova is a Type II and spands about three degrees across our sky, almost six moons. Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS II) captured the image usesing blue and red colored bands. The age of the light hitting use is over 100,000 year old and is about 30,000 light years away from earth. Left behind is a neutron star or pulsar where the center of the original star lay.

2005-11-18T09:19:00.000-08:00

Lunation

The moon may appear to show the same face every night but every so often we are able to view part of the dark side of the moon. During a complete lunar cycle, the moon is eclipsing and because it has a elliptical orbit it wobbles. This allows astronomers to view a slight sliver of either side of the moon. About 59% of the moon can be visible through one lunar cycle. The wobble effect is called a libation. Libations occur because of the eccentricity of the orbit as well as the variation of speed due to Kepler's Laws of planetary motion. A lunation takes approximately 29.5 days in order to complete a cycle.

2005-11-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

Aurora From Space

This image was captured by Space Officer Don Pettit aboard the International Space Station. The space station has a great view of auroras from space, sometimes passing over the norther lights while other times throught them. Officer Pettit described the auroras as giant green ameobas stretching out across the sky. Also located in the picture is the Manicouagan Impact crater in Norther Canada. This crater was formed about 200 million year ago when a meteorite hit the earth. Glacier activity has worn away much of the crater but underlying hard rock has preserved much of it.

2005-11-05T16:52:00.000-08:00

November 5th, 2005
6:00-6:45p.m.

Small groups of clouds located randomly in the sky. Cloud cover particularly covering the setting sun.

To the Southwest is the planet Venus. A little below and Southward is the moon in the waxing crescent phase. The outline of the dark area of the moon is clearly visible. Mercury wasn't favorable for observation due to the clouds covering the setting sun.

2005-11-04T15:40:00.000-08:00

Possible Pluto Moons

Pluto system may be the first known quadriple Kuiper belt object. The system consists of Pluto, Charon, and two newly discovered objects temporarily named S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2. In February these objects will be confirmed using the Hubble Telescope. The Kuiper Belt is the region of space extending beyong Neptune and in 1930 Pluto was the first discoverd in this area. Lying more than three billion miles from the sun, Pluto is in the center of the Kuiper Belt. Charon wasn't discovered until 1978 and is the second object found in the Kuiper Belt. Scientists believe that they Kuiper Belt may have more than one moon, which will effect the modeling of the Pluto System. The two possible new moons of Pluto orbit in a counter-clockwise direction about 44,000km from the planet.

2005-10-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

The Last Titan

The Titan project came to an end October 19 when the last Titan rocket launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Titan project was initially operated by the US National Reconnaissance Department and was to be use for intercontinetal balistic missiles. The project later took a more scientific approach and has been responsible for many famous missions like Gemini, Viking, Voyager and Cassini. As of this year the Titan IV rocket is the largest flying object as well as the most expesive one. Also accredited the the Titan projects, Cassini probe Huygens is the furthest landed object and the Voyager I is still humanities most distant spacecraft.

2005-10-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

Ringside

Saturn's rings, who were first discoverd by Galileo, are composed of seven different main inner rings and many outer rings. The outer rings are less prominient than the inner rings. Many of the rings are made of small drifting debris of icy material caught arounnd Saturn's gravitational field. The chunks are small in diameter and are in frequent collision with each other. The rings were once believed to have formed from the debris of a moon broke up due a catastrophic event but recent evidence suggests that they were formed otherwise. It is believed that the rings were formed by debris during Saturn's formation and because the objects are within the "Roche limit" they couldn't form into a planet and gravity caused them to flatten in a plane. Dione is visible in the in front of the gas giant which has a diameter of 1,100km. This moon is named after the mother of Aphrodite.

2005-10-14T06:05:00.000-07:00

Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka

In orion's belt are the three super-giants Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. All the giants are 1,500 light years away and range from 20,000 to 40,000 times the brightness of the sun. The wite-blue color appearance is due to the extreme temperatures (60,000 F). Also located near these stars are the Horse Head nebula and the Flame nebula near Alnitak. These formations are formed by the drifting clouds of dust and gas. The image was taken by the Samual Oschin Telescope which was responsible for the discovery of the tenth planet. The site of the telescope is at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, CA.

2005-10-08T22:18:00.000-07:00

Saturday October 8th, 2005

After a few straight days of rain, the night sky cleared up with only a few clouds visible near the horizon in the East. Visibility was marginal, about a 5 out of 10. City lights blocked out many of the stars two objects were easily visible after sunset. One of the objects was the moon in the Southwest in the waxing cresent phase. The surface of the moon took a yellowish color. The other object in the vicinity was above and to the right of the moon. I haven't been able to identify which planet this could be. Possibly Venus? No meteorites were spotted during my obvserving session.

2005-10-07T05:52:00.000-07:00

Magma Bubbles from Mt. Etna

Mt. Etna is one of earth's most active volcanoes located in Sicily, Italy. The eruptions from the volcano can produce huge gas rings and generate massive valcano plumes. In the image there are meter wide bubbles, spewing hot gases trapped underneath. One reason for astronomer's interest in the earthly volcano is because it could be similar to the volcanoes located on Mars. Mt. Etna is a basalt volcano with distint characteristics. It is a hard, black rock with less than 52 weight percent silica, which means the lava has low viscosity. These types of volcanoes are dangerous because the lave moves quickly and can travel large distances. An advantage of the low-viscosity is that the gases can escape easily from the lava unlike high-viscosity lava which may produce gigantic eruption columns. Astronomers believes that the composites of the lave here on Mt. Etna and Mars are similar and that they create similar lava channels. Mt. Etna is also one of the largest volcanoes on earth at three kilometers high and fifty kilometers wide.

2005-09-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

IC 1396

The star forming region of IC 1396, an emission nebuale, is the focus of this week's image. Glowing hydrogen gas is visible with dust lanes cutting acorss the gas forming black parts of the cloud. IC 1396 is located over 2,ooo light years from earth but its location is near the constellation Cepheus. Inside IC 1396 there is the winding nebula of the Elephants Trunk, which is formed my and energetic young star that is eating the gas around it creating this interesting structure. These small stars us the large amounts of Ultraviolet light to strip electrons from the surrounding hydrogen gas making IC 1396 appear red. The other length of IC 1396 is over 20 light years.

2005-09-23T05:56:00.000-07:00

M1: The Crab Nebula from NOT

The Crab Nebula is the result of a spuernova that ocurred in 1054A.D. Chinese observationists viewd the spuernova during July 4th of 1054A.D. and suggested that a new star was forming. The nebula wasn't discoverd again till the year 1731 by a British observer John Bevis. The image shows the large number of filaments that were expelled during the explosion. An interesting note about the filaments is that it appears that less mass was expelled than during the original supernova. The image was taken by the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) which views objects in optical and infrared settings. The structure of the nebual consists of a pulsar star, which is as massive as the sun but only the size of a small town and the entire nebula spans over ten light years. The pulsar star rotates about thirty times each second.

2005-09-16T09:05:00.000-07:00

Northern Lights; September Skies
On Spetember seventh, one of the brightest solar flares in the history of our studies occurred on the the Sun's eastern limb. The flare, known as an "x-flare," caused shortwave radio blackouts on earth. In the days following the first flare, the same x-flare exploded eigtht more times. The blasts also sent magnetic clouds here on earth, which made auroras visible as far south as Arizona. The attached picture was taken in Canada using a fished eye lens. Also visible in this image is the planet Mars in the above center left and the star cluster Pleiades below and to the right of Mars. Auroras usually occur one hundred kilometers above the earth's surface.

2005-09-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday September 15, 2005

Visibility in the night sky was good with a few clouds. However, due to the stage of the moon and the dome of the city lights, many stars were diffucult to see and meteorites were almost impossible.

The moon was visible almost at its Full Moon stage and I viewed the surface looking for interesting structures.

2005-09-09T06:03:00.000-07:00

IC 1396 is an emission nebula in the constellation of Cepheus, whose common name takes after Greek mythology as the king. An emmission nebula is an area of high temperature gas that gives off radiation as it cools to a lower energy state, giving off spectacular colors. These areas are mostly sites of new star formations. The brightest star in this constellation is the blue star HD 206267. Dark cloud nebula are also visible in the picture. The most famous of the Barnard nebula being the Snake Nebula, aslo known as the Barnard 72. Darks clouds are obscure areas of dust and gas block the stars behind them making them appear like holes in the night sky. Barnard's nebula are possible areas of new star development.

2005-09-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

The weather cooperated tonight and I was able to view the stars in the night sky. Jupiter and Venus were visible in their positions low to the horizon. I was able to locate scorpio, sagitarius, and Corona Australis. The other constellations were difficult to determine. During my observations, I spotted a meteorite. It was fairly small and had a blue color to it. I also noticed that some of the stars twinkled. My first thought of reasoning was there were clouds interferring with it. However, the sky was clear. What other reasons could account for this?

2005-09-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

Crepuscular Rays Over Utah

A streak sunrise was observed in Kanab, UT. This phenomena is caused by clouds near the horizon blocking sunlight forming streaks across the sky. This forms crespus rays which are also known as Buddah's fingers, ropes of Maui and sun drawing water. The key to this formation is a shadow. The shadow breaks the sunlight in the darken areas inside the shadow and lighted areas outside. The overal effect of this is reaving the rays of the sun's light. Crepuscular rays also create another effect 180 degrees on the other side of the earth where the sun it setting. Due to the spherical shape of our sky, the crepuscular rays converge at the other end of the earth forming anitcrepuscular rays. These can only be view when looking away from the setting sun.

2005-08-29T20:46:00.000-07:00

Monday August 29, 2005 8:46pm

To the Southwest are the planets Jupiter and Venus. Venus is the brightest of the two planets and is located closer to the horizon than Jupiter. Jupiter's position relative to Venus is at 11 o'clock using 6 o'clock as the direction towards the horizon and 12 o'clock the dircection perpendicular to the horizon. The seperation distance between them is from the top of my thumb to the knuckle at an arms length away. Further observations to follow.

2005-08-26T06:14:00.000-07:00

Last month, the International Space Station was vistited by the American space shuttle Discovery to supply and work on our largest man made object to orbit earth. The ISS was constructed through a series of missions due to the fact that it would be impossible to send it all up at once. Onboard, are an American and Russian that for the Expedition 11 Crew. By the end of this flight mission Commander Sergei Krikalev of Russia will have spent more time in space than any other human being.

2005-08-22T06:14:00.000-07:00

Desolate Mars: Rub al Khali
The mars rover Opportunity took a break from its work and snapped an image of the martian landscape. The site was located two kilometers south of the Endurance Crater, which may hold clues of a watery Mars past. The image was named the Rub Al Kahli because it is similar to the barren landscape of the Saudi Arabian Desert. The image also shows the track made by Opportunity. It took over one hundred images and three different colors in order to produce this image for our observation. A full high-resolution image would take more than three hundred computer monitors.