Observations

I have started viewing the moon on my way home from work at around 9:10. It is too bright now to see much else in the sky. In the mornings I've seen Venus a few times. There has been a lot of cloud cover though which has made it hard to do.

Sources Quarter 1

"Johann Muller Regiomontanus." Regiomontanus Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2012. <http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Regiomontanus.html>.

"Museo Galileo - Johannes Regiomontanus." Museo Galileo - Johannes Regiomontanus. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2012. <http://catalogue.museogalileo.it/biography/JohannesRegiomontanus.html>.

"Regiomontanus." Starry Messenger: Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2012. <http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/starry/regiomontanus.html>.
Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 11.  Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. p348-352. Word Count: 3493.

Observations

So far this year I have maybe remembered to look up at the sky before I leave about 10 times. I'm usually in a rush because I have to drive other students to shool and I forget. The few times I have looked up, I've seen the moon, Venus, and Jupiter. At night when I've tried to observe with friends, it has been quite the ordeal. Only one time has it been clear. Two of the nights we got kicked ot by cops. One night we saw scorpius and a few other constellations. I think we saw Aquilla.

APOD 1.4

This is the APOD for September 21st, 2012. This picture is depicting some fantastic colors in the sky while being centered around  a tree. The joint showing of the tree and the sky is a nice contrast. The beautiful, flowing colors in the sky are made by what is called the northern/aurora lights. This is a phenomenon that will start occuring ore readily post equinox. The northern lights are, obviously, better looking the more north you are. If you live in the northern states you might be able to see the northern lights once a year. If you live up in alaska or northern canada you will be able to see these beautiful lights alomst every night. This picture also offers a look at some nearby stars including Polaris, Shedar, Kochab, and Altair.

APOD 1.3

This is the APOD for September 13th, 2012. This is a picture of the Cocoon Nebula. The large, eye drawing red and blue section is a where stars are formed. A star forming region can be identified by the red center that contains glowing hydrogen gas and the glowing new blue stars around it. This nebula alone is 15 light years wide and 4,000 light years away. The darker areas that seem to be trailing the glowing center are covering other stars that are newly formed.

APOD 1.2

This is the APOD from September 5th, 2012. In this picture the little and big dipper are drawn out so they can be seen and the main focus of this picture is the green glowing among the stars. When the sky and all other conditions are right, the faint glow can be seen from earth. It is about 90 kilometers away. This can often be seen out in space looking in too. This is caused by very excited atoms that are being influenced by ultraviolet rays. Similar phenomenon can be caused by lightning and aurorae. To even have the possibility of seeing this image you would need a camera with a very wide lens and with a long exposure.

APOD 1.1

This is the APOD from March 26, 2001(my birthday). I found this picture particularly interesting because of the interesting look and color of the stars. They are like that because the focus of this picture was Haley's Comet. At this time in 2001 Haley's comet was still spewing gas and going along despite many others opinions. It is assumed to have a diameter of 50 kilometers which could possibly account for its longevity. The reason the stars look so stretched out is because this picture was exposed 14 times and each was centered on the comet and not the surrounding stars.