Observations

On October 7th my friends and I went to the area by Casey Key Fish House that you held stargazes at for about an hour in hopes of seeing stars, but the moon was very bright in its waxing gibbous phase. The sky was clear so a few off the stars could be seen but not well enough to determine what they were. I did notice the moon though on this morning of the 29th.

APOD 2.1

This is the APOD from October 23, 2012. These oddly shaped clouds are called Mammatus clouds. They differ from regular clouds by having curved bottoms that are formed by water droplets rising and forming at various heights because of the specific temperatures that correspond. This can create cloud pockets that hold ice or water. These often form when very turbulent storms are near. This picture was taken in Saskatchewan over summer.

Chapter 5 Notes

5.1

• telescope: light bucket that captures photons and focuses them for analysis
• optical telescopes collect what is visible to naked eye; refract and reflect
• refraction: bending of a beam of light as it passes from one transparent medium into another
• refracting telescope: uses lens to gather and concentrate a beam of light
• reflecting telescope: uses curved mirror to focus incoming light
• prime focus: focus of primary mirror
• astronomical telescopes used to make images of field of view
• often magnified by lens to be seen by human eye
• chromatic aberration common problem with refracting telescopes
• some light absorbed which hinders infrared and UV observations
• large lenses can hinder viewing
• Newtonian telescope: light is intercepted before it reaches prime focus and is deflected to side eye piece
• Cassegrain telescope: secondary mirror used to reflect into equipment
• Hubble space telescope still functioning today

5.2

• light gathering power and resolving power have increased over time
• collecting area: total area capable of gathering radiation
• perceived brightness is proportional to area of mirror
• telescopes are much easier to manufacture now
• infrared telescopes are becoming more and more popular
• very large telescope (VLT)  in Chile
• angular resolution aides in distinguishing objects
• diffraction hinders ability to focus on specific objects
• diffraction-limited resolution: best angular resolution of light

5.3

• charge-coupled devices: electronic detectors
• pixels: 2 dimensional array of many tiny picture elements
• CCD chips used in many astronomical telescopes
• more efficient than photo plates
• image processing used to reduce background noise in pictures
• computers help compensate for instruments not available
• large reflectors used o form narrow fields of view
• ccd make telescope basically used as a high power camera
• photometry is brightness
• filters used to limit measured wave lengths
• photometer: measures total amount of light received in field of view
• spectrometer: used to measure spectrum of incoming light
• can be studied in real time or stored on ccd for later usage

Observations

Every morning this week when I leave for school, I looked up and say the moon as a waning crescent and Venus which was always close to it. Thursday night I went out star gazing for about an hour with a friend that had gone to both stargazes so he tried to show me all of the things that was shown at the stargaze Tuesday and Wednesday night.

APOD 1.8

This is the APOD from October 5, 2012. This picture that was taken in September near Tromso in Norway depicts not only the beautiful Northern Aurora light, but also a fire ball. Once it fell to earth it only amounted to the size of a small pebble but it light up the entire mountain side. The high speed that the pebble was falling at accounts for the brightness of the fireball. I love all the colors of this Aurora and the trail left by the fireball adds more to the picture. Surprisingly this coinciding of events happens more often than presumed. 

Johannes Regiomontanus Biography

Johannes Regiomontanus was a well known German mathematician, astrologer, and astronomer. He was born June 6th, 1436 in Unfindan. He went through his schooling at a very advanced level. By the age of 21 he was teaching others. He was Georg von Peurbach’s mentee until his death  in 1461. He traveled around Italy and ended up copying various mathematical and astronomical manuscripts. He was one of the first to use symbolic algebra. During this time he followed around Bessarion and helped him in his studies. He accompanied Bessarion to the Venetian Republic and did some lecturing at the University of Padua. While there he witnessed a total lunar eclipse. Later he moved to In 1471 he moved to Nuremberg and he started the first scientific printing press. He used it to publish he first astronomical text book. He also built an observatory to view the stars and create various instruments. He discovered the relation between the distance between earth and the moon and how that could be applied to navigating on the seas. In 1475 he went to Rome to work with the pope and assist with reforming the calendar. He died July 6th, 1476 of unknown causes. It is believed that he died because of a passing epidemic. After his death his massive volumes of research were discovered. It turned out that he was one of the first to have the theory of heliocentrism. In 1561, Daniel Santbeth published a collection of Regiomontanus’ work. There is a crater on the moon named after him. Much of his work has helped in the study of algebra, astronomy, and trigonometry.

APOD 1.7

This is the APOD fro September 27, 2012. It depicts the constellation of Corona Australis and the surrounding area. There are also some noticeable dust clouds blocking numerous stars. This dust cloud is about 8 light years long.  The beautiful blue light that accompanies this picture is from the reflection of light off of hot stars. The yellow light is coming from the nebula NGC 6729. 

APOD 1.6

This is the APOD from September 29, 2012. This is a picture of NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula. It is often compared to a flower. The "petals" are clouds of space dust and various gases. It is 13,000 light years away near the constellation Cepheus. This picture well depicts the varieties of color in this nebula. This is all surrounding a bright, new star. This picture is mostly blue due to the reflection of light off of the star's dust. This mebula is 6 light years across.

APOD 1.5

This is the APOD from September 26, 2012. It is a picture of the space shuttle being carried by another plane. Due to the end of the space shuttle program, the shuttles are being transported to various locations around America. It was on its way to land at LAX. After arrival, it will be taken through the streets of Los Angeles to the California Science Center. While Endeavour is going to LA, the Enterprise is going to New York City. Both shuttles were taken to iconic sites around their respective cities to take pictures.