APOD 4.1

The Galaxy cluster Abell 2667 has a very curious appearance. The galaxy appears to be stretched like laffy taffy. To start, most of the yellow objects are members of one cluster. Each distorted galaxy is gravitationally lensed by Abell appearing like someone would look though a wine glass. The picture is taken from Hubble telescope.

APOD 4.2

The Barred spiral Galaxy of M95 has a ring around the center. It is one of the larger and closer examples of a barred spiral galaxy. A fancy telescope in Hawaii took this picture. The open clusters, lanes of dark dust, and the diffuse glow of billions of faint stars gives an amazing sight to see. The X-Ray ring surrounding the galaxy is most likely is caused by a recent supernova. Although the ring's stability is yet to be determined, it remains a topic of research. This galaxy is within the boundaries of the constellation Leo, the Lion.

Official Correction

The sentence "We made note of how much larger they are in the sky, then they are on sheets of paper, and star lab." should read "We made note of how much larger they are in the sky than they are on sheets of paper, and star lab."

My good friend Matt Scudder was chilling at my house waiting for a ride home on the night of March 5. We decided to get out of my house(we have a kitchen remodel going on... its very dusty) , so we went into my yard to see who could do the better front flip/handspring. A few minor injuries later, we decided to have an astronomy observing session. There were no clouds, but lots of light pollution. We identified, Gemini, Taurus, Orion, and Canis Major. The stars we identified were castor, pollux, beteljuice, rigel, bellatrix and a few others. Matt pointed out the Hyades, which I never noticed before. I pointed to the obvious star Sirius as it was obnoxiously bright. We were out there from about 7 to 9 identifying stars and arguing over whether or not Taurus had visible horns. We made note of how much larger they are in the sky, then they are on sheets of paper, and star lab. Even though the ratio of size should be the same it just doesn't compare to the real thing. Most other constellations were not visible due to the light pollution. I saw one meteor, and I think Matt saw a few. We never saw the same one though, ironically enough. No mosquito bites, a few bruises(my knee still hurts), and a good observing session.

APOD 3.8

This Photo is from a total lunar eclipse taken from Austria last Saturday. It is a compilation of a short exposure of the moon to expose the features of the moon and a longer exposure of the background stars of Leo. Familiar details of the moon are easy to pick out and the stars are easily spotted, but this would not be the case in real life, as the best of both types of exposures were combined to give such a good photo.

APOD 3.7

This is one of the only planets we have knowledge about that does not orbit the sun. The Spitzer space telescope took these photos to determine if water was existent on the planet. Unfortunately no water was detected on the planet. The indication of life would have been amazing but not likely on this planet. It is the size of Jupiter and extremely close to the star it orbits. The picture is a long term exposure.