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.

Visual Magnitude Estimates Exercise

While attempting to estimate the apparent magnitudes of stars located in orion, canis minor, canis major and Taurus, I used several reference stars. The most useful of which were Beta Aurigae and Eta Canis Majorum. The conditions for viewing were excellent, however, trying to read a paper and then look up at the sky was rather difficult. I found that I wanted to use other reference stars then the ones given and was rather annoyed at trying to find the few ones that were given magnitudes. Sirius is really bright, and I missed venus by a few hours, considering it was around 9:00pm.

APOD 3.6

The Dust and Helix Nebula has a truly amazing appearance. It is only 700 light years away in the constellation Aquarius. The cloud of dust and gas around a central white dwarf is an excellent example of a planetary nebula. The infrared radiation emits from the nebula making the pattern that appears to be an eye. This is what you get after a Star goes nova. The smoke after the Explosion is just as beautiful as the Explosion itself.

Apod 3.5

NGC 2685 is a Polar Ring Galaxy. It is a rare type of galaxy with stars, gas and dust orbiting in rings perpendicular to the plane of a flat galactic disk. The bizarre configuration could be caused by the capture of random material not originally in the galaxy. The view is really amazing, but like most APOD's it is not visible with the naked eye. The perpendicular rings are easy to trace in the Constellation Ursa Major.

Planetary Nebulae

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_nebula

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/P/planneb.html

http://www.seds.org/messier/planetar.html

http://www.nightskyinfo.com/planetary_nebulae/

http://www.news-about-space.org/story/2556.html

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2001/1220/index.html

Apod 3.4

Potlemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel are 3 large impact craters that lie on the northeastern shores of Mare Nubium. The lunar sea of clouds is shown on nearly the entire picture. Careful examination also reveals the straight wall, a fault and the davy crater chain. overall the striking moonscape is similar to those recorded by ranger 9. There are small mountains in the center of the larger craters that are from impact.