Apod Blog 2.1

Just recently learning about telescopes, I was pondering for a good amount of time and chose this picture. Perhaps some stars in the picture are perceived differently than they appear. Looking through a an infrared telescope it could be blatant to you that even though some stars are not as bright as others they can be allot more hotter. Being theoretical of course, this Galaxy's white spots ( which of course be separate galaxies) could be faded away with looking through an ultraviolet telescope allowing your eyes to perceive it as you could the ultraviolet waves. This was just a theoretical post, and wanted to alert you readers that things can me viewed entirely differently with the tools you are using.

Observation BLOG UNO ( SEPT. 15-21)

On Monday, the moon at 10:03 pm rose under the horn tip of Taurus,

On Tuesday  I noticed this really bright star, it turned out to be Arcturus, also to its northwest  was the big dipper. This was taken at roughyl 6:12pm

On Friday early in the morning at 7:28 Jupiter was shining in the upper left of the waning moon in the east.

Observation Blog #2 (Sept, 22-28)

On Tuesday at around 6:32pm  Arcturus was on its way due west, I also noticed that to the right of it was the Big Dipper!

On Wednesday Mars was 4 degrees of Antares  passing north of it, i noticed this observation at  6:21pm

On Thurday fall was coming and I noticed  Deneb  slowly but surely taking Vega's place as the brightest star at the zenith. This observation was taken at 7:06 pm.

For my final observation for this week we have Fomalhaut moving its way from the southeast of the horizon. Taken on Friday at 8:22pm

Observation Blog 3 (Sep 29th - Oct 5th)

On Monday at around  6:37 pm the waxing crescent moon was above Antares and Mars. Which was a cool observation, that i can compare to my later ones throughout the week.

On Thurday Above the moon (8:37 pm),  the two stars Denib and Vega of the summer triangle were  crossing the Zenith.

For my last and final entry for this week at 8:02 pm Fomalhaut was moving from the southeast of the horizon moving up. In comparison of the moon it was located in the lower left of the moon.

Apod Blog 1.8

Aurora's like this rarely reach below 60 kilometers and this one has reached this point. This beautiful affect is caused by energetic electrons and protons striking atoms and molecules in the Earth's atmosphere. This occurred last month in Kvaloya, Tromso, and Norway. The effect creating in the middle is called the auroral corona. This corona affect only occures if the aurora is forming directly overhead, and it creates this green light show that appears to be coming straight at you. I personally have never seen one in real life, but i would imagine it would be a phenomenal experience to do so.

Astronomy Observation Blog #4

On October 8th I managed to see a lunar eclipse at approximately 6:23AM where it peaked in its beauty. It was a total lunar eclipse, similar to the month matching the orange to red hue's it produced just like in fall compared to the leaves that are produced in that time period. It was the first time ever for me to take a glimpse at the total lunar eclipse, and I can't wait for this next one.

Stefan Jen

Mr. Percival

Astronomy

10/10/14

Pierre Gassandi Biography

Pierre Gassandi was born on June 22, 1592 in Champtercier, France. In his early life he was a bright kid, and would help change the views of the astronomy world. He studied at University of Digne Aix-en-Provence. At the age of 21 he was later appointed professor, and later that year received a doctorate in theology at Avignon. Being a professor, he delivered many speeches on the flawed teachings of Aristotle. The University disliked this, and after 5 years of teaching, a Jesuit, a member of Society of Jesus which was a highly esteemed religious order who were highly feared of, forced him to leave. This was because the Jesuit’s disliked Gassandi’s teaching of atoms, and was against the church. After that incident Gassandi traveled to Europe and stayed there for many years, trying to put down Aristotle. Gassandi started to read the works of Epicurus, and his philosophies on the motion of atoms in the world. However Epicurus, the man Pierre Gassandi looked up to, was on the top of the church’s hit list. Mainly for teaching and bringing up ideas that wasn’t the norm, such has the motion of atoms and how they exist even though they cannot be seen with the naked eye. Gassandi had managed to separate the god and the cosmos apart as they are completely different beliefs, unlike Epicurus who struggled to do so and resulted in him being punished greatly. He did this by modifying atomism so that it did not interfere with the church, by stating that god created these atoms. This was extremely smart, so that he could go on teaching atomism and not be harmed for it. Later in his life he went on to study with his Patron, Nicolaus-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, Sadly he died in 1637. With his assistance he had actually managed to discover the perihelion of Mercury. In 1645 Gassandi was appointed to be a professor of mathematics at the college Royal’ in Paris.  During his time there he managed to a work on the new astronomy. In his final Epicurean work, Syntagma philosophicum he argued between skepticism and dogmatism (which is laying down principles without any hard evidence to back it up.) The man did this by using induction Gassandi induced a lot to explain phenomenons. Epicurus’s theories were actually a very effective way of proving against Aristotle who thought the Earth was made of the four simple elements which were earth, fire, water, and air. Which during their time period sounds the most realistic, as proving that atoms existed was extremely hard to do so. Gassandi responded to Aristotle’s theory, stating that even though no one can see an atom, one can infer their existence with the human senses and observations. Such as noticing the invisible motion that makes branches sway back and forth, or as one can smell a certain material before actually seeing the object that is emitting the scent. Another example he theorized is that sweat suggests that there are pores in the skin for sweat to be able to exit your skin. For these actions to occur it only leads to that there is an atomic world too small to be seen. His crafting of these theories, which was expanded upon by Epicurus, lead up to be called atomism. This was in theory that atoms were moving at different speeds and colliding to create events that occur in our everyday world. Gassandi died on October 24, 1655. Later after his death an edition of all of complete works were published. Even though no one had believed him at his time, just bringing up the idea of atomism lead to other scholars to create laws that would eventually be accepted by society. This one scholar that most attributed from Gassandi’s works was the ever so famous Sir Isaac Newton.  

Works Cited:

• "Pierre Gassandi." Pierre Gassandi's Major highlights. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=fl_sarhs&tabID=T003&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=2&contentSet=GALE%7CCX3408501382&&docId=GALE|CX3408501382&docType=GALE>.
  Copy & Paste | Parenthetical
• "Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655)." Gassendi. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. <http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/gassendi.html>.
  Copy & Paste | Parenthetical
• Popkin, Richard. "Pierre Gassendi (French mathematician, philosopher, and scientist)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/226651/Pierre-Gassendi>.

Apod 1.7

Eclipse at Moonset

This was taken near the Chilean coast on October 8th a rare picture to capture and just looks phenomenal. Here a lunar eclipse is occurring whilst the sun is setting. creating a seeming-less picture of a partial lunar eclipse and the sun being set upon. The moon is actually being completely shadowed by Earth, creating a lunar eclipse. This causes the light waves to react with Earth's atmosphere and create a crimson-ish  color effect. Before ever seeing this photo i thought this was impossible, a combination of a lunar-eclipse and the sun setting?! However, i now understand the fundamentals in which that makes this rare event occur. While the sun is setting, a lunar eclipse is occurring as well being overshadowed by earth creating this beautiful picture.

APOD 1.6 OR NAWH

This right here is the beautiful Butterfly Nebula, that was taken by the Hubble telescope. This nebula has a WINGSPAN ( get it, butterfly, hah...) of over 3 light years. The central star of this nebula had become extremely hot, with around a surface temperature of 250,000 degrees C. However this isn't the exact colors of the nebula itself, it was reprocessed to show its true colors and beauty. You can see the ionized gas exquisitley here, as the dust torus surrounding the central star. This nebula lies around 4000 light years away in the constellation of scorpius. When first reading about the "Butterfly Nebula" i didn't expect this, a mix of stars and gasses that create vibrant colors to the eye in the form of a butterfly!?!  It is just crazy how these images form. No way in my lifetime, would i expect to see these creations formed by matter in space.