Observations!

Apod 4.6

Hot blue stars form while the red stars aswell. It is very beautiful magnificent sight!!

4.8 APOD

A very beatiful galaxy about 60 million light years away

Apod 4.7

It was one of the quietest nights of aurora in weeks. Even so, in northern- Iceland during last November, faint auroras lit up the sky every clear night

In aproxximately 12000 years Vega will have moved positions and look like this

Apod 4.5

As the 3-km wide comet moves closer to the Sun, heat causes the nucleus to expel gas and dust. The Rosetta spacecraft arrived at the comet's craggily double nucleus last July and now is co-orbiting the Sun with the giant dark iceberg. Recent analysis of data beamed back to Earth from the robotic Rosetta spacecraft has shown that water being expelled by 67P has a significant difference with water on Earth, indicating that Earth's water could not have originated from ancient collisions with comets like 67P

This picture shows how massive the sun is compared to Earth. Over a  million Earth's could fit inside the Sun, it is just crazy and blows my mind every time i think about it.

4.3

One of the most brightest galaxies visible from the northern hemispheres, this colorful image shows off the red light this galaxy gives off.

Apod 4.4

It is amazing someone was able to capture this moment, i find it even more impressive this person was able to get to the area in such harsh conditions. Here we have the milky-way above an erupting volcano, most-likely one of the most rarest setting for an astronomer to look at.

APOD 4.2

April fools, a time where people can rejoice and make harmless jokes. Here we have quite one aswell, scientists have created a cow suit so they can achieve their life long dream of grazing on the moon

Apod 4.1

We have yet to learn about about the constellation shown in his photo, camelopardalis. It looks absolutely stunning and can't wait to learn more about this constellation

Observation post 3.5-3.7

On Thurday 2/19 at 7:49pm  I observed the moon with Venus right next to i!

On Friday   2/20 at 9:56pm I went out and look at the beatific moon which was just awe-inspiring.

Apod 3.8

I admire the little things in life and this is one of them. An aurora in someone's back-yard is just amazing

Observation Blog 3.8

Last night (3/22) the moon was a crescent and noticed Venus right next to the moon

On Monday 3/23 the sun in the morning was just beautiful, giving off  a crimson bright light, was very aesthetically appealing.

Apod 3.7

Do you know what this is? It is a Dust Devil on Mars, which is a small whirlwind or air vortex over land, visible as a column of dust and debris. We started track this storm back in 2012, and now it's really picked up. It's plume reaches about 20km  above the surface  and has speeds up to 110km per hour. It is just insane, a dust devil on mars mengaroo.

Henry Draper Biography

1839 March 3rd, Henry Draper was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia. Henry Draper was born in a wealthy family, and was grateful for that his whole life. His father John William Draper was a well-established doctor and chemist at New-York University. Draper's mother was the former Antonia Coetana de Paiva Pereira Gardner. His family moved to New York when he was at the age of two.He was stimulated by his parent's amazing work. Henry Draper was stimulated by his parent's work. He pursued excellence and innovation, and even though he worked in the medical field, as did his father and brother, he actually desired to be an astronomer. He was  Henry Draper was a NAS member, medical doctor, and one of America's oustanding "amateur" scientists. In 1857, at age 20 he graduated  from New York University School of Medicine. Later he worked as a physician at Bellevue hospital. Then after working as a physician, he went on to become a professor and a dean of medicine at New York University. However he wanted to pursue astronomy, and became  one of the biggest pioneer's of astrophotography, and he specialized in a type of photography for recording images  of astronomical objects in the sky. Henry Draper married Anna Mary Palmer in 1867, and proved to be an excellent assistant to him and a hostess. In 1872 he took a stellar spectrum that showed absorption lines and many of his colleagues preceded him. One year later he resigned from his position at the medical department to continue in his own research on astrophotography. Another year later he directed an expedition to capture the transit of Venus and was the first person to photograph the Orion Nebula. Some of his more notable achievements and awards include: an honorary law of degree, a Congressional medal for directing the U.S. expedition to photograph the 1874 transit of Venus, and even having a small lunar crater named after him. In the fall of 1882 he resigned as a professor, so that he ensured himself free time to pursue in his studies. He embarked on a hunting trip two months later and was exposed to severe cold on the mountain. Five days later he died (1882) from a disease called pleurisy,which is a lung infection. After his death Henry's wife funded the Henry Draper medal in honor of his outstanding contributions to the astronomy world. Around 40 years later after his death, the Henry Draper Catalogue was created  giving spectroscopic classification for 225,000 stars and even later extended  in 1937 classifying over 350,000 stars! Henry Draper was a major contribution to the astrophysics world, and it would not be the same without him.

Resources:

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/D/Draper_Henry.html

http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/awards/henry-draper-medal.html

http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/draper-henry.pdf

http://tinyurl.com/pyuywl8

Planetary Nebula Blog

CAT - EYE NEBULA

Magnitude of 8.1, Apparent Magnitude 9.8

3000 Light years away from Earth

Size: 2/10 of a light year

Ring Nebula

Maginitude of 8.8

2300 Light years away from Earth

Size: 1.3 Light years

The Egg Nebula

Magnitude of 14

3000 light years from Earth

Size:  .2 Light years

Eye Shaped Planetary Nebula

Magnitude of 6.7

700 light years from Earth

.7 Light years across

Gomez Hamburger Nebula

Magnitude of 8.8

900 light years away from Earth

.3 Light years across

Butterfly Nebula

Opiuchus is in this nebula, aswell as scorpio

Considered a bipolar nebula

2100 light years away from Earth

.8 Light Years

Crab Nebula

Taurus constellation is in this nebula

Apparent Magnitude of 8.4

6500 light years from Earth

8 light years across

Eskimo Nebula

Apparent Magnitude of 10.1

2870 light years away

.34 light years in size

Eagle Nebula

M16

7000 light years away

Pillars of creation

Contain a young open cluster of stars

5.5 Million years old

.4 Light years in size

Horse Head Nebula
Monoceros Unicorn constellation
1500 light years away from Earth
Horse's head is given off from the gas and dust
.2 light years

Apod 3.6

Monoceros the unicorn, we learned this constellation recently in cassopeia. This picture is gives off  a crimson hue, and is just very beautiful!!!

Henry Draper Resources

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/D/Draper_Henry.html

http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/awards/henry-draper-medal.html

http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/draper-henry.pdf
http://tinyurl.com/pyuywl8

Apod 3.5

In this perfect picture of the moon at the night, you can clearly see the Moon and Venus shining bright. Not to also mention the beautiful reflective surface that creates a rather nice and enjoyable picture.

APOD #3.4
The atennae is a stunning feature in space, 60 million aways! in the southern hemisphere of this picture you can see 2 galaxies colliding. This is such a beatufiul picture and I can't wait to view more every day!

Resources for Astronomer
http://www.naic.edu/~gibson/draper/
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/D/Draper_Henry.html

Star Formations

http://tinyurl.com/k6hr2qk

http://tinyurl.com/lmef88u

http://tinyurl.com/l5m463p

Observation Blog 1

On January 8th at 8:11pm  the moon was shining bright!, it was a crescent moon and was beautiful!

Apod 3.3

This is photograph of Jupiter, with some significant points pointed out. Jupiter is a gaseous planet, with very little density. More than a 100x larger than the Earth, however almost being 4x as less dense due to the gasses. The colored points on the picture are moons orbiting the planet. Some being almost the size of earth and some being the size of it's moon. Jupiter is a fascinating planet and I can't wait to learn more about it's interesting facts and details!!!

Apod 3.2!

This is a spiral galaxy about 45 million light years away. It is called NGC 1097. This galaxy lies in the constellation Fornax. The pinkish color comes from the stars being meshed into this master-piece. A quite crazy fact is that the center of this galaxy harbors a black hole!!! This galaxy also has alot of jet traces, recognized to be in the nucleus  as well, but we have determined they have not originated from there. Perhaps some neighboring stars. Overall i found this galaxy's shape quiet and interesting and found alot of facts i hadn't known before!

APOD 3.1

Venus and Mercury at Sunset

Our astronomy teacher, Mr. Percival, has aware-d us throughout this week and the last that Mercury and Venus were going very visible. Even last week where the the two planets seems like they touched for a brief period of time. It is quite clear which one of the bright glowing objects is Venus, as it is the 3rd most brightest object in the sky. In the morning or in the afternoon is the most prime rib time to view these planets. I recommend you do,as did i

Observation post 2.6

Monday, I tried to pinpoint some stars but to no avail

On Tuesday i noticed what seemed to be vulpecula west of Venus

On Saturday it was very murky outside, but managed to spot Ursa minor, with the little dipper of course

Observation post 2.7

Monday- At around 8:31 I saw the big dipper mars and Summer triangle. I did not notice the other constellation in the sky.
Tuesday- I observed the sky since i am new to observing the night sky i only saw the big and little dipper.
Wednesday. I Tried looking up again with no avail. Still struggling to identify the constellations i know that are up their.
Friday: I have not been able to look up at the sky today. Tonight i will gaze up at the heavens and continue to try and pinpoint the summer constellations that are floating up above.

Observation blog 2.8

On January 1st, at 7:56pm a halo appeared around the moon, it almost looked as if a massive planet was about to crash onto Earth. Very scary and cool at the same time.

On Decemeber 31st at 8:31 the same halo appeared around the moon, very cool again

On January 7th at 7:35pm Venus shined very bright in the sky, just a little below and west of the moon, as did Jupiter which was very close to Venus

Also on January 8th at 8:43pm Venus and Jupiter were very easy to spot/find

            Apod 2.8

Spiral galaxy NGC 1097 shines brighter than a diamond in the rough, around 45 million light-years away in the constellation of Fornax. The blue spiral arms are mottled with pinkish stars mixed in the mesh. It also has alot of other peculiar features, such as a very deep exposure of deep, mysterious jets which are easily seen beyond the blue arms to the left. A very extaoridnary fact is that this galaxy hosts a super massive black hole.

Observation Blog 2.3 (10-16 NOV)

On Friday at 6:31 pm i noticed Mars, as a matter a fact i observed it in the same position for multiple days this week

On Saturday at 8:01 pm Orion was clearing the western horizon throughout the time period i was watching it

On Sunday at 8:23pm The Great Square of Pegasus stood high in its level position very high towards the south. Fomalhaut was also noticed in this observation 

Observation Blog 2.4  ( NOV 17 - NOV 25 )

Early on Saturday morning a 9 magintude asteroid named "Juno" landed in Canada

On Friday i noticed the star Sirius actually rising at around 7:00pm to 7:30pm, not only that it seemed to twinkle numerous amounts of times

On Sunday  at 10:11pm two of Jupiter's moons had mutual eclipses, callipso and lo

Observation Blog 2.1

On October 27th at roughyl 7:43pm  Arcturus was sparking low in the northwest of the twilight

On October 28th Algol, in Perseus is noticeably brighter than it normally is in the sky (8:34pm)

During the day of October 29th Cassiopeia was noticeable in northeast, this observation was taken at 9:31pm.

Stefan Jen

Percival 7

Astronomy

6 January, 2015

Joseph Lagrange Biography

             Joseph Louis Lagrange was born in Turin, Italy in 1736. He was very fortunate to be born in a wealthy family, and initially never had an interest for mathematics. Although his father wanted him to be a lawyer, Lagrange was later attracted (17 years old)  to mathematics and astronomy after reading memoir by the astronomer Halley . At age 17 he began to study mathematics on his own and by age 19 was appointed to a professorship at the Royal Artillery School in Turin, he was a prodigy Lagrange even sent Euler, one of the most prolific mathematicians that had ever lived, a better solution he had discovered for deriving the central equation in the calculus of variations.  Lagrange even managed to point out  errors made by Newton and also discussed theories on the recurring series, dynamics, integral calculus His discoveries were so monumental that by the age of 25 he was regarded as one of the greatest living mathematicians, at his time. Not only being a profound mathematician he was also an amazing astronomer. In 1766 his passion to understand the solar system, got him to discover many solutions which came to be known as the Lagrangian points. Which of course, are the five points where a small object affected only by gravity can maintain a stable orbital configuration with respect to two larger objects. After many of published papers and discussions, King Frederick of Prussia persuaded Lagrange to reside at his court ‘as the greatest mathematician in Europe’. Here, he would be able to work till his heart desired. At the king's court he was able to produce his most profound work of his life "Mecanique Analytique". Life started to get back on track in 1794 when Lagrange was appointed professor at the ‘Ecole Polytechnique’ where he was admired and venerated by his pupils. Towards the end of 1795, Lagrange and a few others went on to establish the ‘Bureau des Longitudes’ that was founded for the purpose astronomical observation and standardtime keeping. He was then later given the honor of the ‘Mathematical chair’ at the new institution called ‘Ecole Normale’. After much research, Lagrange’s theory on the decimal subdivision was finally accepted by the French commission in 1799. Joseph Louis Lagrange died on April 10 1813, in Paris just a week after he was awarded the ‘Grande Croix’. He left behind so great of a legacy his work would later help contribute to the subjects of mathematics and astronomy. Paving way for popular students, such as Giovanni Plana, Simeon Poisson and Joseph Fourier, who carried his epic works into the next generation. He name was soo great, that his name would later be one of the 72 names engraved on the Eiffel Tower. 

Works Cited:

"Joseph-Louis Lagrange." Joseph-Louis Lagrange. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Jan. 2015.

"Joseph Louis Lagrange Biography." â€“ Childhood, Life And Timeline. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Jan. 2015.

Lagrange, Lectures on Elementary Mathematics, The OPEN Court Publishing Company, Chicago, 1898, (translated by Thomas J. Mccormack)

Lagrange, Lettres Inedites de Joseph-Louis Lagrange a Leonard Euler, B. Boncompagni, St. Petesburg, 1877.