APOD:Aurora and Unusual Clouds Over Iceland

The aurora and lenticular clouds form an amazingly vivid image. Taken on a cold winter night in Iceland. You can see towards the left, bright green auroras appear to emanate from the largest glacier in Iceland: Vatnajokull. Aurora light is reflectected off the lake Jökulsárlón. Green light emitted from another aurora behind touches the lenticular clouds.Far beyond the lenticular is the setting Moon, while far beyond even the Moon are setting stars.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131118.html

2nd Quarter Observations (Pt. 1)

Sunday, October 27, 2013               9:00pm – 10:00pm

Location: Hendersonville, North Carolina

Weather: Clear

Visibility: Good

Moon Phase: Last Quarter

Stars: Polaris, Vega, Deneb, Andromeda

Planets: Venus

Constellations: Ursa Minor, Cassiopeia, Aquila, Gamma Andromeda

Thursday, November 7, 2013                     9:00pm – 10:00pm

Location:  Sarasota, Florida

Weather: Partly Cloudy

Visibility: Good/Not Clear

Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent

Stars:  Vega, Altair, Deneb, Alberio, Polaris, (two shooting stars)

Constellations: Aquila, Ursa Minor, Lyra,

APOD

Titled "The North Celestial Tree" this picture was composed over a period of nearly 2 hours as a series of 30 second long, consecutive exposures on October 5th. These exposures were done with a digital camera on a tripod in Southern Spain. The picture aims to reflect Earth's rotation around its axis which leads to the center of concentric arcs in the night sky and a seriously great picture, in my opinion.


http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131023.html

Jupiter's Moon Project Sources

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Jupiter&Display=Moons
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/jupiter/moons.shtml

http://burro.astr.cwru.edu/stu/jupiter_moons.html

http://www.jupiterfacts.net/l/Moons

My Observation Log

Thursday September 26,  2013       8:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location: Sarasota, Florida

Weather: Clear

Visibility: Good

Moon Phase: Last Quarter

Prominent Stars: Polaris, Altair, Vega, Deneb, Alberio

Planets: Venus (towards the end)

Constellations: Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Orion, Aquarius, Cygnus, Aquila, Lyra

Monday September 30,  2013          9:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Location: Sarasota, Florida

Weather: Partly Cloudy

Visibility:  Fair

Moon Phase: Waning Crescent

Prominent Stars: Polaris, Vega

Planets: Venus

Constellations: Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Lyra

Friday, October 4, 2013                   9:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Location: Sarasota, Florida

Weather: Partly Cloudy

Visibility: Fair

Moon Phase: going into new moon

Prominent Stars: Altair, Polaris

Planets: Venus

Constellations: Aquila, Ursa Minor, Ursa Major

Saturday, October 5, 2013               9:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Location: Sarasota, Florida

Weather: Partly Cloudy

Visibility: Fair

Moon Phase: New Moon – day 1

Prominent Stars: Altair, Vega, Polaris

Planets: Venus

Constellations: Mainly saw Aquila

Sunday, October 6, 2013                  9:00pm – 10:00 pm

Location: Sarasota, Florida

Weather: Partly Cloudy

Visibility: Not good

Moon Phase: New Moon Waxing Crescent

Prominent Stars: Altair, Vega, Deneb, Alberio

Planets: Was surprising unable to see Venus or any other planets

Constellations: Aquila, Lyra, Cygnus, (was able to make out Ursa Minor, but did not specifically see Polaris)

Friday, October 11, 2013                 9:00pm – 11:00pm

Location: Tampa, Florida

Weather: Clear

Visibility: Good

Moon Phase: First Quarter – day 1

Prominent Stars: Altair, Vega, Thuban, Polaris

Planets:

Constellations: Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Aquarius, , Sagittarius, Scorpius, Serpens, Orion, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor

Saturday, October 12, 2013                          9:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Location: Sarasota, Florida

Weather: Clear

Visibility: Good

Moon Phase: First Quarter – Waxing Gibbous

Prominent Stars:  Thuban, Polaris

Planets: Venus

Constellations: Ursa Minor, Ursa Major, (used my app to attempt finding Thuban and Draco but could not see it very well)

Tuesday, October 15, 2013              9:00pm – 10:00pm

Location: Sarasota, Florida 

Weather: Clear

Visibility: Good

Moon Phase: First Quarter – Waxing Gibbous

Prominent Stars: Polaris, Altair, Vega, Thuban, Polaris, Deneb, Alberio

Planets: Venus and I thought I also saw Uranus, but I am not the best at observing planets (yet)

Constellations: Aquila, Draco, Cygnus, Ursa Minor, Lyra, Sagittarius, Scorpius

My Astronomer Project: Galileo Galilei

                                      

                                     About My Astronomer: Galileo Galilei

Galileo was born in 1564 in Pisa, Italy, he was the first of six (sometimes speculated to be seven) children. His family was considered noble but was not very wealthy. In the early 1570s Galileo and his family moved to Florence. Galileo was never married but had a brief relationship with Marina Gamba. Gamba lived in his home in Padua and they had three children together. Galileo had two daughters; Virginia and Livia, both went on to live in convents and became Sister Maria Celeste and Sister Arcangela respectively, Galileo and his family being very religious. Galileo also had a son, Vincenzio. Galileo moved to Florence in 1610 to join the Court of The Medici family, leaving Marina to marry Giovanni Bartoluzzi. Vincenzio, instead of living with his mother and her new husband, ended up living with Galileo in Florence in 1613.

     Galileo was an avid inventor, inventing the pump and the hydrostatic balance. Galileo is better known, however, for his telescope. He perfected his first telescope in 1609, based off the telescopes in existence in Europe that magnified objects three times. Galileo later updated the telescope to magnify objects twenty times. Galileo is perhaps best known for his use of the telescope, making, unheard of at the time, discoveries for astronomy. Galileo was the first to observe supernovas. Galileo also saw sunspots and craters on the moon, contradicting Church teachings of God’s perfect universe. Most importantly of all, Galileo observed the phases of Venus and Jupiter’s four satellites, providing proof for the Copernican, heliocentric, model of the universe.

     In life, Galileo got into some trouble with The Inquisition, a permanent, Church, institution that handled the task of punishing heretics and decreed the Copernican Model to be heresy. Galileo’s belief in this model and his ability to prove it directly contradicted the Church. In 1624, when Pope Urban VIII came into power, Galileo was assured that he was permitted to discuss his beliefs, as long as he treated it as a mathematical proposition. Under the belief that he was safe, Galileo had his book, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, printed. Galileo was then again called to face the inquisition in 1633 and had to choose between taking back his claims and living the rest of his life under house arrest or dying for what he believed in, Galileo choose the cowardly former. Galileo spent the rest of his life under house arrest, he was allowed to move houses in 1638 to be closer to his doctors, at this time he was totally blind. In 1642 Galileo died at his home outside Florence.

About My Astronomer (Source Links)

The Galileo Project

Wolfram Research

Galileo Bio/Video

Encyclopedia Britannica

APOD: Andromeda On The Rocks

Today's APOD was completely stunning, upon opening the website and expecting to dig through the archives for a stunning snapshot, I came across Andromeda On The Rocks and could not ignore the visual.

The picture above was taken from eastern Italy, near Monte Conero on the Adriatic sea coast and captures the Andromeda Galaxy. Truly amazing.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

APOD Reaction: Orion Nebula in Oxygen, Hydrogen, and Sulfur

There is far more to this Astronomy Picture of Day (posted June 4, 2013) than it's mundane title would suggest. The dynamic haze set in front of the stars is so brilliantly placed, the Orion Nebula more closely resembles a painting in this photo. As I viewed this picture, I didn't really think of it as "the Nebula's glowing gas surrounding hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud" (description exert). When reaching the end of its caption, it was somewhat sad to be informed that the whole Orion Nebula cloud complex will disperse over the next 100,000 years.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130604.html