4.8 APod

In this picture you can see the sunset from two perspective one from earth the other one from mars. These images were scaled to fit side by side. As you can see in the picture the sun appears farther from mars than it does from earth. Mars is 50 percent farther from the sun that earth is. Mars sunset is more blue compared to the orange colors you see on earth. It seems to be related to scattering properties of martian dust as to why it is blue compared to orange. This was captured by Nasas Robotic curiosity rover from gale crater on mars.

4.7 apod

This picture was taken in Hawaii on top of the volcanoe Mauna Kea. From the looks of it the sky was beyond clear. You can see the green airglow above the clouds. This is caused by excited are molecules during the day caused by the sun. The bright orb to the right is the moon and the center band filled with many stars is the milky way. The way this picture brings everything together is amazing. All the colors and the person standing in the middle bringing it all together makes for one of my favorite APODs this year.

4.6 apod

The Messenger spacecraft has been orbiting mercury for the past 4 years. It has transferred its data back to earth through radio waves.  As you can see in the picture the gravitational anomalies are shown in false color.  red indicated areas of higher gravity. the center is caloris basin an feature measuring about 1500 kilometers across. Messenger completed it mission and thus crashed into mercury's' surface.

4.5 apod

 In this picture it is showing the moon rise over a volcanoe. this picture was taken in hawaii. Hawaii has some of the best observatories in the world. The moon just past the full phase giving it its look.  The moon is rising in a triangular shadow cone of the volcano, a corridor of darkness. The light is refracted through earths atmosphere making the moon appear oval shape. Also you can see the cinder cones from the eruptions of the volcanoes on the foreground .

4.4 apod

In this picture toy an see the dust in the Carina nebula. The energetic light and winds evaporates and disperses dusty stellar nurseries. This one is located in the Carina nebula and is know as he mystic mountain. These are composed mostly from gas bust also clear hydrogen gas. Dust pillars such as these are actually much thinner than air and only appear as mountains due to relatively small amounts of opaque interstellar dust. This picture is about 7500 light years away. 

4.3 apod

these stars are born together near the plane of the Milky Way.  Their numbers steadily dwindle as cluster members are ejected by galactic tides and gravitational interactions. Located about 5,000 light-years away toward the constellation puppis, M46 also seems to contain contradictions to its youthful status. In the picture you can see the planetary nebual NGC 2438 also you can see PK231. . Planetary nebulae are a brief, final phase in the life of a sun-like star a billion years old or more.

4.2 apod

 

In this picture you are seeing a total solar eclipse. The suns corona is captured beautifully in this picture. This picture is a composite of 29 telescopic images and it covers a wide range of exposure.  It was captured in Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard during the suns solar eclipse on March 20^th. On April 4^th there will be a total lunar eclipse. 

4.1 apod

 

In this picture you can see the own and the galaxy. They are beneath the big dipper. It light shines 10 million light years away. The owl is the inside of the Milky Way. The spiral galaxy lies on the end and it shows its vast amount of dust.

3.8 apod

March 17/18 you can see the northern lights in someone backyard in Vallentuna Sweden. Vallentuna is about 30 kilometers north of Stockholm. This is one of the strongest geomagnetic storm of this solar cycle. They began watching 2 days before when a coronal mass ejection happened. This backyard observatory is amazing and very unique. The name of this observatory is Carpe Noctem.

3.7 apod

In this picture you get to see what earth looks like during a total solar eclipse. As you can see it appers as a big dark region. That dark spot is the shadow of the moon. THe shadow shoots across earth at about 2000 kilometers per hour. This eclipse happened during march 2006. This is the perspective of the ISS. Today is another solar eclipse this time it will be over the Atlantic ocean. 

Planetary Nebulae

cats eye nebula
It has the combined magnitude of 8.1, with high surface brightness. Its small bright inner nebula subtends an average of 16.1 arcsec, with the outer prominent condensations about 25 arcsec. Deep images reveal an extended halo about 300 arcsec or 5 arcmin across, that was once ejected by the central progenitor star during its red giant phase. In the constellation draco. 


Ring Nebula

Messier 57 is located south of the bright star Vega , which forms the northwestern vertex of the Summer Triangle asterism.M57 is an example of the class of planetary nebulae known as bipolar nebulae, whose thick equatorial rings visibly extend the structure through its main axis of symmetry. 

Right ascension	18h 53m 35.079s[1]
Declination	+33° 01′ 45.03″[1]
Distance	2.3+1.5 −0.7 kly (700+450 −200pc)[2][3]
Apparent magnitude (V)	8.8[4]
Apparent dimensions (V)	230″ × 230″[2]
Constellation	Lyra

Dumbbell Nebula. 

First nebula to ever be discovered by Charles messier. 

Right ascension	19h 59m 36.340s[1]
Declination	+22° 43′ 16.09″[1]
Distance	1,360+160 −212 ly (417+49 −65pc)[2][3]
Apparent magnitude (V)	7.5[1]
Apparent dimensions (V)	8′.0 × 5′.6[4]
Constellation	Vulpecula

Hour glass nebula 

 8,000 LY away from earth. . It was discovered by Annie Jump Cannon and Margaret W. Mayall during their work on an extended Henry Draper Catalogue. 

Right ascension	13h 39m 35.116s[1]
Declination	−67° 22′ 51.45″[1]
Distance	8 kly (2.5kpc)[citation needed]
Apparent magnitude (V)	13.0[1]
Constellation	Musca

Wolf-Rayet Nebula

M1-67 is the youngest wind-nebula around a Wolf-Rayet star, calledWR124, in our Galaxy. In the constellaton cygnus.

The naked eye stars Gamma Velorum and Theta Muscae as well as the most massive start, R136a1 in 30 Doradus.Wolf–Rayet stars are extremely hot, with surface temperatures in the range of 30,000 K to around 200,000 K.

Planetary Nebula Hen 1357 or the Stingray Nebulas was photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. It is located about 18,000 light-years from Earth and lies in the constellation Ara the Altar. This expanding cloud of gas was expelled from an aging star in the nebula’s centre.

NGC 6326 Located about 11,000 ly away from earth and in the constellation of Ara. This nebula is made of ejected material.

The Helix Nebula in the constellation of Aquarius  lies about 700 light-years away, spanning about 0.8 Parsec or 2.5 light-years. 

Right ascension	22h 29m 38.55s[2]
Declination	−20° 50′ 13.6″[2]
Distance	714+88 −68 ly (219+27 −21 pc)[3]
Apparent magnitude(V)	+7.6[2]
Apparent dimensions (V)	25′[4]
Constellation	Aquarius

Eskimo Nebula

NGC 2392 lies more than 2,870 light-years away and is visible with a small Telescope in the constellation of Gemini. NGC 2392 WH IV-45 is included in the Astronomical League's Herschel 400 observing program.

Right ascension	07h 29m 10.7669s[1]
Declination	+20° 54′ 42.488″[1]
Distance	≥2,870 ly (≥880 pc)[2]
Apparent magnitude(V)	10.1[1]
Apparent dimensions(V)	48″ × 48″[3]
Constellation	Gemini
Physical characteristics
Radius	≥0.34 ly[a]
Absolute magnitude(V)	≤0.4 [b]
Notable features	–
Other designations	NGC 2392,[1] Caldwell 39, Clown Nebula,[1] Clown Face[1]

The Necklace Nebula (PN G054.2-03.4) is a 12-trillion-mile-wide (2.0 light-year-wide) Planetary Nebula located about 15,000 light-years away in the northern constellation Sagitta. The Necklace Nebula is the exploded aftermath of a giant star that came too close to its Sun-like binary companion. The embedded bright knots are dense gas clumps in the ring. 

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APOD 3.6

In this picture you can see Comet Lovejoy. Its ion tail stretches across the field of view of the telescope.This picture if from February 20th. The star filled back round is filled with with the bluish star Phi Persei and the planetary nebula of M76. This is also know as the Dumbbell nebula. Comet love joy has a greenish color. Love joy is outbound from the inner part of out solar system. its about 10 light minutes from earth. The Dumbbell nebula is over 3000 light years away. This picture captures the vastness and the beauty of our solar system.

APOD 3.5

IN this picture what you see is spiral galaxy m106. This galaxy is made up of a swirling disk of star an gas. Its appearance has blue spiral arms and red dust lanes closer to the center.  M106 glows very bright in radio waves they also emit x-rays.  An example of the closest thing to m106 is the sefert class of galaxies. This is where gas was thought to be falling through a massive black hole. M106 is only 23.5 million light years away from us. The width of is is 60 thousand light years. You can see it within the hunting dogs constellation. 

willem de sitter bio

Noah McClannahan

Mr. Percival

Astronomy

2/19/2015

Willem De Sitters Astronomer

Willem de sitters parents where named Lamoraal Ulbo de sitter and Catharine Theodore Wilhelmine Bertling. He was born on may 6 1872. The sitters had a family tradition of family members becoming lawyers. Willem decided to take a different route with his love for science and mathematics. Willem attended Secondary school in Arnhem. After he graduated he went to the University of Groningen with hopes of a degree in mathematics. While pursuing his degree he became very interested with physics and physics related experiments. He started working with Jacobus Kapteyn in the laboratory. In 1896 is when Sitters life changed. When David gill discussed the southern sky survey to Kapteyn. Sitters decided to finish his degree before leaving for Cape Town. He got his degree in 1897. He started working in Cape Town South Africa for a couple of years while participating in heliometer and photometric programs. Sitter returned to Groningen in 1899 and became an assistant in the Astronomical Laboratory and also continued to work towards his doctorate in the study heliometer observations of Jupiter's moons. In 1898 sitter married Eleonora Suermondt. Their first child was Lamoraal Ulbo was born in 1899 and died in 1901. The other children they had were Theodora, Lamoraal Ulbo, Aernout, and Agnes. Lamoraal became a geologist. Aernout was part of the Bosscha Observatory. Willem de sitter submitted his thesis on the Discussion of Heliometer Observations of Jupiter's Satellites moons in 1901. In 1913 sitter proved that the velocity of light was independent of the velocity of the source based on his observations of double start systems. In 1916 he suggested a four-dimensional space-time would fit in with cosmological models based on general relativity. Sitter found solutions to Einstein’s field of equations in the absence of matter. Sitters work led to an expedition in 1919 to measure gravitational deflection of light rays passing near the sun. Sitter was elected as President of the International Astronomical Union and served in this capacity from 1925 to 1928. In 1932 Sitter and Einstein joined together for a joint paper where they proposed a model of the universe. In the paper they mentioned dark matter which does not emit light and hasn't been detected. Even today dark matter is still a very mysterious and is a big part of what some people research today. Sitter is best known for his work on relativity. In 1929 he was working on the motions of satellites when he died. His research showed that there was varying tidal friction which affects the moon and earth. De Sitter suffered from chest complaints for several years but seemed to overcome them. However he died from pneumonia at the young age of sixty-two years in in 1934. Willem De sitter dedicated his life to the world of science and his life played a major role in the contributions to modern day physical cosmology.

Sources for bio

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Willem_de_Sitter.aspx

http://www.phil-inst.hu/~szekely/PIRT_Budapest/ft/Realdi_ft.pdf

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/546850/Willem-de-Sitter

http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Sitter.html

Stellar Nurseries

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



















http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2409.html#.VNyeVubF-So

Observations

On 1/7/15 i saw the iridium flare around 7 35 pm
on 1/28/15 i saw another iridium flare.
on 2/3/15  the HST is visible. Also was keeping and eye out for the space station which is brighter than the HST. But i did not see the space station.
I look up every night and i watch the different phases of the moon and i try to point out constellations. Their is a cool app someone told me about where if you point your phone in the sky it tells you what constellation those starts are in and where they are located. I am going to keep trying to familiarize myself with the night sky more by always looking up.

3.3 APOD

Titan seas reflect sunlight. The sunlight from the liquid seas of titan. Saturns moon has many smooth lakes made of methane,when the angle is right it reflects the sunlight as if they where mirrors.This picture is falsely colored and the robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn image captured titian last summer in different bans of cloud piercing infrared light.The reflection is so bright it saturated Cassini infrared cameras. The reflection regions confirms that northern titans houses a wide complex array of seas with geometry that indicates periods of evaporation.This is on of our most mysterious moons. Cassini has revealed titan to be a world with active weather. The times it raids on Titan it rains a liquefied version of natural gas

3.2 APOD

IN this picture you can see the beautiful exposure on the northern winter sky.
The starts and skylight includes orions belt the orion nebula and the Pleiades stat cluster.
Betelgeuse and Rigel are part of the constellation orion.  The belt of starts of orion are nearly vertical in the central line between the horizon image center. The lowest star of the belt is kinda skewed due to the red glow of the flame nebula. Bernards loop is to the left right by the bright orange start Betelgeuse.Belts right is the Orion nebula and Rigel. The blue cluster of starts in Pleiades and the red nebula to the left is the California nebula. The Bright orange dot about the image is Aldebaran which is a star in the constellation Taurus the bull. This picture was taking near Palau village in Spain.

2.9 or 3.1 apod

Comet love joy is putting on a show for comet watchers. You can see it with binoculars and visible to the eyes. The comet went across Taurus the bull in this picture. This picture was taken January 12th from Jackson hole. The head of Taurus formed by the v shaped Hyades start cluster. The comet has a greenish color and a tail that is traveling away from the sun. Seems to be heading towards orions bow. This comet is one of the brightest ones we can see with the naked eye . 

2.8 apod

The milky way galaxy runs though a beautiful and complex sky. The the NW edge of Veal the frame is 10 degrees wide. Its goal is the get the brightest glowing filaments from the vela supernova remnant. The debris from the cloud from the death explosion. Light from this supernova created the vela remnant reached earth abut 11,000 years ago. The filaments of glowing gas and the chaos left behind a very dense rotating stellar core. This is called the Vela Pulsar, 800 light years away the vela remnant is embedded in gum nebula.

2.7 apod

the core fur of a fox and a Christmas tree are all part of the constellation of the unicorn. This picture is a star forming region cataloged as the NGC 2264. This cosmic gas and dust is about 2700 light years away.  This mixes withe the emission nebulae which is excited by light from new starts with dark interstellar clouds. The obscuring dust clouds are close to the hot young starts and it reflects the light forming blue reflection nebulae. This picture spans about 30 light years. ON the left is the cone nebula and the NGC 2264 is also know as the Christmas tree cluster. The triangle shape traveled by the stares is the appex of the CN. It also has a broader base near the S mon. This picture captures the true beauty of outer space. 

Friedrich bessel Bio

Noah McClannahan

Mr. Percival

DE Astronomy

January 8 2015

Friedrich Bessel Biography

            The Astronomer I have received for this project is named Friedrich Bessel. Friedrich Willhelm Bessel was born on July twenty second 1784. Bessel was born in Minden Germany. He was born at the Minden Ravensberd Administrative. He was the second son of a civil servant. At the age of fourteen Bessel sought an apprentice ship. He found the import and export concern of Kulenkamp at Bermen. The business was a cargo ship business and that led him to use his math skills to solve problems with navigation. This lead to Bessels interest in the heavens as a way of determinty longitude.  Bessel realized a major figure around this time named Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers. Olbers was a major figure of German astronomy at the time.  He was known for orbital calculation of halies comet in 1804. He used old observations taken by Thomas Harriot and Nathaniel Torporley in 1607. A few years passed  and Bessel decided to leave kulenkamp.  He became the assistant to Johann Hieronymus Schröter's  at Lilienthal observatory in Bremen Germany.  While he was assisting he   worked on James Bradleys stellar observations to get the positions of 3222 stars.  January of 1810 Bessel was promoted to director of the observatory at age 25 by kind Fredrick William iii of Prussia. Bessel then decided to publish his atmospheric refraction derived from Bradley’s observations. This won him the Lalande prize for the French Academy of Sciences in 1811. Bessel decided to intricate the fundamenta Astronomiae based on the observations of Bradley while the observatory was being worked on.  Königsberg observatory had its grand opening and operation in 1813. Around 1819, Bessel determined the position of 50000 different starts by used the Meridian circle created by Reichenbach. With this Bessel was able to achieve what he is best known for. Bessel was the first to use parallax in calculation the distance to a star. Bessels measurements allowed him to realize the motions of Sirius and Procyon. He realized that the motions of those where caused by gravitational attraction. His Dark companion claim in 1844 was the first correct claim. This also lead to the discovery of Sirius b. Bessel showed how to solve to Geodesic problem. He observed easy Prussia and combined the Prussian and Russian triangulation networks. This lead to him obtaining an estimate of the figure of earth and is referred to today as the Bessel ellipsoid. Bessel did not have a university education but became a major impact in the astronomy community. He was elected to the royal society and became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1823. Also the largest crater in the Moon's Mare Serenitatis is named Bessel after him. Bessels contributed in the discovery of the planet Neptune. Bessel won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1829 and 1841. Bessel developed what are now known as Bessel functions. This was key in solving differential equations. This method is also used in quantum physics. This also made him a very influential mathematician. Bessel got very sick of illness. Bessel then died in March 1846 in his Observatory. He died from retroperitoneal fibrosis. He died just before the discovery of Neptune by his friends and colleagues at the Berlin Observatory. Overall Friedrich Bessel was a very influential astronomer and mathematician of his time.

Sources:

http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Bessel.html

https://cosmology.carnegiescience.edu/timeline/1838

http://messier.seds.org/xtra/Bios/bessel.html