Observation 2, Q1

Date: October 22, 2011
Time: 9:00 - 11:30 PM
Place: Charlotte Harbour
Sky Conditions: Mostly clear with a few pockets of light from Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte. Moon not present.

Instruments Used: eyes

Planets: Jupiter shown brightly and beautifully in the eastern sky, about 20 degres above the horizon .

Bright Stars noted: Vega, Epsilon Lyrae, Deneb, Alberio, Altair,( the summer triangle) in the western part of the sky, Antares early in the observation, Polaris dead ahead to the north. Overall, it seemed that the summer skychart had been cut in half and then turned 180 so that the side with Sagittarius on it was still above the sky. I noted that the Tea pot was pouring out all of it's contents into the western horizon.

Constellations noted: Lyra, Cygnus, Aquila, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Pegasus, Andromeda, Delphinus,Sagitta, Vulpecula, Hercules, Ursa Minor and what may have been Cepheus. all of these constellations were spread across the sky with Delphinus being the closest to the zenith. 

Deep Sky Objects: Pleiades was very faint but could be viewed rising almost due east from our location, and i could see what looked like a true little dipper being formed by the seven sisters.

Apod 1.8

This weeks picture is from Oct. 17th and shows a galaxy cluster where one galaxy appears to be curved on the right side of the picture. The galaxy cluster shown is MACS1206 and what we are seeing is a "gravitational lens". The gravitational distortion of light is caused by the galaxy's, the one in the back of the galaxy cluster,  light having to bend around multiple areas of heavy gravity which the scientist at NASA theorize is Dark Matter in this case. Dark Matter is substance that we have just recently discovered and we have also found out that most of the universe is composed of dark matter. The actual composition of dark matter is unknown but many theorize that is made up of exotic particles that allow for dark matter to have the gravitational pull that it does.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111017.html

Apod 1.5

This weeks picture is from September 28th and features a large solar flare coming from a group of sunspots known currently as AR1302. This group of sunspots is very important or special because it is one of the most active groups in many years and it can even be seen without a telescope! The picture featured what is known as an X-class flare, or in layman's terms, a flare that could cause plant-wide radio black outs! This means the flare has to be huge in size, even for the sun. Overall, we have been lucky because AR1302 could have sent a very devastating solar flare our way but we have yet to be in the direct path of one.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110928.html

Apod 1.6

This weeks picture is that of M object 82, or better known as the Cigar Galaxy. this weeks picture shows a cloud of extremely hot and extremely fast moving gases being launched out of the galaxy. This massive amount of gas is being projected out of the galaxy because of the repeating supernovas inside of the galaxy and the solar winds that very large stars are giving off are combing to launch the debris into space. The supernovas and new star formations should last for another 100 million years, but until then, the galaxy will let loose unimaginable amounts of hydrogen gas enriched with heavier metals. 
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111006.html

apod 1.7

This weeks photo is from October 12th, 2011 and shows the rings of Saturn casting a beautiful shadow on the southern hemisphere of Saturn. The shadows the rings of Saturn cast are considered the sundial of seasons for Saturn. In 2009, Saturn had one of its equinoxes and now, for the next seven years, the shadows will be cast on the southern hemisphere of the great  gas planet. Sadly, we could not observe this from earth because of our position so close to the sun, but the Cassini orbiter was able to grab some photos of the shadows in august of this year. The Cassini orbiter has been in Saturn's  orbiut since 2004 and is expected to stay active until 2017.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111012.html

Jeremiah Horrocks, Biography

Kyle Violette

Mr. Percival

Astronomy Honors, Period 1

14 Oct. 2011

Biography quarter one: Jeremiah Horrocks

            Jeremiah Horrocks was born in 1618 in Lower Lodge, Liverpool to a father who was small farmer and a mother whose occupation is unknown. He lived a brief life and died on January 3^rd, 1641. During his life time he was a rather poor boy but he entered Emmanuel College in 1632 and later was added to the list of students attending Cambridge as a student with assisted living. Sadly, due to the cost of continuing his studies, he left both colleges in late 1635. It has been generally accepted that Horrocks supported himself after college by becoming a tutor for a wealthy family, the Stones family, and taught lower grade education to the stone children.

            Horrocks was not originally interested astronomy but during his short stay at Cambridge he learned of the advances made by Brahe and Kepler. He read about the discoveries made by some of the much better known astronomers and found certain flaws within some of their research. By 17, Horrocks was suggesting how to correct the faults within certain papers published by others and even started doing research of his own. The first thing Horrocks tried to prove was that the moon moved in an elliptical path around earth. Later, he even attempted to prove that the tides were in fact caused by the moon, but did not know what force the moon could be using to cause the tides. Although he alone did not prove his theories, they were later supported by Newton with his suggestion of gravity and how the gravities of the Earth, the Moon and the Sun interacted. Overall, it were the actions like this that made Horrocks a key piece in connecting the best known works of the most famous astronomers together into one cohesive unit.

            Finally, in 1639, Jeremiah Horrocks put himself on the list of notable astronomer by observing the transit of Venus across the sun. Horrocks was the only person in the known world that predicted when Venus would cross in front of the sun and was one of two people who actually observed the cross, the other person being William Crabtree, a friend of his who was informed of Horrocks prediction. Horrocks was able to make this immense observation because he had been taking data on Venus for many years and believed an earlier made table of data, Lansberg’s table, was inaccurate. The Lansberg table predicted a near miss transit of Venus in 1639 while Horrocks believed it would occur. Horrocks observed the transit on November 24, 1939 Julian calendar, December 4^th Gregorian calendar, and was able to observe it from 3:15 to 3:45. With this event now observed, Horrocks was able to make a well informed guess as to the size of Venus and make a much more accurate guess as to how far the planet was away from the sun. Horrocks predicted the plant was 59 million miles away while in reality it was 93 million miles away, but, this was a far more accurate prediction than what was previously though.

            Sadly, in 1640 Horrocks returned to his home town in Toxteth Park and on January 3^rd, 1641, Horrocks suddenly died at age 22. He was considered to be a blooming young astronomer and, as his friend Crabtree out it, his death was “an incalculable loss!”