Observation q 4

Date: April 21st, 2012
Time: dusk- 1:00

Place: Arcadia
Sky Conditions: 100% clear.

Instruments Used: eyes

Planets: Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mars all in a very straight line excluding Saturn being a little off.

Bright Stars noted: Castor, Pollux, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Arcturus, Aldebaran, Sirius, Procyon, Spica, Capella, Regulus.

Constellations noted: Orion, Auriga, Canes major, Canes Minor, Taurus, Cancer, Gemini, Leo, Ursa Major, Virgo.

Other: Overall it was a great night because almost every part of the sky was perfectly clear and because i was at a wedding i was able to teach a lot of people about all of the plants out that night. Also, some were sober enough to understand the ecliptic and other great circles!

APOD 4.4

This weeks picture features M 57, a very beautiful nebula, theorized to barrel shaped but from earth appearing to be near perfect ring shape. This picture is a planetary nebula that has expanded well beyond the area that would be considered the solar system and the picture is a composite image of Hubble and ground based telescope pictures. they believe that the star that once was in the center was like our sun but  since expanding it has energized the area around in space around the dead star. 200 light years away, the center ring is a mere 1 light year across. Overall, this looks like the average  planetary nebula. 

  http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120420.html

Apod 4.1 march 30th

This week's picture features a mosaic of beautiful parts coming together. The landscape in this picture is the grand canyon and from the light of the moon, the brightest object in the sky, we can see the Colorado river near the horizon. Next the the moon we can see the planet Venus, being the second brightest object in the sky. Far below both of these objects, hovering just above the lights of a city or two, lie the planet Jupiter. Although very close to Venus earlier this year, Jupiter is beginning its decent into day time hours. Finally, above and to the left of Venus, we can see the seven sisters. This picture was taken looking westward.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120330.html

Apod 4.2 April 6th

This weeks picture features the planet Venus crossing through the Pleiades, or seven sisters. This picture captures Venus near at its highest point yet and this year, Venus happened to move through the "center" of the sisters. This is the first time in 8 years this alignment has occurred and if Venus was not so bright, she could become the 8th sister every 8 years! Sadly, this event lasted all of two days and now, Venus moves toward the sun as it makes its annual move towards the sun, starting to cross it in June.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120406.html

Apod 4.3

This weeks picture is M 53, a globular cluster. This picture highlights the globular cluster's dense star coverage across what is relatively a small section of the galaxy. Also, although the cluster is primarily made up of stars that are larger, redder, and older than our sun, we can still see some stars holding on to their blue giant like appearance. Astronomers have labeled these stars "Blue stragglers" and they believe that at one point these stars were in a binary system, but the star consumed the other star in order to grow larger and shine brighter.  This fact is very important because we can use an average globular cluster as evidence as to how old the universe is, but with these blue stars, the data would point to another conclusion if not explained properly.

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