APOD 2.8

Located in Orion, this grouping of reflection nebulae, NGC 1977, NGC 1975, and NGC 1973, is usually overlooked by astronomers. Lying along Orion's sword just north of the bright Orion Nebula complex, these reflection nebulaeare associated with Orion's large molecular cloud a mere 1500 light-years away. The blue color comes from the interstellar dust reflecting light from young, hot stars. North is at the bottom of the telescopic image from Australia, so the Orion Nebula is touching the top of the view. NGC 1977 spans across the field just above center, seperated from NGC 1973, at the botton left, and NGC 1975, at the bottom right, by dark regions f dust. Many people who have seen this from the northern hemisphere claim to see the shape of a man running, but they're looking at the upside down view. Its pretty interesting, to see the man running upside down, which you can see by looking here a running man. I also looked at the Orion Nebula, and I think that this set of reflection nebulae look much more interesting.

APOD 2.7

Inside the Eagle Nebula, dust sculptures are evaporating. As the cosmic mountains are whittled away by powerful starlight, "statuesque pillars" remain , which, by some, look like mythical beasts. In the picture, is one of the dust pillars within the Eagle Nebula, which looks like a giant alien fairy. Rising a mere 10 light-years tall, this fairy gives off radiation much hotter than a common fire. In actuality, M16, the Greater Eagle Nebula, is a large evaporating cover of gas and dust with an inside cavity filled with a stellar area currently forming an open star cluster. This picture is pretty interesting, especially since this cosmic dust fairy stands 10 light-years tall. The bright stars around the image look pretty amazing surrounded by the dust, and the bright light coming from the bottom of the cosmic dust fairy also look pretty amazing.

Observation 2.3

Date: December 6, 2007
Time: 7:00 to 9:00
Place: Church off Clark RD
Sky Conditions: Clear skies
Instruments: Naked Eye, Binoculars, Telescope

Planets: Mars, Uranus

Noted Stars: Vega, Deneb, Altair, Polaris, Mira, Fomalhaut, Algol, Betelguese, Capella, Aldebaran, Gamma Andromeda, Rigel, Albireo

Noted Constellations: Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cygnus, Lyra, Aquila, Perseus, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Pegasus, Auriga, Cetus, Eridanus, Orion, Piscis Austrinus, Delphinus, Draco, Ursa Minor

Binary Stars: Epsilon Lyrae, Polaris, stars within Pleiades and Hyades

Deep Sky Objects/ M-objects: M57, M45 (Pleiades), Hyades, M27, M31, M36, M37, M38, M103

Other: 17P/Holmes Comet, Milky Way stretched across sky from East to West, Double Cluster in Perseus

Holmes Comet still seems to be getting more faint, but is still relatively visible to the naked eye if you know where to look. The double cluster in Perseus was also pretty interesting to look at through the telescope. I found Mars by myself, and I am still able to find Pleiades by myself. I can also find the Great Square of Pegasus, Casseopeia and the "Worm Asterism," and the Circlet in Pisces. I am beginning to see that Astronomy is pretty amazing with all the stars in the sky and all the M objects, pretty cool.

APOD 2.6

Located in the constellation Perseus, the hero, at about 7,000 light-years away, these two open star clusters lie very close together. They are very easily visible with the use of binoculars, and if you know where to look in the sky, they are sometimes visible to the unaided eye. This double star cluster is so easily seen, that it was cataloged in 130 BC by Greek astronomer Hipparchus. The two clusters are also known as h Persei (NGC 869) on the left and chi Persei (NGC 884) on the right, and the clusters are a mere few hundred light-years away from each other and contain much younger and hotter than our sun. It also appears that these two star cluster were born of the same star-forming region, meaning they are very close in age. This pretty interesting to see, especially since we viewed these two star clusters during our recent class star gaze. Its amazing how close these two clusters are, and yet you can easily distinguish a difference or seperation between the two.