Observation 1.1

Date- August 20th thru 25th

Planets- I was able to see Jupiter each night. Its location from the moon seemed to range anywhere from 5 degrees to 15 degrees away.

Stars- I was able to see Antares, which was located about 4 degrees South of Jupiter.

Other- I was also able to see Scorpius, which contains the star Antares. The moon seemed to shift each night, crossing the ecliptic in ceratin areas of the sky.

APOD 1.4

In this skyscape picture, the bright, hot, white supergiant star Deneb lies near the top. The picture spans 12 degrees across the northern end of Cygnus the Swan. Cygnus is full of stars and vivid gas clouds along the Milky Way Galaxy. Extending from Deneb to the bottom center of the picture, the Northern Coal Sack Nebula is very dark. The North America Nebula, NGC 7000, and the Pelican Nebula, IC 5070, located in the upper left, produce a red glow. Deneb is the alpha star of Cygnus and is also known for its presence in two seperate asterisms- identifying the top of the Northern Cross and a vertex of of the Summer Triangle. I really liked this picture because could understand where it is located in the sky. We recently learned about the asterism Summer Triangle, which is located in the constellation Aquila meaning Eagle and contains the alpha star Altair.

APOD 1.3

Cepheus is a constellation which is in the middle of this telescopic image taken by Tony Hallas. NGC 7129, a reflection nebula (left) and NGC 7142, an open star cluster can also be seen. Both appear very close, but actually lie at very different distance. The dusty nebula NGC 7129 is is about 3000 light-years away, while the open cluster NGC 7142 is is about 6000 light-years away. The clumpy dust clouds in the foreground redden the light from NGC 7142, which makes astronomical studies of this cluster much more complicated. NGC 7142 is thought to be an older open star cluster, while NGC 7129 is only about 1 million years young. Despite all the dust, far off background galaxies can be seen in this colorful cosmic view. I really liked this picture because you can see the distinct degrees of difference between the nebula and cluster. You can also distincly see the appearance of red light coming from NGC 7142.

APOD 1.2

As seen from the South Pole, the moon was up for a continuous 14 days in August. During the lunar eclipse which occurred on August 28th, the moon circled a mere 10 degrees above the horizon. While taking this picture, Robert Schwarz encountered 2 problems. The minor problem was the blurred atmosphere, but the major problem was the air temperature of -90F. Due to this extreme temperature, the long exposure picture had to be taken through a slit in a window in a heated room. And even with the heat producing convection and further blurring, this incredible picture of the 4-hour long lunar eclipse sequence provided a different view from a unique location on Earth.

APOD 1.1

Robert Stephan took this picture of M33, a big spiral galaxy about 3 million light-years away. The streaks in the picture are of interferring satellite trails, which are usually cut out of the final picture. He chose not to cut this out because he realized that it was also a relatively rare sight. His picture shows the tail of an aircraft passing through his telescope's view. A navigational strobe light flashed across the tail at the perfect moment. It produced a brilliant and incredibly sharp image.