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.

APOD 2.5

Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters, is a star cluster well known from its incredible blue reflection nebulae, located a mere 400 light-years away. The picture, spanning over 20 light-years, shows the famous star cluster on the right, but also shows lesser known dusty reflection nebulae nearby. However, these sister stars are not related, but rather are just passing through the same region of space. Using infrared detectors, a dusty disk belonging to a young Pleiades star, HD 23514, has recently been found, which is comparable in size to the terrestrial planet zone in our own solar system and could likely represent the debris from the process of rocky planet formation. I have looked up in the sky many a time and have seen Pleiades, but it is really amazing to see it in this view. Pleiades is a relatively large "object" and is easy to find, but when you look at it with your naked eye, it looks nothing like this. It's pretty interesting to see Pleiades like this after looking at so many times with my naked eye.

APOD 2.4

Located in Hercules, M13, the Great Globular Cluster contains hundreds of thousands of stars, and is one of the brightest globular star clusters in the northern sky. At approximately 25,000 light-years, the stars squeeze into a region about 150 light-years in diameter, but in the cluster core over 100 stars would fit into a cube only 3 light-years on a side. Which is very close, as the closest star to the Sun is about 4 light-years away. This picture of M13 includes recent telescopic images of the dense core and "digitized photographic plates" taken between 1987 and 1991 using the Samuel Oschin Telescope at the Palomar Observatory. This picture shows both the inner and outer areas of the star cluster in great detail. Also, to the upper left of M13, NGC 6207, a distant galaxy, is also visible. To think of the millions of stars located in this relatively small area of space is incredible. There are so many packed into such a small area. It's also pretty cool to see M13 in Hercules, since it is one of the many constellations we have learned about.

Observation 2.2

Date: November 7,9,10,11, 2007
Time: 6:30 to 9:00 (30 minutes total each night)
Place: 720 Ablee RD (27°07'32.72" N 82°27'53.95" W)
Sky Conditions: Clear Skies
Instruments: Naked Eye, Some Binoculars

Planets: Jupiter

Noted Stars: Deneb, Vega, Altair, Polaris

Noted Constellations: Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Cepheus, Cygnus, Aquila, Lyra, Perseus, Peagasus, Ursa Minor, Draco

Deep Sky Objects/ M-objects: M45(Pleiades)

Other: 17P/Holmes Comet

It was pretty amazing that I could find these objects by myself. It's also pretty incredible how large M45 is, which makes it very easy to find. As of now, M45 is the easiest object for me to find. I could easily see 6 stars with my naked eyes, but when I used my binoculars I could see many, many more. It's also pretty cool that you can still see Holmes Comet, although it does seem that Holmes Comet has become more faint.