APOD 3.5

 
 The scene is dominated by the reddish glow of the Great Carina Nebula, one of our galaxy's largest star forming regions. In fact, the remarkable skyscape is not a composite of varying exposures or a photomontage. Far from sources of light pollution, the landscape illuminated by starlight and the Milky Way above were recorded by a modified digital camera and fast lens. The sensitive system captured both planet Earth and deep sky in a relatively short exposure. 

APOD 3.6

Five hand drawn sketches of Jupiter were used to create this beautifully detailed flat map of the ruling gas giant's turbulent cloud tops. Made with colored pencils at the eyepiece of a 16 inch diameter telescope, the original drawings are about 5 inches (12.5 cm) in diameter. The drawn planisphere map dimensions are 16x8 inches (40x20 cm). Observing on different dates in November and December of 2011, astronomical artist Fred Burgeot has relied on Jupiter's rotation to cover the planet's complete circumference. 

Observations Q3 Part 2

Friday 3/4/12 : 4 hour
 ~ 7 i saw jupiter mercury and venus all lined up and mercury was really red and dim
later that night i saw many constellations, almost all studied in class including canus major and minor, orion, gemeni, sirius, columba, lepus, taurus, and auriga

APOD 3.7

 Colorful NGC 1579 resembles the better known Trifid Nebula, but lies much farther north in planet Earth's sky, in the heroic constellation Perseus. About 2,100 light-years away and 3 light-years across, NGC 1579 is, like the Trifid, a study in contrasting blue and red colors, with dark dust lanes prominent in the nebula's central regions. In both, dust reflects starlight to produce beautiful blue reflection nebulae. But unlike the Trifid, in NGC 1579 the reddish glow is not emission from clouds of glowing hydrogen gas excited by ultraviolet light from a nearby hot star. Instead, the dust in NGC 1579 drastically diminishes, reddens, and scatters the light from an embedded, extremely young, massive star, itself a strong emitter of the characteristic red hydrogen alpha light. 

Super Nova Remants

Supernovae are one of the most energetic explosive events in our Galaxy and other
galaxies. These events take place when massive stars end their life. The stellar
core collapses and they blow off their outer layers. The only thing which remains
of the exploded star is a high density neutron star, which may manifest itself
as a pulsar, or possibly a black hole. 
Supernova remnants can be observed from radio frequencies up to X-ray frequencies. 
Probably the best
examples for the composite remnants are 0540 in the Small Magelanic Cloud,
and MSH15-56 in the Galaxy
 

 

George E Hale Biography

George E Hale captured a photographic image of the Sun at a single wavelength of light, a monochromatic image. The wavelength is usually chosen to coincide with a spectral wavelength of one of the chemical elements present in the Sun. He photographed huge hurricanes of incandescent vapor and discovered that the whirlpools of flaming hydrogen expanded 300,000 miles from the surface of the sun. He also was the first to discover the outer surface of the sun was a gas.

Hale was a driven individual who worked to found a number of significant astronomical observatories, including Yerkes Observatory, Mount Wilson Observatory, Palomar Observatory, and the Hale Solar Laboratory. At Mount Wilson, he hired and encouraged Harlow Shapley and Edwin Hubble toward some of the most significant discoveries of the time. The Mt. Wilson Observatory dominated the world of astronomy in the first half of the twentieth century. Here, astronomers and physicists modernized astrophysics, confirmed what galaxies were made up of, verified the expanding universe of cosmology, and made several notes and observations about the sun. He was a prolific organizer who helped create a number of astronomical institutions, societies and journals. Hale also played a central role in developing the California Institute of Technology into a leading research university.

Hale suffered from neurological and psychological problems, including insomnia, frequent headaches, and schizophrenia, claiming to have regular visits from an elf who gave him advice on his work. George E. Hale died on February 21, 1938 in the Las Encinas Sanitarium of heart trouble. He was sixty-nine years old and currently living in Pasadena, California.