Q1 Astronomer Biography Sources

"Bayer, Johnann." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 1. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. 530-531. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 29 Sep. 2011.

Norton, Stephen D. "Johann Bayer." Science and Its Times. Ed. Neil Schlager and Josh Lauer. Vol. 3: 1450 to 1699. Detroit: Gale, 2001. 361-362. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 29 Sep. 2011.

"The Open Door Web Site : History of Science and Technology : Johann Bayer." The Open Door Web Site : Home Page. Shirley Burchill, 2010. Web. 29 Sept. 2011. http://www.saburchill.com/HOS/astronomy/012.html.

Westfall, Richard S. "Bayer, Johann." The Galileo Project. Web. 29 Sept. 2011. <http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/bayer.html>.

APOD 1.5




A Beautiful Trifid (May 13, 2011)

  This photo is of M20, the Trifid Nebula, and it's about 5,000 light-years away from Earth and 40 light-years in diameter.  It is near the constellation Sagittarius, also known as the Archer.  This nebula has three distinct types of astronomical nebulae: red emission nebulae, blue reflection nebulae, and dark nebulae.  The red emission nebulae is basically light emitted from hydrogen atoms.  Blue reflection nebulae are produced by the reflection of starlight on dust.  In dark nebulae, dense dust clouds appear as a silhouette.
The red-pink area reminds me of cracked clay; it adds depth to the photograph.
I find nebulae to be quite fascinating; the whole concept it quite incredible.  I love that gases and dust can create such beautiful sculptures within the universe.

Observation Session on September 28, 2011

Date: Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Time: 8:00 pm EST to 10:00 pm EST
Temperature: low to mid 80s (degrees Fahrenheit); around 83 degrees
Location: Parking Lot across the street from Casey Key Fish House; Osprey, FL
Clear skies

Because it was so clear, we were able to spot many constellations, satellites, a planet, a few M objects, and even a meteor.
We saw Sagittarius, Scorpius, Delphinus (Job's Coffin), Corona Australis, Aquila, "The Big Dipper," "The Little Dipper," and Hercules (Keystone).  We were able to see stars such as Antares, Altair, Vega, Deneb, and Polaris.  Because we saw Altair, Vega, and Deneb we were able to locate the Summer Triangle.
We observed M8, M13, and Jupiter through a telescope at 80 power.  M8 is also known as the Lagoon Nebula, and it was a collection of stars and dust that had gray-ish tint to it.  M13 is what is called a globular cluster of stars.  The two brightest stars in the cluster were a yellow and a blue color.  When viewing Jupiter, we could see some of its moons, and faint lines that are the iconic Jupiter coloring (brown, yellow, orange, white, etc).
I was able to observe the movement of two satellites; one was moving down the celestial sphere toward the north, and the other toward the west.
The thing that impressed me the most was the scale of the constellations; when looking at a star chart, one is not able to comprehend the magnitude of the constellations.  I was surprised to see how big the Teapot of Sagittarius was.
Throughout the night, we were able to observe the gradual movement of the celestial sphere.  When we arrived, Antares was visible; when we left, it was not.

APOD 1.4

Milky Way Over Abandoned Kilns (July 25, 2011)

This is a compilation of five separate photographs taken in the same location: Nevada, USA.  The structures are called kilns and they were built in the 1870s to process wood into charcoal.  The diagonal from the top, center of the photo to the lower right corner is the Milky Way Galaxy.  To the right of the Milky Way, one can see the constellation Scorpius, and the first magnitude star, Antares!
This picture is so beautiful; it makes one appreciate the advances in astronomy that have been made over the course of history.

Astronomy Cast 1.2: Giovanni Cassini (Episode 228)

This podcast is a brief biography of Giovanni Cassini and his major contributions of the discovery of Saturn's moons, the gap in Saturn's rings (known as the Cassini Division), Jupiter's Red Spot, and the speed of light. Cassini lived at the time when gravity was discovered, and, believe it or not, he did not accept the truth of gravity at first.  However, Cassini was a very smart person: he obtained his PhD at the age of 25, determined the rotation rate of Jupiter, and his observations lead the calculation of the speed of light.  That is crazy:  it is an amazing thing that he was able to come to the conclusion of the speed of light by observing the accelerations and lags in the planets' moons' phases.  His contribution to our understanding of the universe was a grand one: he developed complex ideas that made a huge impact on the growth of calculations of the universe.  Giovanni Cassini's work lead to an accurate understanding of the scale of the solar system, and the distance of the planets.

Astronomy Cast 1.1: Johannes Kepler and His Laws of Planetary Motion (Episode 189)

This podcast was about Johannes Kepler, his contributions to modern astronomy, and how he made his conclusions.  He did not make very good observations because he had bad eyesight, but used Tycho Brahe's observations and data.  Kepler used Brahe's data to construct a workable theory of the solar system.  Kepler's laws of planetary motion state that the planets orbit the sun in a elliptical shape, that a line connecting a planet and the sun sweeps out equal areas during equal amounts of time, and that the square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of the orbit.  As it turns out, Kepler's work was not recognized and accepted until after he was dead.  That must have been pretty frustrating for Kepler: he worked endlessly to develop these laws, and no one recognized them until after he was long gone.  However, Kepler's laws and mathematical calculations are still being taught and used today; a major accomplishment that took time to be realized.

APOD 1.3

A Summer Night's Dream (August 5, 2011)

This photo was taken by Mike Rosinski in Hartland, Michigan on a summer evening.  His intention was to photograph the star trails, which occur because of the Earth's rotation about its axis, for about 45 minutes to an hour.  He set his camera--on a tripod--on a long series of exposures in order to capture the stars' movement.  In other words, he took multiple pictures with his camera set on a slow shutter speed.  However, he fell asleep, and awakened 3 hours later... to his pleasant surprise, he was able to capture the star trails, the moon's reflection on a window, and the paths of fireflies!
I have always wanted to capture star trails, but was never sure how long to set the exposure; now I know!

Observation on September 11, 2011

Photo taken by Olivia Cain

There is a full moon tonight!

APOD 1.2




A Starry Night of Iceland (May 17, 2011)

 This photo was actually a winner of the International Earth and Sky Photo Contest, and I can see why!  This photograph depicts the auroral rings over Jökulsárlón, the largest glacial lake in Iceland.  Within the ring, one can see the band of the Milky Way Galaxy and the Pleiades open clusters if stars.  Aurora rings are caused by solar winds and blasts of charged particles from the Sun.
If this is what it looked like to the people that were there, I'm taking a vacation to Iceland!

APOD 1.1



A Tale of Two Hemispheres (July 30, 2011)

This photograph brings to mind the question: what on Earth is that?  For starters, it's not on Earth; it's around Earth.  This is a photograph of the ecliptic plane.
As it turns out, this is a 'sandwich' of two different pictures: one taken in the northern hemisphere, and the other in the southern hemisphere.  The horizon lines were met at the middle, and edited together.  The faint S-shape that extends accross the picture is sunlight scattered by dust that is along the solar system's ecliptic plane.