Astronomy Picture of the Day

Shown here is the Aurora over Iceland, and the constellation Orion seen just to left of the fantastic aurora. These auroras are caused by particles from the sun interacting with the magnetic field of Earth. The excess protons and electrons in Earth's atmosphere interacts with the magnetic field and creates lights such as these. The green light comes from oxygen molecules returning to ground state after interaction with an excited electron.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

The equinox took place on March 20th, which marks the first day of spring. The photo shows the position of the sun in the sky over Poland from March 1, 2013 to March 1, 2014. These analemmas were captured over one year with a pinhole camera by making one one minute exposure per day. 

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Shown here is the Orion Nebula. It is located about 1600 lightyears away from Earth and is opaque to visible light due to the vast amounts of dust surrounding it. This dust is created by cool stars and expelled outside the nebula by particle wind. Over the next few million years, this dust will be dispersed by stars now in formation. 

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Shown her is the Pleiades star cluster destroying a passing cloud of gas and dust. The Pleiades is the brightest open star cluster that can be seen from Earth and is visible from almost any northern location with the naked eye. The star cluster is devouring a cloud part of Gould's Belt, which is a ring of young star formation in the Milky Way Galaxy. Pressure from the stars' light repels the dust in thenebula, with smaller dust particles being repelled more strongly.Parts of the dust cloud have become filamentary and stratified, as seen in the above deep-exposure image. 

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Pictured here is the Orion Nebula which is located 1,500 lightyears from the Earth. This photo is a false-color view that spans 40 lightyears. The photo was constructed using the Spitzer Space Telescope. The center of the nebula contains the Trapezium Cluster and the red hues the protostars. One of the protostars, HOPS 68 was recently discovered to have crystals of the silicate mineral olivine.

Observations

Date: December 15th, 2013

Time:  7:00 - 9:00 PM

Place: Backyard 

Instruments Used: binoculars (10x50)

Sky Conditions: Mostly clear, with some faint & wispy clouds. Moon: full.

Instruments Used: naked eye observations, no binoculars/telescopes

Planets: Venus

Bright Stars noted: Deneb, Alberio, Gamma Andromeda, Betelgeuse, Rigel

Constellations noted: Taurus, Andromeda, Cygnus, Orion, Fornax

Binary Star: Alberio: one star bright blue, the other (lower to right) yellow. Gamma Andromeda: color difference - blue and golden. 

Deep Sky Objects: M45, The Pleiades: located in Taurus; seven brightest stars go under the name "The Seven Sisters"

M31, "The Andromeda Galaxy", located in Andromeda

"The Hyades": open, located in Taurus: "V" shaped, nine main stars

M42, "The Orion Nebula", celestial nursery, located in Orion, four star system known as "The Trapezium"

Observations

Date: October 29th, 2013

Time:  7:00 - 10:00 PM

Place: Casey Key

Sky Conditions: Slightly clear, with a number of relatively high clouds. Moon not present during time of observation, waning cresent.

Instruments Used: binoculars (10x50), telescope 26mm with F10 focal power.

Planets: Venus (neutral filter, quarter phase, slight fluorescent glow)

Bright Stars noted: Vega, Deneb, Altair (Summer Triangle), Antares,

Constellations noted: Lyra, Cygnus, Aquila, Scorpius, Virgo, Bootes, and Hercules. Cygnus ("v" structure found magnitude 5).

Binary Star: Alberio, one star bright blue, the other yellow. Polaris, secondary faint star location approximately 11 o'clock.

Deep Sky Objects: M13: globular, located in Hercules; in the telescope at 100 power, star cluster seen.

M11: open, Wild Duck Cluster. faint, distorted honeycomb-like cluster clouds.

Other: Venus located in constellation Ophiuchus.