Observation 2.8

Date: December 25, 2013
Time: 2:24 - 2:30 am

Observations:
Tonight, after just coming home from a Christmas party, I looked up at the sky to see what awesome things were up there for me to record and of course the first thing that I saw was the Moon! In all honesty, I was very surprised when I saw the Moon because I don't ever recall seeing just the bottom half of the Moon lit up before. Now don't worry, this does not mean the world is going to end or a start of the zombie apocalypse is beginning. This is just the way the Moon is rotating around the tilted Earth and also due to the latitude my house is located. I will also mention that the Moon was fairly close to the ground tonight. I am saying this because with the tilt of the Earth and the Moon's rotation around the Earth, the Moon would most probably be on the southern part of its orbit. Since it is in this part of its orbit, the light reaching to it from the Sun would only light up the bottom half of the Moon. This is why looking up at the sky, night or day is important because you could see something that you have never seen before or the world has never recorded! Just keep searching!

William Herschel Biography Sources

1. http://www.space.com/17432-william-herschel.html
2. http://www.nndb.com/people/661/000096373/
3. http://simostronomy.blogspot.com/2013/01/sir-william-herschel-variable-stars.html
4. http://ericfdiaz.webs.com/williamherschel.htm

Observation 2.7

Date: December 9, 2013
Time: 4:24 - 5:00

Observations:
Today I was just casually sitting outside in my backyard finishing up some homework and starting to study for the long dreadful midterms in the following week. I started to get off track as usual and I decided to just lay down on the grass. When I was scanning the empty sky, or so I thought, I saw the Moon! Now don't get me wrong, this is not the first time that I had seen the Moon out when it wasn't completely dark outside, but I was just excited that I actual had the time to take a picture of it. As the Sun began to slowly set, the Moon did seem to get brighter and brighter but I thought it was pretty awesome that you can see the surface of the Moon so clear even without a camera. I know the first picture makes the Moon seem very, very small, however, I was still able to see the creators on the Moon which I thought was awesome. That's all I have to really say about this today but don't forget to keep looking up!!! You never know what you can find in the sky!

APOD 2.7

How cold can Earth possibly get?

Or how about: how cold can it get on the coldest place on Earth?

The first place a lot of people think of when you ask that question is the Antarctica and that is right. Well, measured on July 31, 2013, the interior of Antarctica can be as low as -135.3 degrees Fahrenheit! Yes, that is very, very, very, cold. This temperature was taken near the mountain peaks in the area just because it is generally colder the higher you go.

Why?

Well, the less air pressure there is the colder something is. Take spray paint for example. When you spray paint something and then you touch the bottle, it feels cold. That is because you are releasing the pressure inside the bottle. Let's think about it in another way. Air has particles. Each particle has loads of energy. When you put a couple of particles of air near each other in a sealed compartment they begin to bounce off the walls of the compartment and with one another. When something is moving very fast then it tends to release heat because the energy is coming off as heat. Now picture yourself trying to compress millions of trillions of moving, energized air particles into a 16 ounce metal bottle. Now that is some pressurized air! You see once you press down on the nozzle and let out the air, you then relieve some of the pressure inside the bottle and because that much air is lost from the bottle then then are less air particles moving and bouncing around so there is less heat being made.

Now how is this possible in a place as big as Earth?

First off, I think we can all say that Earth has a gravitational pull on things. The closer you are to the core of the Earth, the stronger the gravitational pull. Therefore, the farther you are from it, the less the pull impacts things. Now the way that I think of it is that the gravitational pull closer to the ground pulls the air closer to the Earth which is why ground level has a higher pressure than on a mountain top. This is also why people say that the bottom of the ocean has such high pressure, because of the great gravitational pull! Now the reason why the Antarctic is colder than the highest mountain in the world is also because there is less sunlight shining down at the bottom of the Earth. Just be grateful that you are not down there right now because personally, down here in Florida, 60 degrees is cold enough for me!

Observations 2.6

Yes the Sun is behind the clouds!

That's much better!

 Date: December 8, 2013
Time: 11:00 - 11:35

Observations:
When people hear the word astronomy, they think of nighttime and of millions of stars in the sky. What many fail to realize is that we, our planet and Sun are also part of the millions and billions of stars out there in space. Many people forget that our own Sun is also a star! Today I felt like giving a little credit to our own beautiful Sun. When I first went outside, as you can see in the first picture, the Sun was some what hidden behind the clouds. After shielding my eyes and waiting outside for a few minutes, the Sun was ready for me to take some pictures (I hope pointing my camera at the Sun will not ruin it!).

Our Sun is around 4.6 billion years old (that would be considered the Sun in its middle age). The Sun was made when a Supernova (an explosion or a death from a star many times bigger than our own Sun). The debris from this explosion struck a nearby gas cloud and due to the heat and energy emitted from the explosion, the gas particles and dust began to collide and mix making a huge cloud like formation. Due to its density, the cloud collapsed in itself and the particles began to clump up enough for it to have it's own gravitational force as it began to pull and suck everything towards the center. From all this energy and heat, this center began to produce nuclear fire and began to grow in size. With its gravitational pull, all the debris surrounding it began to circle around the forming sun and like someone throwing pizza dough in a circular motion in the air, the debris fanned out into a plane circling the Sun. Confusing? Here is a picture to clarify it a bit:

So that is how our Sun came to be! Okay other cool stuff about our Sun is that it will die, but don't worry, that won't happen for another 5 billion years because it has not yet used up its chemical fuel.
You see, there are suns and stars that are many times bigger and even smaller than our Sun; however, the smaller the star the longer it lives because it does not use its fuel up as fast as a bigger, hotter star.

People should have more of an appreciation for our own solar system and our Sun because without it there would be no life whatsoever; there would be no peaceful warm or cool and breezy nights gazing up at the billions of other stars that are like our own Sun. It is just amazing to think that our Sun is also one of the billions of stars in space and that maybe somewhere out there, there is another planet with people or other life forms that are looking up at the sky as well and wondering what is really out there.

APOD 2.6

Yes, what you are looking at right now is real. This is a laser being shot up into space. I bet you are wondering that if you were in space right now, would you actually be able to see this laser, and the answer is, yes! Mindboggling isn't it. Well first off let me explain why this machine is shooting a laser beam into space.

This space machine is at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) site (yeah I know, what a creative name)located in Chile and what astronomers there are trying to do is they are trying to find and measure the distortions found in Earth's atmosphere.

What does that mean?

Well, you see, Earth has an atmosphere, although relatively thin, which contains particles such as oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, water vapor and even dust. In the atmosphere there are also these things called air pockets and no they are not really pockets of air in the sky. What they really are, are strong currents of air blowing in a certain direction. This is why sometimes a plane ride can be a little or very bumpy. Because of this wind, it causes the atmosphere to change and shifts which results in distorting images from space. This is how some stars seem to twinkle. Although it seems dreamy and pretty, this hinders us from seeing where the star really is.

To fix this problem, astronomers are able to send a laser beam up into space which acts as an artificial star which they are able to measure the blurring on. With this information the telescope is able to minimize the blurring. This laser is just an emission of excited atoms and molecules powerful enough reach past Earth's atmosphere.

In this situation, these astronomers are trying to examine the stars in the center of the galaxy, and so to be as precise as they can, they want to measure the atmospheric blurring in this particular area. As for the aliens on a planet in the center of the galaxy, they would be able to see the laser, however, the laser's light would mix with the Sun's light and all they would see is one distant star.

Observations 2.5

Date: November 29, 2013
Time 1:30 - 1:53 am

Observations:
Happy Thanksgiving! This night I just came back from a Thanksgiving party and when I came home and looked at the sky, it was actually clear again! Today was very cold and although I did not see the Moon around this time, I know that the Moon was near Spica today as it comes closer to a new moon. Here you can see the constellations Orion and Canis Major. As you can tell, that night was a very good night considering the amount of stars visible.

Observations 2.4

Date: November 21, 2013
Time: 9:10 - 9:43 pm

Observations: Tonight, when I came outside, the weather was quite chilly. The Moon today was seen to be near the planet Jupiter, yet the sky was actually quite clear and the stars could easily be seen. Today, in the photo above I was able to point out 2 other constellations although you cannot see the whole thing. In the sky right now that you might notice from my previous observations is Orion and Eridanus. At the very top left corner is actually the bottom of the constellation Orion and you are able to see most of the constellation Eridanus (even though it is more visible in this photo than last weeks, you still cannot see the whole entire constellation!) Eridanus takes up the whole left half of the picture. Now for the other half, there are the constellations Cetus, the Seamonster and Taurus, the Bull.

It is amazing just how big these constellations are out in the sky, but when you take a picture of them or see a diagram of them they look so small! It is a wonder how big space really is and how small we are compared it. We are like a grain of sand compared to the desert and even that is insufficient in describing our relationship with space. So have some respect and do not take life for granted!

Observations 2.3

Date: November 9, 2013
Time: 10:05-10:47 pm

Observations:
As I went out today, as usual, I saw the constellation that I am most familiar with, Orion. However, today, after doing some research, I discovered 2 new constellations in the picture! I found Lepus, the hare which is to left of Orion.

As well as Eridanus which is also known as the river.

With the help of Planetarium I was able to find out my location and the constellations of the sky at the time. It was very helpful! Luckily, the sky cleared up today because throughout the week the night sky was pretty cloudy and the sky today is near the first quarter phase. Oh yeah, it's also starting to get a little chilly outside now!

APOD 2.5

What is a black hole?

A black hole is a point and a place where there is so much density in such a little amount of space that the gravitational pull is so great that nothing can escape it, not even light. Okay let me break this down for you. If you were to take the Earth and compress it until it is the size of a peanut, then you would have a black hole.

Why?

Well, that little peanut would be so dense that it would have such an immense gravitational pull that essentially everything would be "sucked" into it. Because of Earth's gravitational pull, we are basically pulled toward the core of Earth which enables to stand on the Earth, which is why basically people in Antarctica are standing upside down. The reason why we are not being sucked into Earth is because the particles and the matter in Earth are more spread out throughout its size and it is not as compressed and, of course, because its gravitational pull is not as strong as a black hole's. A planet's gravitational pull is dependent on the size of the planet or star. The bigger the planet, the bigger the pull. Since the peanut would have all these particles compressed in it, its gravitational pull ratio would be so significant that it would become a black hole.

Well, what makes a black hole?

Theoretically, anything has the ability to become one. Everyone and everything has something called the Schwarzschild radius. This radius is unique to everything in that bigger things have a bigger Schwarzschild radius. So when a Sun 100's of times bigger than our Sun is no longer able to sustain itself then it will collapse. Once it collapses it will, due to the amount of energy it still has, compress down to an infinitely small space and then create a black hole.

With such a great gravitational pull it can make light passing by the black hole orbit it. In the picture above, this black hole is near a star in which it is pull its light toward it. The light above and below the black hole are basically jets that are pushing some of the light out due to its faster-than-the-speed-of-light motion. Unfortunately for that star, it will soon die and meet it never ending doom into the black because once you enter a black hole, there is no getting out of it...

APOD 2.4

The picture above was taken in Australia in January in the year 2007. Here, as you can see, people are just casually relaxing at the beach watching the fireworks on the left (because they were celebrating Australia Day) and to the right, greatly contrasting with the bright sky, is obviously a thunderstorm with an amazing shot of lightening. Although most of the Australians and probably you are focusing on the sky as a whole, right in the middle of the sky, in between the clouds and the fireworks, if you look close enough you can see this one little white streak seeming to head downwards. What the many people on this beach did not even notice was that they were witnessing a comet!

This comet is called Comet McNaught. Last seen in 1935, this is the brightest this comet has ever been seen by the naked eye. Pretty coincidental right? Well there is a chance for you (unfortunately for those of you who live in the USA) to possibly see a comet like this but probably not as bright on Sunday before the Sun is about to rise. Just look by the star Spica and you will be able to see the comet!

APOD 2.3

As many are able to tell, the planet shown above is the planet Jupiter. As many of you who were able to actually witness the partial or solar (depending on where you were that day) eclipse you can tell that this event is happening on Jupiter as well, except with 3 of its moons!

Out of all the planets in our solar system, the gas planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, have the most moons circling them.

Even with over 60 moons gravitating around Jupiter, these eclipses are a rare event for Jupiter. For a recap, a Solar eclipse is when the Sun and the moon(s) come into perfect alignment during the day in which the shadow of the moon(s) are cast onto the a planet.

The moons that are in this solar eclipse are Callisto, Io and Europa. Callisto is the moon to the very left with its shadow shown on the bottom of Jupiter. Io is the moon closet to Jupiter and has its reflection closet to the Jupiter's Big Red Spot. Europa is the moon in the middle of the two same with its shadow.

Just looking at the moons' sizes compared to Jupiter just goes to emphasize how big Jupiter is! These moons are almost as big as Mercury too! Let's just hope Jupiter doesn't get any closer to us than it is!

Observation 2.2

As you can see, the Sun is beginning to rise.

Even in 1 minute you can see the slight color change in the sky.

When: November 3, 2013
Time: 7:23am-7:30am

This morning, I woke up really early and I ran outside to my backyard. Why? Because today there was going to be a total solar eclipse! That is of course if you were in the Atlantic Ocean right off the coast of Uganda. A solar eclipse is when the Sun and the Moon come in perfect alignment during daytime. Even though the total eclipse was on the other side of the world, there was a chance to see a partial eclipse on the eastern coastline of the U.S. all the way to Somalia. Unfortunately, my view of the horizon was obstructed by the tree line so by the time I was able to see the Sun the partial eclipse had passed. If I had gotten the chance to see the Sun right when it started to rise, I would have seen the Sun with a little chunk bitten off of it. This chunk would have been the Moon. Slowly as the Sun would rise higher and higher into the sky, the chunk would soon disappear as the Moon begin to seemingly move away from the Sun. Almost like this:

This is just a picture from the Internet.

I guess better luck next time!

Observation 2.1

When: October 31 2013
Time: 6:15am-6:30am

Observation: This morning, I went outside to see the stars and I noticed that the phase of the Moon was a waning crescent. When I was outside, I was able to make out the whole outline of the Moon, however, on this photo you are only able to see the crescent. What was really nice about the Moon today was that it was a little lower than it usually was this whole week and throughout the car ride to school I was able to see the Moon.

Although I do not have pictures of it, I also saw the constellations Ursa Major (Big Bear or Big Dipper) and Orion.

In a previous observation I took a picture of Orion and I indicated that it was more towards the East, however, as the months passed Orion is now fairly westward and for some reason I was able to stars around it clearer than before. This is probably due to the fact that the Sun has been rising later and later on in the day. Slowly, the constellations will move more and more to the West and some constellations that I was not able to see will soon become visible.

Just keep looking up and follow the stars!

Great World Wide Star Count

 

GREAT WORLD WIDE STAR COUNT:

When: October 30, 2013
When: 10:45pm approx.

In the area that I was located when I participated in the Great World Wide Star Count, I found that the stars visible in my neighborhood were stars up to magnitude 4.

 The time that I went out to look at the stars was around 10:45pm.

It unfortunately seems like my neighborhood area is partially affected by light pollution.

APOD 2.2

Taken on September 12 in Iceland, an aurora is displayed in the dark sky. On the ground, you can see openings on Earth's crust known as fumaroles. Don't worry, this does not mean the Earth is going to cave in on us! These are openings are usually found in places with volcanic activity and are naturally formed to let out gases, heat and steam from the center of the core of the Earth. If we did not have this, the world would have probably blown up by now.

Relating this to astronomy, auroras, like that seen in the sky of this picture, are usually seen in the artic region as well as Antarctica.

Why is this?
Well on of the main reason is because these regions are magnetic poles which attract and react with the electrons and protons emitted from the Sun. What causes the varying colors is due to the different excited states of different atoms. For example, this green aurora is caused by oxygen becoming excited. Being that this picture was taken in Iceland, this place is very close to the North magnetic pole.

APOD 2.1

The picture above is of the planet Saturn. This picture was obviously not taken from Earth because there is no possible way that we can see all of Saturn, including the side in the shadow since we are in the inside circle and Saturn is in the outer circles of our solar system. This picture was actually taken by a man-made satellite called the Cassini spacecraft which is now in Saturn's orbit and has been taking pictures of Saturn allowing us to attain more knowledge about it.

Around Saturn you can see it's massive rings. These rings are actually millions of billions of rock, sand and ice particles ranging from around the size of sand to rocks as big as houses or even buildings! Some of these rocks are actually from left over pieces from when Saturn was first made. Others come from debris from a meteor or an asteroid hitting Saturn or one of it's moons. The gravitation of Saturn and its moons (up to 60 moons) actually are what keep the rings in place. However, don't think that these rocks are just floating up and down in one place. Theses pieces are actually moving around Saturn at a very high rate which is why the rings seem to blend into one another. You may think that there are only a couple of rings surrounding Saturn, however, there are thousands of rings that circle around Saturn with widths ranging around 30 to 300 feet!

Although you can't see it, all the outer planets have rings surrounding them/ It just seems that Saturn has more rings that are bigger and reflect more light which enable us to see it.

Why is it that all the outer planets have rings and not the inner planets?
In reality, all the planets, yes, including Earth, once had rings around it. So actually Earth did have rings surrounding it once but they were just too unstable to sustain and therefore the pieces or rock and ice we able to pull away from Earth's gravitational pull and fly away.

Unfortunately though, we do have a type of ring surrounding the Earth, rings made of our waste and some debris from things such as our space ships and satellites. This is a problem that we need to start fixing because not only can it possibly hinder future exhibitions in space it may actually affect us people on Earth as well as our planets,

APOD 1.8

Taken in the country of South Africa, this photo shows a detailed picture of our Milky Way, the long belt-like thing at the top of the picture. In this picture, you are also able to see one very bright star-like object in the middle of the sky. However, to many people's surprise, this is not a star, rather it is the planet Venus.

What makes Venus appear so bright, is not because it is emitting that light, but it is actually reflecting the light emitted from the Sun.

There is a term used to express how much light a planet is able to reflect which is the word "albedo". Venus is actually the planet in our solar system that has the highest albedo of up to 70 percent. In other words, the planet Venus absorbs 30 percent of the Sun's light and reflects 70 percent of it.

Some people might come to the conclusion that the reason why Venus is brighter than any other planet is due to the fact that it is the closet planet to Earth. Although it is true that Venus is the closest planet to Earth, what really makes it shine so bright are the clouds that surround the planet. So just like how it is so bright when you look at the snow on a sunny day, the clouds that surround Venus, which is composed of sulfuric acid and other acidic crystals, causes light to easily bounce off and reflect it. This is actually why sometimes the Moon may appear to be duller than Venus, because the Moon only has an albedo of 10 percent due to it's rocky surface and lack of clouds covering it. What makes the Moon appear to be bright is actually how close it is to Earth.

So the next time you look up in the sky, the brightest thing in the sky (which is not always the Moon) is most likely to be the planet Venus.

Observation 1.6

First Quarter

The brightest star in the sky is Venus and it is close to the constellation Scorpius

Date: October 12, 2013
Time: 7:41-7:48 pm

Observations:  The Moon outside today was a little past the first quarter. To the right of the Moon is the planet Venus and the stars around it seem to be the constellation Scorpius. Everyday now, the Moon is getting farther and farther eastward from the planet Venus while Venus is getting closer and closer to the constellation Scorpius.

Observation 1.5

Waxing Crescent

The brightest star to the left of the Moon is the planet Venus

Date: October 7, 2013
Time: 8:22-8:33

Observations: The Moon outside today was a waxing crescent and it was quite bright today. The blurriness of some of the pictures shows that there was a light haze in the sky and I noticed that my camera picked up enough light to outline the whole moon as well. Looking to the left of the Moon I saw a really bright star which turned out to be the planet Venus. This is actually the first time I was able to identify Venus even though I probably saw it every night. I also took some pictures of the sky directly above me, however I wasn't able to identify any of them...I really need to work on my constellation skills. The night was very cool and I could see that the Moon was very close to the horizon, about 3 fists (15 degrees) above it. Also I am still noticing the constellation Orion in the morning sky as it is slowly moving more and more westward.

APOD 1.7

 

Have you ever seen a comet before? If not, then you have a chance to see one around December time. The picture above shows a comet called Comet ISON which was discovered on September 21, 2012.

 

A comet is an ice-like formation which circles the Sun. Made up of water, carbon dioxide and ammonia and methane, it is surrounded by gas and dust which makes that tail-like appearance as it travels through space. Like the Moon, this comet. like all others, will reflect the Sun's light as it comes closer to the Sun and may possibly be brighter than the Moon.

 

This comet is said to possibly have came from the Oort Cloud which is mass formation of ice particles that is around 1 light-year away from the Sun. It is thought that is this the source of many of the comets seen or observed from Earth, however, there is no actual prove of that being the case.

 

Whatever the result of this comet, it is a sight to be seen, as well as meteor showers which are actually debris of comets from the Sun vaporizing bits and pieces of the comet.

 

Be sure to keep track of these astronomical events and just keep looking up!

Astronomy Project: Eudoxus and Callippus

Chelsea Chacko
Percival Period 5
Astronomy

October 10 2013          

Astronomy Project

Eudoxus of Cnidus:

        Being born around the year 390 B.C.E., Eudoxus was a man of great knowledge that led to his famous model of the planets and the basic 5 ideas of space. A man of various capabilities, such as in Math, metaphysics, ethics, and astronomy, Eudoxus began to travel throughout Europe, learning under others who proved their brilliance such as Plato and Archytas. With the influences of his teacher, Eudoxus begins to delve into the subjects and make new discoveries that affect us to this very day.

        During his life, Eudoxus advanced in math as he made the theory of proportions which allowed him to compare irrational numbers and his method of exhaustion which allowed him to find the area of a polygon.

        His major influence in astronomy came from his teacher Archytas. Following his teacher's beliefs of the solar system, Eudoxus, like many others, believed that the sphere was the perfect shape. He made many observations of the stars and sky which he incorporated into the school he made to teach all the subjects he excelled in and became very popular due to that. One of his accomplishments was his creation of the first five basic principles of the celestial world:

1. The Earth is the center of everything.

2. Planets and orbits are all circular.

3. All celestial movement is regular

4. The center of a celestial object when it is moving is also its center.

5. The center of all things is the center of the universe

        Eudoxus not only believed in the homocentric view he also made the first model incorporating his concept of how planets and celestial objects moved called the homocentric sphere system. He pictured his model as the Earth being the inner central sphere encompassed by the 27 spheres which represent the Sun, the Moon and five planets orbiting the Earth. He believed that the outer most sphere (what Eudoxus thought were fixed stars) controlled the rotation of Earth, however, each consecutive sphere has a different rotation around its sphere. Eudoxus saw that in his model of two spheres a figure eight structure called the hippopede appeared. This is where a planet would pass the curve of a sphere. He placed a third sphere to represent the motion of the planet corresponding to the seemingly fixed stars in the sky as the planet went in a retrograde motion seen in many planets. Finally Eudoxus made a sphere to show the daily rotation of the fixed stars. In the end, the homocentric sphere system contained 27 spheres; this revelation became a huge geometrical accomplishment at his time.

        His discovery had influenced the famous Aristotle who took the concept of spheres literally when it is argued that Eudoxus really meant for it to be just a model to represent the paths of the planets.

       His works also influenced Hipparchus, a Greek mathematician, in 2 of his books which included Eudoxus’ measurements of the rising and the setting times of certain constellations which shows the broad range of the effects Eudoxus had on math and astronomy today.

Callippus:

       Born in the year 370 BC, Callippus was a Eudoxus’ student at the school which Eudoxus constructed. During his life, Callippus, with the help of Aristotle, took Eudoxus’ homocentric sphere model and modified the system by adding 7 more spheres which in turn allowed him to accurately measure celestial orbits. Callippus, throughout his life had consulted with Aristotle and worked for him as well, adding on to his experience and knowledge of astronomy.

      Callippus is also known for his precise measurements of the lengths of seasons and his construction of a 76 tropical year cycle compromising 940 solar and lunar months which are used by astronomers to this day.  He also found a more precise measurement of the tropical year of 365.25 days rather than just 365 days which is now accepted world-wide.

      All of Callippus’ findings have and are still being used for accurate measurements of our planets and stars presenting his influence on all the astronomical theories today.

Additional Sources:

1.      http://www.math.tamu.edu/~dallen/history/eudoxus/eudoxus.html

2.      http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Eudoxus.html

APOD 1.6

The picture above shows the remains of a star that had exploded. Considering the word "had", this star had exploded around 11 thousand years ago (the time just after the last Ice Age), yet its remains are still in space reminding us of its former presence.

This star is located in the constellation Vela (the Sails).

What causes a star to explode?
Well, a star is composed of elements such as hydrogen and  helium. In the star, there is gravity which pulls in the elements, but are repelled by the heat of the nuclear reaction. The nuclear reaction, however, is continuous, which is why and how our own Sun is here and still ever bright. In the core, there is the fusion of hydrogen into helium into bigger and heavier elements such as iron, which is not as easily fused. Soon (after billions of years, depending on how big the star is), the iron builds up to a point where anymore reaction is impossible and gravity causes the star to cave inwards and explode.

This is what happened to this star.

All these beautiful colors you see in the remains of the star are the gas particles that have flown away from the star. What causes these colors is the reaction of the gas with the interstellar medium.

What is an interstellar medium?
This is basically the stuff in between the stars in space. Yes, there actually is matter up in space. This matter mostly consists of hydrogen and helium and a little bit of dust from some of the nearby stars. This medium is pretty thin, however, with enough of it packed together, some light from stars can be blocked.

Going back to the photo above, the gas decays and reacts with the medium producing these colors.

Observing how Space and its contents work just comes to show the complexity of everything and reminds us of how little we know of everything around us.

APOD 1.5

The picture above was take in near Monte Conero, Italy on the Adriatic Sea. In the expansive sky there are boundless amounts of stars, however, the one star that I will be focusing on is the fuzzy-looking star just left of the top center of the picture.

That one fuzzy star is the only star in our whole entire sky that is outside our galaxy.

Let me dwell on this a little more. A galaxy is a system of which there are millions of billions of stars and solar systems such as our Sun and the planets that circle it. Every star that we see in the sky are stars and formations that are within our galaxy which is 100,000 lightyears long.

This fuzzy star, however, is another galaxy called the Andromeda Galaxy that is 2.5 million light years away! What's more is that the average person can see this star without the help of binoculars.

This galaxy is called the Andromeda Galaxy because of its closeness to the constellation of Andromeda.

From this picture, the constellation Andromeda is also visible. The 4 prominent stars underneath the Andromeda Galaxy are part of that constellation.

It is just amazing how one is able to see the expanse of space and that we are looking at billions of stars that continue to amaze so many.

Astronomy Project Sources

Callippus:
1. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Callippus.html
2. http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/C/Callippus

Eudoxus
1. http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Eudoxus_of_Cnidus.html
2. http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/hmendel/Ancient%20Mathematics/Eudoxus/Astronomy/EudoxusHomocentricSpheres.htm

Observation 1.4

The Moon is starting to rise.

The Moon has a very yellow tint to it.

It is amazing how clearly you can see the craters. 

The Moon is slowly getting lighter.

It is getting even more light.

Tried to be a little photographic here.

Date: 19 September 2013
Time: 7:48 - 8:00 pm

In the pictures above you can the Moon in its different stages in only 12 minutes.

This day the moon was seen rising from the horizon unlike the other nights when the Moon just seems to appears in the middle of the night sky. Although I was not able to see the Moon actually rise from the horizon due to trees being in the way, I saw the moon a few minutes after it had risen and it was big! Apparently, when the Moon is seen rising from the horizon it is very beautiful as the Moon has a strong yet beautiful color and as the sky around it is filled with different hues, and trust me, even seeing the Moon right then was beautiful.

As the Moon was rising, it had a very dark yellow color to it. It was also very, very big! In fact, it was so big that I could easily see the craters on it.

Slowly, the Moon, as it rose, it began to get light as seen in the last picture.. Even the next morning, the Moon was still up in the sky still bright and big, however, by that time it looked white.

The change in the color of the Moon is due to the position of it near the Earth. Having to pass through more atmosphere as the Moon rises, the light is slightly scattered and there is a change in the color. In one of my previous posts, I explain the reason more thoroughly.

It is so amazing to see the beauty of the Moon in its different stages and that every second it is a new experience. It is worth going outside, looking at the sky, and getting attacked by mosquitoes and accidentally stepping on ant piles and looking insane running around your backyard trying to find the best spot to take a picture, but that is besides the point. All that matters is the appreciation, respect and wonder you get from the beauties of the world, or in that manner, the mysteries of the celestial world.

Observation 1.3

The hazy sky is scattering the Moon's light.

Date: 19 September 2013
Time: 6:25 am

The pictures above show a really bright full moon. Once again before going to school I saw the Moon which was so bright that even my room was illuminated from its light.

As you can see, it was hazy that day so the light scattered in the night sky. Unfortunately, the effects of light and air pollution also impacted the picture. It is a shame that so many of the beautiful stars in sky are shrouded by pollution.

However, on a brighter note, the Moon was 2 fists (10 degrees) above the horizon. Also, at that time I saw the constellation Orion which I was not able to take a picture of but I attempted to find the approximate distance from it to the Moon which was around 7 fists (35 degrees). I noticed from the day before, Orion had moved slightly westward in the sky as well.

In a day or two the Moon will soon start to become a Waning Gibbous and slowly it seemingly disappear.