Apod 1

 Frightening forms and scary faces are a mark of the Halloween season. They also haunt this cosmic close-up of the eastern Veil Nebula. The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, the expanding debris cloud from the death explosion of a massive star. While the Veil is roughly circular in shape covering nearly 3 degrees on the sky in the constellation Cygnus, this portion of the eastern Veil spans only 1/2 degree, about the apparent size of the Moon. That translates to 12 light-years at the Veil's reassuring estimated distance of 1,400 light-years from planet Earth. In the composite of image data recorded through narrow band filters, emission from hydrogen atoms in the remnant is shown in red with strong emission from oxygen atoms in blue-green hues. In the western part of the Veil lies another seasonal apparition, the Witch's Broom.

The dust sculptures of the Eagle Nebula are evaporating. As powerful starlight whittles away these cool cosmic mountains, the statuesque pillars that remain might be imagined as mythical beasts. Pictured above is one of several striking dust pillars of the Eagle Nebula that might be described as a gigantic alien fairy. This fairy, however, is ten light years tall and spews radiation much hotter than common fire. The greater Eagle Nebula, M16, is actually a giant evaporating shell of gas and dust inside of which is a growing cavity filled with a spectacular stellar nursery currently forming an open cluster of stars. The above image in scientifically re-assigned colors was released in 2005 as part of the fifteenth anniversary celebration of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Observations 2

Date:     October 18 2013

Time:      9-11:45PM

Place: Admirals Walk Complex

Sky Conditions: Very cloudy, few constellations visible

Instruments used: My eyes

Planets: Venus, Uranus, Neptune

Bright Stars: Deneb and Alberio

Binary Stars: Epilision Lyrae, Beta Cygni

Constellations Noted: Cygnus, Cepheus, Scorpious

Deep Sky Object: M13

Other: The moon is at a full moon phase

Date:October 16 2013
time:8-10PM
place: Admirals Walk
Sky Conditions: A bit cloudy but enough to see a few constellations

Instuments: None

Planets: Uranus and Pluto

 Bright stars: Altair Deneb Vega

Constellations Noted: Lyra, Cygnus, Cepheus, Cassiopia, Draco

Binary Stars: None

Other: The moon is at a waxing gibbous phase

Felipe Rojas

Period: 4 Astronomy

October 14 2013

                                              Jean Picard

Jean Picard was born on July 21 1620 in La Fleche, France and died on July 12 1682. He was actually most famous for being able to calculate the length of a degree of a meridian. He used his method and eventually was able to estimate the size of earth. He was very accurate in his measurments compared to the actual size of earth. Jeans calculations were .44% off from current calculations. For Jean's time this is quite a genuine accomplishment knowing that at his time there was not as many tools as there are now to calculate such things. This very calculating is what other extremely famous astronomers used to help them find other answers. For example, the theory of gravitation made by sir Isaac Newton was actually somewhat supported by Jean Picards calculations. Sir Isaac Newton took this information into account when developing his brilliant theory. Jean Picard was very in contact with other famous astronomers. Such as the one and the only Tycho Brahe. Jean Picard visited Tycho Brahe at his obervatory in an island next to Sweden. Jean helped and advised Tycho in exact locations of certain objects in space. Jean collaborated his ideas with Tycho's in order to have a more accurate location of things in space. Jean Picard made many observations on his own as well as even the first observation of barometric light. By using many of Tycho's observations Jean Picard became the writer as well as the editor of “Knowledge of Time and the Celestial Motions”. Jean Picard was also truly a genius when it came to telescopes. He managed to attach cross wires to quadrants in telescopes as well as create a margin of error of only an astonishing 10 seconds!!! Not only did he have knowledge but he also gave it. Jean Picard became a teacher at the University of Paris in 1650.

Jean Picard played a strong role in early astronomy as well as current. Jean Picard's work aided Isaac Newton in his development of his theory. Jean also aided Tycho Brahe in his observations of celestial objects. Jean Picard played a huge role in the early development of the telescope when he put cross wires in Quadrants and lowered the margin of error. Jean Picard is truly a genius in his field and is an important figure in Astronomy.

 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/459252/Jean-Picard

 http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/people/picard-jean.html

 http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/picard.html

 

 

the Bubble Nebula at the lower left with open star cluster M52 above it and to the right. AWESOME...

APOD 3

Thisamzing trio of galaxies is sometimes called the Draco Group,is found in the northern constellation Draco.