APOD 2.6

This is a picture taken on December 10th as the moon rose behind the Zagros mountains of Iran. A total lunar eclipse was taking place. This image is the combination of 500 pictures taken separately. The reason the moon appears red is because the Earth's atmosphere scatters blue light more strongly than red. This is also why the sunset and sunrise also appears red.

APOD 2.5

This "Homestead" Vein seen on Mars is a curious sight. The theory is that this vein was casued by running liquuid, just like mineral veins here on Earth. The main theory is that this vein was caused by running by water, which suggests that Mars had water in the past. That thought supports the theory that Mars was once hospitable for life.

APOD 2.4

This is a shot of startrails taken near Zagreb, Croatia. In the upper right of the frame, the North Celestial Pole is visible. This picture was not taken with a digital camera. It was recorded using color slide film in a medium format camera. The view could bring to mind old views when the Pannonian Sea covered part of Europe.

APOD 2.3

This picture really draws your eye. It is a very colorful depiction of a rainbow and green aurora streaks above the cliff. The water droplets drifted from the waterfall to form the rainbow. The light reflected from the nearly full moon reflects the light to form the rainbow. Beyond the cliff in the sky you can see the Big Dipper, part of the constellation Ursa Major.

APOD 2.2

This is a shot of Asteroid 2005 YU55. This massive asteroid passed by Earth on November 8th. It is 400 meters across and passed by within the Moon's orbit. It did not pose any danger, but if it were to hit land it would cause a magnitude 7 earthquake as well as leave a small city sized crater. If it had struck in an ocean, it could have caused a massive tsunami. This is the largest asteroid to have passed this close to Earth since 1976.



APOD 2.1

This is an image of the constellation Cepheus. The weird shapes surrounding the stars are cosmic dust clouds faintly visible in dimly reflected starlight.  These cosmic dust clouds are 1,200 light years away from our location on Earth. The core of the dark cloud on the right is collapsing and is likely a binary star system in the early stages of formation. These spooky shapes almost look like ghosts.

APOD 1.8

This is a picture of the transit of Venus across the Sun. It was taken in 2004, and it is considered to be one of the best pictures regarding that topic. There were several pictures taken at the time of this event, but with the mysterious clouds and great lighting, this picture is considered to be the best. It was taken in North Carolina. The next transit of Venus across the Sun will take place in 2012.

Johannes Hevelius Biography

Aaron McCutcheon

Mr. Percival

Honors Astronomy

10/13/11

Johannes Hevelius

          Johannes Hevelius was born January 28^th, 1611 in Danzig, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. His parents were both German speaking Lutherans who made a name for themselves in the brewing business. Hevelius followed in his family’s footsteps and was a brewer for a large portion of his life. He even brewed the famous Jopen Beer. Although he was a brewer, he also became involved in his town. He became councilor and eventually mayor of Danzig, Pomeranian Voivodeship. His interest with astronomy was always great, and astronomy became his chief interest when he became councilor. He constructed a great observatory that spanned across the roof of three houses, of which he owned them all. The observatory was known by the name Sternenburg, or “Star Castle”. In May, 1679, a young Englishman by the name of Edmund Halley had been sent to speak with Mr. Hevelius, as Hevelius had grown in notoriety with his work. Robert Hooke and John Flamsteed sent Halley to try and persuade Hevelius to use a telescope for his measurements, as Hevelius had only been using a quadrant and alidade. However, Hevelius refused to do so, and he is known as one of the last astronomers to do major work without the use of telescopes. Hevelius made a startling amount of discoveries and observations during his lifetime. He made observations of sunspots and discovered four comets in 1652, 1661, 1672, and 1677. These comet discoveries led to his thesis that such things as comets revolve around the sun in parabolic paths. However, his most famous contribution to astronomy was his incredibly time consuming charting of the Moon’s surface. He spent four whole years doing so, and he even discovered the Moon’s libration in longitude. His extensive work with the Moon entitles him to be called the founder of lunar topography. In 1679, a fire destroyed much of his house and his observatory, but he quickly rebuilt and continued with his work. In 1683, he found and named the constellation Scutum (then Scutum Sobiescianum). His health began to fail after the shock of the fire in 1679, and Johannes Hevelius died on his 76^th birthday, January 28, 1687. In order to honor the 400^th anniversary of his birth, 2011 is celebrated as “Year of Jan Heveliusz” in Poland. 

APOD 1.7

This is a picture of a Bubble Nebula, NGC 7635, being pushed by the stellar wind of the massive central star BD+602522. The Nebula is able to contain the expansion of bubble gas, but when the hot radiation from the bubble's central star it heats up dense regions of the molecular cloud. This causes it to glow. The Bubble Nebula is 10 light years across and can be seen with a small telescope.

APOD 1.6

This is a picture of a starburst galaxy named M82. It's common name is the Cigar Galaxy because of its elongated physical appearance. This galaxy is experiencing supernovas and strong winds from massive stars. This is causing a burst of star formation within the galaxy that is producing a prodigous outflow of material. You can see evidence of the superwind from the galaxy's central regions. The burst of star formation should last up to 100 million years.

APOD 1.5

This major solar flare sprouted from one of the most active sunspot clusters in the past few years. The flare was so large that it could be seen without a telescope. This particular flare was an X-class flare which are big, and they are major events that can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms. Although another X-class flare occurred Saturday, none have been directly aimed at Earth.

Sources for Biography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Hevelius

http://www.nndb.com/people/649/000096361/

http://www.johannes-hevelius.com/

http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Hevelius_Johannes.html

Book:
Science and Its Times. Ed. Neil Schlager and Josh Lauer. Vol. 3: 1450 to 1699. Detroit: Gale, 2001. p373.

Science and Its Times. Ed. Neil Schlager and Josh Lauer. Vol. 3: 1450 to 1699. Detroit: Gale, 2001. p339-342.

APOD 1.4

This is a picture of the Orion Nebula; it is located 1,500 light years away. The incredible coloration of the nebula spreads over 40 light years in space. The brightest portion of the nebula is centered around Orion's young hot stars, known as the Trapezium Cluster.The Trapezium Cluster is one of the most famous multiple star clusters in the night sky. The red areas are thought to be raining green crystals into the center of a developing star. One of these stars may be the embryonic star, HOPS-68. This data was constructed by the Spitzer Space Telescope. 

AstronomyCast Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. Some of his biggest contributions to the field of astronomy include the discovery that Jupiter is orbited by more than one moon, the phases of Venus, and he was one of the first to observe sunspots. Galileo observed through a telescope what he thought to be fixed stars around Jupiter, but on the next night they had all changed positions, which led him to the discovery of three of the four largest satellites orbiting Jupiter. From September 1610, Galileo observed that Venus exhibited a full set of phases similar to that of the Moon. Lastly, Galileo was one of the first Europeans to observe sunspots, although Kepler had unwittingly observed one in 1607, but mistook it for a transit of Mercury. Galileo Galilei was one of the most influential astronomers in our history, and his observations led to many future conclusions.

AstronomyCast Johannes Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion

Johannes Kepler was born one month premature, and in 1571 that was much more serious than it is now. Because of his early birth, physical ailments plagued him for most of his life. It is believed that because of this his eyesight was poor, which was why he did not make many of the observations he used himself. Instead he worked with Tycho Brahe until the two had a falling out. Once Brahe died, Kepler managed to get his hands on some of Brahe's great observations and data logs. With the data from Brahe and through the use of mathematics Kepler was able to make three laws of planetary motion.

• The path of the planets about the sun is elliptical in shape, with the center of the sun being located at one focus. (The Law of Ellipses)
• An imaginary line drawn from the center of the sun to the center of the planet will sweep out equal areas in equal intervals of time. (The Law of Equal Areas)
• The ratio of the squares of the periods of any two planets is equal to the ratio of the cubes of their average distances from the sun. (The Law of Harmonies)

APOD 1.3

This is one of the clearest pictures taken of our Sun. It was taken in 2002 from the Swedish Solar Telescope operating on the Canary Island of La Palma. The top of the picture contains mostly boiling granules while across the bottom a large sunspot appears. Some scientists believe sunspots are caused by intense magnetic activity, which inhibits convection by an effect comparable to the eddy current brake, forming areas of reduced surface temperature.

APOD 1.2

This picture of the surface of the moon depicts the landing point of the Apollo 17. It shows the lunar module, Challenger, the lunar rover, and the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP). All of these things were left on the moon. The ALSEP was left to monitor the moon's environment and interior. If you look closely you can see tracks left by the lunar rover as well as some faint footprints from Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, the last men to walk on the moon. The men spent 75 hours on the moon bringing back large amounts of samples. With the manned missions cancelled, it could be quite a while before another man walks on the moon.

APOD 1.1

On August 30th, 2011, NASA used the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to take an image of distant stars and galaxies. The green light in the middle of the image is a brown dwarf- the coldest brown dwarf currently known. Although brown dwarves start like stars with a gravitational collapse of gas and dust, they don't have enough mass to achieve the temperatures that trigger hydrogen fusion. This brown dwarf is approximately the size of Jupiter and will continue to cool and change color.