APOD 4.8 (Time Lapse Clouds and Sky Over the Canary Islands)

I chose this one because clouds behaving like water is a very rare and surreal phenomenon, partially because clouds are so high above the ground that we are rarely at a good height for this to happen, and partially because we tend to think of clouds as amorphous gases instead of low density water.  The clouds on mountaintops behave just like water on beaches, ocean floors, or even the tops of waterfalls!

Astrocast 214 (Space Tourism)

Worth two hours of observation.

As NASA's Orion project fell to pieces, most scientific missions use robotic drones, and the Space Shuttles approach their date with decommission, it seems that the Astronaut generation has ended, but the next generation has already begun.  Thousands of rich entrepreneurs have already paid for tickets to outer space, some even paying $200,000 to go through a few weeks of training before going up in space for up to 10 days, even staying on the International Space Station!  As time goes on, technology advances, and initial costs are paid off by early sponsors, space tourism could be the next big thing, even helping make space travel profitable, although we would first have to get it mainstream enough that it wouldn't require any more training than sitting in the emergency exit row of an airplane.

Astrocast 213 (Supermassive Black Holes)

Counts as two hours of Observations.

Many scientists agree that almost all large galaxies have a supermassive black hole, but they only recently figured out how they were created.  They know that supermassive black holes probably couldn't form the same way that stars are formed because there would be too many circumstances required every time.

However, one thing they forgot to figure in was that, back near the beginning of the universe, many small galaxies collided with many other small galaxies, forcing a mass of dust the size of thousands of stars toward the massive center while also sending some stars out at extremely high angular velocities.  The absolute chaos at the center prevented star formation long enough for the mass to collapse into a supermassive black hole.  After that point, the black hole's massive gravity pulled in all the surrounding matter in order to make the surrounding galaxy's shape.

Riccardo Giacconi Biography

Riccardo was born in Genoa, Italy, on October 6, 1931.  He spent most of his life in Milano until 1956, then sailed for the U.S., where he has lived for the rest of his life (save a seven year period he spent in Munich, Germany from 1992-1999).  He was the only child to Elsa Canni Giacconi, a high school teacher of math and physics, and Antonio Giacconi, a small business owner.  His parents were legally separated when he was eight years old.  He later married his high school sweetheart Mirella and fathered three children with her, his two daughters Guia and Anna, and his only son Marc.

Riccardo was a young teenager when WWII broke out.  His parents sent him to live with his aunts, Giulia and Elisa Canni, in Cremona after Milona was bombed in 1942.  He thought of his cousin Giovanni Benini, the son of Giulia, as his brother.  He was able to return home two years later.

Riccardo did not have a very solid education.  He bounced around between schools almost every year, he frequently cut class, and had a discipline problem.  He skipped his last year of high school to go straight to the University of Milano.  Once there, he stayed long enough to finish his thesis on the development of nuclear interactions by protons in the lead plates of a cloud chamber, then immediately left for a real job in science.

He worked with R.W. Thompson, an expert in cloud chamber research, from 1956-1959.  In that time, Riccardo and his colleagues worked hard trying to find new uses for cloud chambers, but ultimately failing: cloud chambers were a dead end.  Soon after Riccardo fellowship to Princeton expired, he joined American Science and Engineering (AS&E) to initiate a program of space sciences for the 28-man company.

The three-year period from 1959-1962 were among the most productive years of Riccardo's life, despite it starting off with his department consisting of only him and two technicians.  He was heavily involved in classified research: 19 rocket payloads, six satellite payloads, one entire satellite, and an aircraft payload.  He also started development on the x-ray telescope and the first few flights of rocket payloads for x-ray astronomy.  However, Riccardo was seriously annoyed with the excessive amount of time between x-ray astronomy's conception and its execution, specifically that of the space telescope known at the time as AXAF, but currently known as Chandra.

When Riccardo and eight members of his group were commissioned by NASA to build "Einstein", they wanted to operate "Einstein" as a national observatory open to astronomers of all disciplines, but thought that AS&E was not the place to do it from, so they decided to go to the Center for Astrophysics (CfA).  However, once there, they found that they got even less support than at AS&E.  It then took an additional 20 years to turn Chandra into a reality.

After Chandra’s completion, Riccardo and a few members of his Chandra team joined the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) worked on the Hubble Space Telescope, which was in serious disarray when they got on the development team.  It couldn’t find guide stars as quickly and easily as had been planned, it couldn’t point to planets, and it lacked the tools to schedule its own complex operations, just to name a few of the biggest problems.  Despite all this, Riccardo and his team were able to use their problem-solving abilities to save the failing program and make it the famous success we know today.  However, his son, Marc, died in an auto accident around this time, so Riccardo and Mirella immediately left in search of other places that didn’t bring up such bad memories.

He eventually joined the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and helped them out with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) program.  It was difficult because the project was so large that it cost more than the observatory’s yearly budget, and it was 30 times larger than their previous telescope, the New Technology Telescope.  However, this was easily overcome by simply shifting the management style to one suitable for large projects, using a few systems that had been recently proven on Hubble, and getting the astronomers to accept the idea of a single observatory where quality was much more important than quantity.

In 2002, he won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his work inventing the field of x-ray astronomy.

Riccardo Giacconi Biography Bibliography

Giacconi, Riccardo. "Riccardo Giacconi - Autobiography." Nobelprize.org. The Nobel Foundation, 2002. Web. 13 May 2011. <http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2002/giacconi-autobio.html>.

"Riccardo Giacconi." NNDB: Tracking the Entire World. Soylent Communications. Web. 13 May 2011. <http://www.nndb.com/people/031/000027947/>.

"Riccardo Giacconi, Noble Laureate - Biography & Achievements." Italy Travel Guide, About Italy Tourism & Tourist Information. Ultimate Italy. Web. 13 May 2011. <http://www.ultimateitaly.com/peoples/noble-laureate-riccardo-giacconi.html>.

APOD 4.7 (A Beautiful Trifid)

Since we are getting to the end of this year's APODs (not going to miss dealing with this interface), I thought we could wrap it all up by talking about one of the first constellations we learned in the newest APOD.  M20, or the Trifid Nebula, is a celestial object inside the constellation Sagitarius.  It actually consists of three different types of nebulae: red emission nebulae dominated by light emitted by hydrogen atoms, blue reflection nebulae produced by dust reflecting starlight, and dark dust nebulae where dense dust clouds appear in silhouette.  The Trifid has a central red emission nebulae divided into three parts by a few dark dust nebulae, and surrounded by the blue haze of a blue reflection nebulae.

Astrocast #220 (Mass Extinction Events)

Worth two observation hours, per Mr. Percival

In this podcast, Fraser and Pamela talk about the different times in the past where the majority of the life on Earth died, how they died, and how we finally found out about it.  The most recent one, the asteroid that hit the Yucan peninsula, killed most of its victims either from the initial impact, the shock wave directly resulting from the initial impact, or the years of skies darkened by dust thrown up into low Earth orbit (where anything that had been living after the impact and shock wave that had been carried up there died) by the shock wave from the initial impact.  This caused many plants to die, causing many herbivores to starve, resulting in first-level carnivores to slowly die off.  This wave of one trophic level mostly dying off causing another to die off quickly found its way to the highest levels, where it had the most impact because the animals on top have the biggest appetites, and the fewest resources.

In the KT event, the most famous one, where over 70% of the land population and over 95% of the aquatic population died, it is believed that it was the result of a meteor that hit the Earth so hard at just the right angle that the shock wave built up on the opposite side of the world and either created a volcano of its own or pushed the volcanoes already there into overdrive, effectively kicking the populations back down as soon as they tried to rise up out of the rubble.

For the prior events, it gets exponentially harder to research the events because the Earth recycles its crust, so the older impact craters or volcanic debris either has already been recycled or is on the verge of being recycled.  This means that we mostly have to rely on how many died following each event (because it is more likely for fossils to be available from that time period somewhere in the world than it is for one specific point to still be analyzable).

APOD 4.6 (Farther Along)

I chose this image because it literally shows how far we have come in our space age technology.  It shows that some of our oldest probes (Voyager 1, Pioneer 10, Voyager 2, Pioneer 11) are far out there, Voyager 1 farthest out at a distance of 17.5 billion kilometers, or 16 light-hours from the Sun (by comparison, the Earth is 8 light minutes away from the sun), Pioneer 10 close behind at 15.4 billion kilometers, although it is on the opposite side of the solar system from the four other satellites highlighted.  The New Horizons probe, launched a few years ago, should reach Pluto in 2015, which should give us much more data on the dwarf planet when it arrives.

APOD 4.5 (Scintillating)

I picked this one because it shows how little difference there is between a planet and a star.  The planet Mars and the star Regulus both make the same apparent "path" through the sky when their photo is taken by a swinging camera, but since Mars' light scatters less before it arrives here and Regulus' light is less consistent, it makes Mars' path have a constant red color while Regulus' path appears to be rainbow-colored.

Astrocast #212 (GPS navigation)

Worth two observation hours per Mr. Percival

On this episode of astrocast, we learn about GPS satellites, ranging from their invention to the way they function.

As people might expect, GPS was originally a secret military technology (like many great household inventions before it).  The government needed its soldiers to be able to complete missions without having to consult maps (which might ruin a mission due to a lack of landmarks, a false sense of direction, an old map, the soldiers being spotted by the light they are using to see the map, or a host of other possibilities).  So, they used the accuracy of the newly-invented atomic clock to make satellites that, when at least three were in range of you, could tell you your exact position at any given time.  However, when the GPS finally became public, the military was apparently afraid that terrorists could use GPS to guide bombs to a specific location from a long distance, so they programmed in random timing errors, decreasing accuracy significantly.

The errors are gone now, and with many modern devices using GPS along with other technologies (cell phone towers, wireless networks, etc.), GPS is accurate to within the possible timing errors, at the best of times resulting in a possible area less than the size of a Starbucks!

APOD 4.4 (Rio Morning Moonset)

Here, we see how quickly the moon moves across the sky, how quickly the light reflection off of it changes as its light passes through the low-hanging dust clouds in the atmosphere, and how quickly the city of Rio springs back to life each morning (since all the birds in the photo were only captured in the last frame).  When the moon is almost directly overhead, its reflected light doesn't pass through much dust between the Moon and your eyes, giving you the full spectrum.  However, as the moon approaches the horizon, it passes through a lot of dust before it reaches you.  The dust absorbs the darker colors, only letting a small amount of the redder light through.  By the time the moon actually sets, there is so much dust blocking the light that the moon becomes almost invisible.

APOD 4.3 (Otherworldly Planet Rise)

I chose this one because it might become as familiar a sight to people of the future as sunrises are to us today: your day starting when a small little dot of intense light rises up in the sky and illuminates the world more than any other surrounding visible star.  This amazing photo was made on Earth, taking an early morning picture of Venus underneath a natural rock formation.

APOD 4.2 (The Milky Way Over Tenerife)

In this picture, you get a clear panoramic view of all the circumpolar constellations, as well as many of the spring constellations.  To give you an idea of just how dim the stars and galactic features actually are, that bright light illuminating the entire photo is the moon, which has been significantly overexposed in order to capture the dim light from the surrounding constellations.  Also, the band that covers the sky almost like a purple rainbow is half of our view of the galaxy we are currently traveling through: the Milky Way.

APOD 4.1 (It's Raining on Titan)

I chose this picture because Titan is the only object other than Earth that has shown evidence of stable bodies of surface liquids.  The only difference is that, while Earth's stable liquid is water, Titan's temperatures around -290 degrees Celsius mean that the processes of evaporation,, cloud formation, and rain are applied to liquid methane.  While this might mean we would have to look elsewhere for a second Earth, it does prove that Earth's water cycle could happen elsewhere naturally, making our hopes of finding a home after Earth much more likely.

Observations 2-27-11

Tonight, I located Capella, The Kids, M35, M36-8, M1, M45, Aldebaran, Taurus, Castor, Pollux, M35, the Hyades, Gemini, Auriga, Orion, Orion's Belt, the Horsehead Nebula, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Sirius, Procyon, Rigel, Betelguese, Ursa Major, the Big Dipper, Ursa Minor, and the Little Dipper.

Observations 2-14-11

8-10 PM

Tonight, I observed stars with a full moon partially obscuring Gemini (it was the first night in days without lots of clouds).  I identified the stars Castor, Pollux, Aldebaran, Sirius, Capella, Rigel, Betelgeuse, Procyon, and Polaris.  I noticed a few spring constellations (which I couldn't name), as well as Perseus, Orion, Ursa Minor, Ursa Major, Auriga, Gemini, Taurus, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Lepus, and Columbo.  Finally, I noticed the miscellaneous objects Horsehead Nebula, Orion's Belt, The Kids, M42, M35, M36-8, M1, and M45.

APOD 3.3 (Six Worlds for Kepeler 11)

NASA scientists recently discovered a new technique for finding planets that is already proving itself to be extremely effective: immediately after locating 6 planets orbiting around the star Kepler-11 (with most of them being larger than Earth and inside Mercury's orbit!), they applied this technique to a much larger area of the sky, and found 1,200 planets in their view.  The most amazing part was that this "larger area" was only equal to about 1/400th of the sky, so the actual number of inhabitable planets that we might someday colonize could be astronomical.

APOD 3.2 (NanoSail-D)

Take a look around you.  Measure out an area of about 10 feet by 10 feet (or for you metric users out there, about 3.16 meters by 3.16 meters).  See how large it is compared to you?  It is also the approximate size of the first solar sail spacecraft's main sail, which is its only form of thrust, and only gets that thrust from the power of sunlight itself.  No, it isn't solar powered like a Prius, it gets its energy just from the force of particles of light hitting the sail.  NASA is even currently trying to get people to submit photos of this marvel of engineering to help them monitor the craft's condition.

APOD 3.1 (Double Dose!)

This week, I couldn't decide which APOD to examine closely, so I am going to examine two amazing photos.

The first is called "A Total Eclipse at the End of the World", released on APOD 1/15/11.  It captures a nice extra along with an amazing astronomical phenomenon.  The photographer apparently went to Antarctica to take a picture of a solar eclipse at sunrise back in 2003, but was beat there by several other people.  There was no time to move out of the way, so this photo captured an astronomical photographer's back and equipment as well as the intended celestial target.

The second is called "Night and Day above Almost Planet Sounio",released on APOD 1/17/11.  It uses trick photography (which is explained when you mouse over it) to make photographs taken from a single point in Greece appear to be from another planet.  I liked this one because it shows off human ingenuity, as well as a little bit of humor.

Astronomy Night at Riverview

6-10 PM

Tonight I went to a dark parking lot filled with telescopes and astronomers to gaze at the stars in great detail for a few hours.  I saw Orion, Auriga, Gemini, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Taurus, Cassiopeia, Pegasus, Andromeda, Rigel, Betelgeuse, "the bright star in Taurus whose name escapes me", M31, M42, "the Andromeda galaxy, whose M# escapes me", Sirius, the Summer Triangle, the Winter Circle, Deneb, Altair, Vega, Jupiter (twice, once with 4 moons and once with 3), and a crescent Moon.  I viewed many of these with varying telescopes and binoculars before heading into the new planetarium.

On that note, let me just say the planetarium there is absolutely brilliant.  During the day, they use the "theater" as a classroom, but on certain nights, they drop down a dome from the ceiling high above, place a projector in the center of the room, and start showing amazing semi-3D movies that don't need glasses for free, although they do ask for donations.  Granted, most of their current "movies" are 20-30 minute long educational films designed for little kids, but they are still very interesting.  The two "movies" I watched were one about the legend of "Orion the Hunter", one of the more famous constellations, and a film about "winter stargazing", which basically just gives you a few tips on looking around the night sky, and lets you know that the night sky is brightest away from the city lights.  However, the planetarium, which is in its first year, is currently trying to use the donations to buy more movies, so that it can eventually get enough of a collection going that they can buy an hour-long film and charge people $5 a seat.  I was given a little demo of this potential just before I left, when some amazing trailers played, including one about astronauts that had the song "Rocket Man" playing in the background, and another one showing off different telescopes around the world, including a view from one in Hawaii that I recognized from one of my vacation there last summer.

APOD 2.7 (Looking back at an eclipsed earth)

January 2

I personally enjoy this picture, partially because it is just so rare, and partially because it almost looks like a small portion of the Earth is being burned with a giant magnifying glass.  This picture of a solar eclipse's effect on Earth viewed from outer space was taken in August 1999 by the Russian space station Mir, being one of the last photos captured before the station was deorbited in a controlled re-entry in 2001.  While it is supposedly breathtaking to be see a solar eclipse from the surface, I think it is amazing to see just what little impact such a phenomenon has on the majority of the Earth's surface (half is in shadow and cannot even see the sun, probably 49.99% is not lined up with the sun and the moon, 0.009% is only partially lined up, 0.001% is in the perfect position to view the stars at high noon or view the sun's corona with the naked eye).

2nd Quarter Biography (William Rutter Dawes)

            William Rutter Dawes was born in West Sussex, England in the year 1799.  His father, a mathematics teacher, hoped that William would become a clergyman in the Church of England.  William chose instead to train to be a doctor at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.  He moved to Liverpool in 1826, where he met William Lassell.  Although there is no record of their first meeting, it is known that they struck up a lifelong friendship.  It was around this time that Dawes first became interested in astronomy, particularly the study of binary stars.  At one point, Dawes obtained a copy of Rees’s Encyclopedia, and copied Sir William Herschel’s catalogue of double stars out of it.  He then used a 1.6 inch refractor and a copy of Flamsteed’s Atlas to find all the binaries draw diagrams of them every “fine night”.

            Soon after moving to Liverpool, Dawes turned from medicine to religion, resulting in him taking charge of a small congregation in Ormskirk, 15 miles from Liverpool. Dawes took up astronomy and the study of binary stars in earnest in 1829.  Sir John Herschel eventually became Dawes’ friend and mentor.  Dawes improved on Sir John’s own binary star research by refining his telescope, a 3.8 inch Dolland refractor.  As a result, he was able to make observations that were so much more accurate that he eventually got the nickname “eagle eye Dawes”.

            Dawes was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1830.  Dawes had never been a healthy man, and the death of his wife in 1839 made his health worse than ever.  As a result, he gave up his congregation and moved to London, where he became an assistant at George Bishop’s private observatory, which had a 7 inch refracting telescope.  Dawes continued his astronomical work there until 1844.

            Dawes married again in 1842, and moved to Kent, living 40 miles from his friend Sir John Herschel.  Dawes’ new wife was wealthy, so he was able to build his own observatory and install a 6.5 inch Merz refractor.  With it, he “co-discovered” Staurn’s crepe ring.  W. C. Bond at the Harvard Observatory had also located the ring but the news hadn’t even crossed the Atlantic before Dawes made his claim.

            In 1857, Dawes moved to Haddenham in Buckinghamshire, where he stayed for the remainder of his life.  There, he gained great respect for the free medical service he gave to the poor of the town.  His second wife died in 1860, causing his own health to deteriorate even more.  He continued to observe the stars until 1865, which was also the year that he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.  He died 3 years later in 1868.

Works Cited for 2nd Quarter Biography

William Rutter Dawes (1799-1868). 30 Nov. 2009. History of Astronomy. 18 Dec. 2010  <http://www.mikeoates.org/astro-history/dawes.htm>

William Rutter Dawes.  8 Sept. 2010. Wikipedia. 20 Dec. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rutter_Dawes>