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>