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.