Observations 12-21

2 AM-3 AM

Tonight my dad shook me awake for the lunar eclipse.  Even though I was tired, had a clogged nose, was unable to go back to bed without my dad screaming at me, and cold even with a jacket on, I was till able to notice Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Gemini, Taurus, Ursa Major, and Ursa Minor.  I also noticed Polaris, Rigel, Betelgeuse, and Sirius.  The moon was located in a constellation near Orion (unsure which one) when it turned dark red.

Observations 12-14

9 PM-10 PM

Tonight I saw Orion, all of Canis Major (not just the area near Sirius), Canis Minor, Gemini, Taurus, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Perseus, and Auriga.  I might have seen more if the first quarter/waxing gibbous moon hadn't been high in the sky when I was making my observations.

I also saw Jupiter directly below the moon.

The sky was crystal clear tonight, partially because of the temperatures in the 30s, which limited the humidity, but drastically increased the wind chill factor, which forced me to bundle up, limiting my peripheral vision.

Observations 12-10

8:00-10:00 PM

Tonight, I saw the constellations Canis Major, Canis Minor, Gemini, Taurus, Auriga, Orion, Cepheus, Perseus, Cassiopeia, Pegasus, Andromeda, and Lacerta.  I also identified the stars Rigel, Betelgeuse, and Sirius, as well as the planet Jupiter.  I was able to make these observations because of the small moon, which set very early into my stargazing session.

APOD 2.6 (Too Close to a Black Hole)

December 7

I chose this one because black holes are always popular, and I always wondered what it would look like to be near one (I already know that the inside would be pitch black, for the few seconds my eyes still functioned after I crossed the event horizon before they get stretched out of my skull and start to look like spaghetti pasta right before I become a part of the black hole, slightly increasing its gravitational pull.).  I personally find the optical effects directly adjacent to the anomaly the most interesting.  Who would have imagined that an object that absorbs so much light could create such brilliant light-bending oddities in the sky?

APOD 2.5 (Anticrepuscular Rays Over Colorado)

November 28

While this might look like a strange set of lights caused by either a shiny UFO or a new downtown attraction, it is actually just a common phenomenon involving the sun and some low-hanging clouds.  If you ever go outside during a "cloudy sun shower" (where the sky is partially cloudy, it is raining, and the sun is still brightly shining through, you will probably notice strange lines of light that exactly mimic the openings in the clouds.  Now just place that phenomenon at the right point below the horizon so that everything but the trails is hidden by the Earth's horizon, and you have anticrepuscular rays.

APOD 2.4 (Stephan's Quintet)

November 20

I chose this photo because it shows five of the galaxies that surround our world on every side, all in one small shot via the Hubble telescope.  While one galaxy is obviously not interacting with the others (far off to one side) and another only appears to be part of the group (blue galaxy is actually much closer than the others), the fact that, for the most part, the individual stars in each galaxy are invisible to even one of our most powerful telescopes makes you really think about our significance, since our planet is just one small grain of dust compared to our star, which is microscopic compared to our galaxy at large, so this many galaxies in such a small portion of the sky means our chances of finding a good alternative to Earth before our resources run out look very slim.

APOD 2.3 (Multiverse)

What if there were entire universes parallel to ours on an unseen plane, each one unique from all the rest?  In some, people would just look different because they inherited different genes but made the same choices.  In others, people would make different choices in life, creating a cascade effect that slowly changes the overall layout of that world.  In the most extreme cases, the laws of physics would be different, changing everything that happens, making that universe incompatible with this universe.  However, some multiverse theories even suggest that our universe is constantly being influenced by these unseen worlds (like in some scientific experiments, where even single particles of light tend to follow a wave pattern through a hole in a wall).

At the same time, there are many people who not only don't believe in any of the multiverse theories, but also say that it would be so difficult to prove them that they can never be considered scientific fact.