Lunar Eclipse Observation

I observed the Lunar Eclipse from about 2:30 A.M to 2:50. What I saw was basically the finally corner of the moon disappearing, and the entire moon turning into a blood red color. The entire process of the lunar eclipse takes hours, and what I saw was essentially the peak of the eclipse, when the Earth blocks all of the sun's light from reaching the moon. It took me a while to find the moon in the night sky when I woke up to look for it, as it was way darker than it normally is, and blends in far better with the nighttime sky.

APOD 2.6

The Mars rover Opportunity has managed to take this fascinating photo of Intrepid Crater on Mars. The crater shows a interesting scar across a landscape of just sand dunes. In the distance giant mountains can be seen, but extremely far away. Like any image of the landscape of Mars, this photo is fascinating because it shows a whole different world from Earth. The planet has its similarities (like a desert and mountains), but also incredible differences (like the composition of the sand dunes, and the fact that craters can stay intact for thousands of years). If a crater like that had been formed in the Sierra, desert winds most likely would have covered it up quickly. This crater remains completely intact however, and an interesting find by the rover Opportunity.

Obervation 12/4/10

Over the last two days I have been observing Venus in relation to the moon in the morning at around 6:45 AM. The sun is rising at this time, but the two objects are still very clear and easy to see, exhibiting their incredible brightness. On Thursday Venus was only about 6 degrees to the left of the moon, and the two so close together was a beautiful sight. The moon was in a crescent phase, and under binoculars I could see that Venus was crescent as well (as it always is). The next day Venus had risen so that it was about 18 degrees away from the moon.

APOD 2.5

In the photo "Martian Moon Phobos from Mars Express", spacecraft Mars Express took a mesmerizing photo of the Martian moon Phobos, the largest of Mars' two moons. Mars' moons are minuscule in comparison to all other planets' moons, and are believed to be just asteroids from the asteroid belt being caught in Mars' gravitational pull. What I found most interesting about the moon Phobos is that its orbit is continuously decaying, which means that in a matter of time the moon will actually be ripped apart by Mars. My question is, would this result in a ring system around Mars? Saturn's rings are hypothesized to have been created the same way, as disintegrating moons continued their orbits around their planet. A Mars with rings would definitely be an interesting sight. Ultimately, this photo of Phobos is extremely interesting, providing insight on one of Mars' two moons.