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. 

APOD 2.4

In the picture "Atoms for Peace Galaxy Collision", two galaxies are being observed smashing into each other, a multi-million year process being observed now by researchers at NASA. Labeled NGC 7252, these two galaxies are located about 220 million light years away, and give an interesting view of what would occur if our galaxy was to collide into a nearby one, the closest being Andromeda. The sheer magnitude of this collision is not easily represented in this picture. These two galaxies reach a total of 600,000 light years long, showing off how enormous a galactic collision is.

APOD 2.3

Pictured above, NGC 4452 is a galaxy very similar to our own Milky Way, but this photo puts it at an angle in which we do not normally observe galaxy's. Spanning about 35,000 light years, this galaxy looks nearly two dimensional, like a sheet of paper, when observed from the side. However, if observed from above, this disk galaxy would appear as an ordinary galaxy. Of course, like our Milky Way, NGC 4452 is not actually paper thin. However, this photo gives an excellent perspective on the proportions of galaxies, and how much longer they are than wide. A photo like this can only be taken when the earth is exactly aligned with the galaxies plane, and therefore is not very common. The galaxy actually bulges in the center, showing that a majority of the mass is centered there, holding the galaxy together.

Stargaze Adventure 11/6/10

Went out stargazing at turtle beach for a few hours. Observed Sagittarius, Aquila, and Hercules. Also observed the Northern Cross in Cygnus for the light pollution project. The Northern Cross is easiest found by looking for the southern triangle, and then focusing on the faintest star in the triangle, Deneb. Deneb is a part of the northern cross. I determined the Northern cross to be about magnitude 5 out of 7 (no light pollution), and submitted the info online.