APOD 1.5

9/30/11
                I chose this image simply because it looked very cool. I have always been curious as to the difference in color of the stars. As some appear red, and other appear blue there must be some difference. Whether this difference is cause by the fluctuations in heat between stars, or the distance the star is from us. The cloud like image in the middle of the picture is also an awe inspiring view. As there aernt clouds in space like there are in Earth's atmosphere it must actually be globs of stars. The haze must be a visualization of actually millions of distant stars blurred together. Every time I look at pictures of stars I always realize how small and insignificant we are in comparison to the universe. Out of all these stars the odds of having life similar to ours somewhere in the universe must be pretty great. To have all this space and all of the millions of opportunities for life, there must be a similar world as ours, somewhere out there. 

Astronomy Class Stargaze

9/28/11
            Astronomy night was the first of many to come, and I hope the ones to come are just as awesome. Throughout the night the stars were easily visible without a cloud in the sky. There were no visual obstructions, except for the person in the white dodge dakota drifting through the parking lot. I was amazed to be able to see Jupiter, and that it had a more reddish glow to it. Also the fact that I could witness the actual movement of a satellite was unreal. I have never seen a satellite from direct sight before, and the speed at which it moved was very awesome. Throughout the night people were gazing at shooting stars and gasping when they saw them. To my misfortune I did not witness a single shooting star, but hope to see one in the future. Through the telescope I was able to witness many clusters of stars. Such as m=8, and I believe the other cluster was 13. I believe the 13 cluster was much more dense as there was a more hazed appearance. All together the night was a success.

APOD 1.4

September 23,2011
          This picture is awesome to say the least. It is a fact that stars appear to move as the
Earth rotates. This concept is something that is hard to understand as the speed at which the stars seem to move is very slow, as ooposed to a car speeding by you. This image is a tactual piece of evidense, rather than a verbal description to try to imagine what occurs. Also the circular motion of the stars and at the corner shows why the Northern Star is so important. As the Earth rotates there is one specific star that basically stays in one spot. This was important for thousands of years of traveling. I'm not entirely sure what the yellow lines are, I guess just some debris or something, because those are obviously not celestial objects.

Astronomy Observations- 4

September 23, 2011
           This morning was a very clear sky around 6:15. I was able to see the stars and the moon very well. I saw the moon and viewed it as a waning crescent. I could however still see the outline of the moon, and the darkened portion very well. I thought to myself, why on some nights is the darkened shade of the moon more easily visible than other nights? To specify my thoughts, why is the dark portion somewhat hazed and other nights the outline is clearly defined? This must have something to do with the light reflecting from the Earth's atmosphere to produce the more easily visible outline.

Astronomy Observations- 3

September 21, 2011
           This post is somewhat different from my others as I observed the Sun versus the stars at night. I went to the nokomis beach with my family to watch the sunset and figured I should blog about it. The Sun was a deep orange and as the sun set the sky turned an orangish red glow. Now I have always heard the myth of the green flash but I have never seen one. However as I was hoping to see one I was attentive at watching the sky. Even though there was no green flash there seemed to be a lingering green above the base of the horizon. This could have been nothing but I feel as though I did some some green hue lasting for about 2 minutes after the sun set.

Astronomy Observations- 2

September 17, 2011
          I believe I saw Mars on this night in the sky. As this was a clear night I observed the stars in their glowing awesomeness. I saw two lights in particular that seemed to be brighter than the others. I assume one of them was the North Star and the other I believe is Mars. I googled Mars and its positions after I observed the figure to see if it was Mars and found results stating that Mars was visible. It is amazing to think that for how different a star and a planet are that they would appear to be similar objects in the sky.

Astronomy Observations- 1

September 12, 2011
           On my way to school this morning I observed the moon. The moon was in the "Full" phase and was very bright and was very large in the sky. The moon was also close to the eastern horizon. Also there was a somewhat orange/red colored hue to the moon. It was very interesting as this is probably the largest I have ever seen the moon in my life. This course has taught me to observe the moon so closely, and I realized I have never really "looked" at the moon to understand its importance in the sky.

APOD 1.1

August 14, 2011. I found this image to be very interesting. Living in Florida, i dont see many tornadoes which is both good and bad. Good because there isnt a posibility of my house or community being torn apart, but bad because its a part of mother nature that is probably interesting to see from a safe distance. The fact that the tornado was in the same spot as a rainbow, and the total timing of the entire picture is a very good coinsidence. What are the odds of all the aspects of the image coming together at just the right moment? I learned that most tornadoes are formed in the tornado alley This tornado alley is more located in the midwest, from North Texas to South Dakota. Luckily I do not live here as there are many news stories of tragic porportions. Also I learned to not try to outrun a tornado as their paths are unpredictable and you might just end up running in to it. So the safest method is to park and use the most safe methods to protect yourself from the storm.