William Lassell- Biography

                  William Lassell was born 1799 and past away in 1880. During his life he was a very important astronomer who made many important achievements in the advancement of celestial understandings. At the time astronomy was a hobby and you needed a financial base to be able to dabble into it. Lassell made his fortune in the beer brewing industry and was then able to study the night sky. He actually built his own observatory in Liverpool to conduct his observations.Specific achievements are involved with Saturn and Neptune.
                Lassell manufactured his very own telescope and it was a refracting telescope. The telescope was extremely heavy and was perfect for viewing the long term aspects of planetary motion. Following the creation of his own satellite he discovered many of Saturns satellites. He discovered Triton and Hyperion of Saturn and several of uranus including Ariel. Lassell also had studied into the planetary rings of Saturn and led to the better understandings of their existence. Lassell had major contributions in the telescope aspect of astronomy. Aside from making his own telescope, he had many advancements in his telescope design. Lassell made a steam powered telescope. Along with this he produced a 48 inch speculum mirror for his observations. This larger telescope was built in Malta because of the better prime observing location. Adding to his accomplishments he recieved the Gold Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society in 1849. He then served as the society's president for two years (1870-1871).
               Following his death he was renowned forever as one of the most famous and important astronomers in planetary objects. He detailed many important things in Saturn, Urnaus, Jupiter and Neptune, involving their natural sattellites and ring systems. He innovated satellites and all in all was an innovative person in the field of astronomy. Neptune had a ring system named after him. The Lassell ring was one of the inner rings of Neptune named after him as he was an important person involved with its observations. The rings were named after astronomers who were involved with the early detailed observations of Neptune.

Observations Jan 11, 2012

                  My family went out to dinner and then went to the beach afterwards at night. It was neat to see the entire night time sky from a uninterrupted area of light. I was looking up at the stars and tried to identify some specific points. I noticed one object shining brighter than all the others. I assumed it was probably a planet. I thought maybe it was Venus because Venus is usually visible in the early evening sky. I looked it up on my phone and it was Jupiter. To the naked eye its hard to distinguish planet to planet unless I had known specific locations. Anyways I felt proud to be able to identify a planet from a star.

Observations 01/09/12

            The moon was in its full phase tonight. It was interesting because I havent seen a full moon in a long time. The moon just appeared larger than normal and really placed it in my mind that I had not seen it in its full state in a while. It reminded me of something I had learned a long time ago. Someone had told me that if you look at the moon that there is a rabbit shape visible. From the rabbitt if you look at the ear then that is where Neil Armstrong had landed on the moon. Whether or not it was true I dont know but it was weird to visualize someone standing on the moon.

Observations Dec 24, 2011

            I looked up at the sky to make some observations of the moon. I couldnt see a thing. I looked all over the sky and there was no moon. I couldnt tell if it was because it was hidden behind a cloud or what was going on. I realized maybe it was a new moon because there wasnt even a hint of a shine coming from behind any clouds. I looked it up on my phone and realized it was a new moon. In relation from our perspectives its hard to imagine what the planets are actually doing when the moon isnt visible. Its cool to think that the moon is behin the Earth in a direct path away from the Sunlight inhibiting it to be seen.

Observations 11/12/2011

              I looked up at the sky that night at looked at the moon. It did not appear to be full. I believe i had just missed the full moon. This was sort of a let down because I now have to wait almost a month til I can witness the next full moon. While ooking up at the night sky I sat on my lawn and let my eyes adjust so I could try to spot some satellites. I witnessed a couple things appear to be moving across the sky, but Im not sure if they were satellites or soemthing else. I assume it was a satellite because it was faint and moving slowly. Other than that I tried to identify some major points in the sky. After dozens of constellation quizes and star labs, I still have trouble identifying major stars in the sky.

Star Gaze- Observations

October 23, 2011 8:00-10:00 pm

         The night was another success. We started by looking up at the sky to observe Scorpious just above the horizon. After that we used the binocular stand to look at the many stars that ran through Scorpious and Saggitarius. Following we observed Delphinus and Jobs Coffin directly west over the shell parking lot. Opposite from Delphinus we saw Jupiter and Hercules. I found it interesting that with the telescope we were actually able to view four of Jupiters moons. A little after 8:15 we then viewed the Hubble Telescope orbiting above us. Amazingly as it approached our zenith it increased in brightness and then slowly faded away as it continued onward. We saw a bunch of satellites along with the hubble as well. Followin g the hubble we used the awesome laser pointer and identified constellations. We found polaris and then identified Casseopia which then led to identifying Cepheus. We also saw a meteor flash across the sky about fifteen minutes before nine pm. All in all the night was awesome and educational. 

APOD 2.8

                  What a feeling it must be to be floating above Earth. I can only imagine. Now my first thought is, they are orbitin Earth right? So therefore he must be flying around the Earth at a couple thousands of miles per hour, no? Anyways what a sight. Im sure the thought came across his mind that hopefully nothing went wrong or flawed with his mmu while being so far away from the ship. It almost looks like a photoshopped image to think that someone in 1984 did this. I would not want to be the first person to have to test an untethered space walk. None the less Im sure he had some serious bragging rights when he landed. On a side note the picture of the man and Earth is poetic. The astronaut resembles the Earth in a manner of a single entity. The Earth despite being around millions of other planets and stars, we as humans are alone in the universe. The floating man emphasizes this fact of how unique we as a species are.

APOD 2.7

                Add another one to the list of large storms in our solar system. There have already been years of study on other storms on other planets in our solar system. One such example is the infamous red spot on the planet Jupiter. A massive storm similar to those on Earth but ha been in existance for many years. Following Jupiters storm Neptune also has an identifying mark. The great dark spot is Neptunes storm like marker. However unlike Jupiter it has come and gone. Giving way to its new name, the New Dark Spot. Now we can add Saturn to the list. This storm is more similar to Jupiters red spot. Despite the artificial color enhancement to identify the storm, the cloudlike bans on jupiter and saturn probably gave way to more similar circumstances to the storm relating them more. Neptunes dark blue color and lonesome black spot does not follow that which the two others do.

APOD 2.6

        This is every Sci-Fi enthusiasts dream. To find another planet with life, and possibly intelligence that has surpassed our own with technologies only hollywood can portray. The fact that out of all the planets that have been discovered, the odds that there would be one with similar circumstances to our own should have detailed many situations to the possibilites of life. Its kind of sad that there is only one planet that possibly resembles ours, and that could sustain water, and life. Anyways the distance will be a huge factor to overcome when trying to stufy it as its a mere 600 light years away. This pretty much crushes any attempts to study the planet further from visual observation, which is still difficult as even the picture is an artists rendition.

APOD 2.5

             I remember when i was younger the missions to mars that were televised all over the news. I remember specifically the concept of the landing portion of the trip. The genius idea to create a large cacoon of inflated bubbles to house the rover as it bounced along mars surface until it came to a stop. I see that this next rover has some improvements. The primary ones being the rock analyzing equipment and the plutonium power source. The rover should last much longer with the increased power supply and the rock crusher will make for more experiments directly from the rover. Im not sure how they (scientists) expect to analyze the rocks to find evidense of life. I would assume that they are looking for traces of oxygen or chlorophyll or other hints to the possibilities of life. Otherwise they're just going to find crushed rock.

APOD 2.4

               I first appealed to this image as recently I have been experimenting with different exposure settings on my camera. After looking at the landscape I can only imagine the adventure it is just to get to and from the telescope. The concept to create an artificial solar eclipse was genius. However the Corona I imagine is still probably pretty bright. I also wonder what the actual size of the corona is, to comprehend the distance it expands must be difficult because it slowly fades away. It must be easier to study the outer portions of the corona as they would be less bright.  

APOD 2.3

             The creation of stars must be a complex manifestation of matter and events that come together after years of build up. After reading the description and then looking at the picture, I really dont understand whats going on in the image. It appears to just be a nebula. I cant find any distictive central point, where gravity brings the star together. Also even when these gases come together, why are they hot and how do they sustan their own heat drifting through space. Space is cold, relative to our temperatures in Florida. So shouldnt drifiting gases lose their heat energy without any central energy source keeping it. Like stars hold their energy longer because of their dense core.

APOD 2.2

         Nebulas are so visually appealing. They resemble a somewhat gas cloud but emit colors and take extraordinary shapes. Nebulas to me are like the aurora lights found on Earth. I assume that the different gases found in the nebulas are a portion of why the different colors are emitted. This specific nebula was found to have hydrogen in it. Im not sure how they can determine that from a telescope, so I would hypothesize that the colors determine the compound. Similar to neon lights, the different gases when excited have specific color properties.

APOD 2.1

          This image is very interesting. It portrays a newly born star. A hundred thousand years old, but none the less in relation to other stars, it is just a newborn. The nebula pictured in the image is more interesting to me than the star. The fact that a star forms a nebula is interesting. This leads me to wonder why our star does not have a nebula within visible distance. Also the description says that the star emits matter, that then forms the nebula. What is this matter? I was under the impression stars only emitted photons, rays of sorts and electrons.

William Lassell: Sources

"Lassell, William." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 8. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. 46. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Jan. 2012.

"Neptune." Encyclopedia of Space. Healther Couper and Nigel Henbest. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2009. 136-137. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Jan. 2012.