APOD 4.8

                  This image is very unique. To think of the small moon as an ice ball is somwhat confusing. The moon Helena has such smooth and flowing surface features. To think of this idea as the result of ice does not compare to that which is imagined of ice on earth. Natural forming ice is jagged and sharp. The only way the surface could form into the flush state it is in now is if liquid water cooled as it was moving, such as rivers that freeze over. They appear frozen in time as the liquid has been set in stone and appears to be in motion but is solidified. Hopefully more research is done on the unique image and some answers or conclusions can be developed.

APOD 4.7

                   The green flash! Where is davey Jones and captain William Turner? Are they ferrying souls across to the other side. And what happened to captain Jack, last I heard he was chasing the search for the fountain of youth. Well none of them are present in this picture, however the famous green flash was captured on film. This is the first time I have ever seen a photograph of the actual event occur. Unfortunaetly i dont know of any methods in predicting the nights it will occur. Even though it is an instant event, this photographer must have been capturing some other time lapse and got lucky, as you cant predict an event such as this.

APOD 4.6

           I can only imagine the trouble it is for astronomers to observe Mercury. With the planet being in such a close distance to the sun Im sure it is somewhat impossible to gain visual observations of the planet. The imge is very cool and portrays just how difficult it is to even spot Mercury. I must appreciate however not being so close to the sun when witnessing this image. It make me understand that if Earth was not at its prime location is correlation to the Sun the human species would not be what it is today if even exist. Our location provides the perfect range of temperatures for our kind to survive.

APOD 4.5

                   This is the APOD organization responding to my previous blogger post about solar eclipses at sunset. I guess Africa is not the only location for such an event to occur. Texas is much closer so Im glad I wont have to travel too far to see such an awe inspiring occurrence. This APOD however minimizes my enthusiasm to go see such an event as i guess its not as uncommon as I assumed it would be. Hopefully this occurs in Florida as Siesta Key beach would be a prime spot to witness such an event.

APOD 4.4

                 This is so cool. I have never seen anything like this before. I was unaware that with the alignment of the sun and the moon that an eclipse at sunset was even possible. I assume this is a very rare occurence. Talk about your sunsets, that is an awesome way to end the day. I would compare an event like this to witnessing the rumored green flash at sunset. I wonder if Manila Bay is the optimum location for wiitnessing such an event or if it was just the specific night that this was the location it occured in where it was best visible.

APOD 4.3

             Its amzing that such an event occurs. When you think about how big space is, its unfathomable because no one knows how big space actually is. All the vast distances between objects in the sky and we can visually witness an event where two objects have such an encounter on one another. Let alone for the shadow of the moon to actually cover parts of the Earth. Its just a physical effect that is amazing that would be a rare occurence to see in any other part of the galaxy.

APOD 4.2

             I found this picture very interesting as just the other day I was watching the television and watched a show about the earths water. Apparently in Australia they rely heavily on the desalinization of salt water to source their fresh water to cities for drinking, showering etc....The statistics of the show claimed that the major facility in Australia is consuming 90 million gallons of water a day from the ocean. I hope there wont be any side effects to come from such a large amount of water being removed from the ocean on a daily basis.

APOD 41

            This picture is just really cool. One the engineering feats that must have gone into being able to equip a 747 to carry a space shuttle ontop of it must be amazing. Second the picture is very inspirational. As it says in the description of the monument of liberty in the city of the american dream and a space shuttle representing the exploration of the unknown are all symbols of a similar idea and theme. Together they represent the idea of freedom in a very blended and unique way

Observations 7-8

May 20, 2012
- My friend bought a glow in the dark frisbee and this night was perfect to go and use it. The moon wasnt visible in the sky and we played ultimate frisbee in the dark. All of the stars in the sky were illuminated. I observed many and identified as many as I could. I witnessed a few satellites cross the night sky as well. I think there should be more astronomy night ultimate frisbee events. Except you have to watch where your running as you will trip and fall, its just a matter of when its going to happen.

Observations 5-6

May 6, 2012
- This weekend my uncle was in town from maryland and my little sister decided to roast marshmallows that night. So we spent the night under the stars enjoying the night sky. Unfortunaetly for us the moon was in its full phase or at least close to it because it looked full to me. The moons glow highly disrupted our view of the night time sky. We were still able to see many constellations and I tried to teach my uncle as much of the night time sky as I knew. I was surprised by his already lengthy knowledges of astronomy. He took it in college and diminished my finite knowledge of astronomy.

Astronomy Cast 2

Observation 2

In this astronomy cast post I did episode 18: Black Holes.
They discussed how they were discovered, as well as that one would have to travel even faster than the speed of light to escape from one. Back in 1784 was when the idea of the first black hole was discovered. They discussed the two different types of black holes and how they are formed, sometimes with the death of a star. In addition, they talked about the mass of a black hole and their rate of rotation.

Astronomy Cast

Observation 1: Astronomy Cast

For this observation, I listened to the astronomy cast episode 194 on Dwarf Planets.
I learned that is has to be in hydrostatic equilibrium, meaning that it has to be round, so this would not include things like the Mars moons which are asteroids. It also has to orbit the sun, so for things orbiting other planets, such as Jupiter, it would not count. It also needs to have cleared out its own orbit... which Earth wouldn't even do if it were in the Kuiper Belt, which makes us rethink the definition. They also discussed various dwarf planets and their names as well as what they are composed of.

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Biography

Cecilia Helena Payne was born  May 10, 1900, in Wendover, England, the eldest of three children born to Edward John and Emma Leonora Helena (Pertz) Payne of Coblenz, Prussia. Her father, a London barrister, died when she was four years old. Her mother, a painter and musician, introduced her to the classics, of which she remained fond throughout her life. Payne-Gaposchkin recalled that Homer's Odyssey was the first book her mother read to her as a child. She knew Latin by the time she was 12 years old, became fluent in French and German, and showed an early interest in botany and algebra. As a schoolgirl in London she was influenced by the works of Isaac Newton, Thomas Huxley, and Emmanuel Swedenborg.

Payne-Gaposchkin's career at Harvard began in 1925, when she was given an ambiguous staff position at the Harvard Observatory. By that time she had already published six papers on her research in the field of stellar atmospheres. That same year, she was awarded the first-ever Ph.D. in astronomy at Radcliffe. Her doctoral dissertation, Stellar Atmospheres, was published as Monograph No. 1 of the Harvard Observatory. A pioneering work in the field, it was the first paper written on the subject and was the first research to apply Indian physicist Meghnad Saha's recent theory of ionization (the process by which particles become electrically charged by gaining or losing electrons) to the science of measuring the temperature and chemical density of stars. Despite this, Payne-Gaposchkin's research remains highly regarded today; Otto Struve, a notable astronomer of the period, was quoted in Mercury magazine as saying that Stellar Atmosphereswas "undoubtedly the most brilliant Ph.D. thesis ever written in astronomy."

In 1926 when she was 26 years old, she became the youngest scientist to be listed in American Men of Science. But her position at Harvard Observatory remained unacknowledged and unofficial. It was not until 1938 that her work as a lecturer and researcher was recognized and she was granted the title of astronomer, which she later requested to be changed to Phillips Astronomer. From 1925 until 1938 she was considered a technical assistant to Shapley, and none of the courses she taught were listed in the Harvard catalogue until 1945. Finally, in 1956 when her colleague Donald Menzel replaced Shapley as director of the Harvard Observatory, Payne-Gaposchkin was "promoted" to professor, given an appropriate salary, and named chairman of the Department of Astronomy - the first woman to hold a position at Harvard University that was not expressly designated for a woman.From the 1920s until Payne-Gaposchkin's death on December 7, 1979, she published over 150 papers and several monographs, including "The Stars of High Luminosity" (1930), a virtual encyclopedia of astrophysics, and Variable Stars (1938), a standard reference book of astronomy written with her husband. She also published four books in the 1950s on the subject of stars and stellar evolution. Moreover, though she retired from her academic post at Harvard in 1966, becoming Emeritus Professor of Harvard University the following year, she continued to write and conduct research until her death. Her autobiography, writings collected after her death by her daughter, Katherine Haramundanis, was entitled Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin:

Observation Hours 8

March 22, 2012
              Tonight there was a new moon. Its always kind of a bummer when you look up into the sky and you cant find the moon. You always sort of feel dumb when you look around and cant find the moon and then at last think that maybe its a new moon. New moon phases though are always good star viewing nights because then the moons shine doesn't abrupt or get in the way of any observations.

Observation Hours 7

March 8, 2012
          This night there was a full moon. I always find the full moon the coolest of all the moon phases. Its always a good night if theres a full moon. The moon lights up the night time sky in a way that can only be compared to the sun. Im looking forward to the next full moon phase.

Observation Hours 5-6

March 3, 2012
             This night I walked to the end of my street with my friends and roasted marshmallows. It was a good night but the sky was even better. Mars or what Im pretty sure was Mars was clearly visible in the sky. It might of been Jupiter or something but im pretty sure it wad Mars. The planet was one of the brightest objects in the sky and couldn't help but be noticed. There were unfortunaetly some clouds throughout the night obstructing our view from time to time but for the most part it was a very pleasant observation night.

APOD 3.8

March 20, 2012
              This APOD is my first video reflection. I really enjoyed the video about the creation and overall formation of the moon we see today. The one thing I learned from the video is that overall the moon we see today could easily change into something we can only imagine. The surface structures have changed so intensely over the many millions of years of abuse from comets and asteroids and other materials that impacted the moon. Also I did not realize that there is volcanic activity under the surface of the moon. To this day there might not be any volcanic activity but in the video there shows volcanic things happening when the large asteroids impact the moon.  

APOD 3.7

          The conjunction of Jupiter and Venus is a very cool and interesting site to see. The fact that no matter where you lived on Earth and were able to see the conjunction is another amazing fact in itself.I dont see how this is possible though because what if you lived on the opposite side of the planet thats obviously not physically able to see the two planets? I would think that the planets would not be visible if the planet was to then rotate so the planets were visible but it would then be daytime and the suns light would completely diminish the ability to see the planets. This picture reminds me of the leaning tower of pizza images, except its with planets which is much more interesting.

APOD 3.6

          Honestly at first glance I thought the picture was fake, as in some form of computer generated photo or something as its really pixelated. When reading the description and finding out this actually occured near San Jose, California I was amazed. This has to be the most amazing full moon image Ive ever seen. There have been many perfect nights here in Sarasota to view the moon but I wish i could have been standing on that hill, that would have been a life changing site to see. I still dont know what the description means though by the green rim. I dont see any hint or shade of green anywhere in the image.

APOD 3.5

          This image is an artists rendition of five seperate images viewed of Jupiter. I found this picture interesting because it differs from the normal apod images displayed on the site. I have never seen an artists image chosen for the site until this one. The artist was very unique and extremely skilled to be able to draw the extensive ring cloud patterns on the surface of Jupiter. The images are very good and even display the giant red dot, as well as some of Jupiters closest moons. All in all a very interesting image to look at and study Jupiter from a different perspective.