Observation Post 11/21

Observation Post

Week of 11/17

The majority of my observations were made at around 8:00 at night and at 5:30 in the morning. They were done in a moderate to cold temperature. The sky on some days was clear while other days were cloudy. I did my observations at home, and on my way to school. On the days with the cloudy sky no observations could have been made. On the days that were not cloudy I observed multiple things. On some nights, the night was either a fifth or sixth magnitude sky. I was also able to distinguish the directions based upon the constellations. I also observed the Winged Horse, Pegasus, via the Great Square. I also observed the Summer Triangle, and was able to distinguish between the three constellations: Aquila, Lyra, and Cygnus. Finally I observed Antares, which I located relevant to the Summer Triangle. 

APOD 2.3

November 13 2014

Descent to a Comet

This picture appealed to me because it is something that I have already viewed. On September 19th, I posted a a blog post titled APOD 1.4 that contained the details of a spacecraft that was expected to land on a comet sometime in November. That time has come and the spacecraft has released the probe that will descend onto the comet. It is unguided and unpropelled, but it is still descending. The only problem the probe has occured is that its harpoon landing system did not engage. It is expected to conduct a 2.5 day science experiment sending back images frequently of the comet. The image that is shown here is from the probe roughly around three kilometers away from the comet. 

Observation Post 11/14

Observation Post

Week of 11/8

The majority of my observations were made at around 8:00 at night and at 5:30 in the morning. They were done in a moderate to cold temperature. The sky on few days was clear while all other days were cloudy. I did my observations at home, and on my way to school. On the days with the cloudy sky no observations could have been made. On the days that were not cloudy I observed multiple things. I observed the Summer Triangle and what I believe is Polaris and Arcturus with the Big and Little Dipper. I observed the constellation Orion, but no other winter constellations. I observed multiple phases of the moon including a waning gibbous, third quarter, and a waning crescent. 

Observation Post 11/7

Observation Post

Week of 11/1

The majority of my observations were made at around 8:00 at night and at 5:30 in the morning. They were done in a moderate to cold temperature. The sky on some days was clear while other days were cloudy. I did my observations at home, and on my way to school. On the days with the cloudy sky no observations could have been made. On the days that were not cloudy I observed multiple things. I observed the Summer Triangle and what I believe is Polaris and Arcturus with the Big and Little Dipper. I observed the constellation Orion, but no other winter constellations. I observed a waning gibbous, full, and waxing gibbous moon. I also observed a strange phenomenon with the moon. It was a foggy morning and the moon was a waxing gibbous, but very close to full. There was a circle of light around the moon that was a good sized ring. Towards the outside of this light ring I observed mutiple colors, mainly red and green, but a little blue was also observed. 

APOD 2.2

November 3 2014

In Green Company: Aurora over Norway

This picture appealed to me because it is realistic, beautiful and majestic. It's amazing seeing the mountain with the person on top who is cheering that they reached the top. It seems very realistic due to the city that appears in the background. The picture is also majestic due to the green lights that appear over the mountains. The post under the picture states that two days the sky was filled with clouds, but the third night appeared with all these lights. It says that many people cheered because of these lights. It states the mountain is in a town in the islands in Norway. It finishes by saying that the Sun has been producing a lot of these lights within a eleven year cycle, and this is at that cycle's peak. 

APOD 2.1

October 27 2014

Plane, Clouds, Moon, Spots, Sun

This picture appealed to me because it seemed familiar. I have seen the movie E.T. multiple times, and this seems somewhat like a scene directly from the movie. The familiarity of the scene to the picture is what drew me towards it. The post starts out with a question: what is that in front of the Sun? The answer is an airplane. The post continues to say that the Sun is covered by clouds in the sky, thus creating its hazy dark effect. The Sun is also covered by the Moon in the top right of it. A good-sized circular chunk is missing from the Sun's top right quarter. What I at first thought was balloons attached to the airplane are actually sun spots. AR 2192 is the name of these sun spots and it is supposedly one of the largest ever seen. The post then gave a timeline of the events as they disappeared. After a few seconds the plane, after a few minutes the clouds, after a few hours the Moon, and after a few days the sun spots. 

Observation Post 10/31

Observation Post

Weeks of 10/20 & 10/27

The majority of my observations were made at around 5:30 in the morning. They were done in a moderate temperature. The sky on some days was clear while other days were cloudy. I did my observations at my home, and on my way to school. On the days with the cloudy sky no observations could have been made. One weekend I was in Orlando and observed the sky, which was mostly clear, at different times from midnight to 2 am. In Orlando at this time I observed what I believe is the milky way galaxy, as it seemed like dust in the sky. I also observed numerous stars, but no recognizable constellations other than Scorpius and what I believe to be the Summer Triangle. On the other clear days, multiple observations were made. I observed the infamous Orion yet again, but no other winter constellations were recognizable. I also observed three different moon phases, which includes a waning gibbous, a waning crescent, and a waxing crescent.