APOD 2.7

For this week, I chose an APOD entry depicting Titan's lake-filled land. Titan is Saturn's large moon. I remember learning about Saturn during the solar system presentions in class and from this entry I learned that Titan,besides earth is the only unique world with stable liquids on its surface. I was intrigued by this because I had never truly grasped the idea that other objects in our solar system could have that.

APOD 2.6

This week's chosen APOD depitcs the bright source of gamma rays that is Earth. This image was taken from a gamma-ray telescope orbiting around earth in space. I chose this picture for this week because I remembered what we learned in class about telescopes and light rays. The telescope that took this image is called the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope which recently celebrated its 2000th day in orbit. I thought this picture gave an interesting depiction of the bright souce of gamma rays on Earth and I also liked looking at the different intensities these rays had.

APOD 2.5

The APOD for this week that I chose is titled, "From California to the Pleiades" The entry describes with detailed the size of the distance from the California Nebula to the Pleiades star cluster. According to the entry this is about a 400 light year distant. I think it's awesome to see how time and distance in space can expand so far. I think it's a tough topic to wrap my hand around but the APOD picture helps because I can see the two different celestial objects and connect them somehow.

APOD 2.4

The APOD for today is titled "The Flash Spectrum of the Sun" I was immediately intrigued by this picture and decided to pick it for this week's APOD because I was remined of when we looked at light spectrums in class from several angles. This APOD entry speaks of the brief change in the visible spectrum of the sun during a solar eclipse. The entry also mentions and explains why the light spectrum of the Sun appears the way it does. It relates to the chemicals of the sun liek Helium and Hydrogen. This also reminds me of when we did the light spectrum activity in class.

APOD 2.3

The APOD for November 8, 2013 depicted the previous total solar eclipse viewed from the country of Uganda. This eclipse took place on November 3rd, however the eclipse cannot be completely seen from every single part of the world. This is why this picture is from Uganda. The elipse lasted a full 20 seconds. The reason I chose this picture is because solar eclipses, in my mind are extremely facisnating and since I cannot see a full solar eclipse from where I am, I thought it was intriguining. I also find it very interesting that one can look at the eclipse and it looks as if the moon and the sun look similar in size.

APOD 2.2

The NCG 7841 is a smoke nebula in the constellation Frustriaus. Actually no, this is not a real nebula but rather the amazing result of bad water and the earth's natural elements: water and smoke. In Sweden, astrophotographer Göran Strand  used flash photography to make this photograph. I chose it for the APOD of this week because when I first saw it, I thought it was a real satellite picture of a nebula but I was proven wrong. I for one, think this is a really cool picture and can show how inspirational space can be. I'm also interested now in both what flash photography is exactly and I want to learn more about the cool smoke nebula that looks so realistic in this picture.

Observation Post - 30 Oct. 2013

The moon's crescent shape was very clear in the sky directly above. The rest of its shadow was faintlyc clear which made it all the most interesting to observe how clear the phase was to the naked eye. I like how when I pay more attention to the sky and look up, I can now observe this on a regular basis. Sometimes, it's a cloudy but it's nice to recognize the celestial object's characteristics on a clear day like today.

APOD 2.1

For today, NASA's APOD was titled "Little Planet Shadowrise." I picked this picture because I thought it gave an interesting and new perspective. The little planet is supposed to be a depiction of Earth and even thought, I know this is not a real-life picture, I thought it was interesting artpiece and had a nice choice of colors. It also got me thinking about what I have learned regarding the sun and earth's relations.

Observation Post - 22 Oct. 2013

Today the moon was visibile in broad daylight morning, the latest i saw it was around 9:10 as i was walking from class to classs. It was very clear. I was even able to observe its craters.

Isaac Newton

Considered by many as one of the most revolutionary men in history, Isaac Newton transformed the world of mathematics and physics. Newton’s story began on the fourth of January sixteen-forty-three in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire. Going against his mother’s wishes of becoming a farmer, Newton instead put his focus on further education. Influenced by bullies, Newton soon became the top-ranking student at The King’s School in Grantham. He obtained his higher education at Cambridge University, and then followed by Trinity College. This time is referred as “the height” of his creativity due to his increased interest in mathematics, gravity and light composition. During this time, Newton also wrote his masterpiece, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. This monograph dealt with the application of gravity to all parts of the universe.

Newton’s gift for mathematics was advanced for his time period. His contributions were extensive and revolutionary to the world. His focus was mainly seen in fluxions or calculus. For example, Newton gained acknowledgment for his solutions to problems dealing with analytical geometry; drawing tangents to curves and defining areas bounded by curves. Newton also described the inverse relationship between these problems. As advanced and important that his discoveries were, they often delayed in their publishing thus hidden from the public.

Newton’s most often recognized achievements deals with mechanics and gravitation. The often common example that supposedly initiated his thought process on gravity is when Newton was sitting under a tree and an apple fell on his head which provoked his deep pondering. Upon initiating his analytical work on the subject, Newton was able to calculate the force needed to hold the moon in its orbit, the centripetal force needed to hold a stone in a sling and the relationship between the length of a pendulum and the time of its swing. Although these discoveries dealt with physical mechanics, they influenced and affected the knowledge held by the astronomy world. Further discoveries include the definition of gravity, the theory of fluids, and law of gravitational at work in the macrocosm. These discoveries were included in his work, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.

Isaac Newton’s mental capacities have named his as a contributor to humanity’s greatest achievements. His accomplishments though sometimes delayed in publishing have now come to be widely recognized and universally accepted. Newton allowed for human advancement to be a possibility and the world was revolutionized by his work.

Project Link

Astronomer - Issac Newton
http://www.newton.ac.uk/newtlife.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/newton_isaac.shtml

APOD 1.4

APOD 1.5

APOD 1.3

The image aboves shows with high-definition clarity as cosmic dust clouds make their way near the boundary of Corona Australis, commonly known as southern crown. What is very interesting about this picture is the reflection and presentation of the light due to the interference from the cosmic clouds with the nebula also seen in the picture. The different nebulas are labeled in this picture. I chose this picture because i constantly see pictures on the interenet depicting nebulas and the interesting colors they create, but I have previously never fully known the cause or how to identify them. Choosing this picture allowed me to learn a little bit more and understand why these pictures appear the way they do.

Observation

9 September 2013

Today, while leaving home for school, my mom pointed out to me the very clear morning sky. I looked up above and was mesmirezed by the clarity which I could see the stars. Before taking this course, I hardly even thought about looking up and observing what I saw. Today was just an example of what I saw, because I realized that simply looking up can really pay off, I was able to see how bright the sky was, I did not realize before this was the case in the early morning.

APOD 1.2

This picture was featured on as the APOD for the first day of September. The picture depicts a forest fire in Bitterwoot Valley in Montana. The information given in the description deals a lot with explaing causes and features of fire. For example, fire is the rapid acquisution of oxygen (key indicator of life) thus fire on any planet would be an indicator of life. Fires are also considred part of nature on Earth and can even be observed from orbit. This is what I found the most fascinating because from the APOD website I was linked to a very interesting article in which I learned that with the advanced of NASA's technology we can now see fires from space.

APOD 1.1

      This beautiful picture featured as APOD on the twenty-ninth of August was titled "Strawberry Sun". I chose this because, for one I find it incredible that such a thing in nature can be so beautiful and the title fits in perfectly. According to the description, the unusual colors that appear in the picture given to the moon and sky are due to smoke plumes in the surrounding wildlife. I also learned that these plumes can be seen from space, which is something very cool and previously unknown to me. Overall, I'm glad I chose this picture because in any other situation I would've thought it was just pretty but now I also know the reason as to why the sky appears like this.