1/7/15

Got to go out to the Jetty and at exactly 7:29pm in the NorthEastern sky at the exact height that was said, I go to see the Iridium flare among an extremely dark and star speckled sky. I got to see the satellite appear around 7:28:30 and watch it build up to its full brightness quickly, though it did not last as long as I had hoped, it was still quite amazing.

New Years Observation

During New Years Eve, I was out at Marina Jacks and got a pretty clear shot of the sky for a good amount of time, during which I got to see a couple constellations, and noted Venus in the sky as well, in the south west sky.

Sources

"John Frederick William Herschel." Science and Its Times. Ed. Neil Schlager and Josh Lauer. Vol. 5: 1800 to 1899. Detroit: Gale, 2000. 496. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 18 Dec. 2014.

"Herschel, John." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008, and John Cannon. "Herschel, John." Encyclopedia.com. HighBeam Research, 01 Jan. 2008. Web. 18 Dec. 2014.

"John Herschel." John Herschel. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2014.

"John Frederick William Herschel - Biography." John Frederick William Herschel. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2014.

APOD 2.6

As if the Aurora Borealis wasn't beautiful enough, taken through a long exposure shot over a pretty lake really adds to the sheer beauty, along with giving a glow to the entire area around it. But to further capitalize on it, the long exposure ended up capturing a Geminid Meteor, fireball specifically, go streaking across the sky. Tearing through the Big Dipper gave off a stunning and dramatic shot. Amazing what 30 seconds of exposure, charged particles in the magnetosphere, and absolute perfect timing can do and create.

APOD 2.5

Yet another wonder of the night sky, Eta Carinae is an expanding nebula formed by unknown forces from its star system form. This Homunculus Nebula is a complete mystery of formation, but also is a beautiful wonder as over the past 170 years it has grown brighter, faded, brighter again, etc. in 1995 it actually became the second brightest star system in the sky.  Shown over three pictures is it actually not only brightening and dimming, but also it having amazing streams of light shooting out amongst the gas clouds that are expanding from the central massive star. Still exploding randomly even now, it is expected that this system will eventually cause an amazing supernova. Eventually.

APOD 2.3

This galactic anomaly known as NGC 660 is a fantastic example of a grand speculative concept. Known as a Polar Ring Galaxy, these are extremely rare clusters that form likely from the brushing by of two galaxies, essentially capturing material from a passerby and then turning that material into orbiting solar systems and thus forming a ring. Kind of like an exponential Saturn in concept. Whats interesting is the fact that these rings are almost perfectly perpendicular to the galaxy itself. the polar ring itself is actually based with the concept also of a Dark Matter ring/halo of which can also actually be measured in mass. Overall this is a very unique Galactic formation that is a sure thing to keep in mind for future study.

APOD 2.2

A very rare sight indeed, a view of a ultra thing galaxy, NGC 4762, can be seen nearly perfectly on its edge, really demonstrating just how flat a galaxy can be. The reason this particular image, taken from the Hubble, is so rare is due to the fact that in order for us as humans to perceive this view requires our Earth to be nearly perfect on the plane of the galaxies line. Granted there are plenty of other galaxies as flat as this one, our own for example, but the fact that this one is perfectly perpendicular to our planet is a crazy sight to see. NGC 4762 is actually located in the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies and is about 100,000 Light years from end to end, thus truthfully capturing the scale of how big this galaxy is and yet at the same time how insanely thin it is.