APOD 3.2

It is winter on Mars and the probe Opportunity is having a hard time trying to find enough sunlight to keep itself running, since it it powered by solar energy. It was given the instrustions to go to Greeley's Haven which is a rocky incline which would allow the probe to recieve more sunlight. I love seeing pictures taken by probes on different planets. It amazes me how simulare the surface of something so far away can look to the Earth. It is hard to grasp that Mars is even real or to consider that we have something taking pictures on it. It is really cool. If I hadnt been told this was Mars I would have thought it was Earth. It is incredible what is out in space and really neat that we have been able to learn more about it.

APOD 3.1

Rising and setting full moons are always a beautiful sight near the horizon. Due to the atmoshpere and optical illusions the moon appears larger and orange. The bright moon is captivating to say the least. I love going to the beach when the moon sets to see it turn orange as it sinks into the water. Before this class I wasn't sure why the moon looked bigger or changed color so it is cool to finally understand. This picture is really beautiful, the glowing orange moon contrasting the cool grey sky over the white landscape.

Observation 12/13/12

Tonight the sky is pretty clear in Sarasota. I'm in the back yard of my friends house who is closer to downtown so the visibility is a low 4. However I can see Orion and I'm pretty sure I can spot Mars.  The Summer triangle is close to the horizon so it is hard to see all of it because of trees. Mars rose first  first and the waning gibbous rose second. I can also see the big dipper. I observed from 9 to 10.

Podcast

Scientists have come up with a system to rate asteroids just like they do for Earth quakes so people know how to prepare for it. The scale was last revised in Turin which explains the name. Now any asteroid that has a possibility of hitting the Earth gets a put into the scale of how much damage it could cause. The scale goes from 0 to 10. The scale measures the energy of the asteroid. The scale helps people know space weather basically. Is there a high chance raining asteroids today? To what damage. This information is now more readily accessible to everyone, so now we can properly prepare for impending asteroids.

Podcast

On June 30, 1908 something exploded over the Tunguska region of Siberia. It flattened thousands of square kilometers of forest. The power it released was close or even greater than the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. At 7:15 out of no where something streaked across the sky which was supposedly as bright as the sun. It then exploded knocking people off their feet and breaking windows. The shock from the explosions was detected as far as Britain. Not too many people were disturbed by the shock because it was during WW1. The sky continued to light up for a few nights. Even so the event wasn't really looked into until 1920. THe entire area of damage was over 800 square miles. Scientist believe it was a comet that exploded in the atmosphere that caused such a massive event

APOD 2.8

This picture shows the beautiful spiral galaxy. The Spiral Galaxy is located 10 million light- years away and directly faces Earth. the color of old yellow stars in the center goes to blue and red colored stars that are younger. NGC 6946 is bright in infared light. I shows high birth and death rates throughout the galaxy. Since the 20th century at least nine supernovas have occured. This picture is beautiful. It is really cool to see deeper into space. Space is so amazing.

William Cranch Bond Bio

Emily Gaubatz

Mr. Percival

Astronomy

1/10/12

William Cranch Bond

            William was born in Falmouth, Main in 1789. He apprenticed his father becoming a clock maker as his first career. in 1806 he saw a solar eclipse when he was 17, peeking his interest in astronomy. In his first house he built an observatory in his parlor that had a hole in the ceiling so he could have a telescope out it. In 1815 Bond was hired by Harvard University to gather information on European observatories. Bond later moved to Harvard with his astronomical equipment and serve unpaid as its Astronomical Observer to the University.

In 1843 Harvard was able to raise enough money towards building a high end observatory due to a sun grazing comet that aroused interest. Bond helped supervise construction of the observatory at Harvard as well as the observing chair which are both still in working order today. The observing chair was on tracks and could be adjusted to go up or down depending on where the eye piece was. Harvard also purchased a 15-inch refracting telescope, which was equal in size to the largest ones in the world at that time in 1847. It was built by Merz and Mahler of Munich and earned the name the Great Refractor. The telescope was first pointed at the moon in 1847. Bond became its first director.

             During the later years of his life William Cranch Bond and his son, George Philips Bond worked together in their astronomical studies. He and his son discovered Saturn’s eighth satellite, the moon Hyperion in 1848. In 1850, Bond and his son turned the telescope towards Saturn discovering it’s inner ring, Crape Ring. Later in his career he began working with John Adams Whipple, together, Bond and his son pioneered astrophotography. Their first daguerreotype was taken of Vega in 1850 using a hundred second exposure. They also achieved taking one of the earliest photographs of a double star, Mizar  and Alcor which are in the Big Dipper’s handle using wet-collodion plates. Total they took between 200 and 300 pictures of celestial objects. A crater on the moon is also named after William Cranch Bond. Most of Bond’s studies focused on the Orion Nebula and Saturn. A section of Hyperion is called Bond-Lassell Dorsum. An asteroid discovered by Metcalf in 1913 was called Bondia also honoring the Bonds. Both William Cranch Bond and his son played a large roll in astronomy during their lifetimes.

            William Cranch Bond died in Cambridge on January 29, 1859.

More work cited:

"Bond, William Cranch." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Jan. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

http://messier.seds.org/xtra/Bios/wcbond.html

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/William_Cranch_Bond.aspx

observation

From about 7:00 to 9:00 I sat out in my backyard. The moon was almost full, today it is full. I saw Venus easily. Constellations were hard to see because I live by Bee Ridge so the visibility is a three, a four on a good night. It was also a little cloudy. The clouds did make a really cool effect on the moon though. The moons rays created a halo around itself in the clouds creating a blue icy veil. I love seeing the moon shine off of clouds, it is always so pretty. The moon was to the East, slightly North East. We used my mom's Ipad with the stargazing ap to locate constellations but we couldn't really see any full constellations without it.

APOD 2.7

This picture accuratly captures the elegant beauty of Auroras. This picture was taken in Norway. It is cool because you can really see the bend of the magnetic field being bent towards the North Pole. It is caused by blasts from the sun that blow around the Earth making these beautiful sights. They usually don't reach under 60 km and can get up to 1000 km. The Auroras circle around Earth's magnetic poles. Seeing an Aurora is definatley on my bucket list.

APOD 2.6

Anartica is an ideal place for searching for meteorites. Because the ice freezes clear it is easy to spot rocks caught in the ice, which are most likely meteors. In other places around the world, forests, mountains and oceans get in the way. Snowmobiling explorers have found thousands already. Meteors can help us find out more about Mars Comets and the moon, as well as places such as the Kiper belt. I think it would be really cool to go looking for meteors and have something thats flown around space. I don't think I would be able to handle the freezing temperatures of Anartica though.

observation

On New Years eve I went out to Siesta beach around 11:20 and stayed until 12:20. It was a really clear night and the stars were easy to see. I identified Pegasus and Orion. I believe I found the Summer Triangle as well.The most amazing thing that night however was the moon. It was a quarter moon but its half was facing the water, making the moon light relfected brightly in the sea. The moon was setting while we were there, it becam larger and more orange. It looked like a cup going into the water. the relfection became more orange too. It was a cool effect when the moon got really close to the horizon. I believe the moon set before midnight. It was quite the sight. A great way to end and start the new year.

Biography work cited

Kronberg, Christine. "William Cranch Bond (1789-1859)." SEDS Messier Database. SEDS, 2007. Web. 05 Jan. 2012. http://messier.seds.org/xtra/Bios/wcbond.html.

 

“William Cranch Bond.” Science and Its Times. Ed. Neil Schlager and Josh Lauer. Vol. 5: 1800 to 1899. Detroit: Gale, 2000. Virtual Reference Library. Web. 4 Jan. 2012.

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3408502843&v=2.1&u=fl_sarhs&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w

APOD

It is weird to see a picture of another planet and actually process that it is from another planet. Another whole world miles away. Mars looks a lot like Earth's surface so it is hard to wrap the mind around the fact that that isn't a picture of a dessert on Earth. The thought that there are other huge worlds out there some simular to Earth really interests me. It is really cool to think about what it would be like to go stand on Mars or a planet possibly out of our solar system. It is very hard for me to believe that we are the only planet out there that has living organisms. They might just be very different.

APOD

Venus is captured in cunjunction with a 35 hour young moon. It rises above Portugal's Peneda- Geres National Park. Mercury is out of frame but is below the moon. I really enjoy watching the moon rise and set it is always a beautiful sight. In this picture it is cool because you can see the whole moon even though it is a cresent because the sky is still bright.

APOD

Bruce McCandless II is 100meters away from the cargo of the shuttle the Challenger. Making that the furthest anyone has gone from their ship. No strings attached, he floats manuvering with an MMU. It is an amazing picture to see someone just floating above Earth. I think I would not feel comfortable not being attached and going so far from the shuttle. There isn't wind to carry someone off in a gust but I feel like I'd get hit by solar blast or get pulled into the Earths gravity, or simply keep floating. It would be an awesome experience however, I would want a rope.