APOD 2.3

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap101117.html

What a striking photograph! I love how the light reflected off of the ice crystals on the leaf mirrors the light of the stars in the background. Easily recognizable in that background are the three stars of Orion's belt, the red giant, Betelguese, the star cluster of Pleiades, and Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. This photograph was taken in Japan earlier this month, but one can see a similar view of the sky throughout the next couple of months in the northern hemisphere. Following the link on the apod page about Japan, I learned that Japan is an archipelago comprised of 6,852 islands! Among other very interesting historical tidbits about the island nation.  



The Night Sky 11/09/10

Where? Blackburn Point
When? 6:30-8:00

We had a truly splendid stargaze last night! The night was clear and despite a few rowdy parkgoers (who knew so many people launched kayaks at eight o clock?) we were able to see a great number of interesting sights. On the top of my list was the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters, Suburu, M45 etc. etc. open star cluster. Pleiades is the second cluster nearest to us behind the Hyades, which we also saw with the naked eye and then with binoculars. We took another look at the Andromeda galaxy, this time with our fancy telescope, who took it upon itself to tell us which direction it was pointing all night long. We saw M11, the Wild Duck Cluster, the open cluster found in Scutum. I was also a big fan of this one. We looked at the waxing crescent moon with our fancy telescope and it was soooo cooool. All sorts of craters and mountains were absolutely enthralling. I could look at the moon all day. Or all night... So anyway, we did the Great Worldwide Star Count and got a limiting magnitude of five for the constellation Cygnus. Very fun stuff.

APOD 2.2

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100527.html

Week after week I've known that M13 goes in the miscellaneous category for the constellation Hercules on our COTW quizzes. Yet, I hadn't a clue what M13 really was or looked like. Here it is! The Great Globular Cluster of Hercules! Noted by English astronomer Edmund Halley, "This is but a little Patch, but it shews itself to the naked Eye, when the Sky is serene and the Moon absent." This cluster is composed of highly concentrated, oddly close together stars, hundreds of thousands of them, in a region just 150 light years in diameter. Stunning in its clarity, this image reveals the mystery behind Hercules' very own M13.

APOD 2.1

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap101023.html

I've always liked how recognizable Orion is. Where else in the sky does one fine three bright stars perfectly aligned to form Orion's belt? No where. Those three stars are wonderfully distinguishable. I'm a big fan. This photo gives us Orion the Hunter in a way that I find incredibly enticing. It's too bad that when you look up at the sky you don't see all of this, the cosmic dust and nebula action, I mean. Or maybe it's a good thing because it shows that you should never take things at face value; there could be a whole lot more to that constellation than three stars that rather resemble a belt. The hilt of Orion's sword, for instance, is a stellar nursery known as the Great Nebula of Orion. Or the bright star  Beteleguese is the cool, red giant in the bottom left, which takes on a yellowish tint. I'll have to get my binocs out soon and try to look for the intricacies of this constellation which I had previously taken for granted.