Zooniverse 4/30/11

I tried a new thing today called "Old Weather." This one was really nice because I felt like it would be very difficult to mess this one up. Basically, you just decipher some cursive and keep track of weather and times and stuff. I looked at old ship's logs from like 1913! That's awesome. I might just stick with this weather watcher...

APOD 4.2

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110413.html

In this picture, radio telescopes from the Australian Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) are seen in front of a full moon and the radio image of Centauri A is superimposed in the background. Centaurus A is an active galaxy that is presumably the result of the collision of two galaxies. The debris are being consumed by a black hole. It is this black hole that produces the fast moving radio jets this long exposure photograph captures. What I had assumed were stars are actually the glow of other radio bright galaxies in the far distant future. How crazy is that!

APOD 4.1

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110414.html

Depicted here are some baby stars in the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud along with some dust clouds at the infared wavelength. Rho Ophiuchi is one of the nearest star forming regions at 400 light years distant. The stars form against a cold hydorgen cloud and then in turn heat the dust around them, creating the infared glow. Something I didn't know! Stars in the process of formation have their own name, YSO's! young stellar objects are seen in the light pinkish nebula. The average age of these babes is 300,000 years. The redder region in the lower right corner surrounds the star Sigma Scorpii. Impressive. I like these stellar nurseries.

Zooniverse 4/24/11

So, I did some more solar storm watchin' today. I finished my training or what have you and moved on to bigger and better things. They had me watch videos and tag the ones I thought depicted a storm. I used the scan button to view the video at double speed. This made it easier to differentiate stuff.

Zooniverse 4/14/11

Today, I did the SOLAR STORMWATCH. It was sweet. They showed images of the sun and I had to tell if the solar outbursts were either light bulb shaped solar storm and it was fun. Then, I identified comets, particles, and optical effects.