Observation blogs: last hour

Last Monday I had little homework so I was able to spend a bit of time out on the porch looking up. I am now used to seeing things at my house and it doesn't take too much time to orient myself and identify a few stars. I had trouble naming the smaller more obscure first magnitude stars but overall I am doing better. I realize how much different it all is from starlab but in my opinion it is much better to look at the actual sky rather than a recreation. Hopefully next quarter I will be able to go to some of the stargazes out in myakka.

Observation Blogs

This past weekend I looked up for a while on Saturday night. I was at my house so it was not a transition of location so I was already acclimated to that sky from last time. I stayed out with my parents and sister for two hours while my dad was grilling. We turned off all of the lights inside and the only source of light was the flame from the grill. After a bit I was able to see a lot in the sky though still not as much as one can see in myakka. The major constellations are easily identified as well as some of the most notable stars. It was a good end to the quarter.

Observations

Last weekend I was able to spend a few hours out at night and look around. It was one of the first times that I was quickly able to orient myself and recognize more than just Orion in the night sky. It is easier than being in starlab because I have trouble recognizing the north inside of the globe as opposed to the outside. I did resort to my phone to look for more stars and constellations but I was able to do without it for a time. We ended up having a bonfire and staying out for a good part of the night. Although my neighborhood is not in myakka or anything like that it is still on the outskirts of the city and lots of stars became visible. It was a good night for a stargaze.

APOD 3.8

Pictured above is a comet that has recently flooded the news, the name PANSTARRS. It was excpected to be one of the brightest comets ever to pass by Earth and be visible to the naked eye. Astronomers were disappointed with the magnitude but it still was an amazing event to see. Today it is still faintly visible if you are located on the right spot on the Earth, mainly close to the poles. Soon it will not be visible then unless one uses a telescope or binoculars. The comet is receding from our solar system to continue its' venture.

Observations

Over spring break I was able to go up to New Jersey and see an entirely different sky. It seemed almost alien in comparison to the night sky here; much darker for my grandparents live in rural parts. I was able to spot Orion from the belt but other than that I had trouble finding everything else because I was disoriented in the different sky. With the app on my phone I was able to locate more and more stars and constellations and spent a few hours out at night with my family having dinner. Although I was not able to identify the features it was still a very good experience.

Asaph Hall Biography

Connor Boles

Mr. Percival

Astronomy Honors

5 Mar. 2013

Asaph Hall Biography

            Asaph Hall was born in 1829 in Goshen, Connecticut. He was born to a middle class family yet financial problems arose when his father died when he was only 13. Asaph was in schooling until  his father died and when that happened he left school to become an apprentice to a carpenter. Later in life he was able to enroll in the Central College in McGrawville, New York. This was when his life took a turn and it really started in the astronomical world.

            While enrolled in college Asaph studied mathematics where he fell in love with one of the instructors whose name was Angeline Stickney, and the two married in 1856. It was that year that Hall got a job at the Harvard College Observatory where he then learned and later was renowned for his skill concerning orbits. In 1862 he left his job at the Harvard conservatory to become employed US Naval Observatory where in less than a year he became a professor. He was then stationed in Washington, DC where he was able to pursue his studies with some of the best technology in the world. In 1872 Hall submitted an article on his findings titled “On an Experimental Determination of Pi” to the Messenger of Mathematics. The paper was instrumental in his career for his name was out and the paper was used for many things on the future including the Manhattan Project during the 1940’s. In 1975 his big break in astronomy came. He was given the control of USNO 26 inch telescope, which was the largest refracting telescope in the world at that time. In August of 1877 he found the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. It was the first sighting of the two moons and he was known around the astronomical world for his findings. Using the telescope he was also able to calculate Saturn’s rotational period. He did extensive research on Saturn and was able to prove retrograde motion on the part of one of Saturn’s moons Hyperion. He became an expert in stellar parallaxes around the solar system and the galaxy until his retirement in 1891. After retiring he became a professor at Harvard University in 1896 and taught there until 1901. His first wife Angeline died in 1892 but he later remarried to Mary Gauther. Once remarried he moved back to the city of his birth where he spent his remaining years until in 1907 when visiting his son in Annapolis, Maryland he died.

            Asaph Hall was one of the most brilliant mathematicians in the astronomical field in his time and he was able to discover and do much research on moons and stellar parallax. His legacy lived on with his son Asaph Hall Jr. who later was an astronomer. Although not a recognized name he fully exploited his opportunity with the USNO 26 inch telescope and also at the US Naval Observatory as well as the Harvard College Observatory. 

APOD 3.7

In the video "Coronal Rain on the Sun" a highly magnified picture of the sun is shown with mysterious things raining down. This is called coronal rain. Instead of water falling it is in fact super hot plasma that usually ejects out of the sun by solar flare. The plasma does not always fall back as it did but the coronal rain did occur making it a strange phenomenon that we are lucky to witness. The video is shown in ultraviolet light for not everything could be captured in the visible spectrum. This is a truly amazing occurrence and astronomers everywhere are dumbfounded by the video.