4.8 LAAAAST APOOD!

For my very last apod blog ever, I chose the photo entitled "The Ellusive Jellyfish Nebula". This is another photo which is in false color, although it looks pretty amazing. The photo also contains emission nebula Sharpless 249. The jellyfish nebula is 5,000 lightyears away from Earth. The colors come from the mapping of oxygen, hydrogen, and sulfur. I'm gonna miss you next year Mr. Percieval! Astronomy was really fun! =)

4.6 apod

I chose the photo entitled "Jupiter from the Stratosphere". It is a picture of a real image of jupiter as well as a very colorful false image of the planet. Both images represent the planet sans the equatorial belt which can normally be seen in the upper hemisphere of the photo. Also one can see a tiny bit of jupiter's cloud tops because the clouds are transparent to infrared light.

1.7 apood blog

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

I love today's apod blog because there is actually a person in it! It's entitled "Calm, Crescent Moon, and Venus". The title describes the photo perfectly. The serene nighttime setting evokes a calming and peaceful feeling. The photo was taken by a lake called Vallentuna in Sweden. The crescent is beautiful because you can see the rest of the moon beside it as it shines brightly.

4.5 Apod Blog

I chose today's constellation photo called The Antenna because it mentions a constellation which we were quizzed on today, Corvus. However, the photo itself is of two galaxies within the constellation that collided. Resulting from the dust and gas clouds are two groups of star clusters. Although the title of the photo infers that the clusters look like an antenna, I actually think it looks more like a heart. Pretty!

INTERACTING GALAXIES!

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/galaxy/interacting/pr2009025c/
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/galaxy/interacting/pr2009018a/
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/galaxy/interacting/pr2001002a/
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/galaxy/interacting/pr2008016az/
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/galaxy/interacting/pr2010013f/

Margaret Gellar

Rania Shafie
Mr. Percieval
30th April, 2010
Astronomy Honors
Margaret Gellar
Margaret Gellar is an American born astronomer who masters in mapping galaxies in some of the farthest points in the universe that have ever been reached. Born in 1947 in Ithaca, New York, Margaret, who is still alive today, was brought up with an education in math and science. Her father was a scientist as well, who studied the formation of crystals, otherwise known as a crystallographer. When Margaret was just twenty eight years old she graduated from University of California with a PhD. She was always mainly interested in mapping galaxies. Her dissertation from the University of California was entitled, “Bright Galaxies in Rich Clusters: A Statistical Model for Magnitude Distributions.” After leaving the University, Gellar went on to be a research associate at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. In 1983, only eight years after writing her dissertation in California Margaret became an astrophysicist as well as a professor at Harvard.
Although Margaret Gellar’s academic accomplishments are notable as well as rare, her astronomical accomplishments are exceptional. Ever since the eighties Margaret has dedicated her career to mapping a large scale survey of galaxies, along with fellow astronomer John P. Huchra. Gellar and Huchra’s first publication regarding the mapping of galaxies occurred in 1986, and to the astronomical society’s surprise, their research presented a view that is now referred to as the “great wall”. This is a recording of countless galaxies which seem to be surrounded by incredibly thin bubble walls. The discrepancy, however, with the publication of the research is that the great wall is simply to large to have formed in any way which astronomers are aware. Some speculate that it is simply dark matter, which occupies the majority of our universe, which causes the discrepancy.
Margaret Gellar’s accomplishments are represented by the societies which she is currently apart of as well as awards which have been presented to her. She won what some refer to as the “genius award”. Officially the honor is referred to as the MacArthur fellowship, and she was presented with the honor in 1990. The very same year Gellar also received the Newcomb-Cleveland Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Astronomy organizations which Margaret is apart of include the American Astronomical Society, the International Astronomical Union, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Today, Margaret continues to study the origin as well as evolution of galaxies, as well as map positions of the galaxies in the universe.

4.3=)

I chose the APOD blog "The extreme ultraviolet sun", because it's just so darn pretty! The photo, which appears strangely green and blue, was taken March 30th by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The view traces the hot plasma at temperature approaching one million kelvins. The Solar Dynamics Observatory is able to send 1.5 terabytes of data back every day, which is apparently equivalent to half a million songs on an MP3. The photo is also in falls color. Preeeetty!

4.2 aPOOd blog

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/
I chose the APOD blog "Bright Points on the Quiet Sun", a photo taken by J. Sanchez Almeida. It's a high resolution photo which captures a patch of granules which are hot due to convection. You can notice rising columns of plasma, as described, which are surrounded by dark lanes of a cooler descending plasma. Although the bright points in the photo are not related to sunspots, they are sections of concentrated magnetic fields and the luminosity is caused by themagnetic pressure that opens the window to the deeper layers below the photosphere. This photo was actually recorded in 2007.

4.1 Apoooood

I chose today's apod photo entitled "disocovery's cloud". The space shuttle Discovery luanched to orbit last monday at 6:21 AM from the Kennedy Space Center pad 39A. It is now docked at the International SPace Station three hundred and fifty kilometers above Earth. The photo is called Discovery's Cloud because after take off it left a vapor cloud that is the track of the Discovery, arcing toward what is cleverly referred to as "orbital rendesvous". The picture is so pretty though because of the boats that are docked and the morning sky.

3.8 Apod

I chose for my last APOD blog of the quarter a photograph entitled "Phobos from Mars Express". This is because I would love to eat a mars bar right now. Anyways, the picture is pretty cool and looks like a huge rock with holes all over. It is one of Mars's two moons, the other being "deimos". The origin of this moon is unknown, and has an irregular shape as well as numerous strange grooves. Within the next twenty million years, due to Phobos's orbit being so close to mars, the moon will break up into a ring and surround Mars. Cool!

3.7 Apod

I chose the APOD blog from today. It is a photograph of the sun as it's coming off of what is described as an unusually quiet Solar Minimum. It doesn't look like what photographs of the sun look like, however the summary explains that the color of the surface is being emitted by hydrogen. The prominences coming off the sun are interesting, resembling smoke. Aparentally they usually appear dark because they have a cooler surface than the sun. Usually these prominences will last for a month.

3.7 APOD blog

Eta Carina is one of our constellations of the week from two weeks ago, so I thought it would be appropriate to chose the photograph "Chasing Carina". The photo capture the constellation Carina's nebula, "Eta Carina". It can also be referred to as "The Great Carina", and it spans over three hundred light years.This is one of the largest active star forming regions and contains a star that is over one hundred times the mass of the sun. The photo was taken by Dieter Willasch.

1.5

This is definitely one of the coolest Astronomy blog pictures I've seen. It is a photo of the Sakurajima volcano which is located in southern Japan. The volcano is captured erupting and is producing Magma bubbles that shoot out like liquid sparks. What's even more spectacular about this photo is the lighting bolts that are being produced at the top of the volcano. It is a mystery as to why lighting is produced from a volcano.

Antonia Maury

Rania Shafie Shafie 1

Period 00 Astronomy

Mr. Percival

26th, February 2010

Antonia Maury was born March 21st, 1866 in Cold Spring New York. Her family alone is a picture of creative scientific history and achievements. She was the granddaughter of pioneering astronomer Henry Draper. Her father was Reverand Mytton Maury and mother was Virginia Draper. To add to her family history of scientific careers, Maury's sister became a paleontologist.
Maury attended the college Vassar and graduated in 1887 at the age of 31. She then took a job at the Harvard College Observatory where she observed stellar spectra. Her job was to study the stellar spectra of stars in the northern hemisphere. She cataloged a large amount of spectra but when disagreements over validity of her methods arose between her and her advisor, Edward Charles Pickering, she left the Harvard College Observatory. She was trying to create variations in the recording of stellar spectra depending on the temperature of the spectral lines of stars. Maury was different than other female astronomers of the time because she demanded to be recognized for work that was in fact her own. The new cataloging system she created served as a stepping stone for discoveries that have become the basis of modern stellar astrophysics. Maury devised a system in which normal spectral lines are classified under “a”, hazy lines under “b”, and sharp lines under “c”. This has been considered the first step to recording the luminosity of stars. From 1899 to 1908 she went around lecturing at Eastern colleges, and



Shafie 2

this is the only time she didn’t hold a position at the Harvard College Observatory.


Maury’s accomplishments include having her classification of over six hundred and eighty stars published in Harvard’s Annals in 1896. Also, in 1943 Antonia was awarded the Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy by the American Astronomical Society. Adding to her fame, a lunar crater was co-named after Antonia, “Maury.” Antonia died at the age of eighty six in New York. Antonia once stated regarding the vastness of the universe, “but the human brain is greater yet, because it can comprehend it all.”









Bibliography

Antonia C. Maury, Spectra of Bright Stars Photographed with the 11-inch Draper Telescope as a part of the Henry Draper Memorial, Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, 28/pt.1 (1897)

Antonia Maury. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. .

Antonia Maury. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. .

1.4 APOD blog

I just took the constellation quiz, and one of the constellations we had to know was "Monoceros". This means unicorn, and it has a nebula referred to as Rosette. A photo on the APOD blog taken by Rogelio Andreo is called "field of Rosette". How appropriate! Anywho, in the nebula is a shape like a flower, and represents valentines day. There are many open clustered stars in this nebula. This nebula is five thousand light years distant from Earth! Holy guac!

APOD BLOG 3.4

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100202.html

This is a photograph taken by Wally Pacholka of Mars with a colorful lunar fog bow. This photograph itself is strikingly beautiful and looks like a dream land. Last week Mars reached opposition, which is when Mars and Earth are closest together in their orbits. This causes Mars to be the brightest part of the photograph. The fog bow itself is apparently very rare. A normal rainbow is created by sunlight reflected by falling raining, however this fog bow was created by moonlight reflected by small water drops in fog. The fog itself appears white, however all of the colors of the rainbow can be located. This photo was taken in Haleakala, Hawaii. =)

APOD BLOG 1.3

In this photograph shows the evolving dust storm which extends from the large dark region referred to as Mare Acidalium, to below the polar cap of Mars. As it is now spring for the northern hemisphere of Mars, its expected to experience dust storms. This explains the large brown cloud of dust that marks the usually white north polar cap. This was posted Feb. 5th. I like this picture because it shows the entire Red Planet in all its glory. =)

APOD Blog 2

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/
This is a beautiful photograph of the planet Mars. It was able to be captured like this because Mars is at opposition tonight, which means opposite the Sun in the planet Earth's sky. Another reason why Mars is so easy to see is because it appears so close to the Full Moon. In the photograph mars is 99 million kilometers away. There is a large white spot on the upper right and its called the north polar cap. Mars also has a tiny red disk which is about one one hundreth the diameter of the Full Moon.

APOD blog 1.8

This photo is entitled "eclipse over temple of poisidon". It is a carefuly organized and planed photograph which captures the partially eclipsed sun. The temple is located in Sounio, Greece. The flying bird overhead occured by chance and only increased the beauty of the photograph. At some locations the moon covered the whole middle of the sun creating the surrounding ring of fire of an annular solar eclipse. This is an amazing photograph and work of art.

ASTRONOMY CAST EP 149

This episode discusses a new program created by Nasa. The program is called the "constellation program", and it deals with creating machines and technology for space exploration. The program is working on developing items from rockets, landers, and flight technology. Perhaps with this new technology we can learn more about space objects such as asteroids and even planets in the solar system. I think its interesting that Nasa is creating new technologies and am excited for the effects of development to occur.

ASTRONOMY CAST EP159

This episode is regarding the supposed planet "x" and it's location in the universe. Apparently this planet is responsible for the location of planet Neptune and dwarf planet Pluto, however some still believe it lies beyond those planets. Also, some scientists believe this planet being discovered would mark the end of the world.
It's presumed to be about one point five billion km away from Earth.

APOD Blog 1.7

This is referred to as the "flame nebula", because due to it's dark glow and dust it appears to be a billowing fire at some angles. This nebula lies near the constellation of Orion. What causes the "Flame" in the nebula is the Easternmost star is the Belt of Orion, referred to as Alnitak. The star sends energetic light into the flame which sends electrons away from the clouds of hydrogen gas. The glow occurs when the electrons and ionized hydrogen recombine. I thought this was a beautiful image.

1.6 Apod Blog

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091206.html
This photograph is entitled, "The Magnificent Tail of Comet McNaught". I chose it because I just made and presented my project on comets and meteors recently, so I understand what's going on in the photograph. The tail which stretched across the sky was visible to Southern Hemisphere observers, but also just above the horizon for some north hemisphere viewers as well. This comet was the "spectacular" comet of 2007, and the brightest comet of the last fourty years. The Ulysses aircraft recently flew through the tail of comet McNaught and recorded that the speed of solar wind had dropped a significant amount. <3comets<3

Astronomer Quarter 2 Essay

Rania Shafie

Period 1

1-5-10

Mr. Perceival Astronomy

The English Astronomer William Lassell was born on June 18th, 1799 in Bolton, Lancashire. A self made man and a very accomplished astronomer, Lassell discovered several moons as well as developed telescopes over the course of his astronomy career. His career as an astronomer came about through his own personal interest. However, he didn’t begin his career as an astronomer until he struck gold with a beer brewing business. After already becoming accomplished in the brewing business, he was able to indulge in his astronomical interests.

The first step in starting off Lassell’s astronomy career was when he constructed an observatory near Liverpool. This is where he was able to delve further into his interests for reflectors. He preferred large reflectors, and in 1844 William developed his own. It was a twenty four inch telescope which Lassell used himself. Using this telescope, Lassell discovered the first moon of Neptune, Triton. He made this discovery amazingly only seventeen days after Neptune itself was discovered. Other telescopes which he is known to have constructed include a forty eight inch reflector which he used to observe as well as record positions and qualities of several nebulae in Malta. The year was 1855, and he stationed it in Malta due to the clear observing conditions.

Further accomplishments by Lassell include the discovery of several moons, as well as winning an astronomy award. In 1846 William discovered Hyperion, which is a moon of Saturn, as well as the crepe ring of Saturn. In 1851, five years later, Lassell discovered two moons of Uranus, Ariel and Umbriel. He discovered these moons during the same time he created the forty eight inch reflector, in Malta. In 1849, after discovering Triton and the moon of Saturn, Lassell won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. Later, in 1870, Lassell served as the president for the Royal Astronomical Society.

Lassell died in 1880 in Maidenhead, leaving a fortune of what today amounts to millions behind. However, William can still be remembered through the astronomical objects which were named after him. These include a crater on the moon as well as a crater on Mars. On top of this, one of Neptune’s rings is also named after William.



Works Cited

Works Cited

William Lassell. Web. 5 Jan. 2010. .

William Lassell. Web. 5 Jan. 2010. .