APOD 4.3 Galaxy Group Hickson 44

I'm doing this APOD entry early because I won't be home this spring break-I'll be in EUROPE!!!!

Anyway, this APOD picture is of NGC 3190 Group, also known as Galaxy Group Hicksen 44. It is a group of galaxies instead of a cluster because it has more than two galaxies but less than the hundreds that make up a cluster. The Hicksen 44 Group is 60 million light-years away and is in the constellation of Leo. It contains several spiral galaxies as well as an elliptical galaxy, seen in the upper left. A more famous group of Galaxies is the Local Group of Galaxies which has over 30 galaxies including our own Milky Way, Andromeda, and the Magellanic Clouds. Many galaxies in compact groups like Hicksen 44 are either merging or being gravitaionally pulled apart.

March 17---HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

To celebrate I went out to look at Saturn. At first I didn't know which point of light was the planet. I did know it was east of Gemini and right next to Leo, though finding Leo was tricky. After consulting a sky map various times, I did find Saturn (and then I found Leo), it was so cool! I could see the space between the rings and the planet, and when I went to a higher resolution I could see one of Saturn's moon to the south. With the higher resolution I found the Orion Nebula though it looked like a giant fuzzy pach with stars in the foreground. After that, I turned the telescope toward the big dipper and looked at that multi-binary star in the middle of the handle. With the naked eye, it looked like a regular binary star, but in the viewing window the tw stars turned into three. There was two bright ones to the north and south and a fainter one to the east. The star to the north had a companion, but that was the only star I could see with a companion.

APOD 4.2 The Einstein Cross Gravitational Lens

If you look at the center of this galaxy you might think it has four nuclei. Actually, the nucleus of this galaxy cannot be seen in this image. What you see is the light from a distant pulsar directly behind the central nucleus. The gravitational field of the galaxy bends the light into the mirage. The bending of light due to gravity is called "gravitational lensing," the image this particular lensing creates is calledthe "Einstein Cross." Different images of the "Einstein Cross" shows that its brightness varies; due to the gravitational effect of other nearby stars in the galaxy.

March 9, 8:24 pm

Tonight at 7:13pm an Iridium Flare occured. It had a magnitude of -8, like the first flare I saw. This time my dad saw it too. I thought this flare lasted longer than the first one. The first one lasted about 5 sec while this one lasted about 10 sec. It was still cool to see.

APOD 4.1 Saturn from Above

This beautiful picture of Saturn was taken by the Cassini spacecraft that is currently orbiting the planet. It is a rare opportunity to see the dark side of Saturn and even rarer to see the shadow that is cast on to it's rings. The rings themselves are exposed in all their glory, and you can see some cloud details near the terminator line between night and day.

March 5, 9:30pm

I decided to do the exercise in which I determined which star in the Big Dipper was the brightest. I thought the pointer star closest to Polaris was the brightest, but after looking it up, it was the second brightest star. The brightest star was Epsilon Ursae Majoris, or Alioth, at 1.76 magnitudes. The star I thought was the brightest was Alpha Ursae Majoris, or Dubhe, at 1.79 magnitudes. As you can see, the magnitudes are so close it's no wonder I got the wrong star.

3/02/07 8:00 pm

Tonight there was an Iridium Flare at 7:47pm in the NNE and with a Mag of -8. I was so happy I could see it tonight. Forcast had it that there was to be storms but the skys were clear. I ran outside once the clock showed 7:46 and I saw a speck in the sky which I at first thought was a star, but then it started to brighten and it was SO BRIGHT! It was definitly brighter than Venus and almost as bright as the moon. My parents wanted to see it too, but they were too slow, my dad missed it but my mom saw it fading away. It was so exciting! I thought it was a Nova at first (HaHa):)

APOD 3.9 Stars, Dust and Nebula in NGC 2170

This week's picture is of NGC 2170, a star forming region in the constellation of Monoceros. You can see the red glow of emission nebulas, blue reflection nebulas, and dark absorption nebulas. The red is due to hydrogen, the blue is because of reflection from the dust, and the dark absorption nebulas are also due to the dust. Over time all the dust will blow away and an open cluster will be left, full of young hot stars. The blue stars in the picture are examples of these newly formed stars.