APOD 2.4

Astronomy Picture of the Day: November 19th 2010
Nebulae in the Northern Cross

I really liked this picture a lot for many reasons.  For one, the picture is stunningly beautiful as is almost every picture that they decide to post on the site.  However, the contrast between the dark reds and dark blacks makes for an intense photo.  Also, I enjoyed how they labeled everything in the picture.  It didn't take away from the beauty by putting too much notation on it, but instead I could easily understand what was going on.  I think the highlight of this picture astronomically is the bright intense Deneb.  It's so obvious as to which star Deneb is even without the notation because of how bright it is.  Alberio is suprisingly bright too. The Northern Cross asterism is widely popular and all of this is happening in the constellation Cygnus.  With all of this going on, how does Cygnus not get a ton of recognition for its beauty? Maybe it does as it should. Also even outside of the main focus of the photograph lies the veil nebulae which in and of themselves are beautiful.  Nature created something incredibly beautiful this time around.

Star Count Observation 11/12/10

I went out behind my house to the other side of the wooded area to look at the sky at approximately 7:30pm.  Looking up to Cepheus I was suprised at how few stars I could see. In comparison to the pictures online I would classify being able to see Magnitude 3 stars.

APOD 2.3

Astronomy Picture of the Day: The Elephant's Trunk in IC 1396, November 6th 2010

This nebula is extremely appropriately named.  The Elephants Trunk Nebula exists in the high and far off constellation of Cepheus.  The "trunk" is over 20 light years long.  Cool interstellar dust and gas form and come together to create this image in the night sky.  These dark clouds interest astronomers because they usually contain the raw material for star formation.  This could be a hot spot of stars in millions of years from now.  This nebula, even though it is far off into the distance, takes up 5 degrees of the night sky.  This is about 4 Full Moons.

Pretty.

APOD 2.2

Astronomy Picture of the Day: 2010 November 3

The Necklace Nebula is beautiful.  It is located in the summer constellation Sagitta (The Arrow) which is just below Vulpecula and above Aquila.  This is a newly discovered example of a ring shaped planetary nebula and is approximately 15,000 light years away. It's bright ring is a half a light year in diameter making it a gigantic nebula in the night sky.  Planetary nebulae are created by sun like stars in their final phase of stellar evolution.  That sun like star in this case ia actually a binary star.  This makes this nebula extremely unique.  Astronomers estimate this nebula to be about 5,000 years old.  What a pretty picture.