APOD 2.5

Supercell over Montana
Beam me up, Scotty. A supercell, a multi-kilometer storm, over Montana (although it does look akin to war of the worlds). Torrential downpour and very fast winds, with the possibility of tornadoes. Still debating if that's better weather than the cold we've been having as of late.

APOD 2.4

Home from above
Nice view. Our home planet viewed from the international space station, 350 kilometers up, with the horizon clearly curved. Clouds are still plainly visible, and if we could see more of it we would probably see another hurricane attacking Louisiana. Living in zero gravity must be an interesting experience, to say the least. Curious though about what that astronaut is thinking. She certainly isn't looking out the window. Also an interesting fact: she's also the lead vocalist of Max Q. Because going to space isn't enough to show off these days.

APOD 2.3

two views, two crescents
Now that Venus is visible in the morning,  it can be seen with the waning crescent moon, at least for a few days.
What's nice is that in the second picture Venus does appear as a crescent even at first glance. What I am curious about though, is why in the first frame the planet appears as a gibbous, rather than the crescent in the right. not entire sure how the geometry is working there.

APOD 2.2

Ghosts of the Cepheus Flare

the mass of dust appears to have two humanoid figures, running and ghost-like. These strangely shaped clouds happen to be in the constellation Cepheus, the king. Pretty good timing now that we've started reading Hamlet (not that the late father and king makes much of an interesting apparition). Odd that space could, by blind chance, yield such images via gravity and tossing a few dice. Still doesn't make me want to read Hamlet, though.

APOD 2.1

water ice detected under the Lunar surface Ice was thrown up from the impact of a satellite from earth, and the resulting analysis suggests we may be able to find a much higher volume of H2O on the moon than previously thought. Whether or not we'd be able to mine it is unknown, but I would be interesting to see if we could get people onto the moon regularly. Waving my science fiction nerd flags here, human expansion into space would be interesting to see, if it's possible. And any settlement on the moon would be able to house a telescope that can see in all wavelengths of light. No atmosphere here.

Obsevations 10/23

Heavy light pollution. Outside of Sailor circus. 10:30 PM.


all three stars of the summer triangle visible, Deneb 45 degrees up from the horizon. Jupiter 20 degrees from the zenith point.

Work Sited

Regiomontauns. Wikipedia. 10/14/2010 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/regiomontanus>.

Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography Vol. 11. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. 

Johannes Regiomontanus.

Johannes Müller von Königsberg was born on June 6^th, 1436. He adopted “Regiomontanus” as a pseudonym, derived from his birthplace who’s meaning was “King’s mountain”. Nothing is known of his early life, but in April of 1450 he enrolled in the University of Vienna. Two years later, in January, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree. Afterwards he held lectures in optics and ancient literature. He also built astrolabes and even a portable sundial for Pope Paul II.

In 1457 he became a colleague of Peuebach. He was persuaded to create a “briefer and more comprehensible” Latin version of Ptolemy’s Mathematical Syntaxes, but had died after finishing book IV and on his deathbed asked Regiomontauns to finish it. He returned to Rome in November of 1461, and had finished the epitome there. However, if was never printed until twenty years after the death of Regiomontanus. Despite this folly, the book contributed greatly to modern science, because in addition to translating the book Regiomontanus also included so critical analysis, revisions, and other observations to it. Errors in Ptolemy’s work regarding the moon were pointed out in the translation, and they would later influence Copernicus and his work.  

Over the next four years, Regiomontanus lived and worked in the home of Cardinal Bessarion. There he wrote De Triangulis Omnimodus (one of the first textbooks on trigonometry) and Epytoma in almagesti Ptolemei. In 1471 he moved to Nuremburg in Franconia. There he became famous for constructing the first observatory in Germany.

In 1475 he returned to Rome to work on calendar reform. En route he published his "Ephemeris" in Venice. He died in July of 1476, Most likely by the Plague, but there were rumors that he died by assassination.

APOD 1.8

It came from the Sun Oh dear. I just know the 2012 doomsday fanatics are going to take note of this one. The Sun is three years away from reaching "solar maximum" which sounds catastrophic but it happens every 11 years if wikipedia is to be believed. expect more sunspots in late 2012 to early 2013, but other than that we're not expected to die yet. The Mayans didn't even say 2012 was doomsday, the Mesoamerican long-term calendar just kinda stops there. I wish I was old enough to comprehend the scope of human stupidity leading up to 2000. Silliness. The Coronal mass ejection depicted here is actually cooler than the sun's surface anyway (it's just a sun-fart.)

Saturn: light, dark, and strange
Even with explanation the image is difficult to decipher. The rings don't appear to match up. it has to make sense somehow, yet I cannot piece together the rings. Bizarre. I'd love to see the image in color, as it might better demonstrate what's going on. Or get more confusing, depending on how much the cosmos want to mess with our heads.

APOD 1.6

Io in true colorOne of the Galilean satellites is turning itself inside out from ridiculous amounts of volcanic activity. The heat causing the eruptions is in turn caused by the friction of Jupiter's "tidal gravity." Somewhat less hospitable than the planet from the last post. Good for mining sulfur and silicone though.

APOD 1.5

Zarmina's world
more officially known as Gliese 581g, this planet is relatively close by, and may actually be hospitable. Will our race expand to other planets? is there life already there? Should be interesting to see what becomes of this discovery. Especially so close to us.

APOD 1.4

Dark clouds of the Carina Nebula A collection of molecular gas and dust, thickened to a darkened appearance but in fact much less dense than our own atmosphere. residing in the constellation Carina, the recolored globs of oxygen look almost like paint, especially the dark splotch on the lower left corner. And I can't help but think of a Vampire Squid when I see the shape on the middle right. I can see why they recolor these images. All of the swirling mass would be hard to locate with out that red/blue contrast.

Observations: 9/20

8:00 PM, Eastern time. Light pollution from Moon, otherwise clear.
  Waxing gibbous moon, Antares and the whole of Scorpius, Summer triangle directly overhead, but Aquila could not be seen with the naked eye. Venus setting in the west, turned from a white, to yellow, and finally a red orange before disappearing.

APOD 1.3

LL pegasi

the spiral in the image is from two stars orbiting each other, forming a nebula as they cast off their atmospheres. 800 years for two stars to orbit each other. more than eight lifetimes to complete a circle. Circles that will continue to be repeated for billions of years. Aren't we tiny? And that Spiral is just a third of a light year, when the closet star other than our own sun is a couple light years.

APOD 1.2http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4525884740963840944

September 10th, 2010

      A funnel of gasses, resembling a giant killer doughnut from hell, Holds evidence of a black hole (referred to as GRO J1655-40), and the swirling gasses hint that the black hole is spinning at a very rapid pace.  The light coming off is flickering 450 times every second, and by extension, the Black hole itself is rotating at that same velocity in theory.

Apod 1.1

"The Bubble Nebula"

   interesting that the radiation would produce such a color spectrum. I never expected the lower frequency pieces of the visible spectrum (red, orange and yellow) to be seen this far away from the source. While nebula and galaxies have formed interesting shapes before, this has an almost eerie appearance. It at first looks like a bubble, and is named so, but if you look again it takes on the appearance of a startled face, cartoon-y yet strangely detailed. the more you look the more details appear. A hairline, bridge of the nose, and eyebrows are all present. Hard to imagine that it was sculpted from radioactive blasts.