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.