elontwirler

Observation -- 12/3

2006-12-04T02:38:38Z

I wrote my "Reflection Blog" on the Wiccan faith and their holidays based on equinoxes and moons. Surprisingly, we are about to experience a full moon on December 5, 2006. There are 13 full moons during the year, which is a number conveniently associated with witches and bad luck. Secondly, full moons themselves are considered the nights when witchcraft works best. I wanted to find out more myths about the moon and its effect on people. First, I found an article about epileptic seizures and their occurances during a full moon. Scientists went to work on this theory and found that more seizures occur during a third quarter moon, not a full moon. According to the article on space.com, the Moon has been blamed for many human effects and some animal effects. Unfortunately, most of these theories have been disproven, but remain as myths often heard during childhood. Lunar phases have also been falsely connected to births, deaths, suicides, and psychiatric hospital admissions. The only thing I could find about the significance of the full moon was that during the full moon, the most energy is generated and it is a very powerful time for spells and witchcraft to work. All of the sites I found about witchcraft mentioned doing spells on the night of a full moon, but none specified why that was. It is said that a full moon's energy is used for very extensive spells and increases psychic ability. It is a time for achieving goals. Finding information on the number thirteen was also difficult. It was interesting to me that there are 13 zodiac constellations, 13 people at the "Last Supper," 13 apostles, 13 goals of a witch, 13 is the age of maturity in Judaism, and Jesus received the Magi on the 13th day of life. It is also interesting to note that 13 is the first number we cannot enumerate using our fingers or toes, which creates a natural fear known as triskaidekaphobia. Streets and elevators often do not include the number 13, either. Lastly, the only reason I could find for the number to be associated with witchcraft is that there are 13 full moons in a year, and during this time, women on a natural cycle are more likely to be on their menstrual cycles during this time, which in older times, was a clear factor of being a witch.

For more information about the number 13: http://experts.about.com/e/0/13_(number).htm

Reflection -- 12/3

2006-12-04T01:52:26Z

Based on Nikki's journal entry about the moon and holidays, I decided to do a little research myself, considering we have a very important set of holidays coming up -- Hannukah and Christmas. I went online and found a site about the Wiccan faith, a neopagan, earth-centered religion I had never heard of. The religion itself is a modern establishment, but it's sources date back to ancient European religion and relates to witchcraft, as well. Because the religion is earth-centered, their holidays (much like ours) are based on cycles of the moons and the sky. Here are some of the Wiccan holidays...
Most important is the Wiccan New Year, which is known as Samhain and occurs on October 31 (Halloween). It is one of the four major holidays and is a time to reflect on ancestors and the past year. A long time ago, animals were slaughtered during this time for food, and people celebrated the dead. I think this is interesting because witches are one of the symbols of Halloween, and full moons are also known for the holiday.
Another holiday is Yule, which reminds me of Christmas -- Not surprisingly, this occurs during the Winter Solstice around December 20-23. It is believed the Goddess gived birth to a son, a God symbolized by the Sun. We will be entering this time period right after going on Winter Break here at Elon.
The last holiday I want to mention that occurs during the school year is Mabon, which occurs during the Autumn Equinox, specifically between September 20-23. Since night and day are equal, Wicca followers celebrate the balance in their lives and their success.

More information about Wiccan faith -- http://www.dreamwater.org/moonshae/holidays.htm

Observation -- 11/12

2006-11-13T06:28:50Z

Alright -- So I found a really cool website about all the "natural" things that happen during the month of November and I thought it would be cool to share. I think for all astronomy beginners out there, we need something to help us look in the night sky and find constellations, stars, planets, etc... I mean it's hard enough to figure out the phases of the moon!! The website even goes into detail about finding constellations, which I found to be extremely helpful.
First of all, it's good to only learn a few constellations at a time. This way, you can focus on those and use them to find the other ones in the sky once you've become a little more experienced. The best part is, constellations change, but not the time of year they come. Once you can associate a certain constellation with a certain time of year, it'll be a lot easier to find it in the sky. One of the hardest things to do when looking for constellations is to understand the scale. On a computer screen, a constellation is very small compared to what it looks like in the night sky. It may cover a larger amount of sky than you think!! It's also important to keep in mind that constellations "move" across the night sky. If you look at a chart made for a specific time and it's not that time, the stars are going to be a little off. The constellations also move to the west each night because of the Earth's motion around the Sun.

Picture of the night sky in November:

Here's the site: http://www.leaps.ms/Natural%20Calendar%201106.htm

Reflection -- 11/12

2006-11-13T06:14:21Z

I am having a really hard time finding things to write about as we pass the middle of the semester. It's like I had plenty of things in the beginning, but now it's getting harder and harder to think of things to write about in my reflection blogs. Luckily enough, Yahoo! had a posting yesterday and today about a storm found on Saturn. Now, I've read a lot about storms on planets like Jupiter, but never on Saturn, which is definitely why scientists are somewhat baffled by this new development.
The storm is two-thirds the diameter of Earth, which I feel like is pretty large. The article on space.com said that the storm is about 5,000 miles wide and has a hurricane-looking eye that resembles a human's eye; however, the storm itself is unliked anything scientists have ever seen on Saturn, and it's not behaving like a terrestrial storm.
Cassini, the NASA spacecraft being used to photograph the storm, has sent back information that the storm swirls with 350 mile an hour winds close to the southern pole of the planet. The clouds are also very different from a regular hurricane's clouds -- They soar 20-45 miles high, which is five times taller than the hurricane clouds on Earth. Scientist are aiming to find out more about the storm to discover why exactly it's there and what caused it. It's very difficult for scientists to determine specifics about the storm -- They don't know if moist rising air is fueling the clouds and they don't know why the storm appears to be stationary at the south pole of Saturn. On other gas-planets, like Jupiter, storms do not have "eyes." What's interesting about this is that there have been storms on Saturn before, and none of them have behaved in this manner. There are also some dark clouds at the bottom of the eye that have scientists puzzled. Some think the temperature difference at the pole has something to do with the storm, but without further research, the scientists can't make a clear assumption.
I guess we'll find out more about this storm as scientists get a better look at the storm using Cassini.

For more information: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/061109_monster_storm.html

Here's a short video of the storm, too: http://www.space.com/php/video/player.php?video_id=MonsterSaturnStorm

Observation -- 11/5

2006-11-06T00:57:42Z

I was coming home from a concert the other night and I noticed a really bright star that was "twinkling" a lot. My boyfriend thought it was a planet, but I looked it up to be sure, and I really can't tell what it was. Looking eastward at Orion's Belt, it seemed to be directly underneath the two outer stars of the Belt, Rigel and Betelgeuse. Looking at several star maps has me thinking it might just be a star, because during the month of November, there aren't really any visible planets in the sky. What I wanted to write about this week is what you are capable of seeing in the night sky during the month of November.
First of all, the Moon was in the full stage tonight, which is pretty exciting since I'm planning on finishing this entry and going to look at it right at the right moment. According to several websites, November is also a great month to view the Milky Way Galaxy, but they warn that you will not be able to see it unless you go somewhere where light pollution is very low. After Mercury makes its transit across the Sun, it will be visible in the morning at about 7am. It will be moving through the stars that make up the constellation Libra. Venus is not visible. It is currently travelling through the constellation Scorpius. Mars might be seen during the last few days of the month low in the eastern sky before the Sun rises. It will definitely be visible in December. Jupiter, which I thought was really interesting, is in conjunction with the Sun this month, so unless we can see through the Sun, there's no chance we'd see it. Saturn, which is really the only visible planet this month, will be travelling through Leo. Before midnight, Saturn will be viewable rising from the eastern horizon. Another cool thing to be looking for this month are the Leonids Meteor Showers, which peaks on the 17th. The rate of "falling" stars will be about 10-15 per hour.

For more information: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/myspace/nightsky/

Reflection -- 11/5

2006-11-06T00:40:48Z

On Dr. Moreau's page, she asked if we would write about the transit of Mars this week. So I did some research, and this is what I found out...
Mercury will transit the Sun this week for the first time since 2003. There are tons of pictures on the Internet of the previous transit. This is a really rare occurrence, especially since we can only see transits of Mercury and Venus from the Sun. There are approximately thirteen transits of Mercury every one hundred years, and transits of Venus even less frequently, with more than a century splitting them up.
I found out that a transit is characterized by "contacts." These are analogous to the contacts of an annular solar elipse. The first contact occurs the instant when the planet's disk is externally tangent with the Sun. Shortly afterwards, the planet is seen as a small notch along the solar limb. During contact II, the entire disk of the planet is seen when the planet is internally tangent with the Sun. Hours after this, the silhouetted planet slowly traverses the bright solar disk. Contact III occurs when the planet reaches the opposite limb of the Sun and once again is internally tangent with the Sun. Lastly, the final contact occurs when Mercury's limb is externally tangent to the Sun. The first two contacts are known as ingress and the final two contacts are known as egress. The positioning of Mercury is measured counterclockwise from the north point on the Sun's disk.
This year's transit will begin on the East Coast at 2:12pm. We will see the first two or three hours of the transit before the Sun sets. The transit will end at 4:10pm (PST). In order to see Mercury's transit, you will need to use a special telescope (because Mercury is so small compared to the ginormous Sun) and a lens to protect your eyes from the brightness of the Sun.

This is an image of the path Mercury will take across the disk of the Sun.

For more information, visit:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/transit06.html

Observation -- 10/29

2006-10-30T02:47:08Z

Since it's almost November, I'm going to be looking in our night sky for the Phoenix constellation. I thought it was appropriate to write about since our school mascot is the Phoenix. The Phoenix is a minor southern constellation first seen by the Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. The constellation contains thirteen stars and none of the stars have a brightness of greater than 5.0. Anyone living above the 40th parallel can see the Phoenix constellation and anyone above the equator can see the Phoenix low in the sky. This constellation is also associated with the minor Phoenicids meteor shower of December 5.
When the Phoenix was first introduced into astronomical history in China, Egypt, India, and Persia. The title was an astronomical symbol of the cyclic period with the well-known fable of the bird being known by all of the aforementioned. The bird's life was coincident with the Great Year of the ancients beginning at noon of the day when the Sun entered among the stars of Aries. The bird was also a symbol of immortality and has been seen in pagan as well as in Christian times.

Reflection -- 10/29

2006-10-30T02:32:37Z

In an article on space.com, I found that new pictures of Uranus reveal a dark spot in the northern hemisphere. Bright spots have been seen on Uranus during the past ten years, but this is the first dark spot anyone has ever noticed on the planet. The dark spot was first seen on August 23 by a team led by Lawrence Sromovsky from the University of Wisconsin along with Kathy Rages of the SETI Institute, Heidi Hammel of the Space Science Institute, and Patrick Fry of the University of Wisconsin. They observed the dark spot using the Hubble Space Telescope. The researchers are sure the spot had a lifetime of several days after looking at images of the spot a day after it was first seen. In fact, they believe the spot had actually been there more than two months.
After doing some research, scientists have also noticed a bright spot just north of the dark spot, which reminds them of the Great Dark Spot found on Neptune. They're excited about possibly seeing a similar reaction on Uranus. However, because the bright spot and the dark spot don't appear to be connected to one another, scientists are assuming the two spots are just passing each other -- This is similar to the way spots pass each other on the Sun, which is also made of gas. Scientists believe that this dark spot may be caused by a thinning of the underlying methane "stratus" layer.
Since Uranus is so far away, ground-based telescopes around the world will turn their lenses towards Uranus and find out more about the dark spot -- Whether or not the dark spot has a lifespan of years or months and whether or not dark spots will develop sooner or later.

For more information on Uranus' dark spot:

http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_uranus_061026.html

Observation -- 10/22

2006-10-23T06:19:17Z

Personally, I have better luck seeing the stars and picking out constellations in the fall/winter than any other month of the year. I think the crispness of the air and the clearness of the sky really helps with that. I have been noticing a lot recently the constellation Cassiopeia, and it's one of the few I am able to pick out after taking our astronomy labs a couple times. I decided to look up the story behind the constellation to see what it was all about.

First of all, Cassiopeia was the wife of Cepheus, who was the Ethiopian kings of Joppa, and the mother of Andromeda. Joppa is now known as Jaffa (in Israel). Now, Cassiopeia was very beautiful, but also very vain, which leads to another story for another time about the constellation Andromeda. Anyway, Cassiopeia promised Perseus her daughter's hand in marriage, but then had second thoughts about it, so she convinced one of Poseidon's sons, Agenor, to claim Andromeda for himself and ruin the whole wedding ceremony. Of course, Agenor arrives at the wedding with an entire army, ready to start a rumble. During the battle, it is said that Cassiopeia shouted, "Perseus must die!!" but Perseus ended in victory with the help of the Gorgon's head (in case you don't know what the Gorgon's head is, like me, I'm going to tell you.) Before the battle, Perseus had slain Medusa, who happens to be the woman with snakes as hair extensions. He chopped her head off and left it on a bed of coral (don't ask me why). He brought it out during the battle and it subsequently turned everyone in the other army to stone. Cepheus and Cassiopeia turned to stone as well.

There's more...

After their deaths, Poseidon had mercy on the two and put them both in Heaven; however, he knew Cassiopeia was vain and selfish, so he required her to sit in a chair that orbits the Pole Star so she is obligated to sit upside-down half of the time.

Cool, huh?

Reflection -- 10/22

2006-10-23T06:04:01Z

I was checking out space.com on the internet and came across an article about scientists trying to build what they call a "Space Elevator," and the winner who can develop one in compliance with the rules wins an exorbitant amount of money. There has been a lot in the news recently about public space travel -- People spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to space for a week or two. This competition is similar in the sense that people are coming together and forming teams in order to create an elevator capable of traveling to space. The competition started with the creators of the Ansari X Prize, which was a $10 million dollar prize to anyone who could launch a re-usable sub-orbital spacecraft, capable of carrying passengers, twice in a two-week period. This competition is called the WireFly X Prize Cup, and it began in 2005. Plenty of people show up with "...roaring rockets, privately-built spaceships, alternative technologies..." etc... in hopes of winning the cash awards.
You may wonder how a "Space Elevator" works. Like a normal elevator in a building, the elevator is attached to a belt (elevator ribbon) and lifted using an aluminum crawler. This is extremely difficult to control, especially when the wind is blowing; however, the University of Michigan was able to reach the top, but not in the goal time of one minute -- Their elevator took six minutes and forty seconds. In this competition, each team or individual must provide their own power source, which can lead to some very innovative and creative ideas. Many teams use solar power very effectively.
At the competition this year, most of the teams managed two attempts each. During the first go-round, many teams' instruments failed or were not in proper working order. Others suffered from the wind and other elements. The games are not over yet, though -- Many teams continue to qualitfy and test out their inventions.
My question is: What does this show us? What does this mean? My first reaction is the money. There are so many reality television shows offering people money to go and act like idiots on-screen so they can retire by age 22 and live happily ever after. I mean, even this competition could be considered for a reality show on the science channel or something. I understand the need to travel in space and discover/study new things, but this is getting ridiculous. People are spending their money making these homemade rockets, and not necessarily leaving the job up to the professionals at NASA. I would feel a whole lot better if these people were employed by NASA and putting things into orbit without having to go through a competition first. Also, we should remember that people are starving in many parts of the world -- We are giving millions of dollars to a cause that hasn't even been perfected yet. I just find it hard to believe that people support this excruciatingly exorbitant amount of money being spent on things that aren't benefiting the rest of humanity.

"Michael Laine of the LiftPort Group emphasized that space elevators are in their infancy, that it might be 30 years before a space elevator is actually built, and that these challenges were proof of the difficulties ahead. But Laine—and the teams at the X-Prize Cup—have no doubt of the value of what they are trying to accomplish."

The scientists building these elevators don't even know what the purpose is or might be...

For more information on "Space Elevator" competition:
http://www.space.com/news/061022_xprizecup_elevator.html

Observation -- 10/8

2006-10-09T01:07:08Z

I went outside and looked at the moon tonight and realized there was a ring around it. I have always wondered why this happened so I decided to research it for my observation blog. I found out that a ring around the moon is caused by the refraction of moonlight (reflected sunlight) from ice crystals in the outer atmosphere (ionosphere). The crystals are formed by the freezing of super cooled water droplets in clouds. The hexagonal shape of the ice crystals result in a reflection around the moon in the shape of a ring. The ring around the moon almost has a diameter of 22 degrees. Occasionally, there will be a second ring with a diameter of 44 degrees.
Folklore has told us that rings around the moon signify bad weather. For the most part, this is true. This is because the ice crystals are contained in thin cirrus clouds (about 20,000 feet in the air). These clouds normally precede a warm front (low pressure system aka a storm) by a couple days.

For more information:
http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonring/

Reflection -- 10/8

2006-10-09T01:01:47Z

Why are brown dwarfs considered "failed stars?" Does anyone still consider Jupiter to be a brown dwarf or failed star?

Since I didn't know what a brown dwarf was, and I had never heard of such a thing, I went to the internet to look up the definition. According to Yahoo! a brown dwarf is a celestial body that is larger than a planet but doesn't have the sufficient mass to convert hydrogen into helium like most stars do during nuclear fusion. They are called "failed stars" because the form the same was normal stars do, but they don't have the mass to compress their core -- The can begin the compression process, but it only last for a short time before the star cools and fades. This cooling process gives brown dwarfs their two defining characteristics: One, the radiation they emit after cooling remains on the infrared part of the spectrum, and two, these stars can be traced using lithium because they never get hot enough to burn it off like regular stars do. Astronomers believe that there should be a lot of these stars, considering how difficult the star-making process is; however, they are very difficult to find because they are so dim compared to other stars we can see. It is very difficult to find a brown dwarf using conventional astronomical techniques. The most confusing part about brown dwarfs is that they are normally huge masses (10-80 times Jupiter's size!!), but some research has been done to support that some brown dwarfs have reduced in size because their matter has created planets that orbit them. Scientists also believe that the brown dwarfs are a very important part of stellar evolution and may make up 90% of the universe.

Some fun facts about brown dwarfs:
* The first brown dwarf: one in Pleiades star cluster (1995)
* The first X-Ray emitting brown dwarf: in Chamaeleon dark cloud I (1998)
* Closest brown dwarf to Earth: Epsilon Indi B (less than 12 lys from Sun)

For more information about brown dwarfs:
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/browndwa
http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_sources/browndwarf_fg.html

Observation -- 10/1

2006-10-02T03:46:23Z

Since today is the first of October, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about the Summer Triangle, which is visible during the first part of this month. It's visible until November, but it can also be seen during the summer months as well. The reason I decided to talk about it tonight is because I went outside and actually found it in the sky. The three vertices are Altair, Deneb, and Vega. An interesting fact about the Summer Triangle is that it connects three other separate constellations -- Aquila, Cygnus, and Lyra.
I did some research on the internet and found out that these three stars were discovered by Austrian astronomer Oswald Thomas in the late 1920's; he called them "Grosses Dreieck," which means Great Triangle. He changed the name to "Sommerliches Dreieck," which means Summerly Triangle, in 1934. Several other astronomers also noted the asterism in their notes and named it similar names.
I also found out that the Summer Triangle is overhead in the mid-northern latitudes during June, July, and August. Until November, the asterism is visible in the evening. In the southern hemisphere the Summer Triangle sits low in the sky and is upside-down during the winter.

A really neat picture of the Summer Triangle (+ the Milky Way behind it): http://www.truthsearcher.com/SummerTriangle.jpg

Reflection -- 10/1

2006-10-01T22:05:23Z

I read an article about Anousheh Ansari today -- She was the first female "space tourist" and spent ten days on "vacation" in space. I think this is really interesting because most people would not even consider travel outside of our planet. Truthfully, there are very few people I know who could afford it. I did some research on the internet to find out more about her trip, and most articles are reporting that Ansari paid well over twenty million dollars for this "once in a lifetime" experience. Not to mention, she said she hopes to do it again soon!! On board the shuttle were two professional astronauts; a Russian, Pavel Vinogradov, and an American, Jeffrey Williams. They departed and landed at the International Space Station in northern Kazakhstan. Ansari is forty years old and the head of a telecommunications company in Texas. During her stay, Ansari also conducted a series of blood and muscular experiments for the European Space Agency. She is also reported as to have brough back snails, worms, and barley grown during other experiments on board the International Space Station.
What I think is interesting about this is that I would never imagine paying over twenty million dollars for a ten-day vacation in space. I mean, I do think it would be really cool to be leaving Earth, but your friends would never be able to relate to your experience and unless they had twenty million dollars, they would never be able to experience space with you. Personally, I think vacations are a time to get away from the daily grind and have some fun with your friends. I don't think it means going to space for ten days practically by yourself. I mean, what did she do while she was in space? It's not like you can look at Earth and the Moon for ten days straight. Did they play Scrabble? I would bring Monopoly for the sheer fact it takes a long time to play. I also tried to get past the twenty million and reason with actually deciding to go to space. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think I would want to go out there. I don't see the point. I think astronauts and space shuttles do a fine job of getting all the images and video I need. I would like to see what other people think about "space vacations."

For more information on Ansari: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7005020261

Observation -- 9/24

2006-09-24T21:57:44Z

I was out at the farm this weekend pulling tobacco, and Friday night was exceptionally clear out in Summerfield, North Carolina. As we move into autumn, the moon was in a new stage, meaning it's getting ready to begin another cycle. The first quarter moon will be on September 30, followed by the Harvest Moon on October 6, according to the Farmer's Almanac. I was thinking about what I would write about in this observation blog, and I worked on seeing some of the bigger, more obvious constellations, but it's really hard to figure out where they are in the sky. Even with a few of us laying on our backs in various directions, it was still very hard to find more than one or two of the most obvious. After a while, I got really frustrated and decided I would write about something I experience a lot out on the farm and didn't know a whole lot about -- Shooting Stars. I have always been fascinated by looking at the sky at night and being one of the first people to see a shooting star. Believe me, I've made plenty of wishes on them, especially since you see them a lot when the sky is really clear. I did some research about them and found out they're not really "stars" at all. Shooting stars are actually chunks of rock flying around in space. They aren't very big; Some of the biggest are golfball-size. The rocks collide with the Earth's atmosphere as the Earth rotates around the Sun. When the rock hits the atmosphere, it begins to heat up and glow until it burns out. These chunks of rock are also known as meteors.
As I said before, it's very easy to see them out in the country where there are very few lights; however, the research I did suggested you can only see them every 10-15 minutes, which I don't think is true, because I see them a lot more often than that. The website also mentions meteor showers, which happen when the Earth goes through a region of space particularly heavy in "space rocks," which normally come from comets' paths the Earth is crossing. I found this information interesting because I always thought that stars just got "excited" and flew across the sky. After I learned about light years, I thought shooting stars were even more cool because the light I was seeing "shoot" across the sky was coming from years and years ago. This information has definitely made me less excited about seeing shooting stars, but I still like seeing them in the night sky.

This is the website I checked out: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=249

Reflection -- 9/24

2006-09-24T21:34:39Z

I thought about answering the prompt about other life in space, but the Sun question got me thinking. Every day the Sun rises and sets in our sky and I believe most of us take that for granted. Rarely, if ever, do people look to the sky and wonder, "What would happen if the Sun disappeared?" I did some research and found some interesting facts. First of all, the Sun is a star, and we know stars don't last forever. It was formed by a ball of gas and dust and because it was "medium-sized," our Sun formed, giving us the opportunity to support life on Earth. If the ball of gas and dust were smaller, our Sun would probably have never formed since the pressures wouldn't have been enough for nuclear fission to occur. A larger mass of gas and dust would have created such a huge Sun it would have burned itself out much quicker and it would have burnt Earth to death. In order to predict the future of our Sun, as well as our planet, experts look to other stars that resemble the Sun, like Messier 67. They use computers to compare the lifestyles of the stars and decided that the Sun has about 5 billion more years to live until it goes through its first drastic change. When the Sun runs out of energy in its core, it will begin running on energy found in its outer layers. This is also known as a red giant stage for a star. This also means the outside of the Sun will be much hotter and will most likely scorch the atmosphere of Earth, making radio communication impossible and livable conditions on Earth will diminish. There is a possibility, if life still inhabits the Earth, that they could relocate to Jupiter's moons. While the Sun is using the energy from the outside, one might ask, "What happens when that energy runs out?" Suddenly, the Sun will begin converting the helium energy in the core to carbon energy. The death is near for our Sun -- The heat from the Sun will be up to ten times what we're used to now. At this point, the star will really start falling apart -- The layers will drift off into space, and the Sun will be nothing more than a white dwarf. White dwarf stars usually burn white-hot for eternities. If the Sun had started out with about eight times more dust and gas, there is a strong possibility it would have exploded like a super nova. Unfortunately, the death of our Sun will be very subdued. All we can hope is that the gas and dust emitted from our dead Sun will one day become the gas and dust for another star like our Sun and give the opportunity for life to other planets.

For more information: http://www.astrosociety.org/education/publications/tnl/39/sun2.html
This is an informative website, but the pictures aren't very good.

Observation -- 9/17

2006-09-17T22:42:08Z

I happened to be invited to a field party this weekend, located slightly north of Greensboro, in Summerfield, North Carolina. Out there, where there's nothing but farm land and tobacco fields, it is a perfect location to look at the stars. Considering I have never taken astronomy classes before, it's a little difficult for me to look at the night sky and know what I'm looking at. My last entry was about the Moon, which is visible most places and can be researched on the internet. Anyway, as I was looking at the sky that night, I tried to pick out some of the shapes that I remember from our book. I wish I had brought a map of the constellations, but I didn't think to bring that to this party. (haha) The easiest constellation for me to pick out of the sky last night was Orion's Belt. I don't know why that one is so easy for me to see and remember, but it is definitely the first one I pick out. When I got home, I did some research on the night sky I would see in September
This is a really cool picture of the three stars that make up Orion's Belt:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051013.html

This is another link that has some history on Orion and his belt -- Including some cool pictures:

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/constellations/orion.html

The three stars that make up Orion's belt are Alnitak, Alnilam, and Minatka. The four stars that make up Orion's shoulders are Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel, and Saiph. We learned in class that Betelgeuse is one of the brightest stars, but so is Rigel. The constellation also contains the Orion Nebula, which the Hubble Space Telescope has taken many amazing pictures of. An interesting fact about Orion is that he is the "hunter" of the night sky. Canis Major and Canis Minor are the two dogs that accompany him in the sky. Canis Major lies at the right foot of Orion, and includes Sirius, which is the brightest star in the night sky.

Here are some fast facts about Orion:
- Visible August - December
- Rises in the East during the beginning of August in the early morning
- Rises around 9 p.m. during December and sets in the West at sunrise

Reflection -- 9/17

2006-09-17T20:59:31Z

In class we were shown a photo of the plaque marker at the Greenwich Observatory in England marking the Prime Meridian. Why was Greenwich, England choosen for this?

It's interesting to reflect on questions like this one. Throughout middle school and high school, I have learned that the Prime Meridian is located in Greenwich, England -- But no one ever asked why this place was chosen, and no teacher has ever offered this information, either. This line of longitude separates the eastern and western hemisphere. It's opposite is the 180th Meridian, on the other side of the Earth. After doing some research, I realized that the Prime Meridian has changed several times throughout history, and has even been located four places in Greenwich, England. From the North Pole, the Prime Meridian passes through 9 countries -- The United Kingdon, France, Spain, Algeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ghana, and Antarctica. It is interesting to note that London is located in the Eastern and Western hemisphere according to the Prime Meridian. Several different navigational systems use another zero meridian within close proximity to the Prime Meridian, including the satellite navigation system (WGS84 datum) which uses a line 102.5 meters to the east of the Prime Meridian, and the Ordnance Survey (OSGB36 datum) that uses a line of longitude about six meters west of the Prime Meridian. Confusingly enough, this line was the Prime Meridian before 1851, the the Survey just continued to use it. Speaking of history, the Prime Meridian location was chosen by Sir George Airy in 1851. In October 1884, this line was officially chosen as the international standard -- 41 delegates from 25 nations met with President Arthur to vote on the location, where France abstained from voting. They continued to use the Paris Meridian for many years.

*Cool Fact: The Greenwich Meridian is now marked at night by a laser beam emitted from the observatory.

For more information about the history of the Prime Meridian, visit:
http://gpsinformation.net/main/greenwich.htm

Reflection -- 9/10

2006-09-11T01:25:36Z

As I was reading some articles about Pluto being demoted to a "dwarf planet," I ran across one article describing the interesting opinion of the people of Myanmar. In Myanmar, astrology is almost a way of life. Prediction of peoples' lives and the future of countries is very important to these people. Taking Pluto off the list of "classic planets" would drastically change astrology predictions. Pluto has been a planet for so long that it (as well as the other 8 planets) has been included in religious practices all over the world, which can't be changed overnight. The world, especially the United States, is always trying to divide and group everything as specifically as possible. I think sometimes we need to let things be the way they were, are, and should be. If we were adding extra planets, I think this situation would be very different -- You can always say, "My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas, cookies, grapefruits, etc..." But you can't just change history. In essence, the people of Myanmar (as well as some other Asian countries) have decided that Pluto will remain one of the "nine" planets. What I find interesting about their opinion is that now there will be confusion all over the world. Basically, depending on which country you're in, there are a different number of "real" planets in the sky. Personally, I think this would make for an excellent Jeopardy question...

For more information on the people of Myanmar:
<http://newsinfo.inq7.net/breakingnews/world/view_article.php?article_id=18893>

Observation -- 9/10

2006-09-11T01:22:54Z

There have been a lot of cloudy nights during the past week. It's also very difficult to see the moon and the stars from Elon because of all the bright lights radiating from the school. On Wednesday (September 6) I was at a softball game in Graham. When they turned the lights off at the field, I could really see the brightness of the stars, and the moon was tremendous. I've always looked at the moon, but until now, I've never really thought about it. We learned in class on Thursday that from Earth, we always see the same side of the moon. The other side, usually known as the "dark side," is never seen by people because of synchronus rotation. Synchronus rotation means that the rotation periods for the Earth and the Moon's orbit are the same. As the Earth rotates, the Moon rotates at the same rate. What's interesting to note about the other side of the moon being named the "dark side" is that it isn't really dark. A more appropriate term for the other side of the moon would be the "far side." I used to think that the "Man in the Moon" could only be seen on certain nights; however, the "Man in the Moon" is there every night you can see most of the Moon because we always see the same side of the moon.
On Wednesday night, the Moon looked very full to me. It looked like a perfect circle in the sky. I found a really interesting website, though, that informed me the Moon was in a waxing gibbous phase, with 98% of the moon showing. From so far away, the 2% missing didn't really affect the shape of the moon. From our book we learned that waxing means "increasing," and gibbous means there is only a small sliver, or crescent, of dark -- The opposite of a crescent phase. The website I found is really cool because you are able to type in your city and find out exactly what time the sun rises, is at it's peak, and sets; as well as the phase of the Moon, and when it rises and sets. According to the website, in Alamance County on the night of September 6, the moon was in a waxing gibbous phase, rose at 7:14 p.m. and set at 6:32 a.m. the following day. The main page also has pictures of all the main stages of the moon and what they look like in the sky. I think this is a great website because it doesn't generalize what moon phase you might be seeing -- It gives you the ability to look up your exact location and coordinates. I have put a link at the bottom of this entry; the website is sponsored by the U.S. Naval Observatory and the Astronomical Applications Department.

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/moon_phases.html