2.8 APOD

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0712/Mountains_spitzer_f.jpg
For picture go there ^^
This picture (W5) is close to constellation Casseopeia, picture taken in the infrared part of the spectrum by the most important infrared telescope: the Spitzer Space Telescope. The 'Mountain' was created by solar winds and hot radiation from a nearby star. The 'Mountains of Creation' are 10 times as large as the Pillars of Creation, captured by the Hubble Telescope. But the Pillars of Creation are prettier. Much, much prettier. W5 is a part of a 'complex region' called the Heart and Soul Nebula. The Heart and Soul Nebluae are basically just big red blobs. Not as pretty. This picture is 70 ly long.

Observation at SCC

Day: December 7th
Place: SCC
Time: 7-9
Temperature: 60 ish degrees
We spent the earlier part of the night identifying constellations. The Summer Triangle was still vaguely in the sky to the West, but it fell as the night went on. We identified Polaris in order to get our bearings. We found Pisces by the circlet and momentarily confused Beetlejuice with Mars until Percy pointed out our mistake, which is what got us into the conversation of Orion's first magnitude stars. When Hannah came we re-identified the constellations we were familiar with, this time without help from Percy. One of the first things we looked at was the comet in Perseus. It was basically a big fuzz spot. I don't know that it could even be called white per say, it was just... fuzz. Once we had identified it in the binoculars, it was easy to see it without. We also looked at Subaru and the... hypeides? Spelling? The sister clusters. Due to Matt's request we looked at Uranus in the telescope, which was basically a blue dot and not overly exciting. Once Mars had risen over the treeline, we looked at it in the telescope and saw dark spots of continent sized formations on the planet. We also looked at M31 in Andromeda. The moon wasn't up.

2.7 Mars Rover runs to Hibernate

With the northern winter phase of Mars fast approaching, scientists are trying to get the Mars Rover Spirit to a place called "home plate" in order to wait out the winter. Unfortunately for the Mars Rover, the soft sand of Mars keeps slowing the journey and scientists are uncertain as to whether Rover will make it in time. Once there, the Rover will tilt towards the sun in the hopes of increasing the efficiency of its energy absorbing solar panels. The picture shows a map of the Rover's journeys since landing in July of 2004.

2.6 APOD SOHO Solar Cycle

This is a picture of the sun's solar cycle (which takes 11 years) taken by the SOHO satellite currently orbiting the sun. A solar cycle is created by the sun's magnetic field. When the cycle is at the solar maximum, sunspots, coronal mass ejections, and flare phenomenons are at their highest whereas when the cycle is at the solar minimum, these occurances are less frequent. We are currently at a solar minimum (the last one was in 1996) and the solar maximum was in 2001. It's neat how you can actually see all the activity in the picture of 2001 whereas the pictures of 1996 and 2007 actually look dormant.