Posts Tagged ‘astronomy’
March StarNight at the LTO
Friday, March 15, 2013 7:00 – 11:00 pm Public Star Night at the Little Thompson Observatory 850 Spartan Ave at Berthoud High School (park east of the high school; directions are posted on the website, www.starkids.org). The guest speaker will be Scott Kindt, science teacher at Berthoud High School since 1995, where he is able to use astrophotography as a way to get students interested in astronomy. Kindt has been taking astro-photos for the past two decades. As a boy, he observed the ... Full Story
January Star-Night at the LTO
Public Star Night at the Little Thompson Observatory Friday, January 18, 2013 - 7:00 – 11:00 p.m. 850 Spartan Ave at Berthoud High School Park east of the high school; directions are posted on the website, www.starkids.org The guest speaker is Bryan White, known from past years for his great 3-D comet slide show as well as an out of this world Aurora Borealis show. Bryan White will be selecting Aurora pictures from 2002, 2004, and 2006. He thought it would be interesting for people to see ... Full Story
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Renown 18th century astronomer Charles Messier described this 9th entry in his famous astronomical catalog as "Nebula, without star, in the right leg of Ophiuchus ...". But Messier 9 (M9) does have stars, known to modern astronomers as a globular cluster of over 300,000 stars within a diameter of about 90 light-years. It lies some 25,000 light-years distant, near the central bulge of our Milky Way galaxy. Messier 9 ... Full Story
Astronomy Picture of the Day
A broad expanse of glowing gas and dust presents a bird-like visage to astronomers from planet Earth, suggesting its popular moniker - The Seagull Nebula. This portrait of the cosmic bird covers a 1.6 degree wide swath across the plane of the Milky Way, near the direction of Sirius, alpha star of the constellation Canis Major. Of course, the region includes objects with other catalog designations: notably NGC 2327, a compact, dusty emission region with an embedded massive star that forms the ... Full Story
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Is this a painting or a photograph? In this beautiful celestial still life composed with a cosmic brush, dusty nebula NGC 2170 shines near the image center. Reflecting the light of nearby hot stars, NGC 2170 is joined by other bluish reflection nebulae, a red emission region, many dark absorption nebulae, and a backdrop of colorful stars.NGC 2170: Celestial Still Life Image Credit & Copyright: Leonardo Julio & Carlos Milovic (Astronomia Pampeana) Explanation: Is this a painting or ... Full Story
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Why does Comet Garradd have two tails? Visible on the left, Comet Garradd's dust tail is composed of ice and dust bits that trail the comet in its orbit around the Sun. Visible on the right, Comet Garradd's ion tail, is composed of ionized gas blown directly out from the Sun by the solar wind. Most comets show two tails, although it is unusual for them to appear to point in nearly opposite directions. Comet Garradd is currently showing opposing tails because of the Earth's opportunistic ... Full Story
Astronomy Picture of the Day
What's causing those odd rings in supernova 1987A? Twenty five years ago, in 1987, the brightest supernova in recent history was seen in the Large Magellanic Clouds. At the center of the above picture is an object central to the remains of the violentstellar explosion. Surrounding the center are curious outer rings appearing as a flattened figure 8. Although large telescopes including the Hubble Space Telescope monitor the curious rings every few years The Mysterious ... Full Story
Astronomy Picture of the Day
The first identified compact galaxy group, Stephan's Quintet is featured in this eye-catching image constructed with data drawn from the extensive Hubble Legacy Archive. About 300 million light-years away, only four of these five galaxies are actuallylocked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters. The odd man out is easy to spot, though. The interacting galaxies, NGC 7319, 7318A, 7318B, and 7317 have an overall yellowish cast. They also tend to have distorted loops and ... Full Story
Astronomy Picture of the Day
These two spiral galaxies make a photogenic pair, found within the boundaries of the northern constellation Draco. Contrasting in color and orientation, NGC 5965 is nearly edge-on to our line of sight and dominated by yellow hues, while bluish NGC 5963 is closer to face-on. Of course, even in this well-framed cosmic snapshot the scene is invaded by other galaxies, including small elliptical NGC 5969 at the lower left. Brighter, spiky stars in our own Milky Way are scattered through the ... Full Story
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Cosmic dust clouds ripple across this infrared portrait of our Milky Way's satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. In fact, the remarkable composite image from the Herschel Space Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope show that dust clouds fill this neighboring dwarf galaxy, much like dust along the plane of the Milky Way itself. The dust temperatures tend to trace star forming activity. Infrared Portrait of the Large Magellanic ... Full Story
