Reflection

Throughout this astronomy blog, I have learned a lot more than I originally could have hoped.  I have expressed it during some of the posts, but I cannot express my gratitude enough for this opportunity to expand my knowledge.  I had been interested in astronomy when I was younger, but it began to take a back seat in my life when I had to focus on my other studies and sports.  Having this project reinvigorated that love of astronomy and was really refreshing and calming, especially during finals week.  I learned about nebulae, constellations, and light pollution in a way that I most likely would not have figured out on my own.  I never really thought about astronomy anymore; I would see stars and comment about how beautiful it looked or something along those lines, but as I grew up, I forgot to show my appreciation for everything.  I am at a point in my life where my appreciation in the little things in life is beginning to flourish; I am beginning to recognize more things to be appreciative about and this was a perfectly timed project.  I was able to truly appreciate the night sky and enjoy every little aspect about it.  I remember one of the nights when I went out to my boyfriend's room, I got out of my car and ended up spending fifteen minutes outside watching the stars.  He actually came out because he was wondering why it was taking me so long and we ended up just standing outside looking up until another one of our friends came out and asked what we were doing.  He then stood outside looking at the stars with us as well! It is in these little moments that I am incredibly thankful for this project and Illinois College. I hope you guys have enjoyed my blog as much as I have! Happy holidays!

Crab Nebula

Although the pictures below make it kind of challenging for anyone, including me, to find the Crab Nebula within them, those are the pictures that Harvard MicroObservatory sent me.  It also does not take away from the fact that the Crab Nebula is pretty incredible.  It is a supernova nebula that was created from the death of a star and the gas that was released from it ().  It was first spotted by Chinese astronomers on July 4, 1054, which is a considerably long time ago ().  Although their technology was not as advanced as ours, they were still able to see this beautiful nebula because apparently, this nebula could be seen with the naked eye for almost 2 years due to its brightness (). In 1758, Charles Messier discovered this blob in the sky while looking for Halley's Comet and named it M1 ().  If you are ever able to see this nebula, which you can with a pair of binoculars if you know where to look, then you really are in for a treat.  It is a beautiful, blobby patch of gas that has continued to mesmerize astronomers.

Redd, Nola Taylor. "The Crab Nebula (M1): Facts, Discovery & Images | Space.com." Space.com. N.p., 
8 Aug. 2012. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.

Taken by Harvard MicroObservatory 11/30/15

Taken by Harvard MicroObsevatory 11/30/15

Rainy Days

So, my blog is coming to a close soon.  I only have a few more eligible days left where I can post a few more pictures and a few more researched paragraphs.  However, this is the weather that we receive.  I took the picture below a little while ago.  It's not star-filled like the other ones I have posted, which I am sorry about, but I still think it looks really pretty.  Like many of the other college students out there, my school has finals week this week.  I cannot stress enough how important it is just to take a little time off for yourselves and relax.  It is such a beautiful thing.  Coming home at night and looking up at the stars is one of the most relaxing things I have done this past week and it really is amazing how much it has calmed me down in the midst of all of this stress.  I am sorry for the lack of a beautiful, starry picture, but I think this is nice and beautiful as well in a different kind of way.

Taken by iPhone 6 plus camera 12/13/15 at 11 pm

Without Light Pollution

So, it is now that much closer to finals week.  Technically, it is less than a week from when finals begin.  That's a little stressful to think about, so as my break from homework, I decided to relax and take a drive.  Now, this is not that uncommon for me, but what I did notice was pretty extraordinary.

I'm from Southern California, which is all city.  In terms of light pollution and astronomy, we are one of the worst areas to view stars just because of the difficulty to see them.  I've been camping in the woods before, and the difference between the sky in the city versus the sky in a rural area.  I guess tonight I had forgotten about all of that until I drove about a mile out of Jacksonville and opened my sunroof.  I could see hundreds of stars, even though it's a little cloudy.  In comparison, as I was looking outside of Parker, I could see maybe five.  It was blissful and relaxing to see the sky so brilliant.  Just like I had mentioned in my last post, it made me and my stresses seem small in comparison.  I know it does not seem like much in the pictures, but it's honestly incredible and I recommend that everyone should see it.  It's really good for people to take a step back and notice what's going on around them, and tonight I was reminded of that.

Taken by iPhone 6 plus camera with flash about 1 mi outside of Jacksonville, IL 12/11/15
This is the telephone wire that I conveniently stopped under when I was trying to take a picture of the sky. 

Taken by iPhone 6 plus camera without flash about 1 mi outside of Jacksonville, IL 12/11/15
Although my camera was not able to capture the image, there were what appeared to be hundreds of stars right above me. 

Some Random Stars

So, I know the title of this post makes it seem somewhat obscure, but these were actually really cool.  I was looking up at the stars tonight, and I happened to stumble upon these six stars that form an "M" shape.  I don't know if it was the insane amount of mechanisms I had just done for Organic (they kind of remind me of a pentane, which I know sounds rather nerdy), but they were really interesting to me.  I pulled out my phone and drew them and then looked at my astronomy app, which also sounds pretty nerdy, to figure out what constellation they could be.  All of them make up part of the constellation Cassiopeia.  They are all stars, except for IC59, which is a nebula. Their names from the bottom left to the bottom right (moving like you would if you were comparing it to a pentane) are as follows: Caph, Schedir, Achird, Navi, IC59, Rukbah and Segin.

I know it's finals week and the stress is real, but it's manageable.  It all kind of comes down to the fact that I am still really amazed by the world and I am  incredibly grateful for where I am.  Tonight was such a refreshing night in the sense that I had an overwhelming appreciation for everything around me and that these stars made my stresses feel small in comparison.  It's amazing what things can happen when you show a little curiosity and willingness.

Drawn by iPhone 6 plus camera via snapchat on 12/9/15 at 10:00 pm

Taken by iPhone 6 plus camera via astronomy app on 12/9/15 at 10 pm
The stars pictured here are from the astronomy app on my phone. This picture is just to supplement my other picture. 

Pleiades

Pleiades is a star cluster also known as the Seven Sisters, and scientists believe that they are approximately 100 million years old ("The Pleiades"). It contains hundreds of stars, but due to our distance and light pollution, we are only able to see a handful of the stars that are actually present in this star cluster ("The Pleiades").

I know I did not know as much about astronomy as I do now. I am really thankful for this opportunity to expand my knowledge about the universe in a way that I had not thought about since I was a little kid.  You see the stars every night, but do not really take in the full understanding of what's out there.  I hope that I have encouraged you all to continue to expand your knowledge in any way you can.

"The Pleiades." The Pleiades. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2015.

Taken by Harvard MicroObservatory 11/29/15
Pleiades can be seen somewhat off center to the right. In this picture, it is hard to see it due to the filter used by Harvard MicroObservatory, but it is slightly more clustered than the other stars in this picture.

Orion Constellation

When I was in fifth grade, I went to Outdoor Science School as a weeklong excursion sponsored by my elementary school.  I was taught about geology, nature, astronomy and many other things, but astronomy has seemed to stick with me since then (probably because I had already had an interest in the stars but did not know what else I could do about it besides look up).  One of the first constellations we were taught about at Outdoor Science School was Orion's Belt, and later the rest of his body.  I have always been amazed at the fact that no matter what, to this day, I can still manage to find Orion's belt, which then leads me to see his head, bow, and legs, on a clear enough night.  Tonight was no exception.  When I look approximately 150 degrees southeast (thanks to the navigation from my phone's compass), I was able to spot Orion.  Although I was not able to get a good enough picture on my phone, I drew out the basic constellation that I was able to see, which is the image below.  His body is laying on its side with his arrow firing up and his belt the middle three stars.  After I saw his belt, the first star I was able to see due to its brightness, was his left foot (as seen in the top right corner of the picture).  I hope you guys continue to watch the stars and try to find Orion the next time you're looking up.

Drawn by Ashley Sholmire, 12/3/15
Seen at 150 degrees southeast

Hercules Cluster

I know this may sound a little childish, but I really wanted to do this star cluster because of Hercules.  I remember reading about Hercules in elementary school, watching the Disney movie loosely based on the mythology, and expanding more on my knowledge by reading about the mythology on my dimly lit phone screen late at night when I was supposed to be sleeping (geeky I know but oh well). Mythology has always interested me, and that is also probably why astronomy has also piqued my interest, since many of the constellations, galaxy, nebulae, stars, and more are named after characters from mythology.  The Hercules Cluster is a part of the Hercules constellation and has a square-ish star pattern.  I was surprised at how brilliant it actually looks, but I mean, if you are going to name after a star cluster after a god famed for his strength, it better be pretty credible.  In my opinion, the Hercules Cluster more than lives up to its fabled mythological counterpart, and I hope that you get to do some research on mythology and astronomy as well!

Taken by the Harvard MicroObservatory 11/29/15
The Hercules Cluster is seen in the top right corner as that bright spot.  

Ring Nebula

As most of you can tell from the pictures below and its name, the Ring Nebula has a ring-shaped structure. It is also known as M57, Messier 57, or NGC 6720 ("Messier 57").  It is a planetary nebula, and the outside ring shape is supposedly due to the star at the center of the nebula ("Messier 57").  The Ring Nebula is a part of the constellation, Lyra, and its central star was first observed in 1800 by Fredrich von Hanh ("Messier 57").  Right now, this central star is classified as a white dwarf star and shines at about fifteenth magnitude, but it will begin to cool down and eventually end up as a cold black dwarf star ("Messier 57").  The distance from our own Milky Way has been in question due to miscalculations based on errors in assumptions of its shape, but based on recent calculations, it appears to be around two to four thousand light years away ("Messier 57").  The Ring Nebula has an interesting history that adds to its visual amusement.

"Messier 57." Messier Object 57. N.p., 30 Aug. 2007. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.

Taken by the Harvard MicroObservatory 11/27/15 (Green Filter)

Taken by the Harvard MicroObservatory 11/27/15 (Red Filter)

Whirlpool Galaxy

If you have been reading my blog, you have probably noticed my interest in galaxies; the Whirlpool Galaxy is no exception.  Scientists consider this to be one of our closer neighbors since it is twenty-five million light years away from our own Milky Way ("Whirlpool Galaxy Facts").  Because of is close proximity, it was one of the first galaxies to be designated as a spiral galaxy ("Whirlpool Galaxy Facts").  It is approximately seventy-five thousand light years across and has greater than one hundred billion stars ("Whirlpool Galaxy Facts").  Something pretty unique about the Whirlpool Galaxy that I found incredibly interesting was that it had collided with one of its neighboring galaxies, M51b, which is considered to be a dwarf, irregular galaxy ("Whirlpool Galaxy Facts").  Due to this collision, M51b is difficult to classify because the Whirlpool Galaxy seems to be destroying it.  Also, the Whirlpool Galaxy's outer spirals were disrupted by the collision, and it has had a spike in starbirth ("Whirlpool Galaxy Facts").  Another interesting fact about the Whirlpool Galaxy is that it has a massive black hole at its core.  Although this is not unique, the Whirlpool Galaxy's black hole is said to be active, which gave it its classification of a "Seyfert Galaxy" ("Whirlpool Galaxy Facts").  Seyfert galaxies make up about ten percent of the galaxies in the universe so far; they are when the galaxy produces nuclei spectral line emissions due to highly ionized gas from extremely large black holes ("Seyfert Galaxies"). The picture below is from the Harvard MicroObservatory; the Whirlpool Galaxy and its smaller neighbor, M51b, can be seen in the bottom right corner of the picture.  Sorry for the blurriness and awkward brightness of the picture!

"Seyfert Galaxies." Seyfert Galaxies / Galaxy / Seyfert's Sextet. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2015.
"Whirlpool Galaxy Facts." Space Facts. N.p., 01 May 2015. Web. 26 Nov. 2015.

Taken by the Harvard MicroObservatory 11/26/15

NGC 891

I know before this blog I didn't really have an idea about all of the galaxies out there in our universe.  I knew about Andromeda and the Milky Way, but I didn't even begin to think about the numerous others that people had discovered.  I was searching through the Harvard MicroObservatory Website, when I saw this spiral galaxy called NGC 891.  I requested a picture of it and did some research on it, solely because I thought it looked beautiful; I was right.  Looking online at some of the other pictures captured by telescopes of this on-edge spiral galaxy, I was mesmerized.  It was discovered by William Herschel on October 6, 1784, which is an interesting coincidence considering he was mentioned during the recent convocation by Pamela Gay ("NGC 891").  NGC 891 is an on-edge spiral galaxy that has a dust lane along its center axis ("NGC 891").  I know the picture below is a little blurry (the galaxy is the blurred streak towards the bottom of the picture), but if you do get a chance to look up a picture of this galaxy, it is absolutely stunning and quite a magnificent sight.  

"NGC 891." NGC 891. N.p., 11 Mar. 2015. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.

Taken by the Harvard MicroObservatory 11/18/15

Orion Nebula

The Orion Nebula is a stellar nursery located near Orion's belt (McClure).  It is approximately 1,300 light years away from Earth, which means that it is still a part of our galaxy, and it is also approximately 30-40 light years in diameter (McClure).  Within this giant cloud of gas and dust, about a thousand stars are being born, and there is even an open star cluster, "whose stars were born at the same time from a portion of the nebula and are still loosely bound by gravity" (McClure).  Some scientists also believe that at its heart, there is a black hole (McClure).  The four brightest stars of the nebular are called The Trapezium and appear to only be about a million years old, which is young in terms of stars (McClure).  To put this in perspective, our Sun is approximately 5 billion years old ("How old is the Sun?").

I've been doing this blog for a little while now, and I'm still amazed at the new things I continue to discover about a place I have called home my entire life.  It not only makes you feel small in comparison, but it brings an inspiration for more knowledge.  I hope whoever reads this has a similar inspiration to go out and explore your universe.

Works Cited
"How Old Is the Sun?" Stanford SOLAR Center. Stanford SOLAR Center, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.

McClure, Bruce. "Orion Nebula Is a Place Where Stars Are Born." EarthSky. EarthSky, 30

Jan. 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.

Taken by the Harvard MicroObservatory 11/17/15

Andromeda Galaxy

've heard about the Andromeda Galaxy in science classes throughout elementary school and middle school, but I never really thought about it beyond that. When I looked on the Harvard MicroObservatory website, I was really interested to learn more about it, and I hope you enjoy what I learned!
Andromeda Galaxy, or M31, is our galaxy's closest neighbor, and this neighbor of ours is actually heading towards us on a collision course (Redd). Andromeda galaxy is like our galaxy in that it is also a spiral galaxy; it's spiral is approximately 260,000 light years long with a bulge in the middle (Redd).  Despite this being two and a half times longer than the Milky Way and having more stars, the Milky Way is said to be more dense because scientists believe it has more dark matter (Redd).  Although first identified by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi in 964, Charles Messier named it as "M31" in 1764 and incorrectly credited the discovery to a German astronomer who was the first to observe the galaxy using a telescope (Redd).

Works Cited

Redd, Nola Taylor. "Andromeda Galaxy (M31): Location, Characteristics & Images.

Space.com."Space.com. N.p., 8 May 2012. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.

Taken by the Harvard MicroObservatory 11/17/15

Taken by the Harvard MicroObservatory 11/17/15

Taken by the Harvard MicroObservatory 11/17/15

The Sun

We all know about the Sun.  It's something we see almost every day, and most of us tend to take it for granted.  However, it is the life force for our planet and the rest of the planets in our solar system; it provides heat and light for our solar system.  Not only that, it is also the biggest mass in our solar system ("The Sun").  Despite this, it is still made up of 98% gas; it is comprised of 70% hydrogen, 28% helium, and  less than 2% metals ("The Sun").  One interesting fact I found out about the Sun is that different parts of this giant star rotates at different rates.  Because it is mostly gas, the Sun's outer layers rotate at different rates, while the core rotates at the same rate;  the equator rotates at 25.4 days and the poles makes one rotation in about 36 days ("The Sun").  The Sun's power is from the nuclear fusion reactions that occur on in its core and flow out towards the surface.  As it heads towards the surface, the energy is absorbed and re-emitted, so that when it does reach the surface, the energy is basically just visible light ("The Sun").

The dark spots on the picture below are sunspots.  The reason why they appear dark is because these spots are cooler than the rest of the Sun's surface.  The surface of the Sun is typically about 5800 K, but these spots are only about 3800 K ("The Sun").

"The Sun." Nine Planets. Nine Planets, 2015. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

Taken 11/10/15 by the Harvard MicroObservatory

Trifid Nebula

The Trifid Nebula is not something you here about on a day to day basis.  However, during my exploration of the universe, something about it seemed to catch my eye.  I requested pictures of it from the Harvard MicroObservatory, which you can see below, and the more I researched it, the more interesting it became.  The Trifid Nebular was discovered in 1764 by Charles Messier, and it's name means "divided into three lobes" due to it being comprised of a red emission nebula, a blue reflection nebula and a dark nebula (MacPhee).  The Trifid Nebula and Lagoon Nebula actually appear in the same area of space from our point of view.  Scientists believe that they are both about 5,000 light-years away, and because of this, some contemplate whether or not these two come from the same origin (McClure).  The Trifid Nebular is also a stellar nursery, so it is the birthplace of many star formations (McClure).  The Trifid Nebula is just one of many nebulae in the universe that continue to fascinate scientists and enthrall "citizen astronomers" (like me!) to watch the sky.

Works Cited

MacPhee, Martin. "Exploring the Trifid Nebula." EarthSky. EarthSky, 18 Aug. 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
McClure, Bruce. "The Trifid Nebula, or M20." EarthSky. EarthSky, 18 Aug. 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.

Taken 11/8/15 by the Harvard MicroObservatory, Dark Filter

Taken 11/8/15 by the Harvard MicroObservatory, Red Filter

Day 1

Waking up at 6 in the morning was not ideal in terms of sleep, but the view made up for it.  I was able to clearly see Mars, Venus and Jupiter (even though the picture does not clearly depict the magnitude of the situation).  It was truly incredible to be able to witness something as unique as that.  The conjunction of these planets  will not happen again like this until January of 2021 (Therrien).  Venus, the largest and brightest of the three, appears in the middle of the three planets, Jupiter, the second brightest, appears as the highest in the sky, and Mars is the least bright one slightly to the left of Venus.
Not only was I able to see this planetary alignment, but I was also able to see numerous constellations, such as all of Orion's Belt, which is normally somewhat challenging to see in its entirety in the evening.

Therrien, Alex. "Venus, Jupiter and Mars Align for Skyline Display." BBC News. BBC News, 28 Oct. 2015. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.

Pictures taken with iPhone 6+ camera on 10/29/15 at approximately 6:15 am.