A Message From Ceres

I try to keep this blog relatively clean language wise. But this picture was just to awesome not to share! It also fills some space for a quick post today. In the future I do plan to talk more about Ceres and Vesta and the other asteroids. They are some of my favorite objects in our solar syst...

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Posted in Ceres,Pluto 52 comments

ISS and Discovery Flyby

First, yay, 200 followers, thanks for following guys. I really hope you all have been enjoying what I've been writing of the past month. There are no plans to quit. So last night, Tuesday night that is, the International Space Station (ISS) and Space Shuttle Discovery raced over head through the night sky for a few brief moments. I wish I had had enough warning about it to post something on the blog to get people to check it out where available. Anyways, I went out and watched them both speed across the sky. They were easily the brightest things in the night sky besides the small sliver of the growing moon. I didn't get pictures, but some one...

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Posted in Discovery,HCAS,ISS 31 comments

Demotion

Just over a week ago, I had mentioned KOI 326.01 in a post. KOIs are Kepler Objects of Interest, possible exoplanets as yet unconfirmed. There is a wealth of information that the Kepler mission researchers must go through to confirm these things. Initially, as mentioned in my previous post, KOI 326.01 (glorious name isn't it) had high hopes being a relatively close, habitable zone inhabiting, Earth-sized, cream of the crop from Kepler's planetary harvest. Well it's not. The researchers have made their way to make judgment of poor KOI 326.01, and it turns out it is not the planet it was pretending to be. Discover Magazine has the exclusive on it, so I am mostly just summarizing what their article says. The demotion of KOI 326.01 stems from an error in the cataloging of the planets. From my...

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Posted in Exoplanet,Kepler,KOI 22 comments

Black Holes and Neutron Stars

Black holes and neutron stars won the poll by a hair. So here is my small info dump on them. Most of these concepts are taken from what learned in my textbooks, lectures, and classroom discussions. I am by no means an expert on the subject, I don't go pushing around equations and numbers about them, but I am probably more familiar with some of the subject matter then most. That said, I will try to avoid the math, and just provide some interesting information about these cosmic oddities. I also provide link to wikipedia in some places, because generally it's the easiest thing to link for information on this stuff. Also, a new poll should be up, so those who wanted dark matter, you get to try again. Same with anyone else interested in the other areas. I replaced Black Holes/Neutron Stars with...

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Posted in Black Holes,Neutron Stars,Poll 20 comments

Saganesque

Today's post is short and sweet, just a short infographic I find awesome and truthful. Now, I may not hate every ounce of you, but I will think you are in need of a good learning experience. So, Carl Sagan Youtube Video Dump! the Drake Equation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlikCebQSlY Pale Blue Dot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g 4th Dimension: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnURElCzGc0 on Astrology: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iunr4B4wfDA Last Interview Pt 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBkaP7EY5Us Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGI1D4sSxN8 Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxeN6Wf7mbU And of course the music...

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Posted in Carl Sagan 45 comments

Astronomy Clubs

Previously, when talking about telescopes, I had mentioned the value of checking out your local astronomy club for their knowledge and expertise. But astronomy clubs have a lot more to offer then helping you out with picking a telescope. These people can be extremely knowledgeable about the night sky and astronomy concepts. They are also pretty friendly and know how to put on a good show. I definitely recommend checking out your local club sometime. If you have one. In my experience, it's fun and people enjoy themselves. It's always a great feeling when some one says 'WOW! I've never seen that before!' or something along those lines. Even when I first joined my astronomy club, I saw things I'd never seen with my own eye before. It's an amazing experience. The best part, their events are...

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Posted in Astronomy,Clubs,Night Sky Network 31 comments