APOD 3.3

January 30, 2014
Rocket Streak and Star Trails

These images were taken as a series of short exposures over a 3 hour period on January 23rd. This was very close to the Kennedy Space Center and captured a night launch of an Atlas V rocket carrying NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite TDRS-L. The apparent motion of the stars through the sky is just a reflection of the daily rotation of planet Earth on its axis. Launching toward the east in the direction of Earth's rotation, adds rotation velocity to the rocket. Its orbital period will match Earth's rotation and the satellite will be suspended in the sky. This is such an awesome image because it's just very vivid and shows the rotation velocity of the rocket.

APOD 3.2

Bright Supernova in M82

This image is of a supernova named SN 2014J in M82. Located near the Big Dipper in the Earth's sky, M82 is also known as the Cigar Galaxy. M82 is 12 million light-years away, making SN 2014J one of the closest supernovas to be seen in recent decades. It is a Type Ia supernova caused by the explosion of a white dward accreting matter from a close star. SN 2014J is the brightest part of M82 and visible in small telescopes in the evening. I really enjoy this image because I have never seen a supernova before and everything about this photo is just pleasing.

APOD 3.1

January 17, 2014
M83 Star Streams

This is the spiral galaxy M83 and is about 12 million light years away, on the tip of the constellation Hydra. This picture was made with data from the European Southern Observatory, Hubble, Subaru telescope, and the Australian Astronomical Observatory. M83 is known as the Southern Pinwheel because of its spiral arms. It's also known as the Thousand-Ruby Galaxy due to the red regions of the galaxy. The faint light arcing at the top of the picture is M83's northern stellar tidal stream, from the gravitational disruption of a merging satellite galaxy. M83 was found in the 1990s by enhancing photographic plates.

Joseph Lagrange Bio

Joseph Lagrange was born in Turin, Italy in 1736 and was very interested in mathematics from a young age. He was inspired by the works of Edmund Halley. Lagrange began teaching himself mathematics at the age of 16 and by the time he was 19, he was made a professor at the Royal Artillery School in Turin. Lagrange sent a solution for deriving the central equation in the calculus of variations to prominent mathematician Leonhard Euler. Everyone in the mathematics and astronomy world were blown away and labeled him one of the greatest mathematicians to be alive at that point. In 1776 Euler recommended that Lagrange succeed him as the director of the Berlin Academy. In Berlin, Lagrange dedicated his time to making himself known in the field of the theory of numbers and algebraic equations. In 1786, Lagrange was invited by many states such as Spain and Naples, but chose Louis XVI's invitation to move to Paris. Louis was a connoisseur of Lagrange's work and gave him many high honors such as being senator and count. Lagrange's time in Paris was dedicated to creating treatises that summarized all of his mathematical ideas and he created one of his most famous works which is the Mecanique Analytique, a book in which the theory of mechanics was reduced to some general formulas which many other equations could be derived. He experienced France during the Reign of Terror and was to be sentenced to death, but since he provided such incredible developments to mathematics for everyone, he was protected by higher political powers. Lagrange died in Paris in 1813. Napoleon honored him with the Grand Croix of the Ordre Impérial de la Réunion 2 days before he died.

He has written numerous papers on astronomy ranging from: the stability of planetary orbits, motion of the nodes of a planet's orbit, attraction of ellipsoids, the potential of a body at any point to is the sum of the mass of every element of the body when divided by its distance from the point, method of interpolation, and a mathematical method of determining the orbit of a comet. Lagrange discovered the Lagrangian Points, which are the five points between 2 orbiting masses which have a net gravitational force of zero at those exact points. These points are one of Lagrange's lasting legacies because it has helped modern astronomers put satellites into space and staying at the same distance between 2 objects without having any issues. Joseph Lagrange is one of the greatest mathematicians in history and his works have lived on throughout the years, helping many fields such as mathematics and astronomy.

Sources:

        "Genesis: Search for Origins | JPL | NASA." Genesis: Search for Origins | JPL | NASA. Ed. Aimee Meyer. NASA, Nov. 2009. Web. 9 Jan. 2014. <http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov/>

         Seikali, Nahla. "Joseph-Louis Lagrange." Joseph-Louis Lagrange. Berkeley, n.d. Web. 09 Jan. 2014. <http://math.berkeley.edu/~robin/Lagrange/>.

Observation Jan 10

This night I observed from 11PM-12AM and was able to spot Jupiter and the waxing gibbous moon in the night sky, and Aldebaran. With the assistance of the stargazing app on my phone, I found Cassiopeia, Pisces, Aries, Sirius, Canis Major, Perseus, Orion, Betelgeuse, and the Pleiades star cluster right next to the moon.

Observation time: 1 hour

Observation Jan 7

This night I observed from 8-11PM and was able to observe the first quarter moon of the year in the night sky. With the help of my stargazing app, I was able to spot: Jupiter, Canis Major, Gemini, Perseus, Cassiopeia, Sirius, Orion, Betelgeuse, Grus, Cetus, Fomalhaut, Aries, and Pisces.

Observation time: 3 hours

Observation: Jan 1

On the first night of the new year from 10PM-12AM, I was able to spot the extremely obvious supermoon due to it being so close to Earth tonight and it's super brightness. With the assistance of the star app on my phone, I was able to spot: Pegasus, Sirius, Orion, Jupiter, Ursa Minor, Perseus, and Cassiopeia.

Observation Hours: 2 hours

Observation: Christmas

Dec 25: From 8-10 PM, I used my star app on my phone and my binoculars in order to find Jupiter, Sirius, Betelguese, Rigel, Pegasus, Arcturus, and Scorpius. These were all relatively easy to find due to their brightness and the use of the star app.

Observation Hours: 2

The Tadpoles of IC 410

APOD 9 January 2014
The Tadpoles of IC 410

This is a picture of the emission nebula IC 410 in false color and was taken through narrow band filters. Narrow band image traces atoms in the nebula: sulfur in red, oxygen in blue, and hydrogen in green. The nebula surrounds a galactic cluster of stars called NGC 1893. IC 410's remarkable features are its 2 tadpoles, which are displayed in this photo. The tadpoles look very interesting because they are very distinguishable in comparison to everything else in the photo,