Galaxies and other objects in the fantastic Lunar Eclipse image

I did say that I would point out a few of the galaxies and other objects visible in this amazing picture of the Lunar eclipse that took place on the 15th of June 2011 and here it is:

·         M17 is the Swan Nebula, which is a star formation region of gas and dust, about 5000 light years away from the earth.

·         M18 is an open star cluster in the constellation of Sagittarius, is approximately 32 million years old, and is 4,900 light years away.

·         M20 is known as the Trifid Nebula, and is also a star forming region, approximately 7600 light years away from the Earth, and is a favourite amongst amateur astronomers to try to spot, due to its bright colouring.

·         M21 is another open cluster of stars, with about 57 small, dim stars to be found within it, due to its young age, as it is only 4.6 million years old.

·         M22 is a globular cluster (meaning that all the stars in it orbit a galactic centre point, like a super massive black hole, or a very massive star), located some 10600 light years away from the earth.

·         M23 is another open cluster, approximately 2,150 light-years away from Earth

·         M25 is an open cluster, with a diameter of 19 light years, and is 2000 light years away from our planet.

·         M8, more commonly known as the Lagoon Nebula, has an area of 5500 light years, and is estimated to be between 4,000-6,000 light years from the Earth.

·         M6, or the Butterfly cluster, is an open cluster in the constellation of Scorpius, compromised of numerous hot blue stars and the K-type orange star BM Scorpii, and is 1600 light years away from the Earth

Constellations of the Southern Hemisphere

For anyone living in, or travelling to the Southern Hemisphere, these are the constellations that you can expect to see. Happy stargazing!!

A Solstice Guide

Ok, today, being the 21st of June, is the summer Solstice here in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Winter solstice in the Southern, and well, I thought that a brief explanation of what they are, and why they occur might be in order, as it seems to be an event that is almost taken for granted during the modern era.

Well, as to why it occurs, this is also due to the reason that seasons occur, and equinoxes happen as part of this. They all occur because the Earth is tilted upon its axis by between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees. This tilt, whilst being a relatively small angle has the ability to ensure that the two hemispheres of the Earth (northern and southern) have different exposure to the sun at all times during the year, causing the natural seasons to occur.

It also means that, on certain days in the year sunrise and sunset occur roughly 12 hours apart, these being called equiluxes, and these are usually mistaken for exquinoxes. Rather, an equinox is when the sun is aligned with the Earths equator, meaning that the axis is tilted neither away nor towards the sun. Hence the equinoxes occur in spring and autumn.

Right, so let us now return to Solstices, as this is our main topic today. The sun appears to be at its most northern and southernmost points in the sky, depending on which hemisphere you are in (if you are in the northern hemisphere, when the sun is at its most northern point, this is the summer solstice, and is the winter solstice for the southern hemisphere. And when the sun is at its most southern position, it is the winter solstice for the northern hemisphere, and the summer solstice for those living south of the equator.) It’s is called a solstice, from the Latin meaning "sun to stand still", due to the apparent movement of the sun in the sky stopping, before reversing direction.

It occurs because of the tilt of the earth’s axis, which means that each hemisphere is either facing away or towards the sun, and these solstices happen when the process reaches its extremes, so when the northern hemisphere is facing the sun at its maximum exposure, this is a summer solstice for the northern hemisphere, and a winter one for the southern hemisphere, and vice versa.

I hope that this has cleared up any existing confusion about solstices, equinoxes and equiluxes.

Just an Amazing Picture.

This is a Picture of the lunar eclipse taken in Iraq, behind it you can see the milky wayand other galaxies, along with other universal objects. I shall label them, and post the picture again soon, with explanations of the objects visible... Its just a beautiful image anyway =)

Constellations of the Northern Hemisphere

It struck me that people may not be able to recognise some of the constellations that make up the night sky, so I've uploaded this handy star map of the northern hemisphere, which should assist you, dear reader, in finding your way around the night sky.

Lunar Eclipse Pictures

Well, I'm afraid to say that I was unable to take any pictures of the eclipse myself, or indeed see it firsthand. Although i did livestream it online. These are 3 of my favourite pictures of the eclipse that I have found whilst looking around on the internet. I hope that you enjoy looking at these pictures.

Lunar Geography

In preparation for tonights full moon and eclipse, I thought that I should post a diagram about some of the key geographical features of the moons surface.

Lunar Eclipse

A lunar eclipse is due to occur tonight, being the 15th of June 2011. And it is due to be the longest eclipse for over a decade, and should therefore make quite a spectacular sight for anyone willing to take the time to look.

This of course begs the question of what exactly a lunar eclipse is, as it is often confused for a solar eclipse. Well, to put not too fine a point to it, lunar eclipses are when the Earth passes in-between the moon and the sun, thus causing a shadow to be cast upon the moon. Interestingly though, unlike a solar eclipse, lunar eclipses can last for hours at a time, and be seen by the whole side of the world that is facing away from the sun for its entire duration. Another interesting point is that a lunar eclipse can only occur on the night of a full moon, due to necessity for the sun, earth and moon to be aligned exactly. Tonight’s lunar eclipse will be a central eclipse, visible over Europe and South America after sunset, over Africa and most of Asia, and Australia before sunrise.


I shall attempt to take photographs of the eclipse, and upload them on the next blog post. Hope the skies are clear, and that you dear reader, manage to get the chance to witness this event first hand. Happy stargazing!!

The Moon

I know that this is an old picture now, as it was taken on the 19th of March, but this is an image of the Supermoon that ocurred that night. I was looking at tonights moon (a waxing gibbous moon) and it struck me how patchy my knowledge of lunar geography actually is, as well as the evident beauty of the moon itself. Did you know that we never see the other side of the moon? The other side is never seen because the moon rotates slowing in comparison to the Earth, as it rotates once on its axis every 28 days, which is the same length of time it takes to orbit the Earth, meaning that the one side of the moon remains on view to the Earth at all times.

Another Relativity help

this is a video from UC Berkeley and their physics department, about relativity, which I found useful. I know its very long, but trust me, it is very helpful.

General Relativity: A basic guide

A friend of mine today asked me "what is General relativity anyway?" and it struck me that it is a question that quite a few people might not know the answer to, even though it is arguably the most beautiful piece of mathematics and theoretical physics ever written, and it came from undoubtedly the greatest mind of the 20th century, if not one of the greatest minds that has ever lived. I'm talking of course about Albert Einstein.

   Now, the first issue that I can think of that would perhaps explain why people do not recognise the theory of General Relativity is because they mistake it for another of Einstein’s' trailblazing works; E = MC² which is actually used to describe the relationship between the mass of an object and the energy contained within it, but a more succinct explanation should be given a blog post of its own, and this is not that post. So let us swiftly return to Relativity.

  Now that we know what relativity is not, let us explore what it is, which is, in its most basic wording, the most accurate model of the universe that we can currently provide. But I think that we should go a little deeper than that in our quest to understand General Relativity, and attempt to explain what it actually means in terms of the universe.

  The most fundamental principle of Relativity (both special and general, I would explain special relativity, but again, that’s for another post) is that any object in a gravitational field should feel an effect proportional to its mass, as in the Gravitational laws of Sir Isaac Newton, but that this ceased to be the case when an object was in “freefall” when it would experience weightlessness, whether the freefall occurred here on earth or in deep space, far from a body with a gravitational field.  He also concluded that as light moves away from a body with an immense gravitational field, such as a star, light can be slowed down or stretched so that it has the frequency of the lower energy end of the spectrum, which shows as a red colour, in a phenomenon called “red shift” as a direct result of the interaction with the stars gravitational influence.

 However, the most important aspect of Einstein’s theory of general relativity is related to the infamous formula previously stated “E = MC²” and thus we travel into a confusing area. The model used for Einstein’s universe is a 4dimensional “fabric” known as space-time, which can be bent, distorted and shaped by the momentum, mass and energy of any given body (such as a planet or star) which is the CAUSE of gravitation, the interaction between an objects mass, momentum and energy (which are essentially the same thing, according to E = MC² and special relativity) and the fabric known as space-time.

 Now, I know that this may still seem far-fetched to you, dear reader, but I will attempt to explain this further over the coming weeks and months, with other posts. If I have lost you completely, please comment with questions. =)

Astronomy

Ok, to start with, I feel that I should stress that I mean Astronomy, not astrology, and that there will be no "star signs" discussed in this blog, and it is highly unlikely that they will ever be discussed on my page. This is not because I dont think that they dont have merit, just that they have no place amongst the scientific facts that will hopefully be conveyed to you, my dear reader, on these pages.
   Right, so lets get straight down to it shall we? I was initially going to blog about quantum entanglement and resonance theories tonight, but I have decided that, with recent develpments in the feild, and the fact that I can see a good 100 stars from my bedroom window tonight, a blog post about astronomy is much more appropriate. Indeed, my primary field of interest is astronomy and astrophysics, with little real difference existing between the two fields.
 Firstly then, I would like to discuss the STEREO space probes, which are two probes that are in orbit around our Sun, and are sending back many fantastic 3D images of the turmoil that occurs on the surface of our star. This is done in the hope that it will enable a greater understanding of the innermost workings of stars, and indeed help us to understand the "cycle" of peaks and troughs in the suns energy output, which can lead to large CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejections) which could cause massive disruption to our modern way of life. Of course, this is not the only recent development in astronomy, as the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has recently unveiled a 3 dimensional map of the local universe, which took them 10 years to make. I know at this point you're wondering what the point of such a map is, but it shows us invariably the sheer magnitude of our universe, which is an important step in our understanding of how the universe fits together and perhaps how it began in the first place.

  Moving away from largescale astronomy, to the area that I am much more familliar with at the moment, which is stargazing and the use of telescopes to view and map the night sky. Yes ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed count as a form of astronomy, and it is not merely a hobby for older people and geeks with nothing else better to do. I know it is incredably cheesy to say this, but one cannot truly appreciate the fact that we live on a small planet in the middle of a vast space until you have stood outside on a clear, pitch dark night, and looked up at the sky. Indeed, one of the most incredible moments of my life so far was standing up near a place called Gallows Hill, a few minutes from my house, watching a meteor shower, and observing the milky way galaxy in all of its beauty. Until you have seen this, I would refrain from using terms such as "breath-taking" or "awe-inspiring" because, in my experience, there is nothing quite like the realisation that we are but tiny specs of dust in comparison to the solar system and the universe itself that stretches out into the reaches of an eternity that our knowledege can never hope to fully comprehend.
  So, I would encourage you all, one night this summer, to go outside at night, go somewhere dark and look up at the sky, and try to see something interesting. I will willingly answer questions about what can be seen this summer, and provide tips on how best to see things such as galaxies and planets. Happy stargazing everyone!!!