APOD 2.4

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100106.html
The APOD from January 6th shows the surface of the star Betelgeuse. Betelgeuse is one of the largest known stars, and if it were located in our solar system, its surface would extend to the area between Mars and Jupiter, fully engulfing the four terrestrial planets. The image is the only picture of a star where it is more than a point of light that I have seen, excluding the Sun of course, and the two bright patches are thought to be areas of convection and are hotter than the areas around them, but still cooler than the average surface of the sun.

Observation log.

Date:12/15/09
Time:9-11 PM
Tools used: Meade EXT-80, Mark 1 eyeball.
Location:Englewood.
My grandparents gave me a Meade EXT-80 Achromatic Refractor telescope for my birthday, so I decided to try it out. After about an hour of trying to get it leveled and oriented correctly, I was able to observe M42, Rigel, and Alnilam in Orion. At this point, the battery that I had taken out of my alarm clock to power the 'scope died, so I observed the Geminids meteor shower for the rest of the night, and counted about 3 per hour, which would be expected considering the street lights, a large strip mall about four miles away, and the narrow view of the sky I have because of trees in my yard.

APOD 2.2

The APOD from December 8th shows an image of Saturn's moon Tethys taken from the Casini orbiter. The white color of the moon is described to have been formed by ice particles form Saturn's rings, which is interesting because I had always assumed that it was the moons that fed the rings via debris knocked loose from impacts. The ring in question is the E ring which is fed by ice particles from Enceladus, another moon of Saturn. Unlike other ice moons, Tethys is believed to be completely solid, rather than an ice surface over a liquid ocean.

APOD 2.1

The APOD from November 30th shows the sun rising over the Earth from space shuttle Atlantis which was docked at the ISS at the time. STS-129, the mission that the shuttle was on, added some cameras, as well as an antenna to improve communications in the orbital outpost. I chose this picture because it shows man's greatest accomplishments in contrast to the natural wonder of the universe.