APOD 12: SPITZER'S ORION

2014 January 15

This is Orion's Nebula, an immense stellar nursery some 1,500 light-years away. This false color image spans 40 light-years, constructed using infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope. The brighest portion of the nebula is centered on Orion's young, massive, hot stars known as the Trapezium Cluster. 

Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre

            Delambre, the son of a draper, was born the eldest son in his family. Due to contracting smallpox at the age of 15 months, he lost all his eyelashes and nearly lost all of his eyesight. He attended Jesuit College in Amiens, where he studied English and German. He had intents of becoming a parish priest, but one of his teachers encouraged him to continue his education in Paris. After failing to gain a scholarship to the College du Plessis in Paris, he had to teach himself mathematics, Jean-Claude Geoffroy d’Assy, and lived with him – accepting a small pension and living cheaply. His interests moved from Greek language and literature to Greek science. He discovered modern astronomy reading Lalande’s Traité d’astronomie, Delambre began attending Lalande’s lectures. Lalande was impressed by his knowledge and attentiveness, and asked Delambre to assist him with astronomical observations for his newest edition of his Traité d’astronomie. In 1786, Delambre recorded a transit of Mercury across the Sun, where he realized that the existing transit tables were inaccurate, and led him to devote much effort to producing new, accurate tables. Delambre decided to make observations of the orbit of Uranus in order to verify Laplace’s theoretical results. In 1792, Delambre, with his own observatory, published Tables du Soleil, de Jupiter, de Saturne, d’Uranus et des satellites de Jupiter. In that same year, he was awarded the Grand Prix of Académie des Sciences, for the second time. In 1790, in order to establish a universally accepted foundation for the definition of measures, the National Constituent Assembly asked the French Academy of Sciences to introduce a new unit of measurement. The academics decided on the metre, defined as 1 / 10,000,000 of the distance from the North Pole to the equator, and prepared to organize an expedition to measure the length of the meridian arc between Dunkirk and Barcelona. Cassini was chosen to head the northern expedition but, as a royalist, he refused to serve under the revolutionary government after the arrest of King Louis XVI on his Flight to Varennes. On 15 February 1792, Delambre was elected unanimously a member of the French Academy of Sciences and in May 1792, after Cassini's final refusal, was placed in charge of the northern expedition, measuring the meridian from Dunkirk to Rodez. Pierre Méchain headed the southern expedition, measuring from Barcelona to Rodez. The measurements finished 1798, and were presented to an international conference of savants in Paris the following year. Delambre held other achievements during his lifetime. In 1795, he was admitted to the Bureau des Longitudes, becoming President in 1800. In 1801, First Counsul Napoleon Bonaparte became president of the of the Académie des Sciences, and appointed Delambre as Permanent Secretary for the Mathematical Sciences. In 1809, Napoleon requested the Académie des Sciences award a prize to Delambre for the best scientific publication of the decade, concerning his work on the meridian. In the latter part of his career/life, Delambre focused on the history of mathematics and astronomy, publishing his two volumes of Historie de l’astronomie for ancient and modern astronomy. He died in 1822, and he has a large Moon crater named after him.

Bibliography

Tikkanen, Amy. "Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre (French Astronomer)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 09 Sept. 2009. Web. 08 Jan. 2014. 
<http://www.britannica.com/topic/156305/history>"
Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre." Delambre Biography. School of Mathematics and Statistics, Apr. 2003. Web. 08 Jan. 2014. <http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Delambre.html>

Miller, Frederic P. Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre. N.p.: VDM, 2010. Print.

Q2 Observations #5

Date: January 7, 2014

Time: 7:00 - 8:30 pm

Location: Backyard (North Sarasota, FL)

Sky Conditions: Partly cloudy. Moon: waxing crescent.

Instruments Used: naked eye observations, no binoculars/telescopes

Planets: Jupiter, found in Gemini

Bright Stars noted: Deneb, Alberio, Gamma Andromeda, Betelgeuse, Rigel

, 

Constellations noted: Gemini, Taurus, Andromeda, Cygnus, Orion, Monoceros

Binary Star: Alberio: one star bright blue, the other (lower to right) yellow. Theta Taurus easily seen, and Beta Orionis (Rigel), two blue-white stars.

Deep Sky Objects: M31, "The Andromeda Galaxy", located in Andromeda: most identifiable spiral 

galaxy

"The Hyades": open, located in Taurus: "V" shaped, nine main stars

M42, "The Orion Nebula", celestial nursery, located in Orion: four star system known as "The Trapezium"

"The Cone Nebula", dark cone cluster, located in Orion

APOD 11: Open Star Cluster in Scorpius

2014 January 7

As one of the most prominent open clusters in the sky, M7 is dominated by blue stars, and can be seen by the naked eye in the dark sky as the tail of the Scorpion constellation. A dark dust cloud and millions of unrelated stars are towards the Galactic center are visible. M7 contains 100 stars, is 200 million years old,  spans 25 light years, and lies 1,000 light years away. M7 was observed by the ancients, in the time of Ptolemy, around 130 AD. 

Q2 Observations #4

Date: December 17, 2013

Time: 8:30 - 10 pm

Location: Backyard (North Sarasota, FL)

Sky Conditions: Mostly clear, with some faint & wispy clouds. Moon: full.

Instruments Used: naked eye observations, no binoculars/telescopes

Planets: Venus

Bright Stars noted: Deneb, Alberio, Gamma Andromeda, Betelgeuse, Rigel

, 

Constellations noted: Taurus, Andromeda, Cygnus, Orion, Fornax

Binary Star: Alberio: one star bright blue, the other (lower to right) yellow. Gamma Andromeda: color difference - blue and golden. Theta Taurus easily seen, still cannot notice color difference, if any. Beta Orionis (Rigel), two blue-white stars.

Deep Sky Objects: M45, The Pleiades: open, located in Taurus; seven brightest stars go under the name "The Seven Sisters"

M31, "The Andromeda Galaxy", located in Andromeda: most identifiable spiral 

galaxy

"The Hyades": open, located in Taurus: "V" shaped, nine main stars

M42, "The Orion Nebula", celestial nursery, located in Orion: four star system known as "The Trapezium"

Q2 Observations #3

Date: December 7, 2013

Time: 8 - 9 pm

Location: Backyard (North Sarasota, FL)

Sky Conditions: Somewhat clear, with few larger clouds. Moon: waxing crescent.

Instruments Used: naked eye observations, no binoculars/telescopes

Planets: Venus

Bright Stars noted: Deneb, Alberio, Gamma Andromeda, Aldebaran

Constellations noted: Taurus, Andromeda, Cygnus

Binary Star: Alberio: one star bright blue, the other (lower to right) yellow. Gamma Andromeda: color difference - blue and golden. Theta Taurus visible, no clear color difference. 

Deep Sky Objects: M45, The Pleiades: open, located in Taurus; seven brightest stars go under the name "The Seven Sisters"

M31, "The Andromeda Galaxy", located in Andromeda: most identifiable spiral galaxy

Cygnus' "North American Nebula", a faint green emission nebula, can be seen tonight

Q2 Observations #2

Date: November 21, 2013

Time: 8:30 - 9:30 pm

Location: Backyard (North Sarasota, FL)

Sky Conditions: Mostly clear, with some lower hanging clouds. Moon: waning gibbous.

Instruments Used: naked eye observations, no binoculars/telescopes

Planets: Venus

Bright Stars noted: Deneb, Alberio, Gamma Andromeda

Constellations noted: Taurus, Andromeda, Cygnus

Binary Star: Alberio: one star bright blue, the other (lower to right) yellow. Gamma Andromeda: color difference - blue and golden. 

Deep Sky Objects: M45, The Pleiades: open, located in Taurus; seven brightest stars go under the name "The Seven Sisters"

M31, "The Andromeda Galaxy", located in Andromeda: most identifiable spiral galaxy