APOD 2.4

Created by the debris from explosion of a massive star, the Crab Nebula contains the Crab Pulsar. A rare neutron star, the Crab Pulsar spins 30 times a second. This remnant energizes the Crab's emissions in the electromagnetic spectrum. It is located in the constellation Taurus about 6,500 light years away.

APOD 2.3

What do you know about the constellation Orion? Yes, you're right it does have three bright stars that make up the belt, but what else? The Flame Nebula is right below the Alnitak star. To the right of the stars there is the Horsehead Nebula. On the right corner there is the Orion Nebula, which consist of gasses with energetic caldron. Last but not least, at the top of the picture there exist multiple blue stars called the Running Man. Now that you know the few phenomenas that make up the Orion constellation think about how many light years they all are. All of the phenomenas named above are about 75 light years away. Amazing!

APOD 2.2

This disk galaxy is called NGC 4762. It is nearby the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies. Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope we are able to view how thin this disk galaxy is. NGC 4762 is so thin that it is difficult to identify the type of disk galaxy it is. As far as we know the stellar line is about 100,000 light years! But do not think this disk galaxy is too rare; it is about as thin as our own Milky Way Galaxy. Also, did you catch the other galaxies surrounding NGC 4762? Breath taking right? It truly is an infinite world out there.

APOD 2.1

This is the Veil Nebula. It was created by an explosion of a enormous star and what you are seeing are debris clouds. From Earth, the Veil Nebula is about one half of a degree, about the same apparent size of the Moon. Its distance is about 12 light years! Thanks to the technology we have today we are bale to view the beauty of this phenomena.

APOD 1.8

Located closed to the constellation of Scorpius, Messier 6 and Comet Siding Sprint are about 2,000 light-years away. It has been concluded that the comet will be passing by the planet Mars with only 139,500 kilometers of distance. The comet will be observed by a spacecraft in Mars's orbit. Can you believe it will be the first comet that will be studied by spacecraft? Stay tune on the information the spacecraft will fine.

Johann Bayer Biography

Angie Aramayo

Mr. Percival

Astronomy Period 1

10 Oct. 2014

Johann Bayer

The astronomer Johann Bayer was born in 1572 on Rhain, Germany.  He went to the University of Ingolstadt where he studied philosophy and law. Like many, Bayer was interested in the new discoveries in astronomy. He did many investigations and published several books but his most famous work was the book called Uranometria. Later on in his life, Bayer was appointed as legal advisor in the city council of Augsburg. He became a successful and wealthy name due to his position. Also, he was recognized for the work that he had done in astronomy.

What people remember about Johann Bayer the most is his book, Uranometria.  The book consists of 48 constellations, which Ptolemy had discovered, and the naming of stars in the constellations. Bayer’s information about the sky was more modernized and updated compared to the previous astronomers’ information. For example, around the time Bayer wrote the book the Dutch navigator Pierter Dirckszoon Keyser defined 12 new southern constellations. Therefore, Bayer added this information in his book.  

Although Bayer may deserve the credit for updating astronomical information, his celestial atlas formed issues. To begin with, all of the constellations in his book were labeled left to right. This caused a problem because previous astronomers had done the atlases right to left, which formed confusion to many. He also bracketed stars that have the same magnitude in each constellation but, unfortunately, did not show how he assigned the letter included in each bracket. This issue made it harder for his readers to understand what he was presenting in his book. Bayer did demonstrate new information to the astronomical world but he could have improved the way he presented it to avoid confusion in later work about stars.

Bayer has also contributed to the discoveries of astronomy by demonstrating different names for the constellations from the Bible. He was a strong Protestant, therefore, finding names for constellations from the Bible seemed like the best alternative for him. He named the constellations from the Northern Hemisphere from the New Testament and the Southern Hemisphere constellations from the Old Testament. As interesting as that sounds, Bayer’s opinion about the naming of constellations was ignored.

Throughout his time, Johann Bayer was an important astronomer. He gathered all the constellations and their position and added them in his book Uranometria. Yes, the information in his book might have been confusing but at the time he wrote it, it was just what the people needed to become information about the constellations in the sky.

APOD 1.7

The connection between the Sun and the Moon is the Milky Way Galaxy. The colors across the sky is our dear galaxy, the Milky Way. In this picture, there are two sandstone monoliths, located in Utah, each representing the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Moon. The perks about this picture is that it shows you where stars, nebulas, and the Andromeda Galaxy are located. It is amazing what one can find in the middle of the dessert!