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Slide 1: Wonders of the Sky
Slide 2: Wonders of the Dark Sky
Slide 3: Twinkling: Star Scintillation • Why do stars twinkle? Stars twinkle because their light is distorted as it passes through earth’s atmosphere • Also termed scintillation • The steadiness of air is termed seeing • Seeing is poor if stars appear to twinkle to the unaided eye
Slide 4: Star Scintillation (twinkling) • Images of a single star • Ideal star resembles a “bull’s eye” pattern • Atmospheric Refraction • Objects low in the sky appear with rainbow tints • Atmosphere distorts light
Slide 5: Why do Star’s Twinkle? Turbulent air causes a star’s image to distort
Slide 6: Venus Refraction
Slide 7: Star Colors: Big & Little Dippers Where is Polaris?
Slide 8: Orion Betelgeuse •Look for these star colors when you see Orion Belt Sword Orion Nebula in Sword of Orion Rigel
Slide 10: Meteors • Meteors or shooting stars represent the burning (from air friction) in our atmosphere of particles from space • A particle the size of a grain of sand produces the typical meteor or “shooting star” • A fireball, a brilliant, shadow casting meteor, is by objects as large as a basketball • A bolide is a fireball that appears to break apart during flight • Some bolides have been reported to emit rumbling or booming sounds
Slide 11: Leonid Meteor & Big Dipper http://www.astropics.com/leonids/l02bd.htm
Slide 12: Leonid Meteor & Pleiades http://www.astropics.com/leonids/l01ss.jpg
Slide 13: Fireballs http://www.southdowns.org.uk/images/fireballB.jpg
Slide 14: Peekskill Bolide This bolide scattered several meteorites across the northeastern United States http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/Images/StarChild/solar_system_level2/fireball_big.gif
Slide 15: Meteorite 1, Car 0 •A meteorite, a fragment of the Peekskill bolide, penetrated the trunk of this car •The actual meteorite is displayed below the car
Slide 16: Meteor Showers • Meteors are visible every night, these are termed sporadics • Other meteors fall in predictable showers • Meteor showers are produced when the earth passes through the trail of debris cast off by a comet • Earth passes through these trails on the same evenings each year
Slide 17: Radiant • Meteor showers are named for the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate • For example, Perseid meteors originate from the constellation Perseus • The exact point of origin is termed the radiant
Slide 18: Shower Origins • Meteor showers occur on the same evenings each year as the earth passes through the debris shed by comets
Slide 19: Leonid Meteor Shower
Slide 20: “Falling Stars” & Sirius Sirius is the night sky’s brightest star http://www.astropics.com/leonids/l01nsf.htm
Slide 21: Leonid Radiant
Slide 22: Meteor Videos • Alberta Meteor 2008 • Peekskill, NY Meteor 1992
Slide 23: Forecast: Meteor Showers Main Meteor Showers Quadrantids—Jan 03 Lyrids—Apr 21 Eta Aquarids—May 04 S. Delta Aquarids—July 29 Perseids—Aug 11-12 Orionids—Oct 20 Leonids—Nov 17 Geminids—Dec 13-14
Slide 24: Leonid Meteor Storm • One annual shower, the Leonids, has the potential to produce immense meteor storms • During a meteor storm, thousands of meteors per hour occur • Leonid storms can occur every 33 years, and the last occurred in the late 1990s http://www.mreclipse.com/Meteors/Leo01/image/Leonid1833-1x.GIF
Slide 25: Dust in the Solar System: Zodiacal Light • In certain seasons, a faint, pyramidshaped glow is visible above the horizon which is termed the zodiacal light • The Zodiacal light is visible along the ecliptic, the region of the zodiacal constellations • This glow results from sunlight reflected from dust in the solar system’s plane • Also known as the false dawn
Slide 26: Zodiacal Light
Slide 27: Zodiacal Light & Meteor http://epod.usra.edu/archive/images/img_3491-1.jpg
Slide 28: Zodiacal Light in Gemini The zodiacal light is found along the zodiac or ecliptic http://www.allthesky.com/various/preview/zodiacgeminim-p.jpg
Slide 29: False Dawn • Note the zodiacal light in the left of this all-sky image • The Milky Way is visible stretching from upper right to lower left
Slide 30: Right: Milky Way, Left: Zodiacal Light Night Glows Photo from southeast Arizona http://www.arizonaskyvillage.com/assets/images/autogen/a_Copy_of_Zodiacal_Light___milkyway.jpg
Slide 31: Dust in the Solar System: Gegenschein • The gegenschein is also an effect created by solar system dust • Gegenschein is German for “counterglow”, it is a brightening of the sky in the direction exactly opposite the sun • Extremely dim and difficult to observe http://www.astrosurf.org/lombry/Documents/gegenschein-15mar1980.jpg
Slide 32: •This all-sky image shows the gegenschein, zodiacal light, and Milky Way
Slide 33: Comets • Comets are icy bodies from the outer solar system • When near the sun, comets emit tails of particles and gas • Appear as glowing shapes in the night sky • Appear to move against stars in background
Slide 34: Dusty Comet (McNaught) Comet McNaught, January 2007
Slide 35: Comet Lulin (2009)
Slide 36: Comet Holmes (2007) • Comet Holmes developed a huge gas cloud (coma), that became larger in volume than the sun
Slide 37: Comet Holmes in Perseus
Slide 38: Comet Hyakutake (1996)
Slide 39: Northern Lights • The northern lights or aurora borealis is one of the most dramatic of the sky wonders • Usually visible from high latitudes (Link) • Can be seen rarely from cont. United States • Results from glowing gases created by the interaction of earth’s atmospheric gases and radiation from the sun (solar wind) http://www.thisisthelife.com/photos/experiences/large/aurora-borealis.jpg
Slide 40: Appearance of Aurora • Resemble light shows that ripple and swirl like waving curtains or billowing plumes of colored smoke • Usually green in color, range from gray, to green, to red • Each color represents a different gas; oxygen is green, nitrogen is red
Slide 41: Aurora from Norway
Slide 42: Church, Aurora Borealis, 1865
Slide 43: Red Aurora http://www.livingwilderness.com/patterns/nlights2.html
Slide 44: Wow! http://www.eielson.af.mil/library/news/05nsvs/feb05/Feb_4/Aurora%20borealis.jpg
Slide 45: Norway, March 08
Slide 47: Aurora from Space Shuttle
Slide 48: Airglow • Airglow is a very dim glow present all through the atmosphere • It is created by a process similar to the northern lights • Airglow can be identified in longexposure photos of the sky • The all-sky view at right was taken in Hawaii, the airglow is visible as streaks
Slide 49: Bands of Airglow
Slide 50: Airglow from Space • Airglow is visible as a green layer in this photo from space
Slide 51: Airglow from ISS
Slide 52: The Best Dark Sky Sight: The Milky Way • From a dark sky, the Milky Way is a naked eye spectacle • Appears as a delicate, misty band of light that arches the sky • Bright glowing clouds and dark lanes are also visible in the Milky Way band • MW represents the light of thousands of stars too faint to be seen directly • MW is our view from within our galaxy • Using a telescope, Galileo discovered that the Milky Way was composed of stars in 1609
Slide 53: Milky Way Starfields
Slide 54: Summer MW •The Milky Way arches across the entire sky during early evening in summer •The photo shows a view to the southwest in late summer
Slide 55: Home Galaxy •How our galaxy would appear from space Looking straight down on the Milky Way All-sky MW photo from Hawaii
Slide 56: Whole Sky View, Hawaii •The galaxy’s center lies in the center of this all-sky image •Note the faint zodiacal band running horizontally through the center of the image
Slide 57: Lund Milky Way Panorama http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970517.html
Slide 58: Mellinger Panorama
Slide 59: Naked Eye Wonders of the Sky • Most celestial objects (galaxies, star clusters, nebulas) require a telescope to be seen • A few of these objects are bright enough to be seen with the naked eye • Objects: – – – – – Beehive Cluster Pleiades Double Cluster Orion Nebula Andromeda Galaxy
Slide 60: Beehive Cluster (M44) • • • • A bright star cluster located in the constellation Cancer Resembles a swarm of bees when seen in binoculars To the eye, appears as a glowing spot in the sky Romans used it as a predictor of weather. If invisible, meant rain was coming M44 is an open star cluster containing 200 stars. It is located 515 light years from earth Next Slide: Beehive visible to upper right of eclipsed sun • •
Slide 61: M44 and Eclipse
Slide 62: Cancer Star Map •Cancer the Crab is a spring season constellation
Slide 63: Pleiades: Seven Sisters • • A bright star cluster located in the constellation Taurus Resembles a tiny “little dipper” (real LD is Ursa Minor). About 7 stars visible to naked eye Celebrated since ancient times, appears in mythology of many cultures Open star cluster containing about 100 stars. Located 407 light years from earth • •
Slide 64: Seven Sisters
Slide 65: Pleiades Deep Image
Slide 66: Taurus Star Map •Taurus the Bull is a winter constellation •The bright star Aldebaran marks the eye of the Bull
Slide 67: “Taurus” Cave Painting •Cave painting in Lascaux, France •Thought to represent Taurus with Pleiades at upper right of Bull •Estimated age of painting, 14,000 BC
Slide 68: Perseus Double Cluster • Twin open star cluster located in constellation Perseus • Bright glowing shape in night sky, telescope reveals countless stars • Located about 7000 light years from earth
Slide 69: •Perseus is an autumn constellation •In mythology, Perseus slew the snake-haired Medusa •The Double Cluster is labelled “h + x” in upper right •The Double Cluster is easy to spot between Perseus and the “W” of Cassiopeia Perseus Star Map
Slide 70: Andromeda Galaxy • • • Our nearest large neighbor galaxy Similar in size and shape to Milky Way Andromeda Galaxy is visible to the naked eye as a glowing spot in the constellation of Andromeda Galaxies like Andromeda and our Milky Way are composed of billions of stars 2.3 million light years distant (wave!) • •
Slide 71: Andromeda Constellation Locate M31 and M33
Slide 72: Andromeda Spiral
Slide 73: Orion Nebula • Bright nebula (glowing cloud of gas) located below Orion’s Belt • Represents a place where stars are born • Nebula located a bit over 1300 light years from earth
Slide 74: Orion’s Sword •Orion is a winter constellation •Note bright stars Betelgeuse (upper left) and Rigel (lower right)
Slide 75: Orion Psychedelic
Slide 76: Light Pollution • Stargazing is difficult in the city • Excess artificial light that enters the night sky is termed light pollution • Observatories are built in remote places away from cities if possible http://www.apstas.com/astrotas/glow.jpg
Slide 77: Light Pollution: Got Stars? http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2003/20aug03/Carlson1.jpg
Slide 78: Light Pollution near Tenerife, Canary Islands
Slide 79: Earth at Night (Click Below) http://veimages.gsfc.nasa.gov//1438/earth_lights_lrg.jpg