Quarter 3/ Observation #1

Jan. 24, 2012
7:30 - 8:30 P.M.
Tonight I tried to discern which star was which in the constellation Orion. The three "belt" stars are Mintaka, Alnitak, and Alnilam. I had trouble remembering which red and blue stars where Betelgeuse and Rigel; I had to double check my notes to be sure. The left, reddish star was Betelgeuse and the left, bluish star was Rigel. My way of remembering this to arrange the stars in alphabetical order/ left to right in the evening sky. Additionally I could not see the moon tonight, which actually helped me stargaze. In the northeast the Big Dipper/ Ursa Major was on the eastern horizon. The north had both the king and the queen, Cepheus and Cassiopeia. As the winter constellation rose in the east and the fall constellations fell in the west, Taurus sat almost directly overhead.

Quarter 2/ Observations #6

Jan.9,2012
7:00 P.M. - 8:00 P.M.

This morning's moon was full in the western horizon, meaning that at 7 P.M. the moon rising in the east was waning gibbous. Cancer sat below the moon and Gemini sat above it. Gemini is adjacent to Auriga so I saw that too. To the southwest I saw Jupiter, and since Jupiter currently rests in Aries I was able to find that as well. In the south/southeast I spent a great deal of time looking for Eridanus. I used Orion's belt to point out Taurus and find Eridanus right next to it. Finally in the west I saw Cepheus, Andromeda, and Triangulum.

APOD 1.3

Great Orion Nebulae
2011 September 13
One of the greatest and brightest nebulas in the night sky is visable now just south of Orion's Belt. This is known as the "Great Orion Nebulae", "Great Nebula in Orion", or even M42. It is made of of two nebula in close proximity to one another the one on the right is full of gaseous young stars making it appear red, while the nebula to the left is actually a reflection nebula. In addition, it is estimated to be 24 light years across and be the closest reigon of massive star formation to Earth. I think it will be exciting to look for this bright cluster in tonight's sky; thank goodness I can see it with my naked eye!