Research Blog Numero Uno

Hi.

Does anyone read this?  I hope someone will.

I am writing as a sorts of journal for my project:  Gabrielle and i are writing a  research project about  phyllosilciates in the Mawrth Vallis region of Mars. I'm worried we wont get it done but that's not the point of this blog. I intend to  explain our progress as well as our results here on this blog.

Tonight I am drafting a 250 word abstract for  the southeastern Michigan science fair, I feel it is too short and needs more work but i feel if i work out some ideas on here,putting it in the document will be easier.

Not having done this type of abstract is nerve racking for me. I don't like new things all too much. This  condensing and squishing all but the science out of an abstract is foreign  and competing with my formal English training which, as far as the scientific world is concerned, is too embellished. I wrote about 181 words.... I hope to add to it more. I know it'll be edited tomorrow. Good to know it can be improved,as my writing abilities can be a tad dodgy.

living long and prospering i am. I shall write more  when there is more to report.

Astronomy and Art go hand and Hand to me.

Woe is this Blog..... why must Astronomy end? I am frustrated immensely by the fact that the class ends :/ Alas I'm not quitting out on this blog, i want to  continue it and give updates about my Astronomy related day to day life. I mean if anyone cares? I don't truly know?  I might also link this blog to my tumblr after in hopes of getting more readers.

Now to the reason I'm writing to you: THE FINAL BLOG ASSIGNMENT ( sobs)  fortunately for me it's about my other love, Art. Until i took astronomy and found out how wicked cool it it i was very interested in a career in the Arts. I had to find some astronomy related art forms.... I have several.

I have two songs, one is an obvious choice " Drops of Jupiter" by Train. Patrick Monahan wrote the lyrics and they are as follows :
Now that she's back in the atmosphere
With drops of Jupiter in her hair, hey, hey
She acts like summer and walks like rain
Reminds me that there's time to change, hey, hey
Since the return from her stay on the moon
She listens like spring and she talks like June, hey, hey

Tell me did you sail across the sun
Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded
And that heaven is overrated

Tell me, did you fall from a shooting star
One without a permanent scar
And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there

Now that she's back from that soul vacation
Tracing her way through the constellation, hey, hey
She checks out Mozart while she does tae-bo
Reminds me that there's room to grow, hey, hey

Now that she's back in the atmosphere
I'm afraid that she might think of me as plain ol' Jane
Told a story about a man who is too afraid to fly so he never did land

Tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet
Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day
And head back to the milky way
And tell me, did Venus blow your mind
Was it everything you wanted to find
And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there

Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken
Your best friend always sticking up for you even when I know you're wrong
Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance five-hour phone
Conversation
The best soy latte that you ever had, and me

Tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet
Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day
And head back toward the Milky Way

And are you lonely looking for yourself out there?

Tell me did you sail across the sun
Did you make it to the milky way to see the lights all faded
And that heaven is overrated

Tell me, did you fall from a shooting star
One without a permanent scar
And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there


You can see why it would be an obvious choice right? I felt the lyrics always made me think of a lady speeding around the universe sitting on a star and her dress of sparkles like stardust trailing behind her, though as i just found out Pat Monahan wrote the opening lines about his mom after she lost a battle to cancer ( which is really sweet, at least i think so.)
It's always been a song i tried singing because i liked all the star and planet  references... I didnt understand the part about chicken and soy lattes...... that has no business in the song in my opinion.


Another song i love to death is Final Night by Daniel and the Lion. Less known tha train and they hail from Madison, Wisconsin, they have more of a  folksy sound and their tune of Final night ( written by daniel pingrey and jimmy linville) on the EP  appropriately titled " Final Night" there's one line and it blows me away ever time

: You are Stardust.

All the other lyrics are more focused on death but being okay with it and such but that one line, every time i listen to it i get chills hearing it because, we  really are made of stardust.  IT's something that makes us stop and ponder a bit that's  leaving a shiver down my spine at the very least.

I highly recommend either Daniel and the Lion or Train as great bands!  Thank you to everyone who reads these.

Making a name for Myself in the Galaxy ( Actually with glaxies)

Thank god the government shutdown didn't permanently cripple APOD! It's  been a huge help in making this possible!

 

 

 

 

 

Behold!  It's a  bit dodgy but if you squint, you can see  My name in the images. The J, the I, and the E are Galaxies and the M and the A are Nebulae!

 

J: It's an artist interpretation of what will happen when M31 and our Galaxy will eventually collide http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120604.html

 

A: This is the Cat's Eye Nebula http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070629.html

 

M: The Snake Nebula in Ophiuchus  http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090220.html

 

I: Irregular Galaxy NGC 55 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090812.html

 

E: Fireworks Galaxy NGC 6946 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110101.html

Every image was either flipped or rotated to make the exact letter shape.

 

Lastly, If I had to communicate from someone not from this known earth, I'd prefer to use body motions ( think interpretive dance) or Images, not  any written words, maybe I'd use science, it is pretty universal, but to me pictures sound like the best option. But how do we know they se the same as us? if  they se at all? Maybe  there's  no one out there  who can at this time communicate with us in anyway. We don't have all the answers, but we keep the frequency of  neutral Hydrogen under close watch, just in case anyone wants to drops us a line using the most abundant source in the universe/.

 



UFO's : a Disscussion

LINK: http://bufora.org.uk/Analysis-of-UFO-Photographs.php

This Week we take a turn into controversy : UFOS, which  to some means little green men and to others.... I could fling my tennis shoe in the air and if you didn't see me fling it that would technically be a UFO to other people. Yet  there has been some actual research done upon  UFOs and what we really do know about  these unknown fliers.

On the British UFO Research Association Website I  found a really intriguing page  about decoding and  debunking UFO photos. It shows possible UFO photos but debunks air planes, fakers, birds and even shaky cameramen as the culprits of these " UFO "  sightings  I love the pictures in the "hoax " section : The "Raw" image just shows its a pie plate tin on a stick!

 
 


 There were several stories on the page talking about certain images, my absolute favorite being the  nighttime photos of  "advanced flying craft".  People sent in photos to BUFORA  that did have a craft like shape with long arm like appendages and  dancing lasers lights. But  under further inspection ( Making this  the follow up to  many a UFO stories) a shaky hand made the image a blurry blob so   what might have been a foreign craft may also have been a  jumbo jet!

My personal definition of a UFO is  an unidentified flying object, be it intelligent life looking in on us, a forging spy plane or  a lightning bug  flying to high over my head to tell if it's  a piloted craft or not. I'm pretty loosey- goosey about UFOs and what they 'really are'. I believe certain UFOs exist ( foreign military craft especially) but I don't think there's a lot of  aliens checking up on us, mostly because I don't  tend to find us  that interesting, special? yes, but interesting? no.

My sister thinks UFOs  are more of an optical allusion to us and we don't realize what they  truly are. I  truly agree with her on that impromptu testimony

Astronomy Blogs Other than my Own ( or Mrs. Herrold's)

I really really really wish I could simply promo my astronomy buddy's ( Gabs) blog here because it's one I actually read quite frequently and needless to say, we're good friends and I want to support her!

Alas posting a comment doesn't work for me because of my  different blogging platform ( Hums "Why Can't We be Friends") so I decided to sniff around Astro Bob's blog, It sounded really interesting!

LINK ( b/c I  always forget this) : http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2013/12/09/titan-a-place-to-stretch-your-wings-and-fly/


Dec 9 Post : Titan, a Place to Stretch Your Wings and Fly!

Summary: Titan is a wondrous land that because of it's dense atmosphere ( comprised of 98% nitrogen and  about 1.45 times thicker than the earth's atmosphere) and  weak gravity a human actually fly around on a pair of homemade Wings. Another stunning feature of Titan is the seasonal south polar vortex! Spinning  completely around in 9 hrs ( about 42x faster than the 16 day rotation period of Titan) No one is really sure what causes it, but scientists are claiming it shows open cell convection.  Finally titan is littered with lakes filled with  natural gasses chilled into liquid form ( as the surface temperature of -290 degrees Fahrenheit.


I posted my comment under Jamie L. ( like I always do) and if you use the same link and scroll all the way to the bottom you should see my comment!

Astronomy Magazines: Battle Royale

Oh, what a delight to read such... enriching magazines ( I know what I want for  Christmas: subscriptions to these magazines!) But they're being forced against one another for educational purposes which as good as reason as  any other.

First off I need to compare specific areas of the  magazines :

Monthly Sky Map: Well the Sky and Telescope I have is from 2012 and the Astronomy is from last month ( lucky me!!) so the Astronomy  is more recent, and I like the  sky event calendar on the side of the map but I prefer Sky and telescope's map, mostly for the ascetics and coloring of the map.

News Briefs: Astronomy seemed to have more ( in number) in their news briefs. They weren't all lengthy, some were just little blips. Sky and Telescope had  fewer  stories but each one they had was beefier. So quality over quantity was present in Sky and Telescope.

Reader Photo Gallery: I didn't know I was looking at the reader photos in Sky and Telescope. They were magnificent but I didn't  know, they weren't well labeled, unlike Astronomy. They were really well identified and I was impressed with  their selection.

( I'm listening to music as I write and the lyrics " You're made of Stardust"  in a song by Daniel and the lion appeared and it made me really happy  because as I write an astronomy blog,  my music  is fitting the theme, sorry I thought I should add that)

Feature Articles: The Sky and Telescope had a  lovely article on Brown dwarfs and how the  spectral classes are being shifted for the cooler and cooler stars being discovered, which  Mrs. Herrold talked about the  special L, T and Y classes below the M class, formerly the coolest class in the spectral classes. Astronomy had an article of the makings of a spectacular comet in honor of comet ISON's arrival this month ( WE"VE GOT 5 DAYS till ISON passes closest to the son!!!) and they recounted past stunning comet displays.

Monthly columns: Astronomy has a beautiful column on astrosketching ( can I do that on observing nights instead ? ) the quality  of the sketches they had of the moon's craters and maria was stunning. Sky and Telescope had a ho-hum article on observing that involved a lot of eyepiece sizes that to me as one without a telescope weren't too interested in.

Other Ascetics Sky and Telescope had too many telescope ads I found them too frequent  but overall had better graphics. Astronomy had the better writing and information for me.


Personally I would pick Astronomy Magazine  based on the fact that I don't have a telescope so I don't need to read about the latest eyepieces or lenses, I want straight star stuff. Which astronomy provides in a tasteful manner.:

Sun Recap

I'm adding to the  solar Trivia I answered back in the middle of 
October!

All Corrected info will be in this pretty Fuchsia color 

I need to answer these questions before Friday so... I'm going to do just that! Lets get ready for some Solar Trivia!!!! * assorted applause like on those game shows*

1.) How does the sun compare to other Stars in the sky?
A: We do know that Stars don't  often travel alone,  yet in pairs or triplets, but usually not alone. The "Bachelor" sun we have is unique in this aspect. I also know our Sun isn't as hot at other stars. It's a yellow-y star so it wouldn't be as hot as... say a blue star. I this is what I think now. It could all be false.
Our Star's pretty Average and  while it may travel alone, overall based on it's size, temperature, and composition, The sun is pretty average and it's not as hot as a blue  star so I feel while my answer wasn't really.. in depth here, it wasn't wrong

2.) What is the Sun Made of ?
A: Gases? I bet I should know all of this from  that earth science class I was supposed to take but if I took earth science I wouldn't have taken astronomy this year. Pretty sure Hydrogen & Nitrogen are  some of the gases that make up the sun.
Well, I  left Plasma out  which  is bad since the sun is technically made of Plasma. But I was right to say  there's Hydrogen and Nitrogen ( MUCH less nitrogen if any) in the sun. IT's Hydrogen, Helium and  about 100 other trace elements.


3.) What Powers the Sun? What gives it Energy?
A: The gas would be a perfect fuel supply for the Star to emit light with, which this backs the Gas notion.
Really unsophisticated and  I had NO CLUE how  nuclear fusion worked and how  light doesn't emit form the core but  from the photosphere and chromosphere, but Hydrogen and Helium are the main energy sources..... :)

4.) Besides giving light and heat, how else can the Sun affect Earth?
A: Sun spots and Solar flares where the  Sun messes up all different kinds of wavelengths and frequencies which disrupts satellite signals, causing electronic devices to become unresponsive.
Whew..... I was right about Solar flares, but Sunspots don't really seem to affect us. IT's kinda funny reading about my previous answers.

5.) What cycles of activity does the Sun have?
A: I honestly have no definite answer on this one. I would believe whenever you face closer to it  ( Summer)  that is when  the activities of the Sun affect you the most but I don't know what separate plans the sun has for itself in the lieu of regular activity
Now knowing there are two separate cycles ( the Magnetic cycle and the sunspot  cycle) I know it depends on the cycle not the season!
6.)What are sun spots?
A: Another question I can't answer with any real certainty. I want to say the "spots" are gas bubbles within the sun that may and or may not burst. I could be far off. I know I am.
I was accidentally  identifying granules here, I think. I really find the  sunspots with their  polarities and their arcs stretching from the north polarity to the south. I also think it's fascination that  the plasma can "break free" of it's magnetic field and that's when it becomes light and that whole  dreams of fields article really helped me comprehend this concept of sunspots.


7.) What are the Northern Lights and how are they caused
The Northern lights are  what happens when  light hits the Atmosphere in such a way it causes the rippling colors. I really know squat about the Northern lights other than the fact that they are pretty
. It's more when the photons  form strong solar flares are absorbed into our atmosphere( thanks to the magnetic field taking them in) and the excess energy makes  the molecules in our atmosphere fluorescent but  I'm glad I know now, better later  than never right?