Archives for December 2008
Merry Christmas
Published on 24 Dec 2008 at 11:51 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Uncategorized, star clusters.
Merry Christmas everyone!
The image at the top of this post is a European Southern Observatory image of NGC 2264. The image hit the web a week or so ago, but I thought that I’d hold off posting it until now. NGC 2264 is located in Monoceros, rising in the evenings this time of year. […]
The Journey to Palomar
Published on 23 Dec 2008 at 12:20 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under astronomers.
Byrd and I were watching television, and a program come on PBS that I’ve been waiting to see for nearly two years. It is called “The Journey to Palomar.” The program obviously talks about the Palomar Observatory, which I have blogged about before, and selected as one of my wonders of […]
Naming craters on Mercury
Published on 22 Dec 2008 at 9:03 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under planets.
There are rules for naming things in astronomy. The only body whose names astronomers consider official is the International Astronomical Union (not various private entities who sell star names, particularly at this time of the year). For the planet Mercury, the rules are that the craters are named for people who have made […]
Read ‘Naming craters on Mercury’
Apollo 8, 40 years ago
Published on 21 Dec 2008 at 4:04 pm.
7 Comments.
Filed under space exploration.
Today is the winter solstice. That means that the Sun is the farthest south that it will appear in the sky. That would be a topic worth blogging about. However, I wrote a bit about the solstice several years ago, and there is nothing particularly different about this one. What is […]
CoS 84
Published on 20 Dec 2008 at 11:49 pm.
No Comments.
Filed under blogging.
The 84th edition of the Carnival of Space is now available at Next Big Future.
Go check out the carnival. This edition features a little over two dozen blog posts from around the blogosphere relating to space.
-Astroprof
Rings
Published on 18 Dec 2008 at 4:13 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under personal.
This is an image of the Ring Nebula (M57) taken a number of years ago by the Hubble Space Telescope. It is a cloud of gas shed by a star about 1600 years ago (give or take a few hundred years). The star, located nearly 2300 light years away, shed this gas as […]
CoS 83
Published on 17 Dec 2008 at 12:18 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under blogging.
Final exams are over. Course grades are in. I have been frantically catching up on lots of things that have been on hold for the past couple of weeks. And, of course, now it is time to think about Christmas shopping. Ich.
So, I’ve once again slacked off on the blogging. But, the Carnival of Space […]
