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The Constellation Andromeda

Andromeda was the beautiful daughter of King Cepheus and the extremely vain Queen Cassiopeia. On one occasion the Queen boasted that her daughter Andromeda was even more beautiful than the Nereids, the alluring sea-nymph daughters of Poseidon, the God of the Sea.

The Nereids were outraged by this proclamation and demanded revenge. Poseidon, to appease his vengeful daughters, sent flood waters along with the sea monster Cetus, to destroy King Cepheus' kingdom. Cetus wreaked havoc along the coastline; death and destruction followed in his wake. Desperate to protect his land and people, Cepheus sought the help of Ammon, the Oracle of Zeus.

Ammon told Cepheus that the only way to stop the brutal devastation of his kingdom was to sacrifice his virgin daughter Andromeda to the sea monster Cetus. Andromeda was then chained to a rock on the coast of Jaffa (modern day Tel Aviv) to atone for the boastful sins of her mother Cassiopeia.

Andromeda, shackled, alone and terrified, saw Cetus approaching through roiling sea waters and began to scream. The sea monster had its maws opened to consume the sacrificial virgin when Perseus arrived riding the winged horse Pegasus, after beheading the Gorgon Medusa. Perseus swooped down from the sky holding the head of Medusa with the face toward Cetus. The sea monster was turned to stone upon seeing the head and perished, sinking forever to the depths of the sea.

Andromeda had been previously promised to Phineus but due to the heroic rescue by Perseus, Cepheus and Cassiopeia readily agreed to a marriage of Perseus and Andromeda. Their marriage produced seven sons and one daughter.

Andromeda was placed in the constellations of the Northern sky by Athena. She is surrounded by her father Cepheus, her mother Cassiopeia, her husband Perseus and the winged horse that made the marriage possible - Pegasus. The sea monster Cetus is always close by but Pisces, the constellation of fishes, now keeps Andromeda out of harms way.

The constellation Andromeda boasts, as befitting her mother, the Andromeda Galaxy, a spectacular galaxy close enough to be seen by the naked eye. Close is a relative term here, being that the galaxy is 2.5 million light years away, giving it the distinction of being the most distant object visible without the need for a telescope. The Andromeda galaxy is larger than the Milky Way, while the Milky Way contains more dark matter and is most likely more massive. Being so incredibly far away, the galaxy is difficult to spot without a telescope.

The Pleiades (The Seven Sisters)

The Pleiades (Messier Object 45) has a very unique feature in astronomy. It is the most obvious star cluster to the naked eye in the night sky; along with being one of the closest star clusters. This cluster is found at the shoulder of the bull in the constellation Taurus. The Pleiades were used by the ancient Greek sailors as a type of weather forecast: if the Pleiades were visible it was a good time to set sail; if the Pleiades were not visible, most likely a storm was coming. The conjunction of the cluster with the sun in the spring signified the beginning of the summer sailing season, while the opposition in the fall signified the end of the sailing season.

The Pleiades star cluster consists of over 400 mostly faint stars, along with the 6 to 15 brighter stars seen well with the naked eye during good viewing conditions. There are also several nebulae within the star cluster. These nebulae are blue in color indicating reflection nebulae, which reflect the light of bright stars near or within the nebulae. The reflection nebula seen at right is most likely part of the dust in a molecular cloud and is not actually related to the Pleiades; these two bodies are simply crossing each other in the sky, like two ships in the night. It is estimated that the Pleiades star cluster will survive for roughly another 250 million years. Gravitational interactions with the spiral arms of the galaxy and giant molecular clouds will cause the demise of this most impressive star cluster.

The Seven Sisters are the daughters of the titan Atlas, who held up the sky, and the sea-nymph Pleione, the protectress of sailing. The daughters were Maia (the eldest), Electra, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope (which is a double star) and Merope (the youngest). Their half-sisters include the Hyades, Calypso, Hyas and the Hesperides.

The only one of the seven sisters to marry a mortal was Merope, who wed Sisyphus and bore him several sons. The other six sisters all consorted with gods. Zeus sired four children with three of the sisters. Poseidon was father to three children from two of the sisters and Ares fathered a child with one sister.

Atlas joined one of his brothers and several other Titans in a war against the Olympic gods. Two of Atlas' brothers, after weighing the odds, betrayed the battling Titans by siding with the Olympians. The Titans were defeated and Zeus condemned Atlas to stand at the edge of the Earth and hold up the heavens with his shoulders.

One day while strolling the Boeotian countryside, the Pleiades were spotted by Orion, the great hunter. Orion was immediately taken by the incredible beauty of the seven sisters and pursued them across the earth for seven years. Zeus took pity on the sisters on behalf of Orion's relentless pursuit of them and changed them into doves, giving them a place in the heavens where they once again were under their father's watchful eye. When Orion was later placed in the heavens, he was set in a position to be behind the Pleiades, forever chasing the lovely ladies he couldn't catch while mortal.

The Pleiades painted by Elihu Vedder 1885

The star cluster: Notice the two bright stars at the far left side, midway. These are the mother and father, Pleione and Atlas, from top to bottom, forever keeping an eye on their children.

NASA: Discovery of Methane Gas on Mars Could Signal Microbial Life

By Amanda Scott - Voice Of America News Washington 16 January 2009

Mars

The U.S. space agency, NASA, says large quantities of methane gas have been detected on Mars, hinting at the possibility of biological or geological activity on the Red Planet.

A team of scientists with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, announced Thursday that the presence of methane gas on Mars is a major discovery.

Astrobiologist Sushil Atreya says there are two possibilities as to why methane exists on Mars. 

"Either it's geology, in which case it's the reaction between water and rock, or it's biology, in which case the microbes are producing the methane," Atreya said.

Methane was first detected on Mars in 2003 by scientists using Earth-based telescopes. Scientists say that one plume of Martian methane contained nearly 19,000 tons of the gas.

NASA's Michael Mumma says methane is quickly destroyed in the Martian atmosphere, so the detection of plumes of methane is significant. 

"Mars is active. Now whether or not its because of geology, or biology, or both, we don't know," he said.

Scientists say they have detected seasonal variations of methane emissions over the planet's northern hemisphere.

Physicist Geronimo Villanueva of Catholic University here in Washington says the gas plumes were emitted during the northern Martian spring and summer.

"One of the most important, striking, things about the discovery is that the regions where we see methane are regions that have a lot of rich history," Villanueva said. "For example, these regions show evidence that waters once flowed over them, and this is very important because if the water is still available below the surface, some activity - geology, biology - could be using them."

Scientists have debated whether reports of methane deposits on Mars were real. But now, Geologist Lisa Pratt says scientists have the evidence needed to consider the possibility of life on the Red Planet. 

"It's time, it's prudent that we begin to explore Mars, looking for the possibility of a life form that's exhaling methane," she said. 

But Pratt says that at most, that life form could be a very thin, nearly invisible film of microbes deep underground.

Scientists say NASA's launch of the Mars Science Laboratory in 2011 could provide more detailed analysis on the presence of methane on the planet.

Spectacular Nebulae

By: Starr Hendon

A Nebula, from the Latin word for cloud, is a large cloud of plasma, interstellar hydrogen gas and dust. Nebula was long-used as a generic term for any extended cloud-like mass prior to the invention of the telescope. The first working telescopes were invented in the Netherlands in 1608 by Hans Lippershey, Zacharias Janssen and Jacob Metius. Galileo and Isaac Newton both made major contributions to the improvement of earlier telescopes. The telescope enabled us to correctly identify objects such as star clusters and galaxies from actual nebulae.

Nebulae are typically classified as either bright or dark. Bright nebulae must be fairly close to nearby stars to glow. Dark nebulae require a brighter backdrop, such as a star cluster, to be visible.

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The Constellation Orion

By: Starr Hendon

Orion, the Hunter, is one of the largest and most easily identifiable constellations in the sky. Once you spot the three stars in Orion's belt the rest of the constellation is easy to make out. Orion's belt is often referred to as the "Three Kings". The three stars that make up Orion's belt are, from left to right; Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka.

Rigel, the large blue-white supergiant at Orion's left knee, is the sixth brightest star in the sky. Betelgeuse, at Orion's right shoulder, is a variable red giant with a diameter larger than the orbit of Mars. Betelgeuse is one of the 20 brightest stars in the sky.

Orion was the son of Poseidon (King of the Sea) and the Gorgon Euryale. Orion, like most of Poseidon's children, was a man of massive proportions. Orion fell in love with Princess Merope of Chios, daughter of King Oenopion. Oenopion would not give his consent for a marriage between Orion and Merope, despite Orion clearing the island of wild beasts and presenting the spoils of the chase to Merope.

Orion attempted to gain possession of Merope by force, enraging Oenopion who, after getting Orion drunk, blinded him. He then cast Orion out on the seashore. Following the sound of the Cyclops' hammer, Orion reached Lemnos. There he met Hephaestus, the lame smith-god, who took pity on the blinded hunter and gave him one of his men, Cedalion, to take him to the abode of the sun.

With Cedalion guiding Orion from his shoulders, the two made their way to the east meeting Helios, the sun-god. Orion's sight was restored when the healing rays of the sun hit his eyes at dawn. With his vision back, Orion then traveled to Crete, where he hunted with the goddess Artemis and her mother Leto. Orion was a skilled and arrogant hunter. During the hunt with Artemis and Leto, Orion threatened to kill every beast on Earth.

Gaia (Mother Earth) was infuriated with Orion's threat and sent a giant scorpion to kill him. In one version of the story, Orion was stung and killed by the scorpion. Orion and Scorpius, the constellation of the scorpion, are at opposition in the sky. As Scorpius rises in the east, Orion escapes the horizon in the west. When Orion rises in the east, he is chasing Scorpius to the west. Never shall the two meet in the sky to do battle.

Orion hunts eternally in the night sky with his two dogs, the constellations Canis Major (Big Dog) and Canis Minor (Little Dog), at his heels.

Between October 20th and 22nd of each year the Orionid meteor shower peaks. In the Northern Hemisphere, the peak rate is 20 meteors per hour. Viewers in the Southern Hemisphere are treated to a peak rate of 40 meteors per hour. One of these years I will have to travel below the Equator to witness the Orionid shower there!

The Quadrantid Meteor Shower

By: Starr Hendon

The Perseid meteor shower is undoubtedly the most well-known meteor shower of the year. With the Perseid shower occurring in August, many people are able to lay out under the sky at night and enjoy watching the "shooting stars" blaze a trail across the sky. August 12th, the peak night of the shower, has always been a date that is marked on my calendar.

A much lesser known shower is the Quadrantids. Peaking this year in the early morning hours of January 3rd, this shower produces more than 100 meteors per hour. With such an awesome display and an impressive per hour count, why aren't the Quadrantids as well-known as the Perseids?

Weather could be the main reason. In much of the country, the first part of January is rainy and snowy, basically being overcast. Put cold on top of that and not many people are willing to bundle up and go stare at the sky for a couple of hours, even if they're lucky enough to get a clear sky. Oh, how I am hoping for a clear sky!

Another reason is the shortness of the shower. Unlike the Perseids, the Quadrantid shower lasts only a few hours. Prof. A.C.B. Lovell wrote in his classic book Meteor Astronomy, "useful counts of the Quadrantid rate were made in [only] 24 Januaries out of a possible 68 between 1860 and 1927. ... The maximum rate appears to have occurred in 1932 (80 per hour) although the results are influenced by unfavorable weather."

To view the Quadrantids shower find the Big Dipper (Ursa Major). At this time of year the Big Dipper is positioned so that the "bowl" is up, with the "handle" pointing down. Look below the handle to see the point of origin for the shower.

The meteor shower became known as the Quadrantids because of its emanation from a now obsolete constellation called Quadrans Muralis (the Mural Quadrant) located on some 19th-century star atlases near the point of meeting between Hercules, Draco and Boötes (which to me has always looked like a kite flying, fairly easy to pick out).

If weather (or cold) is a deterrent for you, you don't have to miss the first meteor shower of the year. Tune into SpaceWeather Radio for a live audio stream from the Air Force Space Surveillance Radar. When a Quadrantid passes over the facility, you will hear a "ping" caused by the radar's powerful transmitter echoing from the meteor's ion trail. During the shower's peak, the soundtrack is guaranteed to entertain.

Look to the sky an hour or two before sunrise to watch this phenomenal sight. Happy skygazing!

All About The Planets Uranus And Neptune

by Patrick Omari

Uranus and Neptune are known as the ice giants, huge blue planets located in the outer Solar System. They are similar to Jupiter and Saturn in that they are predominantly composed of gases and ice but differ in many key areas. While still dwarfing the inner planets the ice giants are smaller than the other gas giants. Due to their distance from Earth they were the last planets to be discovered, Uranus in 1781 and Neptune in 1846.

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All About The Planet Saturn

by Patrick Omari

Saturn is the most visually striking planet in the Solar System. It is the second largest gas giant behind Jupiter and is surrounded by a spectacular series of rings. Saturn is the sixth furthest planet from the Sun at 1,400 million km away and is named after the Roman God Saturnus. The rings are made from icy particles and dust, Saturn has around 60 moons as well as the only moon with a stable atmosphere, Titan.

Saturn has a small core made from ice and rock with the rest of the planet being chiefly hydrogen and helium. There are thought to be liquid metallic hydrogen and liquid hydrogen and helium layers surrounding the core before the gaseous outer layers.

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All About The Planet Jupiter

by Patrick Omari

Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System and is the innermost of the gas giants. Named after the Roman King of the Gods the planet is located beyond the asteroid belt. Jupiter orbits between 740 million and 778 million km from the Sun and is primarily composed of hydrogen and helium. It is the fourth brightest object in the sky behind the Moon, Sun and Venus and has an extremely fast rotation period, completing one every ten hours. The planet takes eleven years to complete an orbit of the Sun.

Jupiter is quite unlike Earth and its neighbours as it is mostly composed of gases rather than heavier elements. Jupiter is two and a half times more massive than all the other planets put together and is about as large as a planet of its type can grow. If it were to take on more mass the diameter would actually decrease from the increased gravity.

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All About The Planet Mars

by Patrick Omari

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and is named after the Roman God of war. The planet is a distinctive shade of red and is the last of the rocky terrestrial planets. Mars is substantially smaller than Earth and Venus but larger than Mercury. The planet has been the subject of intense speculation about the existence of extra terrestrial life with evidence of water on the surface at the polar ice caps. While recent robotic explorations have shown that the presence of life is unlikely it has still not been conclusively ruled out.

Mars has a thin atmosphere, much thinner than Earth's. It is kept this way by the solar winds stripping atoms from the top layer, Mars's atmosphere lacks a magnetosphere to protect it. The surface pressure of the Martian atmosphere is less than one percent of that found on Earth. Despite the sparseness of the atmosphere however, it extends 5km higher than Earth's due to lower gravity. Mars has a relatively low mass and the surface gravity is just 38 percent of Earth's.

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All About The Planet Earth

by Patrick Omari

Earth is unique among all known planets, ones native to our Solar System or otherwise. It is the only planet that has liquid water on the surface and is also the only world containing life. Earth is the third planet out from the Sun and is the densest and largest of the four rocky terrestrial planets.

Formed at the same time as the rest of the Solar System the Earth would accrue enough mass to maintain an atmosphere, composed chiefly of nitrogen and carbon dioxide. It is believed that the Earth collided with another planetesimal early in its history, the remains of this collision would form the Moon.

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All About The Planet Venus

by Patrick Omari

Named after the Roman Goddess of love, the planet Venus is the second furthest from the Sun. It has been referred to as Earth's twin planet due to its remarkably similar size. Venus is also a rocky planet with a gaseous atmosphere, however it differs from Earth in a number of crucial ways.

Venus is the closest planet to Earth and the brightest object in the night sky, with the exception of the moon, and has been referred to as both the Morning and Evening Star due to its luminosity.

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What Is Astronomy? - Astronomy 101

By: Koz Huseyin

Since the dawn of time, men and women have looked up into the sky, looking for answers. Why are we here? Where are we? And what are those shinning lights in the night sky? Astronomy thus began, and it is the study of that beauty that we call the heavens.

Astronomy today is simply not looking up at the stars, finding new stars, and analyzing catalogued stars, it encompasses many different areas. For example some define astronomy as the study of the motions and natures of celestial bodies, while others will say that it is about studying the objects and the matter in space, while yet others define astronomy as the study of the Universe, which includes everything.

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All About The Planet Mercury

by Patrick Omari

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and the smallest of the rocky terrestrial planets in our solar system. Named after the Roman God of commerce, travel and thievery, the planet is a harsh world of extreme temperatures about which relatively little is known. Mercury orbits the Sun at a distance of 46-70 million km and passes within 77.3 million km of the Earth at its closest pass. It takes the small planet just 88 Earth days to complete an orbit round the Sun and 58 days to complete one rotation, a very slow rotation compared with the other planets, only Venus is slower.

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Constellations, The Astronomers Navigation Tool

By: Koz Huseyin

Since the dawn of time, when man first looked up in the heavens, he painted the sky with pictures. The points of light from stars made patterns which looked like certain objects. Today these constellations are still in use, though some have been left out, and are necessary to navigate the heavens with a telescope.

Astronomy is an interesting topic. Even though today we have telescopes to look at objects in the sky with greater magnitude than with the naked eye, we still need a way of navigating the heavens. Even though astronomy has been a topic that people have delved into for thousands of years, the astronomy with optical telescopes is pretty much a recent invention, compared with our history.

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First Telescope Buying Tips For Backyard Astronomy

By: Koz Huseyin

Using a telescope in your own backyard can be one of the greatest hobbies you get into, which is both rewarding and at the same time increases our knowledge of practical astronomy. However, getting there can be problematic. Here are some tips to buying your first telescope.

In this article, you will discover:
* Understanding What You Want Out Of Astronomy
* Setting A Budget To Buy Telescopes
* Space Considerations To Think About
* Getting The Telescope From There To Here

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Tips For Examing The Earth's Moon With Binoculars

By: Matt Seweryniak

Our moon is 2,000 miles wide and is very close to us, allowing us to see all of its tiny details with just a pair of binoculars. Binoculars would reveal the chaotic landscape of the moon that is fulled with mountains, dark deep valleys, and large craters.

As the month goes on, the moon is seen as 4 different cycles. It starts as new, to a crescent, to half of a moon, to a football shape, and then to a full moon. After that, it goes backwards from football, to half moon, to crescent, to new. You can find what the moon is doing now by looking at an almanac or calender.

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August 1st Solar Eclipse

Friday, August 1 is a red-letter day for eclipse enthusiasts. On that date, the sun will be partially eclipsed over an immense area that includes western and central Asia, parts of northern and central Europe, all of Greenland and even a small slice of northeastern North America.

A total solar eclipse — the first in nearly two and a half years — will be visible along a narrow track that will start over the Northwest Passage of Canada, gives a glancing blow to northern Greenland, then shifts southeast through Siberia and western Mongolia and before ending near the famed Silk Route of China.

The path of totality for this upcoming eclipse is never more than 157 miles (252 km) wide.

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