i think it was XTC that wrote that song, but when it comes to finding planets outside our solar system, it's all about light. you gotta measure the amount of light from a star, then when it gets ever so slightly dimmer for a short period of time, then that was when a planet passed in front of it. we (humans) have been finding planets in other solar systems only for a short time, but we've been finding them at an astounding rate.
put the spotlight on the RNC, it's all light. i wish i could put as much spin on my serve as the republicans can on the topics that effect our lives (in the usa). wake up W, you don't run the world. i guess the RNC was on TV tonight. i watched arnold talk for a few, and became un-interested. i can't wait for some good old fashoined televised debates between W and the Senator.
in the words of XTC, "the grass is always greener when it bursts up through concrete"
isn't it normal for the male not to want to ask for directions? i've been there, and i understand it. i hate asking for directions. i feel like i should always know where i am, and it's embarrassing when i don't know where i am.
i've been looking for the intersection of science and religion, and i can't find it. i keep going, but i feel like the tank is gettin' low.
i don't know where i am right now, i'm lost somewhere, miles from anything i know. i hope tomorrow i find one road or the other. i've no idea which one i'll find first.
i just returned home from another night at the observatory. again, i took my telescope and tried to see what i could see. after looking at a few stars, we decided to look for m57 (the ring nebula). m57 is a planetary nebula and can be found in the constellation lyra. to view a nice picture of m57 click here:
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/1999/01/
we looked at the ring nebula with all our eyepieces and filters and found that tonight we were able to get the best view with our highest power eyepiece and our light pollution filter. there were no clouds tonight, and the atmosphere was clear and stable.
next we decided to try to find andromeda (m31). this is our sister galaxy, the galaxy that most closely resembles our own. after a little searching, we did find andromeda. follow this link for a nice picture of m31:
i have certainly learned a great deal in the past week about finding deep space objects. i cannot wait to try to image some of these beautiful objects.
saturday evening was the first time in a very long while that i was able to get the telescope outside. i did so with the help of my kids at the Veen Observatory in lowell michigan. the skies were much darker than what i get living closer to the city of grand rapids, which made for a lot better viewing. we could actually see the milky way.
as the sky began to get dark, one of the first stars that appeared was Altair. we viewed this star for a while, but as the skies grew darker we headed deeper into space. we decided to move on in
search of the double star Alberio. with a little work we managed to find this beautiful star combination.
finally we set out to look for nebulae and other deep space objects. with my daugher guiding the scope, she found our first deep space object. all on her own she found messier object 17 (M17), also known as the swan nebula. i did find one other nebula, however we are still not sure which one it was.
