Showing posts with label Astronomy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Astronomy. Show all posts

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Jupiter and 4 Moons

Jupiter and 4 moons 3/13/13. The camera quality blurs the 4th moon.
We are excited and amazed to show you today's picture. While searching for the Comet PannStarrs, it was determined at that time to be a bit too overcast. So instead, a lovely gentleman from the Southern Colorado Astronomy Society pointed his telescope to Jupiter for us. Now mind you, this photo was taken through the telescope lens with an ipod. He helped me hold it in place- both lenses were tiny in the dark and hard to align, so as he held it, I snapped the picture, and viola! Well, viola! aside from that I was actually trying to use my iphone camera which was a bit sharper, but me being me, the battery went dead as we were trying to align the lenses. So, while this photo is still amazing, let me fill in the blanks. What we were actually able to see was even the brownish, reddish/white bands, and the "great red spot". Jupiter was tilted to the side, along with 4 of its aprox. 63 moons. Totally clear, brilliantly bright. Breathtaking.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Venus Transfer

This is what we saw (Taken by staff photographer Teddy). But take a look below at what NASA cameras picked up.
Yesterday evening was a big day for astronomers. June 5th 2012, from about 5 pm to about 11 pm mountain time the planet Venus crossed in front of the sun producing a silloutte visible to us here on earth. Why such a big deal? Not only did it help us determine the size of the universe, no one alive today will probably ever see it again. The transits come in pairs every 100 years. Last night's bookended the one that occured in 2004. The next is determined to be in the year 2117.

Credit: NASA/SDO, AIA