rosette nebula

time for a good, old fashioned, pretty picture post.

behold, the rosette nebula (NGC 2237)!

the rosette nebula is a region where new stars are forming, about 5000 light years away from earth. the red dots, in the regions outlined in white, show hot, young stars, imaged with X-rays by the chandra space telescope.

the effect of the gushing big stars can be seen in the cavity they have created in the surrounding gaseous nebula. shown in purple, orange, green and blue colors are the older stars and gas in the region, as optically imaged by the digitized sky survey and the 0.9-meter telescope at the kitt peak national observatory in arizona.

will you buy a fine dog?

an interesting aspect of language is that some words can change meaning over time.

here is a video of a quaint old song called "will you buy a fine dog?" by thomas morley that demonstrates an amusing case of changing definitions...

enjoy ;)



at one time people referred to a loaf of rye or dill bread as a dildo, although today's common meaning is quite different. tee hee ;)

what is a shooting star?

i mentioned a couple years ago that the band they might be giants released a kids album called here comes science. i was reminded of this by several people after i put out a call on twitter for astronomy-themed kids songs.

what is a shooting star is one of my favorites from that album:



there is also the galaxy song by eric idle, of monty python fame.

and, of course, there is my favorite song to sing with kids: "twinkle, twinkle little star." the melody actually comes from twleve variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman" by wolfgang amadeus mozart. the same melody is also used for the "alphabet song" and "ba ba black sheep!"

if you are so inclined, you can download the original mozart variations for free. i have found it fascinating, and challenging, to play through his progression of subtle changes to the familiar melody.

are there any other astronomy-themed kids songs out there that you know of?

intense aurora up north

as a result of a huge solar flare that occurred last week, energetic particles from the sun have shot out all over the solar system causing spectacular auroras on earth!

here is the view of the solar flare from NASA'a SOHO satellite. the video includes a bit of explanation, or read phil plait's explanation here.



when those electrically charged solar wind particles come barreling toward the us, the earth's magnetic field naturally guides the particles to the north and south magnetic poles, where they interact with gas in earth's upper atmosphere. the gas glows as a result.

here are some of the resulting views over northern norway. the green glow comes from molecular oxygen in our atmosphere. incredible!

Auroras 22.01.12 Birtavarre Norway from Ørjan Bertelsen on Vimeo.

science adventure

a nicely displayed quote by the legendary astronomer edwin hubble:

spotted at luminous red nova.

cincinnati observatory news

just received the eNewsletter from the cincinnati observatory.

a big thanks to them for hosting the event there last weekend!

cincinnati observatory

over the weekend, i gave a public talk at the old observatory in my home town. strike that - i gave TWO public talks in a row at the cincinnati observatory, because the interest in the originally scheduled single talk was so positive (thanks family ;)

established in 1842, the cincinnati observatory remains the oldest working observatory in the entire USA!

the observatory is a cute little old building that sits on top of mt. adams.

former president john quincy adams laid the cornerstone of the original observatory in the 1840s, and the hill has been known as mt. adams ever since (i never knew that!). the current observatory is located on mt. lookout.

it was cold the night of my talks, and a huge freezing rain storm passed through the previous night. i had to scrape 1.5 inches of ice off the windshield of the car before leaving my mom's house.

each blade of grass was frozen inside a layer of ice!

icicles on the water fountains...

here is one of the lovely old refracting telescopes housed at the observatory. it was overcast that night, but i hope folks will go back again to look through the ancient glass.

the talks went well, i thought, and i really enjoyed sharing some of the astronomy knowledge i've gained during my studies and travels, with my family and friends back home. what fun!

einstein painted

it's yet another case of not being able to track down the original source of this painting through tumblr, but i spotted it from fresh photons and i like it.

milky way above the himalaya

i'm incredibly impressed by the photography of jan kovoy! admire more photos at his website or on flickr.

this is a shot of the milky way galaxy streaming perfectly through a valley in the himalaya mountains.