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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by David Dickinson, Ada Bell. Ada Bell said: By @Astroguyz: http://bit.ly/bQu6TS 22.06.10- Nicholas Copernicus Revealed. The astronomical great is finally given the burial deserved. [...]
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Pictured is a Delta IV rocket launch from Cape Canaveral on November 21st, 2010. The image is a 20 second exposure taken at dusk, shot from about 100 miles west of the launch site. The launch placed a classified payload in orbit for the United States Air Force.
Difficult but not impossible to catch against the dawn or dusk sky, spotting an extreme crescent moon can be a challenge. The slender crescent pictured was shot 30 minutes before sunrise when the Moon was less than 20 hours away from New. A true feat of visual athletics to catch, a good pair of binoculars or a well aimed wide field telescopic view can help with the hunt.
The Sun is our nearest star, and goes through an 11-year cycle of activity. This image was taken via a properly filtered telescope, and shows the Sun as it appeared during its last maximum peak in 2003. This was during solar cycle #23, a period during which the Sun hurled several large flares Earthward. The next solar cycle is due to peak around 2013-14.
Located in the belt of the constellation Orion, Messier 42, also known as the Orion Nebula is one of the finest deep sky objects in the northern hemisphere sky. Just visible as a faint smudge to the naked eye on a clear dark night, the Orion Nebula is a sure star party favorite, as it shows tendrils of gas contrasted with bright stars. M42 is a large stellar nursery, a star forming region about 1,000 light years distant.
Orbiting the planet in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) every 90 minutes, many people fail to realize that you can see the International Space Station (ISS) from most of the planet on a near-weekly basis. In fact, the ISS has been known to make up to four visible passes over the same location in one night. The image pictured is from the Fourth of July, 2011 and is a 20 second exposure of a bright ISS pass.
Next to the Sun, the two brightest objects in the sky are the Moon and the planet Venus. In fact, when Venus is favorably placed next to the Moon, it might just be possible to spot the two in the daytime. Another intriguing effect known as earthshine or ashen light is also seen in the image on the night side of the Moon; this is caused by sunlight reflected back off of the Earth towards our only satellite.
A mosaic of three images taken during the total lunar eclipse of December 21st, 2010. The eclipse occurred the same day as the winter solstice. The curve and size of the Earth’s shadow is apparent in the image.
22.06.10- Nicholas Copernicus Revealed.
A new chapter in the final saga of one of astronomy’s greats concluded recently, as the remains of Nicholas Copernicus were reburied at Frombork Cathedral last month. The ceremony came after years of forensic detective work to positively identify the astronomer’s remains. Copernicus is famous for introducing the Sun-centered or heliocentric theory of the solar system in his landmark work, De Revolutionibus, which was later banned by the church. It was known that Copernicus was buried underneath the church, but gaining a positive ID from the dozens of skeletons interred had proven difficult. Copernicus was known to have died at age 70, a rarity in the 16th century. This narrowed down the field of “Copernicus skeleton candidates” to two unearthed in 2005. But the real breakthrough came when a hair was discovered in the pages of a book contained in Copernicus’s personal library. The DNA allowed a positive match to the anonymous remains of a man who shook the foundations of medieval thinking and led the way for modern astronomy…it always amazes us how they simply “lost” things in the olden days! On May 22nd, 2010, nearly 467 years to the date of his death, Copernicus was given a proper burial at Frombork with all of the pomp he was due. The sarcophagus will now be overlain with a glass viewing tile, and the original marker and monument to Copernicus will remain. This symbolic gesture is representative of the long reconciliation process that has occurred over the last few decades between the Roman Catholic Church and science. While some may see it as superfluous, such examples of the church coming to terms with Copernicus, Darwin, or Galileo represent a confluence of ideologies and show that religious dogma does not always have to be anathema to science.