APOD 3.3

Pictured above is a "bridge" that connects the Northern Cross, Cygnus, to the Southern Cross, Crux. The bridge connecting the two is the Milky Way. Also pictured are the Moon (middle of bridge), Saturn and Mercury (below the moon), Venus (above the moon), and the Small and Large Magellanic clouds, which are satellite galaxies. It would require being in a pretty specific place to be able to see both the Northern and Southern crosses, and the perfect place for that would be Chile, where this photo was made with 30 images to create this beautiful panorama. 

APOD 3.2

Pictured above are the two open star clusters of Perseus, h and Chi Persei. The two were possibly discovered in 130 B.C. by Greek astronomer Hipparcos, and was noted by Tycho Brahe. The entire photograph covers about 3.5 degrees of the sky. The clusters are about 7,000 light-years away and are about 13 million years old, likely from the same starting region. The reddish cloud cover comes from ionized hydrogen gas. There is another open cluster in the upper left corner of this photo and may be related to h and Chi Persei. 

APOD 3.1

This false-color image of the Orion nebula, otherwise known as M-object 42, located 1,500 light-years away, was taken from the Spitzer Space Telescope using infrared data and spans 40,000 light years. The brightest part of this nebula is located in the same place as the Trapezium Cluster, discovered by Galileo, Orion's three brightest stars. The red coloring in this image indicates the nebula's protostars. A close protostar, HOPS 68, is said to have crystalline silicate mineral olivine in it's protostellar envelope. 

More Observations

Date: December 14, 2013
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Location: Colonial Oaks Park
Sky Conditions: Moon at waxing gibbous phase, passing clouds

Instuments used: phone application

Planets: Venus was out but not viewable over the trees in the park, Jupiter to the east

Bright Stars Noted: Aldebaren, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Castor, Sirius

Constellations Noted: Taurus, Orion, Gemini, Canis Major 

Other: The moon was in the constellation Taurus

Observations

Date: December 2, 2013
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Place: Siesta Key Beach
Sky Conditions: Sunset, waning cresent moon, clear skies

Instuments used: Phone application

Planets: Venus (viewed closely to the moon), Jupiter in the east

Bright Stars Noted: Gamma andromeda, Mira

Constellations Noted: Gemini, Orion (and belt), Cassiopeia, Pegasus, Andromeda, Cetus

Other: observed the stars that appeared as the sun set

Giuseppe Piazza

Giuseppe Piazza was an astronomer from Italy known as both a mathematician and as priest and for founding the Palermo Astronomical Observatory (PlanetFacts). He was also known for naming the first minor planet, Ceres (Britannica). He was born July 16, 1746 in Ponte di Valtellina, Lombardy, Italy (Britannica). In his younger years, he joined the Theatine Order of Milan, a Catholic religious order of men (Encyclopedia). Piazza moved to Andrea Del Valle, Rome and learned from Giovan Battista Beccaria, an Italian physicist (PlanetFacts). When he finished his schooling, he graduated with a doctorate in mathematics and philosophy (Encyclopedia). In 1770, he became Chairman of Mathematics at the University of Malta for two years, after which he decided to move to Ravenna to teach at the "Collegio Dei Nobili"  (PlanetFacts). In 1780, he moved to Palermo to teach at the Univeristy of Palermo, where he also became a professor of Astronomy as per summon of the Prince of Caramancio, Bourbon, the viceroy of Sicily. This prince wanted to have an astronomical observatory in Palermo, Piazza was encouraged to go to England to gain the best tools he could. While in England, he met Maskelyne, with whom he observed the solar eclipse of June 3, 1788 at Greenwich, William Herschel, with whom he observed Herschel's large telescopes, and Ramsden. His first work in astronomy was studying the precise difference in longitude between various observatories. His most notable work while in England, though, was the greate 5 foot vertical circle that he commissioned from Ramsden, which wsa then installed in the new observatory at Santa Ninfa tower of the royal palace in Palermo in 1789. This observatory opened in 1790 and Piazza was named director. Upon returning to Palermo, he began studying the precise determination of astronomical coordinates of principal stars. The location of the observatory was the southernmost European observatory with favorable climate that allowed him to observe more stars than had been catalogued before, with much accuracy (Encyclopedia).
The first night of 1801, he planned to observe a 7th magnitude star in Taurus that was once catalogued by Lacaille. But instead of seeing the star, he noticed a fainter object that was not catalogued for the first time on  (Bond).  He thought it was either a planet or comet, and continued to observe the object until February 11th, where the object stopped retrograde motion and began moving towards the sun until it could not be seen. Piazzi easily calculated the orbit of the object in order to find it again. He continued observations for forty one days and published his results in 1801, and named it Ceres, after the patron goddess of Sicily, after recognizing that it was actually a planet.
In March 1817, Piazzi was summoned to Naples to complete the observatory in construction under King Ferdinand I. He died in Naples of an acute disease in 1824 (Encyclopedia).

Astronomer Biography Sources

Bond, Peter. Distant Worlds: Milestones in Planetary Exploration. New York, NY: Praxis, 2007. Print.

"Giuseppe Piazzi (Italian Astronomer)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 27 Dec. 2013. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/459224/Giuseppe-Piazzi>.

"Piazzi, Giuseppe." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 27 Dec. 2013. <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Who is Giuseppe Piazzi? Life, Biography & Discoveries of Giuseppe Piazzi." Who is Giuseppe Piazzi? Life, Biography & Discoveries of Giuseppe Piazzi. Web. 27 Dec. 2013. <http://planetfacts.org/giuseppe-piazzi/>.

APOD #7

This photo shows the progression of the Sun's movement in our sky over a year. A picture was taken every day while the sun was out, highlighting the figure-8 movement called the analemma. The last day in the photoset included a total eclipse of the sun on the Winter Solstice analemma, called a Tutulemma. Each analemma looks different depending to the latitude at which the photo is being taken. Venus is also visible in the bottom right region of the photo.

This figure-8 movement gives us clues about how the earth moves incomparison with the Earth's movement. While the Earth moves in an ellipse about the sun, the sun appears to create an analemma to viewers on Earth.

APOD #6

This photo, which was taken the 19th of December, shows the surface of the moon in different colors due to false color imaging. The different colors show chemical composition differences: the blue showing titanium, and the orange and purple indicate the lack thereof.

This method of false color imaging could help to determine the composition of other moons and distant planets without having to send probes into space.