Stars
esiegel | August 5, 2013"Beauty is a manifestation of secret natural laws, which otherwise would have been hidden from us forever." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Welcome back to another Messier Monday here on Starts With A Bang! Each Monday, we go through one of the 110 deep-sky wonders of the Messier Catalogue, some of the brightest and most prominent of the night sky wonders. Originally compiled by Charles Messier and his assistant, Pierre Méchain, in the late 18th Century, these telescopic wonders showcase the cosmic beauty and variety easily visible from our vantage point here on Earth.
Image credit: Alistair…
esiegel | August 1, 2013“We are not simply in the universe, we are part of it. We are born from it.” -Neil deGrasse Tyson
The story of the Universe is the story of us all; we all share the same cosmic history, coming from a hot, dense state some 13.8 billion years ago known as the Big Bang and emerging after billions of years of cosmic evolution to the Universe we know and love today.
Image credit: ESA and the Planck collaboration.
It's a beautiful story -- and one I've told before -- but it might seem, at least from our perspective, that something is missing from the astrophysicist's version of events. Yes, we…
esiegel | July 24, 2013"But certainly the laser proved to be what I realized it was going to be. At that moment in my life I was too ignorant in business law to be able to do it right, and if I did it over again probably the same damn thing would happen." -Gordon Gould, inventor of the laser
You're used to the iconic image of an observatory's dome surrounded by a dark sky. From within, a telescope peers up at the heavens. And with a huge amount of light-gathering power that dwarfs a fully dilated human eye, we can use this tremendous tool to peek into the dark depths of the Universe.
Image credit: Fort Lewis…
esiegel | July 15, 2013"The image is more than an idea. It is a vortex or cluster of fused ideas and is endowed with energy." -Ezra Pound
It's time for another Messier Monday, where we profile one of the 110 deep-sky objects that make up the Messier catalogue! This was the first large, accurate catalogue of fixed, non-transient objects to be assembled, and it makes for a delightful collection of targets for skywatchers all across the globe.
Image credit: Alistair Symon.
All throughout the next month, the Summer Triangle will delight skywatchers everywhere, as it flies high overhead in the early parts of the…
esiegel | July 12, 2013"By denying scientific principles, one can maintain any paradox." -Galileo Galilei
Day and night. It seems like the simplest, most natural thing about our world, that the Sun illuminates one half of the Earth at a time.
Image credit: Public Domain Image from Desktop Wallpaper HD.
While the Earth spins on its axis, orbiting the Sun, roughly half of our lives are spent bathed in the glorious daylight provided by our parent star. The other half is spent in the dark of night, our world illuminated only by the distant stars and galaxies visible from a great distance, along with a few nearby…
esiegel | July 8, 2013"Cross that rules the Southern Sky!
Stars that sweep, and turn, and fly
Hear the Lovers' Litany:
'Love like ours can never die!'" -Rudyard Kipling
Welcome back for yet another Messier Monday, where we choose one of the 110 deep-sky objects making up Charles Messier's 18th Century catalogue to highlight in detail. Originally designed as a catalogue to help comet-hunters avoid potential confusion with faint, fuzzy objects, this now serves as a wonderful collection of star clusters, nebulae, stellar corpses, globular clusters and galaxies, among others.
Image credit: Pedro Ré of Astrosurf, via…
esiegel | July 1, 2013"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them" -J.R.R. Tolkien
Every Monday has been devoted to our ongoing series on Messier's objects for nearly a year now, and we've covered some spectacular objects, from open star clusters to spiral galaxies, from globular clusters to giant ellipticals, from star-forming nebulae to the rare starburst galaxy, and from the lone supernova remnant to Messier's greatest mistake. With 110 deep-sky wonders to choose from, each one tells its own unique story.
Image credit: Mike Keith of http://cadaeic…
esiegel | June 24, 2013"New stars offer to the mind a phenomenon more surprising, and less explicable, than almost any other in the science of astronomy." -George Adams
Welcome back to another Messier Monday here on Starts With A Bang! The Messier catalogue was the very first accurate deep-sky catalogue with over 100 objects, finally topping out with 110 in its final form today. Compiled in the 18th century by Charles Messier and his assistant Pierre Mechain, this collection of fixed, deep-sky objects contains 110 of the brightest, most easily found and most spectacular sight in the entire sky.
Image credit: Tenho…
esiegel | June 17, 2013“God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I am so far behind that I will never die.” -Bill Watterson
Welcome back to another Messier Monday, only here on Starts With A Bang! With each new Monday, we take an in-depth look at a prominently visible random object from Messier's catalogue of 110 deep-sky curiosities, objects that range from stellar corpses to star-forming regions, to open clusters, globular clusters, distant galaxies, and even a few anomalies!
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons users Jim Cornmell and Zeimusu.
The objects in Messier's catalogue…
esiegel | June 5, 2013"You can spend too much time wondering which of identical twins is the more alike." -Robert Brault
You've of course heard by now the news that Kepler, the most successful and prolific planet-finding mission of all time, has probably reached the end of its useful lifespan.
Image credit: NASA / Kepler Mission / Wendy Stenzel.
With nearly 3,000 planet candidates under its belt, including many approximately Earth-sized (and some even smaller), and many within their parent star's habitable zone, we now know that, at least planet-wise, we're not alone in our galaxy.
Image credit: NASA Ames /…
esiegel | June 3, 2013"In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer." -Albert Camus
Welcome back to another Messier Monday, only here on Starts With A Bang! The first accurate, large catalogue of fixed, deep-sky objects, Messier's 110-object-strong catalogue features galaxies, clusters, nebulae and more, all visible with even primitive astronomical equipment to skywatchers who know where to look. Each Monday, we highlight a different one of these for your enjoyment.
Image credit: Mike Keith's delightful (a)periodic table of Messier objects!
Today, for the first time since…
esiegel | May 24, 2013"Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly because I have to - I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language! But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws! And feel the wind of a supernova flowing over me!" -Ronald Moore
Well, you probably don't actually want to feel the wind of a supernova flowing over you; trust me on this.
Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada, of the remnant of SN 1987a.
But to find one for yourself, that's definitely within your reach, if you know where to look.…
esiegel | May 20, 2013“The Milky Way is nothing else but a mass of innumerable stars planted together in clusters.” -Galileo Galilei
Welcome back to another Messier Monday here on Starts With a Bang! With 110 deep-sky objects making it up, the Messier Catalogue is the first comprehensive, accurate catalogue of faint (but not too faint) fixtures in the night sky. Each object tells its own unique tale, and is visible to amateur and professional skywatchers alike with even the simplest of equipment. Many of these objects were discovered by Charles Messier himself (or his assistant, Pierre Méchain), while others go…
esiegel | May 13, 2013"How is it they live for eons in such harmony - the billions of stars - when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their mind against someone they know?" -Thomas Aquinas
Welcome back to another Messier Monday here on Starts With a Bang! Each Monday, we take an in-depth look at one of the 110 deep-sky wonders -- all visible with a small telescope or even good binoculars -- that make up Charles Messier's original catalogue of non-cometary objects! Today, we're taking a look at a one-of-a-kind galaxy among the Messier objects, which just happens to be the (co-)first galaxy I…
esiegel | May 6, 2013"Why I came here, I know not; where I shall go it is useless to inquire - in the midst of myriads of the living and the dead worlds, stars, systems, infinity, why should I be anxious about an atom?" -Lord Byron
Welcome back to another Messier Monday here on Starts With a Bang! Messier's 18th-Century catalogue of 110 deep-sky objects that could potentially be confused with comets by skywatchers has endured as one of the greatest collections of deep-sky objects clearly visible to amateur and professional astronomers worldwide!
Image credit: ScienceSouth - Tony's Astronomy Corner, via http://…
esiegel | April 29, 2013"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings." -W. Shakespeare
Welcome to just another Messier Monday here on Starts With A Bang! Each Monday, we're taking a detailed look at a different one of the 110 deep-sky objects that compose the Messier Catalogue, each one a different semi-permanent wonder of the night sky for our viewing pleasure here on Earth.
Image credit: Alistair Symon, 2005-2009.
While we may not think of our galaxy as a hotbed of star formation -- and indeed it isn't compared to many, as it forms less than one Sun-like star per year…
esiegel | April 24, 2013"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." -Douglas Adams
Well, maybe "peanuts" isn't going to do. When you look out at the night sky, all sorts of objects are yours to discover, from our closest neighbors in the Solar System to the billions of stars in the Milky Way to the faint, extended and fuzzy galaxies stretching millions and billions of light years across the cosmos.
Image credit: Stephane Guisard, via http://sguisard.astrosurf.com/.
But…
esiegel | April 22, 2013"[T]he entire globe will soon be wrapped in a glowing envelope through which none of the magic of the Universe can be seen by the naked eye." -George Eslinger
Welcome to still another Messier Monday here on Starts With A Bang! Each Monday, we highlight a different one of the 110 deep-sky objects that make up the Messier Catalogue, the first accurate catalogue of more than 100 extended, deep-sky wonders strewn across the expansive night sky!
Image credit: ScienceSouth -- Tony's Astronomy Corner.
Tonight, the Moon is nearly full, which means the largest natural source of light pollution at…
esiegel | April 15, 2013"Upon one occasion, while engaged upon a seven-foot mirror, he did not remove his hands from it for 16 hours together." -from Caroline Herschel's obituary
Welcome to another Messier Monday here on Starts With A Bang! Each Monday, we highlight a different one of the 110 deep-sky objects that Messier catalogued so that comet-hunters wouldn't confuse these permanent fixtures with transient comets. But each object has a unique, remarkable story in its own right.
Image credit: The Messier Objects by Alistair Symon, from 2005-2009.
Out of the 110 objects, a full forty of them are galaxies…
esiegel | April 8, 2013"The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star." -Henry David Thoreau
Welcome to another Messier Monday here on Starts With A Bang! Each week, we take a look at the 110 deep-sky objects that comprise the Messier catalogue, the first comprehensive catalogue of fixed, deep-sky objects that could possibly be confused for potential brightening comets.
Image credit: Giacomo Bongiorno of Le Meraviglie del Cielo.
Today, to mark our hitting the quarter-century mark in looking at these nebulae…