Zooniverse Post 5

This is my last Zooniverse Post, as I've completed 10 hours of work now. I'll admit it wasn't the most fun of work, but it was a good learning experience. I did have fun identifying galaxies and stars.

Weekly Observation Post 30

This week was very good for observations. I saw a lot of constellations and could see the moon nightly. Not one day had a cloudy night, which was very nice for me because the last few weeks sometimes more than half of the say have been rendered useless due to cloud cover. Although this is probably my last Observation Post, I can assure you that I will continue to look into the skies and wonder what I'm looking at. I will teach my kids what I have learned and hopefully they will teach it to their kids. I saw a ton of spring constellations this week and I can't wait to see the Summer constellation when they start to roll around.

APOD 4.8 The Waterfall and The World at Night

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130517.html
This is a truly beautiful picture. This picture has so much going on in it. It shows the waterfall Godafoss (The God's Waterfall) with the Milky Way in the background with a green aurora over head. You can see M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, in the background which adds to the overall beauty of the image. I hope some day I will be able to see something like this in person.

Riccardo Giacconi Biography

Riccardo Giacconi was born in Genoa, Italy on October 6^th of 1931. Even though he was born in Genoa, he spent most of his days living in Milano until 1956. His mother, Elsa, taught high school math and physics. She also helped to write geometry textbooks which were used all across Italy. Riccardo’s father, Antonio, owned a small business and was anti-fascist. When Riccardo was only eight years old, his parents were legally separated.

Riccardo lived during the WWII era and when Milano was bombed in 1942, he was sent to go live with his aunts in Cremona, Italy. After WWII was over, he moved back to Milano and lived there until 1956. After returning from the sheltering of his aunts, he received a doctorate in physics. Most of his thesis works were about nuclear reactors. It was suggested to him that he should move to the United States to further his schooling in physics. He moved to the U.S in 1956 and had lived there ever since. He gained passage to the U.S via a scholarship. Riccardo worked and studied in Indiana with a man named R.W. Thompson. He eventually left working with Thompson, as it was leading nowhere, and Riccardo was adopted by MIT. He began to get into the study of cosmic ray research. This is what he really wanted to learn more about and explore. This was right around the time he married the girl he has known since he was only sixteen years old. Her name was Mirella. After he married Mirlella, he became enrolled in AS&E and did research there from 1959 to 1962- which is what he considers the most productive years of his life. He helped to estimate payloads of satellites and rockets. He also helped advance the field of X-Ray astronomy.

After he became involved in the field of X-Ray astronomy, he helped in the building of the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble Space Telescope was a huge success and was, and still is, one of the best- if not the best, space telescope to date. After the launching of the Hubble Space Telescope, he began to settle down and not do as much research and studying. In 1991, tragedy struck, as his son died in an automobile accident. Riccardo Giacconi is still alive today and won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2002. He will be considered one of the best and most well known astronomers of all time.

Riccardo Giacconi Sources

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2002/giacconi-autobio.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/884345/Riccardo-Giacconi

http://chandra.harvard.edu/chronicle/0402/nobel/

Zooniverse Post 4

Now I'll admit when we had time to work on the Zooniverse stuff in class, I wasn't working on it. I was researching various animals instead, but I made up for it at home over the course of the week. I identified a TON of galaxies and about 20 stars. This Zooniverse stuff actually slightly interests me and I have fun doing it sometimes.

Weekly Observation Post 29

This week was good for my observations. I saw many constellations and was able to see the moon clearly. I can't wait to see the full moon tonight. Not a single cloud was visible for me so this week was a real good one for  me.