Giuseppe Piazzi

Giuseppe Piazzi was an Italian Theatine monk, mathematician, and astronomer. He was born in Ponte in Valtellina. He taught philosophy for a time at Genoa and mathematics at the new University of Malta while it lasted. In 1780 he was called to the chair of higher mathematics at the academy of Palermo. There he soon obtained a grant from Prince Caramanico, Viceroy of Sicily, for an observatory. He established his observatory at Palermo, and it is now called the Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo "Giuseppe S. Vaiana".
Giuseppe began observations in May of 1791, and the first reports were published as early as 1792. Soon he was able to correct errors in the estimation of the obliquity of the ecliptic, of the aberration of light, of the length of the tropical year, and of the parallax of the fixed stars. He also thought it was necessary to revise the exsisting catalogue of stars to determine their exact postitions. So in 1803 he published a list of 6784 stars and in 1814 he published a second catalogue containing 7646 stars. Both lists were awarded prizes by the Institute of France.
While looking for a small star mentioned in one of the earlier lists he made his great discovery of the first known planetoid. At first he thought it was a fixed star, but once he noticed that it moved, he became convinced it was a planet, or as he called it, "a new star". But since he was unsure of his discovery he announced to the scientific world he had discovered a comet. These few but exact measurements enabled astronomer Carl Friedrich Gauss to calculate the orbit and to find that this was a new planet, between Mars and Jupiter. Piazzi's discovery confirmed the so-called "Titius-Bode's law", which predicted the existence of a fifth planet between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter.
Piazzi proposed the name of Ceres Ferdinandea, in honor of his king. Over 600 of these so-called planetoids have since been located within the same space. Ceres turned out to be the first, and largest, of the asteroids existing within the Asteroid Belt. However, under the terms of a 2006 IAU resolution, Ceres can be called a dwarf planet.
The king desired to give Piazzi a gold medal, in commemoration, but the astronomer requested the privilege of using the money for the purpose of a much-needed equatorial telescope. Then later in 1812 he received the commission to reform the weights and measures of Sicily in accordance with the metric system. Piazzi was a brilliant astronomer whose discoveries led to the discovery of Uranus as well as other asteroids near Earth.

Works Cited

Cunningham, C. J.. The First Asteroid. 2001. Star Lab Press. 7 January 2008.

Fox, William. "Giuseppe Piazzi." New Advent. 2007. Catholic Encylcopedia. 7 January 2008. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12072d.htm

APOD 3.1

IC 342 is a prominent beautiful galaxy that is hidden in our night sky by the Milky Way Galaxy. If the gas and clouds from the Milky Way did not cover IC 342 it would most certainly be very popular. Ic 342 is 7 million light years away and is located in the constellation of Camelopardalis. Its appearance in the sky makes his galaxy a prime target for studies of star formation and astrochemistry. IC 342 belongs to Maffei I group of galaxies. The galaxy was discovered by W.F. Denning in 1895. Without the Milky Way Galaxy covering it this galaxy would have been discovered much earlier because of its extreme brightness, about 2.4 magnitude.

APOD 2.8

This is a portion of today's APOD. The picture is a horizon to horizon view, taken in Beg-Meil France on December 13th. The photo covers 210 degrees in 21 seperate exposures. This full coverage shot makes me feel as though I am actually outside. The picture allows you to look from horizon to zenith to a different horizon and it gives it a realistic view. The scientist writing on the picture, points out different constellations and stars in his summary and then gives a link to the picture with each specific thing labeled. This was such a useful tool and it really helped identify and understand specifically what he was talking about. Seeing the stars and identifying constellations is alot different than identifying constellations on a sheet of paper. The star Sirius rising and the Orion constellation are easiest to identify.

Observation 2.2

Guided Observation

Date: December 6th 2007
Time: 7:00 - 8:40 PM
Location: Clark Rd, east of the interstate
Sky Conditions: Clear skies

Instruments used: Naked eye, binoculars, telescope

Planets: Mars, Uranus, Jupiter

Bright stars noted: Polaris, Vega, Deneb, Arcturus, Altair, Fomalhaut, Mira, Algol, Aldebaran, Beetlejuice

Constellations noted: Perseus, Cygnus, Andromeda, Scorpius, Capricorn, Pisces, Ophiuchus, Lyra, Aquila, Orion, Cepheus, Ursa Minor, Draco, Pegasus, Cassiopeia, Hercules, Sagittarius, Delphinus

Binary stars: Epsilon Lyra, Polaris, Pleiades, Hyades, Gamma Andromeda, Alpha Capricorn

Deep Sky objects: M57, M27, M31, M103, M36, M37, M38, M45

Other: Milky Way, Comet Holmes

APOD 2.7

This weeks Apod is of an analemma which is a figure-8 curve that you get when you mark the position of the Sun at the same time each day throughout the year. 26 separate exposures were recorded to illustrate the regular solar motion. This was done mostly during the 2006 calender year. Each picture was taken at 8 am in the northern New Jersey sky. They were digitally composed with one single foreground later on. Other planets follow the same shape if you were to do this for the sun. Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto all have a figure-8 shape. Mars is teardrop shaped whereas Jupiter and Venus form ellipses. For Mercury if done it would form a straight line going east to west.

APOD 2.6

This picture is of stardust in the constellation Perseus (by far the best constellation of all time ahem). This cosmic expanse of dust, gas, and stars covers some 4 degrees of the constellation. Other reflection nebulae are scattered around, along with remarkable dark dust nebulae and the faint reddish glow of hydrogen gas.Perseus, the Hero, can be found in the sky during the winter in the Northern Hemisphere. With a little imagination, you can see the image of a man in the stars. He has a sort of triangular body, with two legs and feet that look like they are curling up towards the head. There are also two arms stretching out, possibly carrying some sort of weapon or the head of Medusa.

APOD 2.5

Discovered in 1955 this nebula was thought to be a supernova remnant until the 1980's. However subsequent observations revealed that a lower than expected radial velocity of the 'debris cloud' and lack of a neutron star could not support the hypothesis for a supernova remnant. This is a large faint planetary nebula about 790 light years distant in the direction of the constellation Gemini. The Medusa Nebula, also known as Abell 21, represents a final stage in the evolution of low mass stars such as the sun, as they transform themselves from red giants to hot white dwarf stars. The Medusa Nebula is estimated to be over 4 light-years across. The Medusa's transforming hot central star is the small blue star on the left at the top of the the crescent shaped figure.