John Flamsteed sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Flamsteed
http://www.nndb.com/people/727/000096439/
http://messier.seds.org/xtra/Bios/flamsteed.html

APOD 1.4

This is a picture of the sun with a sunspot included. Boiling granules that look like kernels of corn across the top. It was taken in 2002, using the Swedish solar telescope on the Canary Island of La Palma. The image was made using adaptive optics, digital image stacking, and more that counters the blurring effect of earth's atmosphere.

APOD 1.3

This image is the NGC 352, a spiral galaxy that is 35 million light years away. It is in the general direction of the constellation Leo. It is visible in the night sky using small telescopes. However, it is often overlooked in favor of M66 and M65. It spans over 50,000 light years. There are regions in the galaxy that can be seen forming stars. There are also bubble-like shells that are tidal debris from stars undergoing mergers with the galaxy in the distant past.

Podcast 2

Johannes Kepler was born with poor eyesight because he was premature about a month. He therefore became an astronomical theorist. He spent his early astronomical years by traveling to Tycho Brahe in order to use his data for mathematical theory. Kepler established his three laws where orbits are eliptical, planets sweep out equal distances in equal times, and that the period squared equals the distance cubed. These were absolutely revolutionary theories that fit with math that had been established. The deferents and epicycles were deemed obsolete and Kepler's elipse made the most sense. Thus Kepler gifted the astronomical world with mathematical observations and proof of planets orbits and predictability for planets.

Podcast 1

Galileo began his life as the oldest of six children, and was encouraged to be a priest. He instead studied medicine but ended up moving on to mathematics. He began observing with telescopes all about the planets and was able to prove first that the sun was not the center of the universe. He could make out what he described as Saturn's handles. Galileo found the moons of Jupiter and thus proved that earth could not be the center of all orbits. He also used the phases of Venus. He went against the church however, and it made it difficult for him. The church was sort of with his theories however, but the way he handled the observations made it difficult. He was rather ostentatious. He described forces even though forces were unheard of.

Apod 1.2

This is a picture taken by the robotic cassini spacecraft as it orbited saturn in 2006. When saturn eclipses the sun, its rings are lit up very brightly except for the part of the rings that are on the far side of saturn from the sun. New rings were able to be seen because of how bright they appeared. Saturn's E-ring is very visible and is created by the ice fountains of the nearby moon of Enceladus. One can see earth as a pale blue dot on the left.

Apod 1.1

In greenland, an aurora stretched across the sky as viewed from a scientist's expedition campsite. In the center of the aurora, Ursa major and the Big Dipper are visible.