APOD 4.8

     Recently I was looking at the APOD titled "Two Worlds One Sun". This is amazing because the picture on the left shows the sunset from Earth while the picture on the right shows the sunset from Mars. Just by looking at it one can tell that the sun looks smaller from mars. However this is expected because Mars is 50% further away from the sun than Earth. Something surprising in the picture is the fact that the martian sunset appears blue. Although no one is entirely sure why this happens many speculate that it has to do with the Martian Dust. The rover Curiosity captured the sunset at Mars about a month ago near the Gale crater.

APOD 4.7

     This picture titled "Moonrise Through Mauna Kea's Shadow" makes it look like the moon is rising through a volcano. This is impossible actually and this picture was able to be taken because the moon is rising through the shadow of a volcano. This picture is taken in Hawaii and its location is arguably the best observing spot in the world. The refraction of the moonlight from earths atmosphere makes the moon appear slightly oval in shape. In this picture you can also see cinder cones from old volcanic eruptions near the ground.

APOD 4.6

     This week I was looking at the APOD titled "Massive Nearby Spiral Galaxy NGC 2841". This is a massive galaxy which is only about 46 light-years away. It is found in the constellation Ursa Major. This is called the island nebula and shows a bunch of star forming regions in its spiral arms. This galaxy is about 150,000 light-years long making it even bigger than the milky way galaxy. This picture is a composite taken by the Hubble Space telescope and the Subaru Telescope. The halo around the galaxy is the result of winds and stellar explosions that caused a gas to form near the outside.

APOD 4.5

     This week I looked at the APOD titled "Total Eclipse over Svalbard. This picture show a total eclipse as it progresses through the sky. each frame is taken about three minutes apart. The total eclipse only lasted for about 2.5 minutes, but just by looking at the picture you can tell that everyone was amazed by it. Also since there are so many cameras in this picture maybe another one of this eclipse will be in an APOD next week. Its also amazing how this picture was taken in the middle of the day but the the solar eclipse makes it appear as if it is night.

APOD 4.4

     This APOD is titled "Milky Way over Erupting Volcano". In order to get this picture the photographer had to endure high winds and low temperatures. The photographer had to also travel to the top of the near by volcano Santa Maria in Guatemala. All this work sure paid off because the astronomer got such a great picture.This picture captures the volcano Fuego erupting in the distance with the Milky Way over it.

APOD 4.3

     I was looking at the APOD titles Sun and Moon Halo and I thought that it looked pretty cool.This is a combination of two pictures, one taken at night, and the other during the day. The halo that surrounds the half moon half sun combination is an ice halo. above the moon to the right we can see the planet Jupiter. This picture is absolutely breath taking in the way it shows the day and night in one picture near exact same conditions.

APOD 4.2

     I was looking at the APOD titled "Corona from Svalbard". This is a picture that depicts a solar eclipse. The white outline seen in this picture is the crown of the sun or better known as its corona. What I find amazing about this picture is that it is actually a composite of 29 different pictures put in one. It looks just like it is made of only one picture. Something else I find interesting about this picture is that details of the new moon can be seen in this picture. Usually the new moon remains black but here one can see the craters of the moon.