I hope you have had a great start to the school year so far! I know that I have enjoyed working with you guys so far this year! I hope you were able to check out my posting of the rainbow and praying mantis that I saw at our school last week! Both were spotted at the same time!! That was pretty cool!
Let's start off with some space news...
First of all, tonight is the peak of the Orionid Meteor Shower. If you look outside (best viewing time is between 1-3am) up at the constellation Orion (*hint look
for the three stars that form "Orion's Belt"), with fairly clear conditions, you should be able to see about 15-20 meteors per hour. Tonight, the moon won't be full, which is in your favor (it will be about 25% illuminated). It is, however, supposed to be partly cloudy, so sky conditions may be hit or miss. If you are having trouble finding Orion, it should be overhead around 2am. Below is a picture of the constellation, so you can see what it looks like.
Sunspots
As of right now, there are several active regions on the sun, including several sunspots. Remember (8th grade...) that a sunspot is a dark area of cooler gas (as compared to the gasses surrounding it). Sunspots are often related to things such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections. If you remember, the sun is on an 11 year cycle, each cycle with a solar minimum(where solar activity is low) and a solar maximum (where solar activity is high). Right now, we are currently climbing towards solar maximum (expected between 2012 and 2013). As we move towards solar maximum, the activity on the sun will increase, which also increases the chances of solar storms. Who knows what some impacts of solar storms are? If you write it down on a note card and bring it to me in school, you can get an extra point on your lowest test score!
Below is a picture of what the sun looks like (as on October 22, 2011), notice the sunspots. The photo was taken from SpaceWeather (www.spaceweather.com)
Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 Landing Sites on the Moon
NASA has proposed guidelines to protect and preserve both the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 landing sites on the lunar surface. If you remember, Apollo 11 was the mission that carried Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the moon, allowing for Armstrong and Aldrin to be the first people to ever set foot on the surface of the moon. Apollo 17 was NASA's final Apollo mission. Obviously, these missions, along with all of the Apollo missions are a very important piece, not just for American History, but for World History as well. When Neil Armstrong took that first step off of the Lunar Landing Module's ladder, he did not just represent the United States, but the entire world. When he first stepped off of the ladder, he said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." What do you think that he meant by this? Anyway, you can see why NASA would want to protect such an important piece of history. If NASA did not prepare those guidelines, than the landing sites could be damaged by future missions to the moon. This article was found on Yahoo! News (www.news.yahoo.com). Below is a brief video from YouTube about the Apollo 11 mission.
Anyway, that's all for now. Hope you guys enjoyed this post.
See you in school!
Keep an eye to the sky,
Keep an eye to the sky,
Ms. T
Thanks to StumbleUpon.com...I thought I would share some of these cool pictures that I came across...
