Annie Jump Cannon American astronomer whose cataloging work was instrumental in the development of contemporary stellar classification was born #OTD in 1863.
In 1896 she became a member of ‘Pickering’s Women’, a group of women hired by Harvard Observatory to process astronomical data &, in particular, to complete the Draper Catalogue of Stellar Spectra. Published in 1890, the catalogue contained spectroscopic classifications for over 10,000 stars. @Soc.Hist.Astron.
Omar Khayyam Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet died #OTD in 1131. As a mathematician, he is most notable for his work on the classification and solution of cubic equations, where he provided geometric solutions by the intersection of conics. As an astronomer, he calculated the duration of the solar year and designed the Jalali calendar. via @wikipedia
❌ Please absolutely DO NOT buy some ultra-cheap Black Friday deal telescope from Amazon or Walmart. (These are all utter shit and unusable and will ruin the hobby for you or your kids.)
🌌 The best thing to do is to go to a star party and try out telescopes!
The Unique Story of the James Webb Space Telescope
With numerous questions and concerns regarding how far we can go with this Hubble telescope upgrade, this book comes to equip every astronomer, stargazer, and constellation enthusiast with facts on the Novel telescope in space and how it will influence (if not revolutionize) how we see the universe in the future.
Percival Lowell, American astronomer who predicted the existence of a planet beyond the orbit of Neptune & initiated the search that ended in the discovery of Pluto died #OTD in 1916.
For some 15 years he studied Mars extensively, making intricate drawings of the surface markings as he perceived them. His works include a detailed description of the canals of Mars - dark spots at their intersections; and the varying visibility of both, depending partly on the Martian seasons.
He founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and formed the beginning of the effort that led to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death. via @wikipedia
Here it is, several thousand years in the making: the protostellar jet HH212 as seen in the infrared by #JWST.
We discovered this jet in 1993, glowing in the light of shocked molecular hydrogen at 2.12 microns, as gas emerges symmetrically at about 100 km/s from the two poles of a young protostar not far from the Horsehead Nebula in Orion.
Our new JWST image spans six wavelengths & is ten times sharper than any previous infrared image.
I am a PhD candidate in Tartu, searching for the imprints of dynamical friction in different environments, and how through this there might be a possibility to constrain the properties of dark matter and other dynamics in galaxies. Supervised by Rain Kipper.
I am very interested in galactic dynamics, computational astronomy and lately I am exploring superbubbles in NGC628 as seen by JWST-MIRI.
The James Webb Space Telescope has taken a stunning image of a perfectly formed Einstein ring, which is also the most distant gravitationally lensed object ever detected.
Spot the difference: on the left, the copperplate print is hand-coloured after the print run, and on the right no extra work is done. Colouring prints was a thing in #earlymodern Europe. Guess which version was more expensive - and sold better?
"In this paper, we discuss Babylonian observations of a “massing of the planets” reported in two Astronomical Diaries, BM 32562 and BM 46051. This extremely rare astronomical phenomenon was observed in Babylon between 20 and 30 March 185 BC shortly before sunrise when all five planets were simultaneously visible for about 10 to 15 min close to the horizon in the eastern morning sky."
Aside from the myths, the ancient Greeks were interested in rational explanations for the celestial phenomena they observed. They were influenced by Egyptian & especially Babylonian astronomy: Babylonian astronomers could predict the planets' motions with extraordinary accuracy.
The 2nd century BCE astronomer Hipparchos wanted to achieve the same level of accuracy as the Babylonians.
Hipparchos based his improved model for the Sun on observations of the equinoxes, which explained both changes in the speed of the Sun and differences in the lengths of the seasons. He is credited with the discovery of a phenomenon called precession of the equinoxes. According to Roman astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus, Hipparchos measured the longitude of several bright stars and compared his measurements with data from his predecessors.
@antiquidons#Astronomy and calendars are the domain of #Hermes. His grandfather Atlas turns the heavenly constellations and his mother Maia is one of the starry Pleiades.
Atlas instructed him in astronomy and the Greek mythographer Euhemeros says that #Aphrodite first established the constellations and taught Hermes. The planet #Mercury is attributed to Hermes because he first established the months and perceived the courses of the constellations.
I've bloody well done it again! YUS! One year, every evening at 4pm (winter) 5pm (summer). A 20 second exposure through a pinhole camera, on a glass plate. I've captured the Analemma again! #analemma#astronomy#beauty
'Einstein ring' snapped by James Webb Space Telescope is most distant gravitationally lensed object ever seen (www.space.com)
The James Webb Space Telescope has taken a stunning image of a perfectly formed Einstein ring, which is also the most distant gravitationally lensed object ever detected.