Post by Mellow Yellow on Dec 3, 2007 13:40:39 GMT -5
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22043740/
Andromeda takes center stage in night sky
Amazing galaxy is passing almost directly over our heads this week
The Andromeda galaxy shines brightly in this picture from the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. The view from your backyard, however, is sure to be dimmer and fuzzier.
Now that the bright moon has left the evening sky, it's a good time to turn our attention to one of the most amazing sky objects, which is passing almost directly over our heads this week between 7:30 and 8 p.m.
This object was known as the "little cloud" to the Persian astronomer Abd-al-Rahman Al-Sufi, who described and depicted it in his Book of Fixed Stars in the year 964. But it may have been commonly known to Persian astronomers at Isfahan as far back as 905, or even earlier. An expert on star nomenclature, Richard Hinckley Allen, once reported that it also appeared on a Dutch star map from the year 1500.
To see this "little cloud" requires good eyesight and a dark and crystal-clear night with no street or house lighting nearby. With the unaided eye it appears as nothing more than an indefinite, mysterious glow: a diffuse elongated smear perhaps two or three times the apparent width of the moon.
Andromeda takes center stage in night sky
Amazing galaxy is passing almost directly over our heads this week
The Andromeda galaxy shines brightly in this picture from the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. The view from your backyard, however, is sure to be dimmer and fuzzier.
Now that the bright moon has left the evening sky, it's a good time to turn our attention to one of the most amazing sky objects, which is passing almost directly over our heads this week between 7:30 and 8 p.m.
This object was known as the "little cloud" to the Persian astronomer Abd-al-Rahman Al-Sufi, who described and depicted it in his Book of Fixed Stars in the year 964. But it may have been commonly known to Persian astronomers at Isfahan as far back as 905, or even earlier. An expert on star nomenclature, Richard Hinckley Allen, once reported that it also appeared on a Dutch star map from the year 1500.
To see this "little cloud" requires good eyesight and a dark and crystal-clear night with no street or house lighting nearby. With the unaided eye it appears as nothing more than an indefinite, mysterious glow: a diffuse elongated smear perhaps two or three times the apparent width of the moon.
