Greetings and welcome to the
Introduction to Astronomy.
One of the things
that I like to do
in each of my introductory
astronomy classes
is to begin the class with the
Astronomy Picture of the Day.
From the NASA website that
is APOD.NASA.GOV/APOD.
And today's picture for
September the 7th of 2020.
While it is titled The Milky
Way over St. Michael's Mount.
So what do we see here?
Well St. Michael's Mount
out in the distance
is actually an
island in England.
And you can see the
little pathway there,
which is available at low tide.
So when the tide is out.
You can actually get
directly to the island.
But when the tide
is in that it will
be much higher in that
pathway would be underwater.
Now up in the sky.
We see a number of things,
including our Milky Way
galaxy stretching
almost straight
up from the mount there.
And that is our
own spiral galaxy
as we see it from within.
And we can see some
of the dusty dark dust
clouds and the
brighter star clouds
that make up the plane
of our Milky Way galaxy.
Now Milky Way galaxy
is visible from just
about any location on Earth.
But you do need to have a
regular or relatively dark
sight to be able to see it.
Otherwise, the sky
brightness will
make it look too indistinct
from the rest of the sky.
So a relatively dark
side you're actually
able to see that from
just about any place.
Now a couple of other objects
that we see off to the right,
we do see a meteor
streaking across the sky.
Meteors are a small piece
of a comet that burns up
in the Earth's atmosphere.
So they're actually
an atmospheric thing.
They would not occur
on an object planet
without an atmosphere.
We would not see any
meteors on the moon,
for example, if we
were on our moon,
then the objects
there would just
smash right into the surface
and churn up the surface
into a fine powder, which is
the lunar soil that we see now
on the other side of the image.
We see the planet Jupiter.
Jupiter bright object
in the sky here.
And one of the brighter planets.
After Venus that we
can see in the sky.
Jupiter is the largest
planet in the solar system
and therefore is relatively
bright although it is
much further away than Venus.
Jupiter will be prominent
in the night sky
for the remainder of the year.
So if you haven't
had a chance yet
get out and see
Jupiter in the evening
sky very close to Saturn.
And they're actually getting
closer and closer together
over the coming months.
And when we hit December
than they will actually
be very close and we'll
reach their closest
approach on December
the 21st, when
they will be as close
together in the sky
as they have been
since the 1600s.
Only about a tenth
of a degree apart.
So very, very close
together our whole moon
is about half a degree in size.
So it is about one fifth of
the diameter of the full moon
is how close Jupiter and
Saturn will be together
towards the mid to
late part of December.
So a chance to see those
at that point as well.
So that was our picture of
the day for September the 7th
of 2020.
It was titled The Milky Way
over St. Michael's Mount.
We'll be back again tomorrow
for the next picture previewed
to be Unexpected.
Black Holes Collide.
So we'll see what that
is about tomorrow.
And until then, have
a great day, everyone.
And I will see you in class.
