A Big Ol' Chunk of Observations

I'm just going to write about all the observations I did this month, using handwritten notes, so there aren't like 9 entries in a row.

December 11- Orion is freaking huge in the sky. Not so much physically large, but it's ridiculously bright and probably the most recognizable thing in the sky right now. Cassiopeia's "W" thing is pretty easy to find too, but suburban light really makes it hard to see anything else very well.

December 13- Went out of the way to find a place without much light. Since I'm in North Port, all I have to do is head south until I'm in Redneckland. Orion and Cassiopeia were easy to find again, and I'm pretty sure I saw the square of Pegasus. I can really see how it's a flying horse now. Oh wait. I lied.

December 16- With the help of our star charts I think I found a bunch more stuff this time. Both the Canis constellations were visible unless I'm startarded, along with Andromeda and Perseus. A bit later I think I could see Cepheus as well, as long as we're talking about "star-opera" characters.

December 23- All that is written for this entry is "STARS + CHRISTMAS LIGHTS = THIS WAS A SHITTY IDEA"

December 27- This was the last night i could really observe anything before midnight because of volunteer work, and I didn't really see anything particularly special. The moon's either at first or third quarter (note- it's first quarter), and Orion's just doing his "I'm the brightest motherf***er in the sky" thing. I found Taurus I think, which is cool becuase I rarely discern any zodiacal constellations. Other than that it was mostly space opera constellations.

Phobos- Doomed Moon

Mars' two moons, Phobos and Deimos, are named for minor Greek gods of Fear and Panic. Phobos, the larger and cloeser of the two, is spiraling inwards toward Mars' surface, and it will be destroyed entirely in about a hundred million years. It will either crash to the surface or, more likely, break up while in orbit and form a planetary ring. Compared to our moon, 400,000 km above the planetary surface, Phobos is only about 5,000 km away from Mars, and orbits so fast that it appears to rise in the West and set in the East.

APOD- Bucket-Wheel Excavator

Large Excavators like this one can dramatically change the face of Earth's surface by stripping raw resources and creating large areas of bare land. In all honesty, this picture doesn't have too much to do with space. That saw-blade is the size of several cars though, and that has to count for something.