This is a roll cloud. These rare long clouds may form near advancing cold fronts. In particular, a downdraft from an advancing storm front can cause moist warm air to rise, cool below its dew point, and so form a cloud.
Floral Aurora Corona
Few auroras show this level of detail. Above, a standard digital camera captured a particularly active and colorful auroral corona that occurred in Alberta, Canada. With a shape reminiscent of a flower, the spectacular aurora had an unusually high degree of detail. The vivid green and purple auroral colors are caused by high atmospheric oxygen and hydrogen reacting to a burst of incoming electrons.
Milky Way Galaxy
The Milky Way photographed from SandrasMountain in Turkey. (Canon EOS 5D digital SLR, 24mm lens at f/2.8, ISO 3200, five 45-second exposures connected side by side)
Jellyfish Nebula
The Jellyfish Nebula is seen to be part of the supernova remnant IC 433, which is approximately 5,000 light-years distant. (4-inch Takahashi FSQ106 refractor, SBIG ST-10XE CCD camera, Sulfur-II/Hydrogen-alpha/Oxygen-III image with exposures of 450, 300, and 90 minutes, respectively)
Blue Moon Eclipse
The International Year of Astronomy 2009 ended with a Blue Moon and a partial lunar eclipse. The New Year's Eve Blue Moon eclipse was visible throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and parts of Alaska, captured in this two exposure composite in cloudy skies over Saint Bonnet de Mure, France.
"The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale."
- Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke was born at the coast town of Minehead. While in school, Clarke started to writes 'fantastic' stories and read eagerly the magazine Astounding Stories. He also looked at the stars through his homemade telescopes. On leaving school he worked in the Exchequer and Adult Department in London.His apartment became the headquarters of the British Interplanetary Society, and in 1949 he became its chairman. After the war, Clarke entered King's College, London, and took his B.Sc. with honors in physics and mathematics in 1948. His first published novel, PRELUDE TO SPACE. Since 1952, Clarke has been a full-time writer. In the 1950s, Clarke became interested in undersea exploration and moved to Sri Lanka, writing several fiction and nonfiction books and articles about the Indian Ocean. Clarke also worked as a director of Rocket Publishing, London, Underwater Safaris, Colombo, and Spaceward Corporation, New York.
In 1962 Clarke became completely paralyzed after an accidental blow on the head. He wrote DOLPHINISLAND as his farewell to the sea. After recovering Clarke started his cooperation with the director Stanley Kubrick and later he accompanied his friend Mike Wilson on an underwater adventure six miles off the coast of Sri Lanka, which was depicted in THE TREASURE OF THE GREAT REEF (1964). In 1975, the Indian government presented him with a satellite dish, with which he was able to receive programs broadcast from experimental satellite ATS6.
In the 1980s Clarke was a presenter of the television series Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World (1980) and World of Strange Powers (1985). He lectured widely in Britain and in the United States. Among Clarke's best-known work is the short story THE SENTINEL (1951) about man's contact with sentient life. Clarke's work became the basis of the novel and film 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968), for which Clarke wrote the scriptwith Stanley Kubrick. In the story, a mysterious monolith is found buried beneath the surface of the moon. It sends a signal towards Jupiter. To solve the mystery astronauts are sent to Jupiter with the help of the super-computer HAL 9000. With the amazing computer, Clarke presents one of the basic philosophical questions: can there be intelligence without consciousness? After series of accidents and HAL's operations, one of the astronauts, David Bowman, is left alone as the ship reaches the planet.He embarks on the final step in humankind's next developmental stage. Clarke continued the Odyssey Saga in three sequels, 2010: ODYSSEY TWO (1982), 2061: ODYSSEY THREE (1988), and 3001: THE FINAL ODYSSEY (1996).
Clarke's other works include CHILDHOOD'S END (1953), a story about the beginning of the age of Humankind after Overlords have eliminated ignorance, disease and poverty, EARTHLIGHT (1955), A FALL OF MOONDUST (1961), a tale of marooned moon schooner, RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA (1973), in which a research team is sent to investigate a cylindrical object hurtling through the solar system, and THE FOUNTAINS OF PARADISE (1979). In the 1980s Clarkewrote with Gentry Lee, the chief engineer on Project Galileo, CRADLE (1988), originally conceived as a movie project, and RAMA II 1989). Clarke's catastrophe novel THE HAMMER OF GOOD (1993) about an asteroid hurtling toward Earth, anticipated such films as Deep Impact (1998) and Armageddon (1998).
Clarke is fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and recipient of many awards for his science fiction. He was the guest of honour at the 1956 World Science Fiction Convention, when he won a Hugo for his story 'The Star'. Rendezvous with Rama won the Nebula and Hugo Awards, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.Clarke has also won the Franklin Gold Medal, and in 1962 the UNESCO-Kalinga Prize for popularizing science.
Astronomy is a fun subject. It serves as a great education mater and also a fun subject for time pass. However, most say it is one of the most difficult branches of science and thus run away from astronomical matters. But the truth is, astronomy is on of the most interesting branches of science on can consider standing. It is in fact such that peoples of this age have taken astronomy and deep universe watching a part of their hobby.
Some peoples have involved in personal astronomy for years. Though these peoples are not considered as experienced armatures, they love to continue their astronomical researches by their own rules and procedures. There are a number of reasons that makes astronomy a perfect hobby. But amongst all, there are a few highlighted facts magnetize people towards astronomy.
Astronomy you can study how does those huge celestial bodies move and their activities in their complete life cycle. Any one doing astronomy passes an exciting time with every matter and topic comes in their telescopes view.
With the fact that astronomy is quite fun. You can learn about a lot of in depth stuffs about your life as well as the rest of the universe by getting involved in astronomy. It does not matter of you are in school or have moved on, having astronomical knowledge does you some good. You can even find yourself in a career where you can teach some astronomy to others and make some money.
There is so much to discover in astronomy that you will never get boarded of it. Even after decades of you doing researches and observing the universe, you will get a new update and learn a new fact every day. Astronomy is not like those other hobbies where you shows up to be fun at the starting periods, but get bored after a few months of those regular routines activities. There is no depth of the astronomy study; it just gets deeper and deeper.
Every day you will get to learn something new, discover something you have or no one else have ever discovered before. Adopting astronomy means benefits as well a great time pass together if you take it as a your ultimate hobby.
The Ceylon Astronomical Association which was founded in June 1959, (later known as Sri Lanka Astronomical Association) and now revived as the Astronomical Association of Lanka (AALK) is a not-for-profit association founded by Sir Arthur C. Clarke and late Herschel Gunawardene.
It is for the purpose of pursuing the study of astronomy and promoting the education of astronomy and related sciences. The revived Association’s goals would include usage of internet to carry research on astronomy and related sciences among university students and others.
Modern Astronomical research in Sri Lanka started in late 19th with planetary observations carried out by P. B. Molesworth F.R.A.S.Who discovered the South Tropical Zone disturbance of Planet Jupiter using his 13 inch Newtonian reflector mounted at FortFredrick, Trincomalee. Molesworth's publications appear in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and he has also been recognized by a crater named after him on Planet Mars.
The total Solar Eclipse across Sri Lanka on June 20th, 1955, had created a great interest in Astronomy. The Russians had launched "Sputnik" on October 4th, 1957, dawning the Space Age. Arthur C. Clarke and Mike Wilson had just finished exploring the "Great Barrier Reef" in Australia and settled down in Ceylon. As we mentioned above Ceylon Astronomical Association was founded on June 11th, 1959, with Arthur C. Clarke as the first President and Late Herschel Gunawardene as the Hony. Secretary. Membership of the Association was open to any member of the public interested in Astronomy. Members met mainly in their own private homes. Meeting were also held at the U.S.I.S. was followed by screening of the latest film on US space exploration to motivate an interest in Space and Astronomy. The Association also published a quarterly journal named the EQUATORIAL from 1959, that carried contributions from astronomers from Sri Lanka & abroad.
The 1964, Industrial Exhibition saw the opening of the Colombo Planetarium to popularize Astronomy among visiting School children. A Ten inch telescope was obtained by Herschel Gunawardene. In 1996 the Japanese Government gifted an 18-inch Telescope which is now located at the ArthurClarkeCenter for Modern Technology in Moratuwa. A number of new Astronomical groups formed and were active for some years. The group at Subodhi under the guidance of Fr Mervyn Fernando continues to help popularize astronomy and a number of Schools now have Astronomical Societies. However all is not well. There is no research group in Sri Lanka capable of publication in an internationally recognized refereed Astronomical Journal.
Today in Sri Lanka, general pubic as well as school students are interested in Astronomy and one may found a lot of schools with active astronomy clubs. These Associations and clubs working with all other astronomy related institutions in Sri Lanka and also hoping to get university students to do various researches and assist them.
We can define astronomy as the science which investigates all the matter-energy in the universe its distribution, composition, physical states, movements, and evolution. Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences. It is the scientific study of stars, planets, comets, nebula, star clusters and galaxies and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere. And also as we mentioned above it is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the formation and development of the universe.
Methodical observations of the night sky and astronomical artifacts have been found from much earlier periods. However, the invention of the telescope was required before astronomy was able to develop into a modern science. Since the 20th century, the field of astronomy spread over observational and theoretical branches.
It is built on Greek root astron = star and nomos = arrangement, order or law. Astronomy, therefore, is the study of arrangement of stars. It is the branch of Physics that studies celestial bodies and the Universe as a whole. Origin of the universe : The Big Bang, that gigantic explosion occurred some 15 billion years ago, is not only the beginning of our own Universe, space, matter and time, but also the generator of all mass. This mass of interstellar cloud of dust and gas (solar nebula) collapsed under its own gravity. The result is, this collapse of molecular clouds vaporized the dusts and the fireball expanded, cooled and compressed in the middle and developed into a Protostar, leaving the rest of the gas to rotate around it. This cooling effect generated the most basic elements, hydrogen and helium. In due course most of the gases orbiting the forming star flowed inwards towards the star and became part and parcel of it. However, the gases are rotating and therefore due to centrifugal force some of the gases stayed away from the forming star and formed a disc capable of building itself naturally around the forming star. This disc gives away its energy through radiation and cools off into metals, rocks and ice. The dust particles collide and generate bigger particles and this process goes on till the particle builds into the size of a small rocky boulder known as asteroids. Once the bigger of these particles become really large enough to have its own gravity, the growth zooms! Because of gravity, they absorb smaller particles in their orbit and grow substantially. This process, after millions of years got us 10 or more planets in regular habits forming the solar system.
We live on a tiny blue planet, one of nine worlds that orbit an average-size star called the Sun. Our Sun and its family of planets exist within a vast group of stars called a galaxy. Our galaxy is called the Milky Way, and it contains nearly 200 billion stars-that's about the same number as there are grains of sand on a beach.
Have you ever looked at the night sky and wondered about your place in the universe? This will help you get a little idea about it. Find out where we are and where we're headed. Learn about Earth and our solar system, plus some of the secrets astronomers have uncovered about the stars, galaxies and universe.
