Reddest of the Red Stars by Vincent S. Foster Some stars will have you seeing red. They’re carbon stars, a unique type of variable star, which accumulate soot in their upper atmosphere that scatters light near the blue end of the spectrum. What’s left for us to view is the red component of a star’s light. As the carbon particles build up, the star fades in brightness and gets even redder. Eventually, the carbon absorbs enough radiation to escape the star, and the cycle starts over again. Novice stargazers are often disappointed because they cannot see the rainbow of colors that appear in celestial photos taken by the Hubble Telescope. This is because the human eye’s color sensors do not function well under low light levels. So why can we see the color of carbon stars, but not that of most other celestial objects? Because their light is both bright and concentrated into a point rather than being spread out like nebulae and galaxies. Aim binoculars or a small telescope at a carbon star and you’ll see its color even more prominently. That’s because the scope will gather much more light than your eye and will help stimulate your color receptors. Although carbon stars are the reddest of the red stars, there are different levels of red in these stars. Astronomers determine a star’s redness by observation and simple math. They measure the star’s magnitude through blue (B) and visual (V) filters. Then they subtract the visual magnitude from the blue. This leaves a number designated B-V called the color index. The more positive the color index, the redder the star is. For example, if a star has a blue magnitude of 5 and a visual magnitude of 3, then it has a color index of 2. Color indices range from about -0.5 for the bluest stars t... ... middle of paper ... ...orite with a color index of 4.4, making it a visually striking red star. Its magnitude ranges between 7.8 and 9.3 over 369 days. If you want more carbon stars to observe visit the website of the Saguaro Astronomy Club in the U.S., which maintains a database containing 334 red stars. Go to www.saguaroastro.org The Astronomical League in the U.S. also has a list of 100 carbon stars as part of its Carbon Star Observing Program. It can be downloaded at www.astroleague.org Carbon stars will please your eyes and help sharpen your observing skills. If you keep an observing log, you may exhaust your thesaurus searching for different ways to say “red.” One thing’s for sure, though. Looking at these red stars won’t leave you feeling blue. END Word Count: 1,544 Vincent S. Foster 37 Brigantine Blvd. Waretown, NJ 08758 USA Tel: 609-488-5898 Email: grantfinder1@aol.com
In the text “Seeing Red: American Indian Women Speaking about their Religious and Cultural Perspectives” by Inés Talamantez, the author discusses the role of ceremonies and ancestral spirituality in various Native American cultures, and elaborates on the injustices native women face because of their oppressors.
COMMUNIST REGIME: WHY DIDN’T CZECHOSLOVAKIA RESIST? Heda Margolius Kovály’s memoir, “Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968” recounts her experience of the Holocaust and the Communist Regime in Czechoslovakia, during the 20th century.
The Lagoon Nebula featured as Nasa’s astronomy picture of the day was photographed by John Nemcik using various filters to capture the light emitted by the Hydrogen, Sulfur, and Oxygen. While photographed showing beautiful vibrant, eye-catching colors, the Nebula would appear naturally appear gray to human eye due to poor color sensitivity existing at low-light levels (spacetelescope.org). The Lagoon Nebula is home to the formation of new stars, as well as several other interesting phenomena such as Bok globules, and the hourglass nebula. It is these regions of the nebula that make it a continuous area of interest and study for astronomers.
At a distance of 525 light years, blue class B (B1) Hadar is 130 times farther away than Rigel Kentaurus, and is bright because it is truly and very generously luminous, shining (accounting for the ultraviolet radiated from the 25,500-Kelvin surface) 112,000 times more brightly than the Sun. Hadar, however, is not one star, but two. Sophisticated observations that rely on the interference properties of light show that the single point of light actually consists of a pair of nearly identical stars each some 55,000 times more luminous than the Sun separated (from our perspective) by only 2.5 astronomical units. The temperature and luminosity show each to contain 15 solar masses. Spectra suggest an orbital period of not quite a year, this and the masses rendering them an actual 3 astronomical units apart. Twin Hadar also has a fourth magnitude sibling 1.3 seconds of arc away that, because of the brightness difference, is difficult to see and study. A class B dwarf, Hadar- B is a grand star in its own right, a star of 5 solar masses 1500 times more luminous than the Sun; it only pales by comparison with Hadar (or the Hadars) proper.
Produced during the communist era in China in 1991, Raise the Red Lantern is an intriguing film that keeps you guessing till the end. It is clear that the director of the film; Zhang Yimou, used the plot of the movie which is about a master and his four concubines, to represent something deeper beyond its showing. The director used this plot as a metaphor to criticize the Chinese government at the time, and that is why the screening was banned during that time. The movie itself has a way deeper meaning than just the life of a wealthy man and his four concubines. For example, the wealthy man represents the Chinese government, and his concubines represent the Chinese people. In addition, it is clear why this movie was banned in China. Because to a certain extent it promotes disobedience and disloyalty to the government, and because of this, the government did not want to allow the screening of a movie that promoted such values.
First, we have to investigate the validity of Womack’s argument and the effectiveness of his argument when he examines the theory of gender in Harjo’s poetry. In the gender and queer theory, feminist writers always concern about gender oppression. It means that one gender is privileged over another gender that is disadvantaged because of her or his gender. Different groups use their power to befit from other groups. This oppression and domination can be practiced in different sexes based on their sexual orientations such as bisexuals, gays, lesbians, or heterosexuals. When Critics, including Womack himself in Red on Red, examine the poems of Harjo, they do not find any evidence of gender oppression. They realize that the historical movements
...t differences in colour therefore relies on the sensitivity of different types of cone cell within our retina. This is what enables us to see the full spectrum of visible light from blues into the deep reds. It is evident from studies with dogs, birds, snakes and other animals that having a different number of cones, or having these cones sensitive to different wavelengths causes a completely different perspective of our colour world. As a result Dichromatic or Monochromatic humans who are missing a certain type of cone(s), or even trichromatic humans with a cone sensitive to an anomalous wavelength can be labelled as colour blind. Whilst these ‘colour blind’ individuals are usually still able to detect differences in colour across the visible spectrum of light they ultimately see the colour world in an abnormal way to an individual with a normal visual system.
...mation about colorblindness and color deficiencies. Color wheel images used in this paper were taken from this site.
In the film “Red Cliff” directed by John Woo, The Eastern Han Dynasty, one of the main characters, Prime minister Cao Cao, plans to take over the southern Han Dynasty lands and unify China. The Lui Bei try and fend them off but they are extremely outnumbered by the East and have no choice but to retreat to protect their people. Knowing they cannot win, the strategist named Kongming suggests and allies with the Sun Quan who were also outnumbered and would eventually be attacked by Cao Cao after defeating the Lui. Although the eastern Han still had more soldiers, the southern Han still fight. They devise many plans to counter their huge army and with their strategies and meteorologist they are able to defeat Cao Cao’s army, creating three main
In Bright Star, Keats utilises a mixture of the Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnet forms to vividly portray his thoughts on the conflict between his longing to be immortal like the steadfast star, and his longing to be together with his love. The contrast between the loneliness of forever and the intenseness of the temporary are presented in the rich natural imagery and sensuous descriptions of his true wishes with Fanny Brawne.
A Thousand Splendid Suns written by Khaled Hossieni is indeed a marvelous and heart-aching story about survival in a battle-run country. Khaled Hosseini was born on March 4th, 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan (“Biography”). He witnessed first-hand the horror of war, and soon immigrated to America in 1980 (“Biography”). Khaled became a trained physician in St. Jose, California but writing still remained his passion (“Biography”). To date, he has written three novels, the first one being a worldwide sensation, The Kite Runner.
Stars are born in the interstellar clouds of gas and dust called nebulae that are primarily found in the spiral arms of galaxies. These clouds are composed mainly of hydrogen gas but also contain carbon, oxygen and various other elements, but we will see that the carbon and oxygen play a crucial role in star formation so they get special mention. A nebula by itself is not enough to form a star however, and it requires the assistance of some outside force. A close passing star or a shock wave from a supernova or some other event can have just the needed effect. It is the same idea as having a number of marbles on a trampoline and then rolling a larger ball through the middle of them or around the edges. The marbles will conglomerate around the path of the ball, and as more marbles clump together, still more will be attracted. This is essentially what happens during the formation of a star (Stellar Birth, 2004).
Light is what lets you experience colour. The pigment of the retina in your eyes is sensitive to different lengths of light waves which allows you to see different colours. The wavelengths of light that humans can see are called the visible colour spectrum.
The blue color, which is observed in the sky, is due to the Rayleigh scattering. As light travels in the atmosphere, it comes across gas molecules which absorb most of the colors with shorter wavelength. Colors such as red, orange, yellow are least absorbed. Blue, being a color with short wavelength, gets absorbed in the molecule. It is then radiated into all directions. Now, this is the color that reaches our eyes because it gets scattered in all directions, hence a blue sky.
The era of radio telescopes along with radio astronomy begun with Karl Guthe Jansky's discovery of an astronomical radio source in 1931. In the 20th century, many types of telescopes were developed for a wide range of wavelengths from radio to gamma-rays. (infrared telescopes--700 nm/ 0.7 µm - 1000 µm/1 mm, ultra-violet teles...