Was there an earthquake at Caltech...

...or is this the design someone chose for the new Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics?

The interior's kind of interesting, if you enjoy the feeling of total confusion.

Somehow, I don't think Howard Roark would approve.

He Is Risen

God bless and keep you all this Easter.

More Fuzzy Objects

Student observations of nearby galaxies for my astronomy class' final project followed by images from various big telescopes for comparison (the color images were not taken by my students). Instrument: Meade LX-200 16" reflecting telescope with Schmidt-Cassegrain optics and an SBIG-7 CCD camera. Image data were collected and reduced using the CCDSoft software application for Windows.

NGC 2841
Type: Spiral galaxy
Constellation: Ursa Major
Diameter: 150,000 light-years (cf. Milky Way, ~120,000 light-years)
Distance: 50 million light-years





NGC 4565: The Needle Galaxy
Type: Spiral galaxy (edge-on)
Constellation: Coma Berenices
Diameter: 100,000 light-years
Distance: 30 million light-years





NGC 4656: The Hockey Stick
Type: Irregular galaxy
Constellation: Canes Venatici
Diameter: 35,000 light-years
Distance: 30 million light-years





NGC 2903
Type: Spiral galaxy
Constellation: Leo
Diameter: 80,000 light-years
Distance: 20 million light-years