How The Heck Does The Hubble Space Telescope Do It?

Ever wonder how in the world the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) takes those awesomely fascinating photos of galaxies, stars, planets, nubulaes, and supernova remnants more that are a gazillion light years away from us?

Here's The Process: Scientists point the HST to a particular region of space. The HST exposes an image for a long time to collect more light rather than zooming in on them. It collects as many photons as possible on optical sensors which relays the data to computers here on earth which recombines the data into pictures.

The HST takes pictures using the full spectrum of light from infrared to ultraviolet that the human eye cannot see. It even uses X-rays. It uses lenses that either captures or filters different wavelengths. It sees or filters out different colors such as red, blue, and green . This tells us what we are looking at, such as hydrogen atoms, oxygen atoms, and nitrogen ions. 

Example:Hydrogen emits red light. If the HST did not do filter out the color red, most pictures would be kind of reddish as hydrogen is by far the most abundant element in the universe. Hence, astronomers can tell by color just what the heck they are looking at. By combining these images scientists can create full-color pictures.

And the images are enhanced too. There is nothing wrong with doing this.

Okay, enough of this blah blah blah. Just sit back and enjoy images (Image Credits via NASA) made possible by the Hubble Space Telescope taken in the backyard that is our universe!

Interacting Galaxy Pair ARP 87

The Sombrero Galaxy

Spiral Galaxy M74

Most Distant Galaxy Candidates

Mosaic of the Crab Nebulae

Red Super Giant Star V838 Monocerotis

Saturn 

Help With our 2013 Co-Host Questionnaire!

We're hard at work preparing for the 2013 A-to-Z Challenge, and we need your help!

Last year, each of us co-hosts answered a set of questions in a Getting to Know You post, so participants could learn a little about us and know who it was they'd be talking to or dealing with throughout the challenge.  You'll find last year's list of questions below.

This year, we want to know what YOU want to know about us.  We're asking you to create our questionnaire for us.  What would you like to ask us?  Leave a comment with your question(s).  You can suggest as many as you'd like.  Have fun with it!  No question is too silly.

For ideas, see the list below or click on the names of last year's co-hosts to read our answers to last year's questions.  Maybe you'll get some ideas based on what we said in 2012.

If we get enough questions, we'll each be choosing a set number to answer for ourselves, rather than answering all the same questions.  This way, you get a little variety.

Last year's Getting to Know You posts:

Alex J. Cavanaugh
Arlee Bird
Damyanti Biswas
DL Hammons
Elizabeth Mueller
Jenny Pearson
Jeremy Hawkins (Retro-Zombie)
Konstanz Silverbow
Matthew MacNish
Shannon Lawrence (The Warrior Muse)
Stephen Tremp
Tina Downey

Our 10 Getting to Know You Questions:

What is the most daring thing you've ever done?
What is your favorite article of clothing?
What is your favorite monster?
If you had to dress up as your favorite literary character, who would it be?
What is your favorite fairy tale, urban legend or nursery rhyme?
What is a cause near and dear to your heart?
What's the strangest item you've used as a bookmark?
Do you have any nicknames?  What are they, and how did you earn them?
Name one habit you want to change in yourself.
Tell us something interesting or shocking about yourself.

And our 5 A-to-Z Questions: 

What was your favorite A-to-Z post from 2011?
What brought you to the A-to-Z originally?  Tell us about your first A-to-Z.
Are you doing a theme?
Are you writing and scheduling posts in advance?
What is your favorite letter of the alphabet, and why?  What letter do you like least?

What questions do you want us to answer?  What do you want to know about your 2013 A-to-Z co-hosts? Can you get us to tell our deepest, darkest secrets?

May you find your Muse.

Shannon Lawrence
The Warrior Muse

Shauna Kelley: The Joy of the Season and the Benefits of Blogging

Please join me in welcoming Shauna Kelley, who participated in the challenge for the first time last year. I'm happy to say she'll be joining us again. She's here today to tell us about the books she's published recently.  

I am honored to be here. The A to Z Challenge was the first challenge I particulate in, and has helped to  welcome me into/teach me about blogging.  I am particularly grateful to be here in December!

December is my favorite month. I am a lover of decorating, a huge fan of baking, and most of all, a rabid gift-giver. I am doing a Friday series over on my blog on my favorite gifts, but here I want to focus on the gifts that being part of this blog community provides me. 

I blog because I write. I started my blog to promote my first book, Max and Menna, and, as people who blog solely to promote their work often learn, it was ineffectual. I took too long to realize that my blog was not a podium, but a conversation. 

I now know that the benefit of my blog is not in having space to talk about my work, but in having a way to connect with writers. For centuries, writing has been an isolated profession. Now, the blog world offers us a community in which to support, encourage, and celebrate with each other. This is a gift, and one of the best ones I’ve received in a long, long time.  

The power of this gift rang through loud and clear during the launch of my second book,  Don't Wake Up, which was deemed by more than 40 agents and small presses to be “unmarketable.” It is the story of Gillian, who plays a dangerous game with her husband. He awoke from a coma claiming he cannot remember their life, but she recalls all too well years of manipulation and pain. She invents a family in attempt to get Ricky to acknowledge that this, too, is a lie. However, as her deceit grows, she begins to wonder how far she can go to punish a man for sins he cannot remember committing.

After so many rejections, I might never have published the book if it weren’t for the community around my blog helping me to understand:

• When you’re telling your community about an achievement (like publishing a book) it is no longer just self promotion (which I find very uncomfortable) but instead becomes sharing good news with friends.
• The market for my “unmarketable” book is right here. I have friends here that appreciate my book despite its length, its subject, and everything that makes it “high risk” to a press.  

We’re all here for different reasons, but we’re all here. And now that you can definitely tell that Christmas brings out my mushy side, know that I am thankful to be writing now when I have this gift of a community!

Thanks for being with us, and  helping to get us in the spirit of the Christmas season.
- Tina