The Hubble Space Telescope has brought us back a wealth of knowledge from the space far beyond our Earth. It’s a spacecraft with a telescope that makes dramatic discoveries we would not have made without it. It flies almost 600km above the surface of the Earth. It has expanded human understanding of the birth and death of stars and the evolution of the galaxy. We now know that black holes are reality and not theory, thanks to this telescope.

Hubble brought in about 120GB of data each week, recording many thousands of images, including some memorable images of our universe. Astronomy researchers had long dreamed of placing a telescope in Earth orbit, and the Hubble could observe galaxies and stars without the distortion that is caused by the atmosphere of the Earth. The photographs are much sharper than any telescope on land can take, and it also “sees” faint objects that can’t be seen from Earth.

Developing the Space Shuttle allowed a telescope based in space to become reality. It took nearly ten years to design and assemble the Hubble Space Telescope. It was scheduled to be launched in 1986, bat, sadly, that was delayed during redesign work on the Space Shuttle after the loss of the Challenger shuttle in that year. The Hubble would eventually launch in 1990.

Initially, there were some flaws in the telescope, which did not allow it to function as well as it was designed to. These problems were corrected during servicing missions by the Space Shuttles, and the telescope began sending back clearer images after those missions.

Hubble does not use film, and its processes are more or less the type used in today’s digital cameras. Its own cameras record the universe’s light, and the images are actually black and white. Color images are formed later, with the color being added when the images are processed. The colors are not always what the human eye would actually see in the same situation. Astronomers use color as a tool, to enhance the detail of objects, and to visualize objects that the human eye could not see.

Astronomical objects’ light comes in many colors, and each color is caused by a specific electromagnetic wave. The Hubble Space Telescope detects any visible light wavelength, and many that the human eye would not see at all. Objects in space may appear different in the various light wavelengths. Hubble uses filters that will only allow specific wavelengths of light through. After unwanted light is filtered out, Hubble records the light remaining, to form its images. Many images in full color are actually combinations of separate exposures, in blue, red and green light. When they are mixed, they will simulate colors that our eyes can see. That’s why Hubble images are often breathtaking to us.

When you go out on clear nights in the middle of March, you might look up and see many constellations above you, if you know what to look for. There is one pattern of stars that is known as Plough, and you can use this pattern to find Polaris, Gemini and Leo. Trace your path further in a southwesterly direction and you will see Orion and Taurus.
Taurus and Orion are known as Winter constellations, which is why they will be sinking toward the horizon in March. If you glance in the other direction, you may see Virgo, only now creeping into the horizon to the east, since this is a constellation of Summer. We don’t need the sky to tell us the months of the year anymore, but this was once the case, long before our ages of TV and Internet access.

Constellations are groups of stars, in the world of astronomy. They may move together, but often they do not. The Plough, which helps guide your eye to other constellations, is actually part of a constellation itself – Ursa Major, also known as the Great Bear. Constellations are a way to remember specific star patterns, and when you see the brighter stars in a constellation, you will recognize the entire constellation. This is much easier than attempting to recognize each bright star.

Looking for star patterns and utilizing them to help your memory is something done well by the human brain. You may recognize individual stars sometimes, but that is usually in the context of the constellations in which they appear. It’s easier to search for the constellations first, and then the individual stars. The only reason we see the patterns in stars is due to the Earth’s relative position, and that of the stars.

Ursa Minor, also known as Little Bear, is roughly 400 light years from Earth. Other constellations may be closer or further away. If you happened to be on a planet elsewhere in the same galaxy, you would see the constellations differently than they are seen from Earth.

Due to Earth’s position, and since stars move at various speeds, the constellations you see actually change their shapes over the years. The Earth’s wobble also is the reason why Polaris was not always the north pole star, and it will not always be that star.

Constellations in the past were helpful to ancient civilizations, who used them to determine their location and time of year. They named them with the names of birds and other animals that they were familiar with. Today, we do not need to use constellations for navigation in our daily lives, but you’ll find them intriguing to study.