William Cranch Bond

William Cranch Bond was born on September 9th, 1789 in Portland Maine. His father was a clockmaker, Bond built his first clock on his own when he was 15. A lot of his knowledge was self-taught. He had an interest in engineering, which helped him take over the family clock-making business after his father.
In 1806, Bond witnessed a solar eclipse. This sparked his passion for astronomy. Years later when he built his first house, Bond was sure to include an observatory featuring a skylight for astronomical observations. Over the course of his life, Bond identified many new comets. In 1839 as a reward for his discoveries, he was the first to be given the title of "Astronomical Observer" at Harvard College.
8 years later, he became the director of the Harvard Observatory. He was also the first American to be a part of Britains Royal Astronomical Society.
During his time in the Harvard Observatory, Bond observed sunspots, Saturn, and the Orion Nebula M42. His son, George Phillips Bond, aided him in much of his research. With his son's help, Bond discovered Hyperion, one of Saturn's moons.
Bond and his son were the first astronomers to use the Daguerre photographic process in astronomical studies. The process was one of the first methods of obtaining permanent images with a camera. In 1850, they took their first picture using the process; a picture of the star Vega.
William Cranch Bond died on January 29, 1859 in Cambridge Massachusetts.

Apod 2.7

This is an image of saturns rings, taken from the side facing away from the sun. This results in pictures that appear to be photo negative versions of ordinary pictures of Saturn.

Apod 2.6

This is a complex nebula. Scientists aren't quite sure what has caused this star to expand into such an unusual shape. Nebulae normally expand in normal shapes like spheres, double lobes, rings, or helices. Astronomers believe that this dying star is part of a binary star system with a precessing symmetry axis.

Biography Sources

http://messier.seds.org/xtra/Bios/wcbond.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/72793/William-Cranch-Bond

Apod 2.5

This is a picture of a gas cloud created by the M33 galaxy. The gas cloud is composed of dense internal knots which form stars. The gas cloud is so large, that is is able to form a global cluster.

Apod 2.4

This is an image of the Hercules A galaxy. It contains an active super-massive blackhole at its center. Astronomers believe that it is the black hole that causes the "jets" shown in this image. Some of these plasma "jets" can be over one million light years long. Hercules A's central galaxy, 3C 348 is one thousand times bigger than our Milky Way galaxy.

Objects for Stargaze

Altair
Polaris
Algol
Fomalhaut

Double Cluster
M31
M42

M81
Andromedae
61 Cygni