Friday, March 20, 2020

How to Find the Andromeda Constellation

How to Find the Andromeda Constellation The night skies of September and October herald the return of the constellation Andromeda. While not the showiest constellation in the sky, Andromeda harbors a fascinating deep-sky object and is the source of intriguing historical tales. Finding the Andromeda Constellation To find constellation Andromeda, first look for the W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia in the northern part of the sky. Andromeda is located directly next to Cassiopeia, and is also connected to a boxy shape of stars that make up the constellation Pegasus. Andromeda is visible to all northern hemisphere viewers and many, but not all, viewers south of the equator.   Andromeda constellation is attached to Pegasus the flying horse in the sky. The constellation Pisces lies at her feet. Each one of these constellations has deep-sky objects nearby for observers to search out. Carolyn Collins Petersen   The History of Andromeda In ancient Greece and Rome, the stars of Andromeda were seen in combination with the stars of Pisces to form a goddess of fertility. The Arabic astronomers saw Al Hut - a fish. In ancient China, stargazers saw various figures of legend in Andromedas stars, including a famous general and palaces for their emperors. In the south Pacific, where these constellations are low on the horizon, stargazers saw the stars of Andromeda, Cassiopeia, and Triangulum joined together as a porpoise.   The Brightest Stars of Andromeda Andromeda Constellation has four bright stars and numerous dimmer stars. The brightest is called ÃŽ ± Andromedae, or Alpheratz. Alpheratz is a binary star located less than 100 light-years away from us. It is shared with Pegasus, although its not formally part of that constellation The official IAU chart outlines the area that contains Andromeda constellation. It also shows nearby deep-sky objects. IAU/Sky Telescope   The second-brightest star in Andromeda is called Mirach, or ÃŽ ² Andromedae. Mirach is a red giant lying about 200 light-years away, located at the foot of a trio of stars that appear to lead to Andromedas most famous deep-sky object: the Andromeda Galaxy.   Deep Sky Objects in Constellation Andromeda The most famous deep sky object in the northern hemisphere sky is the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31. This object is a spiral galaxy that lies about 2.5 million light-years away from us. It is heavily populated with up to 400 billion stars and is thought to have two black holes at its heart.   The Andromeda Galaxy is the most distant object that can be spotted from Earth with the naked eye. To find it, head out to a dark observation location, then locate the star Mirach. From Mirach, trace a line out to the next stars. M31 will look like a faint smudge of light. The best way to look at it is through binoculars or a telescope, you will be able to make out the oval shape of the galaxy. It will appear to be facing you edge-on. At 2.5 million light-years, the Andromeda Galaxy is the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way. The term light-year was invented to handle the immense distances between objects in the universe. Later, parsec was developed for truly huge distances. Adam Evans/Wikimedia Commons. In the 1920s, the Andromeda Galaxy was known as the Andromeda Nebula, and for a long time, astronomers thought it was a nebula inside our own galaxy. Then, a young astronomer named Edwin Hubble took a look at it through the 2.5-meter Hooker telescope at Mount Wilson in California. He observed Cepheid variable stars in Andromeda and used Henrietta Leavitts period-luminosity relation to determine their distance. It turned out that the distance was too great for the so-called nebula to be in the Milky Way. The stars had to be located in a different galaxy. It was a discovery that changed astronomy.   More recently, the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope (named in Hubbles honor) has been studying the Andromeda Galaxy, taking detailed images of its billions of stars. Radio astronomers have mapped sources of radio emissions within the galaxy, and it remains an object of intense observation.   Andromeda and the Milky Way colliding, as seen from the surface of a planet inside our galaxy. Credit: NASA; ESA; Z. Levay and R. van der Marel, STScI; T. Hallas; and A. Mellinger In the far future, the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies will collide. The collision will form a massive new galaxy that some have dubbed Milkdromeda.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

How To Increase Conversions And Brand Loyalty With Roger Dooley

How To Increase Conversions And Brand Loyalty With Roger Dooley What kind of experience does your brand create for customers? Is it simple and seamless enough to keep them coming back for more? Or, do they find their experience with your brand frustrating, cumbersome, and time-consuming?    Today, my guest is Roger Dooley, author of Friction, which describes things that prevent customers from having a great experience with companies and their brands. Each year, about $4.6 trillion of merchandise is left abandoned in eCommerce shopping carts. Also, internal friction (i.e., organizational drag) is responsible for $3 trillion in lost productivity. Most important element in behavior change process: Friction How to eliminate, minimize, or use friction to your advantage Reasons why people leave things in their shopping carts All routers are the same; awful experience for â€Å"normal† people Reviews and Rankings: In a market dominated by giants, address pain point that other companies aren’t to be successful Worst advice can be best practices Friction Goggles: People tend to accept things and don’t see where friction exists Actively Disengaged: Effort isn’t productive, serving a greater purpose Don’t shift the load; find ways to improve processes, and stop wasting time Software and tools help eliminate friction Acceptance of Fake Rules: This is the way things are done, or it has to be done Difference between friction and motivation; operate in opposition due to choices    Links: Roger Dooley Friction College Confidential Brainfluence The Persuasion Slide Amazon 1-Click Ordering Uber United Airlines Harvard Business Review: Reduce Organizational Drag Cisco Netgear TurboTax Tom Peters John Padgett BJ Fogg AMP132: Why Best Practices Are The Worst Advice With Jay Acunzo From Unthinkable Media What topics and guests should be on AMP? Let me know! If you liked today’s show, please subscribe on iTunes to The Actionable Content Marketing Podcast! The podcast is also available on SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Quotes by Roger Dooley: â€Å"Extra effort or unnecessary effort changes behavior.† â€Å"If you look at the reasons why people abandon stuff in shopping carts, almost all of them are friction-related.† â€Å"In a market totally dominated by giantshe saw a pain point that they weren’t addressing. He addressed that pain point and ended up being very successful.† â€Å"Your customers are not dogs. If you make them work a little bit harder, they will go someplace else.†