A STAR - OR CLOUD OF THEM - IS BORN L.A. GETS A LOOK AT COSMIC CREATION.Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer PALMDALE - Palmdale School District The Palmdale School District is a school district that serves a major part of the city of Palmdale, California (USA). The Palmdale School District was first formed in 1888. Approximately 28,000 students are enrolled in the Palmdale School District. students filed through SAGE Planetarium planetarium, optical device used to project a representation of the heavens onto a domed ceiling; the term also designates the building that houses such a device. A modern planetarium consists of as many as 150 motor-driven projectors mounted on an axis. on Wednesday to get a close-up view of a photographic mosaic Not to be confused with color filter mosaic. In the field of photographic imaging, a photographic mosaic (also known under the term Photomosaic, a portmanteau of photo and mosaic, trademarked by Runaway Technology, Inc. of a star birth cloud taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the first large optical orbiting observatory. Built from 1978 to 1990 at a cost of $1.5 billion, the HST (named for astronomer E. P. Hubble) was expected to provide the clearest view yet obtained of the universe. . Made from 500 individual photographs, the image of the Great Orion Nebula Orion Nebula, bright diffuse nebula in the constellation Orion; also known as the Great Nebula of Orion and cataloged as M42 or NGC 1976. It is located near the middle of the "sword" hanging from Orion's "belt" of stars. was publicly unveiled by the planetarium, the only venue in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County and one of two in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, to get the image. ``It's a brand-new set of stars,'' planetarium director Jeremy Amarant told a group of visiting students. ``New stars are being born out of a giant cloud of gas and dust.'' The event was part of the Hubble Space Telescope science team's educational outreach program, Amarant said. The image was unveiled Wednesday at 60 places around the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . The other locale displaying the image in Southern California was a science center in Santa Barbara Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. . Palmdale and Santa Barbara were among five sites in California. ``I thought it would be a good opportunity for the kids to have something famous. This particular image will be around for a very long time. It's very detailed,'' Amarant said. ``I really wanted to bring something to the Antelope Valley that was special and unique.'' Framed and hanging on the back wall of the planetarium, the image depicts a fiery cauldron of gas and dust, with red, orange and pink hues and areas of white brightness. Cactus School art teacher So Mei Rivera brought her seventh- and eighth-grade students to view the image. ``I think it's amazing. It really looks like a painting because of the blending of colors. I've never seen a photograph like this in my life,'' Rivera said. Eighth-grader Michael Martinez found the picture to be special. ``It's amazing because of the colors and how it looks,'' he said. ``It's interesting just because of the way it's formed,'' classmate Candi Wagner said. The Hubble image can be viewed today by appointment by calling Amarant at (661) 273-7646, and Friday from 6 to 7 p.m. There are also two public nights scheduled for Feb. 22 and 23. For more information and to make a reservation, call Tove at the Palmdale School District office at (661) 266-7233. The Hubble Telescope, an Earth-orbiting observatory, was launched into space on April 25, 1990. Hubble orbits above Earth's murky atmosphere, which distorts light from celestial objects. During its more than 15 years in space, the Hubble has taken more than 700,000 snapshots of galaxies, dying stars and giant gas clouds, the birthplace of stars. The telescope also shot images of chunks of a comet slamming into Jupiter and galaxies that existed billions of years ago. Karen Maeshiro, (661) 267-5744 karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Jeremy Amarant, director of SAGE Planetarium in Palmdale, shows a Hubble Telescope photo to So Mei Rivera, left, and her Cactus Intermediate School students Wednesday. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer |
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