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Old 04-01-2009, 19:48
swingaleg
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Bit short notice but just about to start, 8 pm, on Discovery Channel...........

Journey to The Edge of The Universe

Using Hubble pictures and CGI we journey from the Earth to the outer reaches of the universe..............


It's on for 2 hours but I'm gonna start watching and see how it goes.............
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Old 04-01-2009, 20:01
Ricardodaforce
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Space Week starts tomorrow on Nat Geo.
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Old 04-01-2009, 20:02
Mark.
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That would be National Geographic, swing, not Discovery
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Old 04-01-2009, 20:08
Mark.
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Well that was a cheery thought to start with: we could end up like Venus
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Old 04-01-2009, 20:13
Ricardodaforce
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Well that was a cheery thought to start with: we could end up like Venus
Shurrup, I'm recording it!
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Old 04-01-2009, 20:17
Mark.
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Oh sorry...!
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Old 04-01-2009, 21:51
swingaleg
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Oh yeah..........Nat geo.........chers, mark........

Well...........I dozed off when they got to Jupiter and didn't wake up till Andromeda.............

So I've jettisoned it and will wait for the repeat...........
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Old 04-01-2009, 21:58
Mark.
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I won't give anything away...but it's certainly worth watching!
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Old 09-01-2009, 22:05
Ricardodaforce
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For those that missed it before, NASA's Greatest Missions has just started on Discovery Channel.
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Old 12-01-2009, 23:10
BeethovensPiano
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NASA SCIENCE UPDATE TO DISCUSS MARS ATMOSPHERE ACTIVITY

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a science update at 2 p.m. EST, Thursday,
Jan. 15, to discuss analysis of the Martian atmosphere that raises
the possibility of life or geologic activity. The briefing will take
place in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA Headquarters,
300 E St., S.W., Washington, and carried live on NASA Television.

interesting stuff
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Old 15-01-2009, 00:19
Mandark
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NASA SCIENCE UPDATE TO DISCUSS MARS ATMOSPHERE ACTIVITY

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a science update at 2 p.m. EST, Thursday,
Jan. 15, to discuss analysis of the Martian atmosphere that raises
the possibility of life or geologic activity. The briefing will take
place in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA Headquarters,
300 E St., S.W., Washington, and carried live on NASA Television.

interesting stuff
Yep, I started a separate thread about this.

Also astronomers are now getting clues to might have been outside our universe before it began with the big bang. The universe appears to be misshapen. Deep man! It's all happening this week.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...-big-bang.html

Just in time for pro science Obama's arrival and hopes for beefing up NASA's budget!
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Old 24-01-2009, 18:05
HenryGarten
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Has anyone heard that the life of the shuttle may be extended to 2015?
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Old 24-01-2009, 18:41
Ricardodaforce
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Has anyone heard that the life of the shuttle may be extended to 2015?
Not a word Henry. I listen to a lot of space podcasts and nothing's been mentioned.
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Old 26-01-2009, 19:13
HenryGarten
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Not a word Henry. I listen to a lot of space podcasts and nothing's been mentioned.
Here is the link I saw. See http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news...FQo1QwodnUR8Zg
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Old 05-02-2009, 20:54
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The good news is that the European Space Agency's Corot probe has found the smallest ever exoplanet less than twice the size of Earth and going round a sun-like star.

Bad news - it has an orbit period of 20 hours so it's like a brutally roasted Mercury - no chance of life there then!

More on this story can be seen here at http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM7G6XPXPF_index_0.html.
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Old 12-02-2009, 17:17
Carlos_dfc
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For Iridium flare watchers.....

There's now one less Iridium satellite up there.
Tuesday Tea-time (UK time) a defunct Russian satellite (Cosmos 2251) ran into an active Iridium satellite.
The result - at least 600 bits of debris

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0902/11iridium/
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Old 12-02-2009, 19:01
boxx
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Ariane 5 will be launching in a couple of hours (two hour launch window) I'm going to be watching!

Linky for live launch.
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Old 01-03-2009, 11:36
Ricardodaforce
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Looks like Obama is going to be good for NASA.
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Old 01-03-2009, 16:54
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At least, we might have some clear skies tonight after days of cloud and so we might just get to see the elusive Comet Lulin with binoculars, etc.

Fortunately, there's a star map here http://www.earthsky.org/article/catc...ek-of-february which indicates where to look in the night sky (just up the road from Regulus in Leo). I hope it's been worth waiting for.
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Old 01-03-2009, 17:07
Carlos_dfc
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I've been watching Lulin, on and off, since around the 12th Feb.
Every night it's been a little further on, and higher up (shame about the cloudy nights which have spoiled the sequence
Past it's best now, but still fairly easy to spot as a hazy patch in binoculars.

For the benefit of anyone who uses Stellarium - the free planetarium software......
www.stellarium.org

Here's how to add Comet Lulin, so it shows you where to find it......

Locate the '.ini' file called 'ssystem'
It's under the filepath... Program Files - Stellarium - Data
First - copy this file, and paste a copy somewhere safe on your hard-drive, as backup.

Now - open the original 'ssystem' with 'notepead'....
Then copy and paste the following lines of text, at the bottom, after the other text.

[Lulin]
name = Lulin
parent = Sun
radius = 1000
oblateness = 0.0
halo = true
color = 0.7,1.4,0.7
tex_halo = star16×16.png
tex_map = nomap.png
coord_func = comet_orbit
orbit_TimeAtPericenter = 2454842.15
orbit_PericenterDistance = 1.212267
orbit_Eccentricity = 0.999986
orbit_ArgOfPericenter = 136.8660
orbit_AscendingNode = 338.5392
orbit_Inclination = 178.3736
lighting = false
albedo = 1
sidereal_period =


Close notepad, and save the changes.

Now - when you start up Stellarium - Comet Lulin will be highlighted

**NOTE**
The stated magnitude (brightness) is a LOT brighter than Lulin really is.
This is deliberate, so that Lulin will be obvious, and automatically highlighted by Stellarium. Position will be correct though.


Any problems, simply paste your saved copy of 'ssystem' back into the 'data' folder, and overwrite the one you altered.
Also - when Lulin has faded away - doing the same will remove the Lulin entry from Stellarium's database.


edit...
For Mac or other OS users - I'm sorry, I don't know the filepath for finding the 'ssystem' file - but editing in the same lines of text will work the same as it does for Window$ machines.
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Old 01-03-2009, 20:15
mb@2day
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Quite a clear night. Looked in the right area , up from Saturn , found Regulus but no sign of Lulin. Oh well.


Looked over to the Northern sky and was surprised by the brightness of Venus , even though it's in the slight city twilight I've never seen it that bright.
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Old 01-03-2009, 21:14
Carlos_dfc
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I've seen Lulin quite a few times tonight already - popping out every half-hour or so. Quite easy to see it's moving (relatively) fast against the faint background Stars.

Regulus is up and right of Saturn at the moment - If you extend a line from Saturn to Regulus, then carry on about half as far again in the same direction - that's where Lulin is tonight.

No need for a telescope - already tonight, I've used 3 different pairs of binocs (7x50, 10x50, and 15x70), and a 25x90mm spotter-scope.
Best view was in the 15x70s - the higher magnification of the spotter scope made it appear a tad dimmer.
Faint hint of the tail is visible in the 15x70s
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Old 02-03-2009, 18:15
Ricardodaforce
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Story here.
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Old 04-03-2009, 14:44
Carlos_dfc
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Just a quickie....

Happy Birthday Sir Patrick Moore
86 not-out - and still presenting monthly TV progs.

Best wishes for plenty more to come.
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Old 04-03-2009, 15:04
CLL Dodge
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Well done, Sir Patrick.

TV hero.
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