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Old 15-03-2009, 17:15
Ricardodaforce
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Just a reminder, the shuttle is due to lift off tonight.
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Old 16-03-2009, 21:40
Ricardodaforce
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Interesting. The Russians are going to embark on a manned Moon programme.
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Old 16-03-2009, 23:17
dsnik
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Just a reminder, the shuttle is due to lift off tonight.
You may be able to see it closing in on the ISS tonight
Linky
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Old 20-03-2009, 10:21
CLL Dodge
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Galaxies to collide in a few million years:

http://www.physorg.com/news156440810.html

(though they are 400 million light years away so it's ancient history now).
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Old 20-03-2009, 11:39
njp
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Galaxies to collide in a few million years
Well, ours looks set to collide with Andromeda in 3 billion years or so. Mind you, galactic collisions are a lot less dramatic than they sound.
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Old 20-03-2009, 11:52
atg
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Happy Equinox everybody (few minutes late I know!).
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Old 20-03-2009, 11:54
atg
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Well, ours looks set to collide with Andromeda in 3 billion years or so. Mind you, galactic collisions are a lot less dramatic than they sound.
But in space they don't make any sound when they collide
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Old 20-03-2009, 12:21
njp
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But in space they don't make any sound when they collide
D'oh!
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Old 20-03-2009, 12:51
vinba
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But in space they don't make any sound when they collide
The in Star Trek Universe they do!
In the Firefly Universe there is no sound in space!
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Old 20-03-2009, 13:15
atg
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The in Star Trek Universe they do!
In the Firefly Universe there is no sound in space!
Star Trek are dramatic preconstructions and so I allow them a certain amount of artistic license

Anyway, I am looking forward to the seeing the ISS with the new bits added. Supposedly it should now be brighter than Venus, but the brightest in the next 10 days is 'only' -2.4 according to heavens-above.com. Expect plenty of UFO sightings.
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Old 21-04-2009, 15:25
Ricardodaforce
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This is a cool pic.

One of the last times we'll see this.
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Old 21-04-2009, 15:47
paulyoung666
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when was that taken ???
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Old 21-04-2009, 15:56
Ricardodaforce
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when was that taken ???
Last Friday.
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Old 26-04-2009, 20:33
HenryGarten
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If you have never seen Mercury then the best time is right now. Just look under the crescent moon. See http://www.users.waitrose.com/~spa/I...426-20h30m.gif
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Old 28-04-2009, 12:47
Ricardodaforce
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Here is an interesting movie showing what it would be like to fall into a black hole.
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Old 30-04-2009, 09:18
HenryGarten
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Here is what Mercury did lok like on Sunday night.

See

Here is what Mercury looked like on Sunday night. See http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0904...8_lawrence.jpg

Taken from http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Original. See http://spaceweather.com/submissions/...1240783615.jpg

Taken from Selsey UK.
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Old 02-05-2009, 20:45
Carlos_dfc
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Any old excuse to 'bump' this thread

Over the last few clear nights I've been dabbling with the lost art of sketching observations through a telescope.
Last night the sky here was unusually transparent, so I decided to have a 'proper' go at sketching the globular star cluster, 'Messier 13', in Hercules.

Telescope used was a Celestron C8 'classic' schmidt-cassegrain.
At 155x magnification for the core detail - and 80x to do the surrounding 'field' stars.

Sketched with 2B and 3B pencils on A4 paper - then scanned into PaintShop pro, and made 'negative' to give a natural-looking white-on-black appearance.
And a final tweak of brightness & contrast to give a fair estimation of what I could actually see through the telescope.

http://i43.tinypic.com/e9u72t.jpg
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Old 03-05-2009, 13:08
boxx
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Makes me really wish i had a telescope
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Old 03-05-2009, 13:25
HenryGarten
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Makes me really wish i had a telescope
Could you not get access to a telescope? Are you a member of your local astronomy society?
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Old 03-05-2009, 13:45
boxx
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Could you not get access to a telescope? Are you a member of your local astronomy society?
Didn't know there was one Going to look into it. Thanks.
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Old 03-05-2009, 13:50
HenryGarten
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Didn't know there was one Going to look into it. Thanks.
Here you are: http://fedastro.org.uk/fas/index.php...apper&Itemid=8
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Old 03-05-2009, 14:13
Darthchaffinch
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About a month ago the moon was near full and looked much bigger than usual- is this a regular occurance?
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Old 03-05-2009, 14:17
HenryGarten
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About a month ago the moon was near full and looked much bigger than usual- is this a regular occurance?
The size of the moon varies from a minum to a maximum depending on whether the the moon is at perigee or apogee at the time of the full moon.

The media tend to talk up these events. The moon has been at its brightest quite regularly according to the popular media. After all you do not get a story if you report it is a normal full moon.
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Old 03-05-2009, 14:29
Carlos_dfc
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I was gonna have a go at sketching the Sombrero galaxy (m104) last night - but alas, sod's-law - just as it was coming to a good position, the flippin' sky clouded over

Henry'll probably already realise this - but objects low down in Virgo - like the Sombrero - only give us in UK a limited time-frame per year to catch them.
Also, when sketching, you want things to be as high in the sky as possible, so you can see them better.
When something is low near the horizon, you are looking out of the atmosphere at a shallow angle, through A LOT of moving air. High magnification telescope images wobble about a lot, and swim in and out of focus - the effect is like trying to see something on the bottom of a fast-flowing stream.
The Sombrero currently reaches it's highest point at around 11pm - so I timed it to give me half an hour either side of that for sketching.
Then exactly on cue, at around 10:30, the soddin' clouds moved in
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Old 03-05-2009, 14:34
Carlos_dfc
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The media tend to talk up these events. The moon has been at its brightest quite regularly according to the popular media. After all you do not get a story if you report it is a normal full moon.
LOL - Yep

And this year already, I've seen a question on a forum about Mars appearing bigger than the Moon this August

This goes back to a few oppositions ago, when mars was it's biggest (but still only 100th the size of the Moon)
And a sensationalist (but VERY WRONG) story that was doing the rounds in the media and email at the time.
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