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Space and Astronomy Thread
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KookyKatie
13-08-2009
Hi all... caught a few glimpses earlier, but it's too cloudy to see anything here now.

Are there any live streams/commentary of this on the web anywhere?
swissmiss1979
13-08-2009
Stupid West London is all cloudy
Electra
13-08-2009
Cloudy here in Northumberland. Can't see a thing
customcoaster
13-08-2009
Far too cloudy here to get a decent view of anything - managed to see a couple at least.

Can I just say - nice to find this threat. Just got back into the star gazing thanks to the spur of a new telescope as a birthday gift. Isn't..........the scale of it all, so humbling. But as terrifying in its scale as it is humbling. Either way, craning the neck back to glance at the stars, clouds allowing, ****ing amazing!
Carlos_dfc
13-08-2009
Originally Posted by sg_:
“It was clear enough here and I saw quite a few.

I quickly took this, http://steaa.adsl24.co.uk/IMG_0029_.jpg

You can see so much more on a long exposure on camera.”

Nice pic - I can see a few interesting things in there.....
Collinder 399, the 'Coathanger' cluster - M13 globular cluster - M27, the 'Dumbell' planetary nebula (just)
Pity about the hazy cloud across much of the pic, or so much more might have been visible in there.

The shapes of Hercules and Lyra are pairly prominent too - along with a good few lesser constellations.
Bright star top middle is Vega - and the bright one at far left is Altair.
Look about 1/3 of the way from Altair to Vega - that's the 'Coathanger' cluster.
customcoaster
13-08-2009
Is there a forum or site the stargazers get together. Like I said, newly returned to "Christ in hell, look at that" fold, but once again, instantly lost my heart to the stars and am looking to share with people.
toogoodfortv
13-08-2009
Seen a few big ones over Belfast hills there about an hour ago!! woo
Carlos_dfc
13-08-2009
Originally Posted by customcoaster:
“Is there a forum or site the stargazers get together.”

www.astrochat.co.uk/forum
That one is my forum BTW - there are a fair few others too...

'Sky at Night' has a forum - there's the 'Stargazer's Lounge', 'SPA' (society for Popular Astronomy' and 'UKastroimagers'
All UK-based.
customcoaster
13-08-2009
Cheers Carlos, been a help ......... x
Ricardodaforce
13-08-2009
Well we weren't feeling too good last night so stayed in. There was a lot of light pollution, but we sat in the loungers in the terrace and saw.................nothing.

Mind you, Jupiter was looking very lovely, so I got the telescope to have a look at it again.
HenryGarten
13-08-2009
Here is an interesting meteorite. See http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090813.html
Ricardodaforce
13-08-2009
Look at this video and be amazed. It's about the famous. Hubble Deep Field image.
Carlos_dfc
13-08-2009
Originally Posted by Ricardodaforce:
“Mind you, Jupiter was looking very lovely, so I got the telescope to have a look at it again.”

There was a horrible thin haze here - only the brighter stars visible by naked-eye, and also only the brighter Perseids were visible.
I too resorted to viewing Jupiter, around midnight-ish (with my 1977 Celestron C8 'classic' 8" SCT) - and was pleasantly surprised to see a moon crossing it's face, with it's shadow also on the planet's surface. (an eclipse, if you could stand within that shadow)
'Starry-Night' software confirmed a transit of Europa - the two other moons I could see off to the right (to left in my view, as I was using a diagonal) were Ganymede, close-in, and Callisto further out.
Io was nowhere to be see, but 'Starry Night' showed me it was behind Jupiter from our point of view.
By 1:30, Europa had passed right across the planet's disk, and off to the right to join Ganymede and Callisto.

I also spotted a faint double-star, off to the left (to the right, in my view) - very tight together.
I tried to use it to get best focus for Jupiter
(focusing a star to a pinpoint, gets a telescope to it's sharpest possible focus)
But no matter what I tried, it always looked slightly 'elongated' - so I whacked up the magnification to 350x, and confirmed my suspiscion - a tight double-star.
Slightly de-focused them at this high magnification, to accentuate any colours - and one of them appeared to be bluish, the other pure white.

Gonna stop there, because it's starting to feel a bit like I'm writing up an observing session

Having satisfied myself with a little astro 'fix' - I packed up and came in for a piping hot 'cup-a-soup'
Ricardodaforce
13-08-2009
Originally Posted by Carlos_dfc:
“There was a horrible thin haze here - only the brighter stars visible by naked-eye, and also only the brighter Perseids were visible.
I too resorted to viewing Jupiter, around midnight-ish (with my 1977 Celestron C8 'classic' 8" SCT) - and was pleasantly surprised to see a moon crossing it's face, with it's shadow also on the planet's surface. (an eclipse, if you could stand within that shadow)
'Starry-Night' software confirmed a transit of Europa - the two other moons I could see off to the right (to left in my view, as I was using a diagonal) were Ganymede, close-in, and Callisto further out.
Io was nowhere to be see, but 'Starry Night' showed me it was behind Jupiter from our point of view.
By 1:30, Europa had passed right across the planet's disk, and off to the right to join Ganymede and Callisto.

I also spotted a faint double-star, off to the left (to the right, in my view) - very tight together.
I tried to use it to get best focus for Jupiter
(focusing a star to a pinpoint, gets a telescope to it's sharpest possible focus)
But no matter what I tried, it always looked slightly 'elongated' - so I whacked up the magnification to 350x, and confirmed my suspiscion - a tight double-star.
Slightly de-focused them at this high magnification, to accentuate any colours - and one of them appeared to be bluish, the other pure white.

Gonna stop there, because it's starting to feel a bit like I'm writing up an observing session

Having satisfied myself with a little astro 'fix' - I packed up and came in for a piping hot 'cup-a-soup'”

I too saw the very close in moon and one further out, sort of 8 oclock of Jupiter. At least I know what they were now! Cheers Carlos.
mattwoodfield
13-08-2009
Are these still about tonight?
HenryGarten
13-08-2009
Originally Posted by mattwoodfield:
“Are these still about tonight?”

Yes of course. Maybe not quite so many but they will be about.
Ricardodaforce
13-08-2009
Nice pic of naked Saturn here.
TelevisionUser
15-08-2009
Research to be published in Astrophysics Journal [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8197683.stm] has indicated the discovery of a new extra-solar planet in retrograde orbit, i.e. it goes round its parent sun in the opposite direction to the parent star's own rotation.

This is interesting as planets so far have appeared to orbit in the same direction as their sun's rotation as in our own solar system. Retrograde motion might be the result of catastrophic events or capture and if I recall correctly, one or two likely captured moons of Jupiter pull this same stunt.

Tonight's second weird planet story is altogether more destructive - it appears that NASA's Spitzer infrared space telescope has identified a young solar system where two protoplanets have collided making a ring of debris. More on this story here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8195467.stm.
WWJD??
16-08-2009
Originally Posted by HenryGarten:
“Oh I would find it very hard to put a figure on it but very high indeed. It is the point where there is enough atmosphere to burn up the particles.

At a guess 50 miles.

Interesting question. Not one I have seen discussed before.”

sorry for the delay, but thank you for your reply and the link given - very interesting thing to know!
Carlos_dfc
16-08-2009
Originally Posted by HenryGarten:
“Yes of course. Maybe not quite so many but they will be about.”

I've been out in the garden with a telescope tonight (15th/16th), and spotted about 8 or 9 Perseids.
Also saw a meteor heading roughly North through Andromeda - Wrong direction to be a Perseid, right direction to be an Alpha Capricornid.

Enjoyable few hours - some nice star clusters on show tonight - also the two nearest spiral galaxies to ours (Andromeda and Triangulum) - and ticked off some more from my double-star list...
But also watched Jupiter on and off, as two of it's moons (Io and Ganymede) swapped positions - Io heading out, as Ganymede headed back in towards the planet
PinSarla
16-08-2009
Originally Posted by Carlos_dfc:
“www.astrochat.co.uk/forum
That one is my forum BTW - there are a fair few others too...

'Sky at Night' has a forum - there's the 'Stargazer's Lounge', 'SPA' (society for Popular Astronomy' and 'UKastroimagers'
All UK-based.”

I had a look at that site, though I do not have a telescope or that I was interested in some of the pictures. Well I say some, I mean a lot! I didn't know you could take a picture of a galaxy, with the right equipment of course.
jude1979
17-08-2009
Can anyone explain to me why we sometimes see the moon during the day? And can anyone explain when i would know in advance whether you would be able to see it during the day?

My daughter is fasinated by seeing it and we had a few days of seeing it about 430pm but we havent seen it for ages.
Ricardodaforce
17-08-2009
Originally Posted by jude1979:
“Can anyone explain to me why we sometimes see the moon during the day? And can anyone explain when i would know in advance whether you would be able to see it during the day?

My daughter is fasinated by seeing it and we had a few days of seeing it about 430pm but we havent seen it for ages.”

Actually as explained beautifully in a 365 Days of Astronomy podcast I listened to yesterday, because the moon orbits the Earth it is in the day time sky as much as it is in the night time sky. We just don't tend to notice is because the sky is so much brighter. All makes perfect sense to me.
HenryGarten
17-08-2009
Originally Posted by jude1979:
“Can anyone explain to me why we sometimes see the moon during the day? And can anyone explain when i would know in advance whether you would be able to see it during the day?

My daughter is fasinated by seeing it and we had a few days of seeing it about 430pm but we havent seen it for ages.”

The best time to see the moon in the daylight sky is about 7,8,9,10 days after new moon. In other words when the moon is in its waxing gibbous phase. I think the new moon is on Thursday August 20th so start looking around August 27th. Maybe you should start a thread on it.

Even better start looking for the crescent moon on Saturday 22nd (the start of Ramadan) and then follow it backwards day by day as it moves around the sky.
tvqueen1905
17-08-2009
I saw the moon in a half moon phase in the morning last week
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