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Space and Astronomy Thread |
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#1276 |
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Join Date: Jun 2006
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Massive prominces on the sun right now. See http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/images/latest_eit_304.gif
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#1277 |
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: ♫ At The Keyboard ♫
Posts: 11,556
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WOW !!!
I wonder if the new SDO caught it? |
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#1278 |
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Stoke-On-Trent
Posts: 7,158
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This weekend is the 40th Anniversary of the splashdown of Apollo 13, I remember it well watching it Sunday teatime on my parents tiny old B&W tv. The BBC have interviewed their then Space Correspondent Reg Turnill to mark the event.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8613766.stm |
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#1279 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2000
Posts: 332
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Quote:
My workmate says he has inside knowledge that we'll soon have our own UK Space Agency. I've actually read the articles about this possibility on the net, but he seems to indicate that he has this extra secret information, which he's not divulging and he's really winding me up now as he knows I love stuff about space and the universe etc. and would dearly love it, if the UK was to get its own space agency....in competition with NASA of course
![]() Does anyone else have anymore info, his smug face is really doing my head in! ![]()
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#1280 |
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Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Solihull
Posts: 7,269
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Had nice drive up the M40 on Saturday evening watching the sun drop into a deep, volcanic ash induced red sunset then chasing Venus and a razor-thin crescent Moon all the way home. Tried to take some photos of the Moon with my new 300mm lense but I couldn't find a steady enough base for a 2-3 sec exposure. Need to get a good tripod.
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#1281 |
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Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Solihull
Posts: 7,269
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NASA Launch X-37B re-usable spaceplane
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8601172.stm
Wow, where did this baby come from? It can supposedly remain in orbit for 270 days, can adjust it's orbit numerous times and is fully autonomous. Makes you wonder what the military are going to use it for with those sorts of capabilities. It certainly isn't just a shuttle replacement to haul stuff into orbit! |
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#1282 |
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Derby
Posts: 27,573
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It's one of those 'white' projects that went black and but has had to be revealed because you can't hide a rocket launch. This is why NASA gets a raw deal. They probably couldn't afford to run this and run the space shuttle so the military which their vast aircraft projects budget took it over.
What is does show though is that the US military has not yet been able to create a single stage to orbit spacecraft with jet and rocket capability - that can take off on a runway, fly off into orbit then come back down and land again. |
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#1283 |
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Storbritannia
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Quote:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8601172.stm
Wow, where did this baby come from? It can supposedly remain in orbit for 270 days, can adjust it's orbit numerous times and is fully autonomous. Makes you wonder what the military are going to use it for with those sorts of capabilities. It certainly isn't just a shuttle replacement to haul stuff into orbit! It looks like it has the potential to be a cost efficient replacement for the Shuttle in terms of terms of ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station. That said, it is smaller and less versatile than the Shuttle and from the looks of things it might only be large enough for a crew of 3 or so. Much more testing will almost certainly be needed before it becomes crew-rated and can be considered safe for human transport. |
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#1284 |
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Storbritannia
Posts: 28,916
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Happy 20th Birthday, Hubble Space Telescope...
Nature magazine has done a few articles to celebrate all that good science over the past 20 years that's come from the Hubble Space Telescope and here's the link:
http://www.nature.com/news/specials/...ex.html#legacy That single piece of kit has done so much for our increased understanding of cosmology that it really should be awarded a Nobel prize despite it being an inanimate object. |
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#1285 |
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: I Know Art. I've Lived Art!
Posts: 14,151
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Beehive cluster almost next to mars right now (if you're in the right area, otherwise, you will need binoculars).
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#1286 |
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Join Date: Nov 2004
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Quote:
Beehive cluster almost next to mars right now (if you're in the right area, otherwise, you will need binoculars).
Saturn is looking nice again although a tad too close to the full moon over the last couple of nights. |
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#1287 |
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Bishop-Auckland / Darlington
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Quote:
Beehive cluster almost next to mars right now (if you're in the right area, otherwise, you will need binoculars).
Mars was a few degrees to the right of it that night - and has now shifted to a few degrees left of it. Best nights were around the 16th, & 17th, when Mars was only about a degree from the centre of the Beehive, and appeared to graze the top edge of it. What's your set-up Assa? (Scope, mount, camera) And what are you trying to image? - Mars itself, the Beehive, or widefield shots...... |
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#1288 |
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Join Date: Nov 2004
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Quote:
What's your set-up Assa? (Scope, mount, camera)
And what are you trying to image? - Mars itself, the Beehive, or widefield shots...... |
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#1289 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: ♫ At The Keyboard ♫
Posts: 11,556
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You can get very good images with just a compact camera pointed into the eyepiece, this is what I have tried.
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#1290 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
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#1291 |
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Join Date: Jun 2006
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3rd last shuttle due away at 7.20pm.
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#1292 |
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Join Date: Jun 2006
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Liftoff !!!
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#1293 |
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Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 5,288
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A pity it couldn't have launched an hour or so later; we'd have easily seen the Shuttle and External Fuel Tank as they passed over. I don't suppose it's worth trying to see them in this light? They were *really* bright the one time I saw them.
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#1294 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: ♫ At The Keyboard ♫
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http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002498/ Opportunity: longest-lived landed Mars mission May. 19, 2010 | 08:26 PDT | 15:26 UTC Quote:
Today is sol 2,246 of Opportunity's mission to Mars; as I write, it's just before 7:00 local solar time. If this sol passes, as her previous 2,245 have done, with Opportunity still alive and speaking to Earth, she will have surpassed a record set on November 12, 1982: Opportunity will pass Viking Lander 1 as the longest-lived landed Mars mission.
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#1295 |
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: I Know Art. I've Lived Art!
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Awesome clear night tonight. Loads of open clusters visible around the Swan.
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#1296 |
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Lothlórien
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Is that Venus in the East tonight - really low and very bright?
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#1297 |
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Join Date: Sep 2009
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Quote:
Is that Venus in the East tonight - really low and very bright?
In the East, really low... right now? Probably Altair - right above it there is Vega which is very bright and to the left of Vega it is The Swan. That's the east tonight... or right now. Yes, lower down is Altair, right above that is Tarazed that are both part of Aquila. Above them, is Vega and between them to the left is The Swan, it's a cross shape. |
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#1298 |
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Join Date: Jun 2006
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Quote:
Is that Venus in the East tonight - really low and very bright?
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#1299 |
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Join Date: Jan 2007
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Venus sets in the west with the sun and right now, after the Sun.
In the East, really low... right now? Probably Altair - right above it there is Vega which is very bright and to the left of Vega it is The Swan. That's the east tonight... or right now. Yes, lower down is Altair, right above that is Tarazed that are both part of Aquila. Above them, is Vega and between them to the left is The Swan, it's a cross shape. I was about to close my bedroom curtains about an hour ago and saw a planet or star very low and shining very brightly. I even went outside with my binoculars for a closer look. I wish I knew more about astronomy. I am fascinated with watching the sky but don't very often know what it is that I'm looking at. And, I have to admit, I've never heard of the Swan.
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#1300 |
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Join Date: Sep 2009
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Sorry, I meant to say in the West.
I was about to close my bedroom curtains about an hour ago and saw a planet or star very low and shining very brightly. I even went out with my binoculars for a closer look. I wish I knew more about astronomy. I am fascinated with watching the sky but don't very often know what it is that I'm looking at. And, I have to admit, I've never heard of the Swan.The Summer doesn't have much darkness but it has a lot of packed stars for you to see. |
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And, I have to admit, I've never heard of the Swan.