Astronomy...

[Syrinx 13]

...anyone interested in it ?

[ONETINSOLDIER 2]

The clock strikes twelve and moondrops burst out at you from they're hiding place,

 

 

 

Oh, the science, not the song, :P

 

Edited July 3, 2008 by gwar

[Rambler 1-1 9]

naw, everybody here just uses their telescopes to spy on their neighbors.

 

My dad's an astronomy nut, and I've seen many a planet up close through his telescope. I know my way around the sky, but nothing worth bragging about.

Edited July 3, 2008 by Rambler 1-1

[+Tailspin 3]

I've had a passing interest from time to time. I bought my youngest daughter a telescope when she was 14. A 4.5 in Celestron on a Dobsonian mount. I live in a small town so the "sky" isn't the greatest but you can still get good views of Jupiter and Saturn from the front porch. Now she's 22, married last year and she left the scope here. They just bought a house in the country though so I plan to give it back to her on the condition I can come out and use it when I want. Its a lot darker out there.

[Gr.Viper 131]

My grandma used to be the head of a planetaruim in the south of Russia. Gave tons of lectures to visitors of museum there. Now she's a member of uhh... Association of museums of cosmonautics and visits conferences where she meets Soviet rocket designers and engineers and cosmonauts of course

A bit of this her passion for space got into me :yes: But not that much

 

For all space geeks

http://www.stellarium.org/

http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

[mach_driver 0]

I Love Astronomy I look in my telescope when i have a chance i have some custom wallpaper that i made Of The Night Time Sky

 

I add one of my custom wallpaper that i made of an early stage nebula

[Alexander51 3]

Like Tailspin I have a passing interest in it as well. The main science that gets

my full attention is Geology, but I usually drop everything when I come across

something really riveting in astronomy. Probably Carl Sagan's Cosmos first got

any sort of interest going in astronomy to begin with.

 

I can still remember watching Cosmos when the series first aired in

1980! I think that the one thing that really fired my imagination in that

series was the episode that dealt with interstellar space flight.

 

Been keeping tabs on the recent Phoenix polar lander on Mars as well. Another

thing that I find incredibly fascinating are extrasolar planetary discoveries

(304 as of June 2008).

[+whiteknight06604 935]

I'm just waiting for Wings over the Solar System to come out.

[+Jimbib 747]

Having just finished studying cosmology for 6 months in school I do have an interest in it a bit, however any of my comments such as "ooh look, there's Sirius A" get a response along the lines of "shut up Jimmy."

 

NFG, you may be interested in this, if you haven't seen it already that is, Nasa's Astronomy Picture of the Day...

 

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

 

EDIT: By the way, did anyone see the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in February?

Edited July 3, 2008 by JimmyBib

[sparkomatic 7]

whats not to like? especially after we conquer hyperspace...

[+pcpilot 181]

Ive always been fascinated by the nightsky. You cant help but see Gods' hand in the heavens. The more Ive learned over the years, the more interesting its become. Im not terribly literate in the field, being more a poor amateur. But I enjoy looking at the messier objects and a few of the more well known constellations. Ive been eye-balling a Celestron C6-SGT 6" Schmidt-Cassegrain. The first time I looked thru a freinds' 11inch dobsonian at Jupiter and watched 3 of its moons cross its face, I was hooked.

Edited July 3, 2008 by pcpilot

[Fubar512 1,350]

My parents gave me a 2.4" (60 mm) refracter on altazimuth mount for my 10th birthday. Less than two years later, I built a 6" (150 mm) Newtonian reflector from a kit.

 

I used that last 'scope for almost three years, before losing interest in it, while I was midway through high school. I eventually gave it to a coworker's son sometime during the 1980s (or about ten years later).

 

Anyway, while I owned it, that 6" flat blew me away. I remember being astonished first time I viewed the ring nebula in Lyra, or the Hercules globular cluster (M13), while visting an uncle who lived in a rural area of NJ, far away from the "light" pollution of my urban home.

[Syrinx 13]

Thanks for that guys, it's made my day !

 

My Dad is really into astronomy and I've always had an interest since being very small. He got me hooked on it. I started with the usual 60mm refractor then realised I was better off with a pair of binoculars.

 

I have a 150mm Dob now (my Dad's old scope) which is great but when I can afford it I want to get something with more aperture.

 

I never tire of looking up on a clear night. Makes me feel comfortable. Whatever happens in my day to day life, stresses etc five minutes under a beautiful clear night sky makes everything right again. The stars are like old friends to me.

 

Just a pity that we don't get clear skies every night...oh to live somewhere like Arizona\Nevada. You guys there are sooo lucky!

[+Tailspin 3]

To me this is one of the most awesome pictures. Its a Hubble shot of so-called "empty sky" void of "local" objects as I think they termed it. I see about 2 stars in the picture.

 

[+Typhoid 231]

yup. I filled my undergraduate science requirement with Astronomy. Cool courses.

 

and of course some space ops experience later in life.

 

the best part of the Astronomy course was those evenings at the observatory watching all those heavenly bodies. and some stars too............

 

[+pcpilot 181]

To me this is one of the most awesome pictures. Its a Hubble shot of so-called "empty sky" void of "local" objects as I think they termed it. I see about 2 stars in the picture.

 

 

 

I remember when that or a similar pic came out that the hubble had shot. Wasnt it around the late '90's? The Hubble was giving the astronomers problems. But they got it fixed and turned the scope out towards deep space. Turned out to be one of science' greatest investments. They estimated at the time that the universe was now over 200 billion GALAXIES!!! Vastly greater than what they originally had thought. Each galaxy with on average 200 billion stars! Now of course, the estimated number of galaxies has went up even more, lol. Its mind boggling to think of it all. To me, that was one of the most beautiful things I ever saw. It reminds me of an infinite creator whose love comes out thru his hands.

 

"The stars are like old friends to me..." NFG, I know exactly how you feel. You almost feel like you could reach up and touch them. I think their beauty and the peace they impart touches us to the core.

Edited July 3, 2008 by pcpilot

[+Tailspin 3]

Yes Sir, I believe it was the late 90's. It is mind blowing. You think you know what you are looking at but the true scope of the vastness of space is really unimaginable. Science agrees all this came from a single super dense "object" or "source". OK, so where did that come from? Don't get me wrong. I don't think that Science and Religion are mutually exclusive.

[Syrinx 13]

You almost feel like you could reach up and touch them. I think their beauty and the peace they impart touches us to the core.

 

Exactly!

 

To quote Carl Sagan (RIP Carl) "we are starstuff".

 

Comforts me to think some of my atoms were once out there, forged in the maw of a supernova.

[Fubar512 1,350]

Just a pity that we don't get clear skies every night...oh to live somewhere like Arizona\Nevada. You guys there are sooo lucky!

 

The most stunning night skies I've ever seen, are on clear Summer nights well offshore, far from the influences of light and atmospheric pollution.

 

There's something about having a completely unobstructed horizon all around you, that places one in a almost intimate relationship with the night sky. Also, if there's no wind and the Ocean's surface is flat, it acts as a mirror, reflecting the stars on its broad expanse.

 

Sitting up in the fly bridge of a boat that's moving through the water on such a night, is a surreal experience. It feels as if you're navigating through space.

 

Of course, anything more powerful than a pair of 7X50 mm binoculars is useless out there, as any more magnification would do little more than amplify the slightest movement.

[+Typhoid 231]

"Just a pity that we don't get clear skies every night...oh to live somewhere like Arizona\Nevada. You guys there are sooo lucky!

 

 

The most stunning night skies I've ever seen, are on clear Summer nights well offshore, far from the influences of light and atmospheric pollution. "

 

amen!!

 

The best views I ever had was while taking that astronomy course in Arizona, and then way out at sea on a dark, clear night with no moon. Absolutely awesome. You feel like you are not looking up, you are in it.

 

and then the 1MC goes off............

[+pcpilot 181]

You feel like you are not looking up, you are in it.

 

and then the 1MC goes off............

 

LOL! Being a former Boatswainmate 2c I know this is so true...on both points...

 

 

 

"I don't think that Science and Religion are mutually exclusive." Couldnt agree more... :yes:

Edited July 3, 2008 by pcpilot

[DWCAce 19]

Like acid and oil on a madman's face

His reasons tend to fly away...

 

Yeah, I thought about the song as well!

 

I got a telescope back when I was a kid.... down the road i converted it into a 'missile' launcher

[Rambler 1-1 9]

I got a telescope back when I was a kid.... down the road i converted it into a 'missile' launcher

 

yeah, me and my dad tried to turn our 150mm telescope into a death ray by shining lasers through it.

 

this thread prompted me to pull out my "Pocket Guide to the Universe" book of astronomy and find some interesting stuff, like the double star of Alpha/Proxima Centuari or the sperate galaxies around Andromeda.

[serverandenforcer 33]

I've seen somre really cool stuff at night in Iraq using NVGs. You see a lot more of what's happening and entering our atmosphere with those things.

[mach_driver 0]

To me this is one of the most awesome pictures. Its a Hubble shot of so-called "empty sky" void of "local" objects as I think they termed it. I see about 2 stars in the picture.

 

i love that picture as well it makes you think how many life forms there are looking at the same sky thinking of the same thing or even just thinking how many life forms there are