The chains of the Pleiades, the cords of Orion II

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  • GalilitGalilit Shipmate
    Just looked at Chris Hadfield's You are Here
    https://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Here-Photographs-International/dp/0316379646
    again last night - photographs from the Iternational Space Station - what an amazing collection!
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host
    It sounds wonderful, @Galilit!
  • ClimacusClimacus Shipmate
    Indeed. I love looking at such photos. A book to have handy of them would be lovely.

    The local astronomical association is having an open day at the observatory this Saturday night. I'm thinking I'll head along. I sits up on a hill above the river -- a very nice setting.
  • GalilitGalilit Shipmate
    I have so been enjoying this past week or so. New thoughts on old memories. And internet access to the "space windows" at the national Cathedral Washington, DC and the Webster Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas. And all the stories that have come up. Especially the Communion one.

    Rediscovering my sense of The Infinite, rereading Ps8 and Ps19 ...

    I was backing the Russians in those days actually - always one for the underdog even as a child. In addition they had sent up Valentina Tereshkova so I knew I had a better chance for astronaut training with them. I got called to the Headmaster's office to "explain my interest" actually. (There were worries at that time in New Zealand that Communists were picking off gifted children to make them into spies). I was asked at one point "What does your father do?" To which I innocently replied "He's a banker in the biggest bank on Lambton Quay" [The main street of Wellington Aotearoa-NZ]. Oh, well she can't be a Communist then!

    I'd go into space in a heatbeat - they wouldn't even need to bring me back. Just enough oxygen for 24 hours and I would simply drift off - in all senses of that
  • GalilitGalilit Shipmate
    I shall start with dear old Cruden (now yellowed, dog-eared and duct-taped) and look up every single reference to "stars" and "Heavens"!!
  • GalilitGalilit Shipmate
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoAzpa1x7jU

    Rest in peace Rutger Hauer
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host
    Thank you for those magnificent photos, @Galilit.
  • Gives me perspective!
    Cheaper than a psychologist!
  • balaambalaam Shipmate
    You have got to love the headline writers, I doubt if any subeditor knows astrophysics.

    What am I on about?

    "There is an unknown dwarf planet in our solar system, scientists say." says the Independent.

    It turns out that unknown means previously known. It is Hygiea previously classified as an asteroid.

    "There is ... Scientists say." They say Hygiea MAY BE a dwarf planet, Scientists have not made up their minds just yet.

    The Independent also said, "a rock at the far reaches of our solar system." For "far reaches of our solar system," read "in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter."

    Great story, poor journalism. :disappointed:

    A much better version of the story is here. Smaller objects than previously thought can form spheres under their own gravity.
  • LeRocLeRoc Shipmate
    I agree with you mostly about the headlines. But when they write that Hygiea may be a dwarf planet, I think they're right. We've known about Hygiea's existence for a while, but whether it classifies as a dwarf planet depends on whether it is round. In the recent Hubble images, it appears to be so.

    balaam wrote: »
    Smaller objects than previously thought can form spheres under their own gravity.
    Yes, that's interesting. Also, according to current theories of how Hygiea has formed, it is supposed to have a big crater, which it lacks. This means that scientists may have to review there theories about proto-planet formation.
  • balaambalaam Shipmate
    Yes, when the theories don't fit is where science gets interesting.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    edited November 2019
    Saw Mercury yesterday through our local astronomical society's scopes with mylar filters as it transitted the Sun. We were lucky in having a brief gap in the clouds. Next opportunity 2032.
  • Oh, lucky you!
  • Was our looking for Taurid meteors last weekend. Was -27°C but still across the lake; amazing to think was in shirt sleeves 2 weeks ago and now the lake has 8" of ice. We didn't see much meteors: drowned out by the spectacular Milky Way. per the title of the thread, Pleiades and Orion both nicely visible, Cassiopeia, both dippers, and my favourite the Northern Crown (Corona Borealis).
  • Now, if we can just get the powers that be to acknowledge that a dwarf something (like a planet) is still a something (like a planet). And to recognize that, compared to Jupiter and Saturn, Earth is a dwarf planet.

    We might get Pluto back! :)
  • LeRocLeRoc Shipmate
    Penny S wrote: »
    Saw Mercury yesterday through our local astronomical society's scopes with mylar filters as it transitted the Sun. We were lucky in having a brief gap in the clouds. Next opportunity 2032.
    Wow!

    Golden Key wrote: »
    Now, if we can just get the powers that be to acknowledge that a dwarf something (like a planet) is still a something (like a planet). And to recognize that, compared to Jupiter and Saturn, Earth is a dwarf planet.

    We might get Pluto back! :)
    Team Pluto for life!
  • Some time ago we had a transit of Venus during the school day. I had a viewer based on projecting a reflected image of the Sun which I intended to set up in the break (recess). I had hoped to take my class out in lesson time for an experience like the one I had as a child watching a partial solar eclipse with the class teacher, but the head would not allow this. Nor would she allow me to announce the event in assembly. Nor would she allow me to send notes or emails round. So not many children knew what was going on.
    But one boy paused in retrieving his football and asked, and I pointed out the black disc of Venus, and he said "Wow!", so one child benefitted.
    No idea why the head had the attitude she did, but at least she didn't ban me from showing it. Can't have been Health and Safety, though. She had odd attitudes to staff - sometimes enthusiastic, sometimes negative.
  • ClimacusClimacus Shipmate
    edited April 2020
    For those on the Book of Face, if you go to NASA's page they have a stream of the launch to the ISS from Kazakhstan [17 mins to go...]. Or go to their website of course.

    Anyone see the super moon? Cloudy here, so I just saw a light behind clouds.
  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    Climacus wrote: »
    For those on the Book of Face, if you go to NASA's page they have a stream of the launch to the ISS from Kazakhstan [17 mins to go...]. Or go to their website of course.

    Watching now.


  • ClimacusClimacus Shipmate
    If you're looking for a read to distract you, and pretty pictures of dishes, there's an article here about Australia's Canberra complex which is part of the Deep Space Network.

    I visited the visitor centre there many, many years ago in my youth.
  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host, 8th Day Host
    Bump
  • Just saw a comet! Comet NEOWISE (named afted the satellite that discovered it) - clearly visible to the naked eye, really good with binoculars, a very "comety-looking" comet. Go and see it now if you can! Best for a decade, probably the best since Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp in 1997. Should be visible for another few weeks in northern latitudes. A couple of handsbreadths to the west of Capella. It will be moving west under Ursa Major over the next three weeks.
  • Just saw a comet! Comet NEOWISE (named afted the satellite that discovered it) - clearly visible to the naked eye, really good with binoculars, a very "comety-looking" comet. Go and see it now if you can! Best for a decade, probably the best since Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp in 1997. Should be visible for another few weeks in northern latitudes. A couple of handsbreadths to the west of Capella. It will be moving west under Ursa Major over the next three weeks.

    Sadly about 3 in the morning here. Not worth it.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    Got up last night in the small hours to go out and find a northern aspect. Saw it through binoculars, with the help of a plane flying across which helped to locate it. It is a very comety comet, but, at just after 3, it was in the dawn light which moves round the horizon, reminding us how far north the south UK is, and in haze, so it was not exactly naked eye. I couldn't see it without the binoculars - the person I was with could. It was not enough to strike terror into a Medieval viewer. It might be worth looking earlier, to get a balance between place in the sky and that pesky twilight.
    Just, at 10.30, needing to make up the lost sleep.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    We looked late evening last night, about 11 pm, and it was again binocularly visible. I think less good as the other night. It's still close to the solar light on the horizon, and my colleague did not see it with naked eye this time.
  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host, 8th Day Host
    We had a rare clear night here. I went out to try to find the comet, but didn't have a clear view of the horizon. I'm hoping for another clear sky as it moves higher over the horizon this week!
  • LydaLyda Shipmate
    edited July 2020
    I tried to see it one early morning about ten days ago (overcast :disappointed: ). Then an hour and a half after sunset this week (maybe still too much light). I'll try again.
  • Mars is very bright here in the evening in the east, just past opposition (closest approach to Earth). It will stay bright, gradually fading, up to Christmas.

    Also in almost the same position in the morning sky is Venus, absolutely dazzlingly bright.
  • It's a pretty good time for planet-watching actually. Jupiter and Saturn are visible low in the south (from the UK) in the evening too.
  • Mars has been super on our Eastern horizon for weeks
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