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  1. http://www.space.com/34593-james-webb-space-telescope-complete-2018-launch.html The largest space telescope ever built is... well, built. It's done. Everything is in place. There's going to be some final assembly work on the spacecraft later-on, but the telescope itself is complete and working! It's now going to be put through rigorous testing (they want to avoid the problems they had with Hubble) before being prepared for its 2018 launch abord an Ariane 5 ECA. It was twenty years in the making. Whole new technologies had to be invented just to build it. It will be the most expensive single payload ever shot into space in the history of mankind, and it will be able to peer into space with 100 times the resolution of Hubble. I'm incredibly excited about this thing
  2. Yesterday I played Universe Sandbox and I turned the sun into a black hole as it had a mass like the sun, nothing changed, but when I started playing with the mass of a black hole, the whole solar system started to crumble, then when I went to sleep I dreamed that our the solar system a black hole flew in from deep space and that black hole wants to suck us in
  3. This is a thread for astro-photographers to talk about astro-imaging and share their photographs. Here are some of my best astronomy photos as of September 18th, 2016: Mars only a few weeks after opposition. M106 and a few other galaxies. Jupiter and Io in Feb. 2015. A star field in the constellation Cygnus, taken in August 2016. My best image of Saturn yet, with the Cassini Division! A fantastic view of craters near Mare Fecunditatis.
  4. Asteroid 2019 CB2 will pass the Earth at 1.04 million kilometers at 1.20am GMT (UTC) on Sunday, February 10. Image captured from the interactive JPL Solar System Dynamics Small Body Database Browser. Asteroid 2019 CB2, classed as on “Earth Close Approach”, will breach speeds of nearly 29,125mph or 13.02km per second as it passes our planet and the flyby comes just five days after NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory first observed the rock on February 2. As of February 5, 2019, NASA has discovered a total of 19,585 Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs). More than 8,500 of these objects measure more 460ft (140m) in diameter – these are additionally dubbed “Potentially Hazardous Asteroids”. Another 897 of the 19,000 asteroids measure a cataclysmic 3,289ft (one kilometer) or more across. Asteroid 2019 CB2 is a much smaller object estimated to be in the range of 59ft to 127.9ft (18m to 39m) in diameter.
  5. On June 16th 2018 the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System telescope in Hawaii detected a flash of light at least 10 times brighter than a typical supernova. The event was dubbed AT2018cow and has been puzzling astronomers for the past 6 months. Image Credit: https://www.northwestern.edu/
  6. https://imgur.com/a/rmNql https://imgur.com/gallery/xdyAP I long ago finished making my first telescope mirror, a 6" f/8, which you can read about from pages 1-5. It will not be used in a telescope as it has a number of chips and a fracture that reduce its usefulness anyway. I worked on it from May to July 2017, with a gap due to technical difficulties and a trip to Alaska. The mirror was made with a 1969 Edmund Scientific kit. It was intended to be f/5 but I ran out of grit and couldn't afford more at the time. I have also finished a complete 6" f/4.5 Dobsonian. The mirror blank was given to me by a friend at Stellafane, and I managed to grind, polish, and figure it in August 2017 - see pages 6 to 7. I star tested it and looked at Saturn on October 20th to confirm a good figure. First light was on October 27th. I rebuilt it in late July 2018. As of April 2018 I've also finished a 16" f/5 Dob. I attempted to make the mirror but that didn't turn out too well, so I got a replacement from a friend. Read about it from pages 9-10. Currently working on a 20" f/4 - read about it from page 10 onwards.
  7. A powerful new telescope in the West Australian outback, CSIRO's Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope, has detected 20 Fast Radio Bursts in the last 12 months. Previously only 34 have been spotted before, beginning with the Lorimer Burst in 2007 by astronomers trawling through old data from the Parkes Telescope.
  8. Today, I got a telescope that my neighbor was giving away for $5. It is a TwinStar AstroMark 80mm 16-40x Portable Refractor Telescope, which is normally valued at ~$40. I set it up tonight and looked at Venus, but the image had lots of water spots on it. I took the included lens wipe and wiped off the front lens, but the image did not improve very much. The viewing aperture and a few of the other lenses looked kind of smudgy, but I did not want to try wiping them without knowing more about it. Does anyone have any recommendations for cleaning the lenses of a telescope like this? Also, could there be a focusing issue on my part? I guess there could also be damage to the lenses, but I'm hoping that is not the case. I was going to look at the moon to see how well it is resolved, but the moon is not going to be above the tree line where I live until after I go to bed. If you have any recommendations for cheap, entry-level telescope accessories or even replacements in case this one is broken, please share. This is my first telescope, so thank you for any help you can provide.
  9. Vaguely space related link below: http://zitscomics.com/comics/march-25-2018/
  10. I recall someone once in an old KSP-TV stream had once made a sextant to use with looking out a capsule window and get a reading on the stars in space. Has anyone else ever tried this? By extension, is it possible to navigate in KSP using the stars in stock KSP? Like writing up a star table, for example, to tell you where you should be if you can see certain stars at certain angles. Also, outside of just extracting the sky-box outright, has anyone made a star chart for KSP? I'm rather curious to know.
  11. I heard that orbit around the Moor are very unstable with exception of some orbital inclinations. I wonder why is this?
  12. As the title suggests, I would like to see some ideas of your perspective of extraterrestrial life, from floating cloud like creatures to little fish. @ProtoJeb21 @Spaceception @NickRoss120 @cratercracker @Adstriduum
  13. IRVEES Imaging and Radial Velocity Exoplanet/Exomoon Search WHAT IS IRVEES? IRVEES is an exoplanet hunting club that uses different imaging techniques and the radial velocity method to search for exoplanets and detect the signs of exomoons around imaged planets. HOW DOES IRVEES FIND PLANETS? IRVEES will use the Transit, Direct Imaging, and Radial Velocity methods to find planets. The Transit Method is the tactic mainly and currently being used. Here's a run-down of how these methods will work in the program: TRANSITS: A patch of sky, selected by one of the leaders, is focused on by a tracking telescope. Either a deep-sky CCD camera or DSLR camera is hooked up to the telescope. If things are working, the entire 0.15x0.15 degree patch of sky should be visible through the camera. Next, a set of photographs are taken over a 1-5 hour period. For the initial study of the sky patch, I recommend one 0.1/0.6-second exposure every 60 seconds. The next day, the light data for each star must be studied to find the sign of a full transit, or a transit that was partially captured. Use a program like AIP4WIN or AIJ. Each dimming star must be studied on multiple occasions to find a reacurring, identical transit. Do 2-5 hours of 0.2/0.6 second exposures every 50 seconds. If the IDENTICAL TRANSIT is seen 3 times, you have a planet! DIRECT IMAGING: This method should only be used on telescopes with an aperture of at least 16". You will also need a coronagraph, small enough to reveal areas closer to the star, but big enough to blot out the star. Take about 10-15 images of the star. The images will have these things called Speckles, but multiple images stacked together into a mini-movie will cause the speckles to movie. Planets will not. The dot that isn't moving might be a planet. Check for a radial velocity signature, or check for background stars. If everything checks out, you have a planet! RADIAL VELOCITY: Another method to be used with larger scopes. This method will need a spectrometer. They can be hard to find and probably very expensive, but well worth it. Some local observatories may have some on their scopes. For this method, take the light data of a star a few hours for several nights. Plot the redshift and bueshift data on a scatterplot. If you have a planet, the "wave" in the scatterplot will be consistent, and never get higher or lower than before. Its timing will also be consistent. If you find starspots or flares, the period will be random and the light shifts will change. If your signal is not from solar activity, then you have a companion for the star! These measurements will also give you the minimum mass of the object. Anything below 13 Jupiter masses is a planet, but anything above it is either a brown dwarf or a low-mass star. If anyone needs clarification, here are two links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_detecting_exoplanets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz0sBkp2kso HOW WILL THESE OBJECTS BE NAMED? Stars will get a name from the IRVEES Star Catalog (ISC). The number that follows is a date. For example, May 10th, 2016 becomes 51016. If a single star with a transit in the field of view, it will be named after the date of its discovery. This also goes for stars with a wobble and a large object around them captured by direct imaging. But, if multiple transiting stars are present, they will be named by the day when follow-up observations are made (remember: Investigate each star one by one). The stars will keep their ISC names even after a planet is found. Any discovered planet will get an official IRVEES name, such as IRVEES-1b. The star will get that IRVEES name as a secondary or backup designation. The number in the IRVEES name is determined by either order in discovery or order of its star's detection. The rest is regular exoplanet naming conventions. However, if a signal of a moon is found, then the Possibly Lunar Object (PLO) will be named something like IRVEES-5c-m. WHAT THINGS ARE NEEDED? A telescope with an aperture of 4-30" for Transits, and 10+" for all other methods. Make sure it can track stars! Either a DSLR or deep-sky CCD camera. A spectrometer for Radial Velocity. A camera-to-lens adapter, depending on what camera you have. A laptop. An astro-imaging program like Fire Capture. A program to analyse the light from a star (AIP4WIN or AIJ). A coronagraph that's large enough to block out the star but small enough to reveal planets closer to the star. Lots of patience! IRVEES DETECTION RANGES IRVEES Detection Ranges (IDR's) are specially selected, small patches of sky far away from Kepler's viewing fields. Each IRD is 0.15 by 0.15 degrees, and will be near a relatively bright star. The chosen star must be below magnitude 6, perferably magnitudes 8 through 10. That way the star is bright enough to be seen, but dim enough so it doesn't blot out other stars. This IDR Guide Star will have a specific location in your field of view. Remember, post a photograph of the IDR through your scope so I can make sure you have the right position. Also use a program like GIMP or Google Drawings to circle stars with detected dips in brightness. IDR-1 The first IDR will take place in the area around the star AC 54 1646-56. This is an M2V dwarf star of magnitude 10.17 in the constellation of Ursa Major. It has a Right Ascension of [16h 25m 24.62333s] and a Declination of [54* 18' 14.7733"]. It will also go under the IRVEES Star Catalog designation of ISC 541814. The goal of this IDR is to try to find a transiting exoplanet around either ISC 541814 or around the other stars in that field of view. This star can be kept at the center of the telescope's field of view. I may be searching for planets here on July 12th. IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE TO DO? Members of IRVEES don't have to just be gathering data or hunting for the planets. If someone isn't able to find exoplanets, they can help analyse the data collected from each observation. Data analysis is pretty easy. For the transit method, look for dips in a star's light curve that dim the light of the star by less than 3%. Me and other planet hunters in IRVEES will provide the light curves of stars in the ISC catalog. For the radial velocity method, report the consecutive wave-like pattern in the data from a star. Once again, that data will be provided by the planet hunters. Anybody who finds the signature of an exoplanet in any type of data will be named the co-discoverer of that world, after the member who got the data. OTHER PROJECTS Project Lalande Transiting Exoplanet Moons Search (TEMS) FOUND PLANETS none ATM PLANET CANDIDATES none ATM SCHEDULE: October: Return of IRVEES observations and imaging! PRACTICE SYSTEMS: LEVEL 1: WASP-14 and TrES-2 LEVEL 2: Gliese 1214 and Gliese 436 LEVEL 3: Kepler-42 and TRAPPIST-1 LEVEL 4: Kepler-9, CoRoT-7, and Kepler-33 LEVEL 5: HD 80606, Kepler-62, Kepler-90 MEMBERS/COLLABORATORS @ProtoJeb21 (me) @Galacticvoyager @Kronos1174 @kunok @Panel @Mr. Quark @adamgerd SUPPORTERS/HELPERS/POSSIBLE MEMBERS @Spaceception @YNM @KAL 9000 @_PRATTER_ @Atlas2342 @RocketSquid @electricpants @Rdivine @cryogen @Andem @Emperor of the Titan Squid @_Augustus_ SEE ALSO: IRVEES Scientific Achievements IRVEES Exoplanets My Systems Found with Planet Hunters ______________________________________________________________________________________________ IF ANYONE WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE IN FINDING PLANETS IN THE IRD, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. A PRIVATE MESSAGE IS NOT NEEDED.
  14. Welcome everyone! This thread is a continuation of @Endersmens Stargazing thread! This thread has been dedicated to stargazing and telescopes to those fellow stargazers among us. feel free to show people your telescopes, and so on (*feel free to do other stuff as well!*) I have a Celestron 6 inch telescope that is a bit expensive, but works great! (*sorry no other telescope details because I'm on holiday. Also I'm not able to take pics yet*) Edit: wait, I have a Celestron Nexstar 6SE Schmidt-Cassegrain
  15. There is a ton of intersting mods for ksp that add telescopes and cameras, but we dont use them. So i ve got an idea for your ksp activity . You launch your telescope into orbit and observe different planets from long distance , take some cool screenshots of planets and send it into the coments . (Dont forget to quickscope the planet! )
  16. Greetings All, The winners are here: https://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/gallery/2016/sep/16/insight-astronomy-photographer-of-the-year-2016 None of my favourites made it so I thought I would post them anyway: Aurora Bird – Jan R Olsen (Norway) Jan R Olsen / The National Maritime Museum / Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 competition Between the Rocks – Rick Whitacre (USA) RICK WHITACRE / THE NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM / ROYAL OBSERVATORY GREENWICH’S ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2016 COMPETITION The Diamond Ring – Melanie Thorne (UK) Melanie Thorne / The National Maritime Museum / Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 competition Alone – Lee Cook (UK) Lee Cook / The National Maritime Museum / Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 competition
  17. This is actually a spacecraft/mission that I see almost never mentioned here on the forums for some reason... yet it has been quietly working away at its task, and now, the first results are in. ESA's Gaia spacecraft, sometimes nicknamed the Billion Star Observatory, is an astrometry satellite launched in 2013 and currently sitting at Earth-Sun L2. it has now returned enough data for a new map of the Milky Way to be published. A map made out of 1,142,000,000 stars, in full 3D, each with its position and its brightness determined with extreme precision. It is the largest all-sky survey ever performed in the history of mankind... and Gaia is only 14 months into its 5-year primary mission. Because Gaia wants to do more than just position and brightness. It wants to map relative movements and distances, too. Already, two million stars have their relative movements characterized in the current dataset, but that's just the beginning. With each month that passes, more and more stars will reach the point where there's enough data to derive their movements from. Also, Gaia is expected to chance across tens of thousands of previously unknown exoplanets, comets, qasars and other astronomical objects along the way. Needless to say, a lot of astronomers are very excited by this. Now, some disclaimers: Gaia cannot map the entire Milky Way, due to being inside it - a lot of the galaxy actually blocks itself from view. Additionally, there are limits to the minimum brightness of stars that it can reliably track. In fact, it is expected that Gaia will map "only" around 1% of the entire contents of the galaxy. I say that in quotation marks, because that's still far more than any other single instrument has ever detected.
  18. This is a thread where people can chat about their astronomy studies, observations, careers, or other stuff. Users can post observation logs (well, typed versions anyways), photos of what they were observing, or things like stellar light curves, spectroscopic data, and information collected from observations. I'll be posting stuff too, as well as adding my astronomy photos to this post. Here are some now: JUPITER: SATURN: NEPTUNE: VENUS: INTERSTELLAR OBJECTS:
  19. 1. What does a completely dead white dwarf look like? Is it like a solid planet? 2. Are neutron star "fragments" a real thing? Can the "fragments" continue to sustain their reactions? 3. How big would a neutron star with the mass of an average-size planet be? 4. Do bigger stars have bigger habitable zones? 5. Say you had a binary-ish star system consisting of a massive star and a relatively low-mass star. Is it possible to have planets stably orbiting the massive star further out than the lower-mass star?
  20. As normally, I was playing with Tarsier Space Tech and cockpit zoom trying to figure out if planets would be visible. Not only I figured out eve can easily be seen with basic cockpit zoom, but also events such as transits can be seen! Everyone has seen Kerbol eclipse, but has somebody seen an transit occur? Eclipse occurs once every 6 days, but Eve and Moho transits are extremely rare, as Moho and Eve have a lot more inclined orbits. Here are some photos of eclipses, transits and oppositions captured with cockpit zoom and Tarsier Space Tech telescope, and if you have observed Eve and Moho transits, solar eclipses or even as rare things as Minmus transits and occultations, be sure to show me your pics Kerbol eclipse: http://imgur.com/TFG2OEM Moho Transit: http://imgur.com/wOQAAki Eve Transit: http://i.imgur.com/wj3wFO7.jpg Jool Opposition: http://imgur.com/F9yj18C Duna Opposition: http://imgur.com/0xGKoL7
  21. The time has come! Mars has been in obscurity since April of 2014, but now it is shining at magnitude -1.9/-2.1. This is the brightest Mars has been since 2005 and it's time to take advantage of that. Mars' opposition is May 22nd and it will appear very nice for the next 5-10 days. So, if anyone has the right equipment, observe Mars! OTHER THINGS TO OBSERVE Mars is near Saturn, the Moon, and Antares, giving anybody a nice selection of beautiful astronomical objects to choose from. The nearby constellations of Scorpius and Ophiuchus have over a dozen clusters and nebulae combined and provide deep-sky observers a wide range of things to see. Farther away in the night sky is Jupiter. All of its moons are out, and Jupiter is also passing very close to some background stars. FINAL NOTES Anybody can post photographs of any objects they observe these nights. It is highly encouraged to post something about your observations, and to try and find surface features on Mars. I'll also be doing a bunch of observations, especially since I've missed every other Martian opposition. PICTURES If anybody wants to, they can have their pictures of Mars put up on this main page. Here are some of my best Mars pictures from my observations on May 20th: Happy Observing!
  22. Sunset is fairly late here at this time of year. I was walking around outside at around 8:20 PM local time and it was still quite bright out; the sun had sunk just below the treeline to the west but the sky hadn't yet started to go gray at all...still pale blue. To my surprise, I was able to see Jupiter just southeast of the zenith, quite clear. It could have been imagination, but it seemed to have both angular size and a faint golden tinge. I have seen planets just after sunset, but never so high or when the sky is still so bright. What's the highest magnitude a planet can get, and is Jupiter's angular size ever visible with the naked eye? Was the gold tint just my eyes playing tricks on me, or was it perhaps Rayleigh scattering?
  23. Required materials for Astro-physics: Mathematics Physics (Quantum,Mechanical) Is these are the first requirement?
  24. Here lately, there have been a lot of new discoveries that have come out that have shaped our understanding of space. So, in the spirit of discovery, it simply seemed that a single thread could be used as a repository where links could be shared. So, in the spirit of what the intent of this thread is, I will share an interesting article that I found this morning in my news feed. The summary is nothing more than a cut and paste of the first part of the article that basically introduces the new find. I do ask that if you share an article, you'd follow this example so we can have some sort of continuity. ---- Exoplanet has both molten and solid rock - http://www.ecanadanow.com/exoplanet-solid-molten-rock/97782/ Summary of the article: NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to produce a precision temperature (exo-)map of 55 Cancri e scientists were able to find that one hemisphere is almost completely molten rock, while the other half is almost completely solid. 55 Cancri e is approximately 40 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cancer. According to report from Discovery, this is the first time such a map has been produced of such a small rocky world around 8-times the mass of Earth.
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