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Post by skovrecky on Apr 9, 2008 10:50:37 GMT -5
He's really good at the astrophotography thing. I love that pic because it reminds me of the album art for Eno's "Apollo".
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Post by Thorngrub on Apr 9, 2008 11:46:58 GMT -5
Yeah it does. Astrophotos rock !
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Post by strat-0 on Apr 11, 2008 0:45:44 GMT -5
My best friend has a nice 8 inch Meade and the cool camera for Astro Photography. We do the amateur astronomy club thing here and he captured this. I was standing right beside him to go "cool", "great job" because I can't afford a new telescope right now with those awesome capabilities. Still, here's the moon, which is my favorite thing to look at. This is an awesome thread by the way.  That is a very fine moon photo, Skvor! It is so difficult to get such crisp, sharp detail! I had a best friend also who had an 8-inch Celestron with a clock drive and lots of great eyepieces and other goodies. Alas, he is up there with those lovely objects now, I like to believe. I used that rig to get a few of the shots in this thread, usually with my 35mm camera piggy-backed on the scope. That makes use of the clock drive for longer exposures, but I usually used a standard 200mm telephoto which provided wider angle shots of deep sky objects. I used to do the amateur astronomy club thing too, years ago. It's getting hard to find a good dark sky site any more, even down here in the "less populated" areas. You have to go 50 to 100 miles to get a fairly dark sky. That's kind of a shame. I have an 8-inch Newtonian on a Dobson mount. It provides excellent views! No clock drive or equatorial mount, though. |
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Post by strat-0 on Apr 11, 2008 3:35:43 GMT -5
Here is my best of Jupiter. You can make out the Great Red Spot in the lower equatorial band, towards the right.  A nice one I took of of our dead sister planet:  Here is a shot I took of Comet Hyakutaki in 1996. This one was spectacular to see!  |
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Post by skovrecky on Apr 11, 2008 8:43:01 GMT -5
Strat! Those pics rock! I think Hyakutaki was probably the best comet to witness ever. I remember that because it was during the beginning of my X-Files obsession. Beautiful.
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Post by Thorngrub on Apr 11, 2008 13:06:05 GMT -5
I didn't get to see Hyakutaki - the most spectacular comet I ever saw was Hale Bopp.
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Post by strat-0 on Apr 12, 2008 2:15:42 GMT -5
Thanks, Skvor! Thorn, Hale-Bopp was overall a better comet -- it was hugely bright, the comet of a lifetime. It was brighter than Hyakutaki and visible for longer. I mean, you could see that sumbitch from right in the city! Feel good about getting to see it! A lot of people didn't. I am just amazed that we got two such bright comets -- unusual for an average lifetime on this planet! The remarkable things about Hyakutaki were its vivid colors (blues) and the extreme length of its tail -- it stretched across half the sky with sinewy knots! Here is a shot I took of Hale-Bopp. Note the "gas" ion tail extending straight back, blue in color, and the dust tail, more to the right, and a brighter white. A night to remember...  |
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Post by RocDoc on Apr 12, 2008 20:26:37 GMT -5
hale bop was a smudge in the sky during DAYtime here!
cooler than shit that was...
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Post by RocDoc on Mar 20, 2009 17:38:52 GMT -5
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Post by Kensterberg on Mar 20, 2009 17:51:02 GMT -5
Wow.
What exactly is that a picture of, anyway? I mean, it's obviously the sun, but more details, por favor?
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Post by RocDoc on Mar 20, 2009 23:33:24 GMT -5
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Post by Thorngrub on Mar 27, 2009 11:22:18 GMT -5
Those are way cool pics, Roc. Thanks for the link
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Post by RocDoc on Jul 21, 2009 23:18:16 GMT -5
 Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena captured this infrared image, which shows Jupiter's impact scar in the atmosphere near the south pole. (NASA)
From the Los Angeles Times
'Incredible' new scar is spreading on Jupiter
An asteroid or comet plunged into the solar system's largest planet and left a mark that was first spotted Sunday. The event is the first of its kind in 15 years, JPL astronomers say.
By John Johnson Jr.
July 22, 2009
For only the second time in recent history, scientists have observed the results of an object plunging into the solar system's largest planet.
The object, thought to be an asteroid or comet, left a large dark bruise that can still be seen spreading over Jupiter's southern hemisphere, according to Leigh Fletcher, a planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada-Flintridge.
"This is an incredible event," Fletcher said in an interview. The last time something like this happened was 15 years ago, when fragments of the Shoemaker-Levy comet plunged into the huge gaseous envelope that makes up most of the planet. Scientists were able to follow all 20 or so fragments as they entered the outer atmosphere, made up mostly of hydrogen and helium.
This time, the object that hit the planet was not observed. The first announcement of a new scar on the planet's exterior came Sunday from amateur Australian astronomer Anthony Wesley.
Related links
China eagerly prepares for a rare total solar eclipse As word spread, professional astronomers around the world turned their attention to the planet, which is so large it could hold 1,400 Earths. At its closest, Jupiter is about 390 million miles from Earth, four times as far as the Earth is from the sun.
Some of the sharpest observations came from the Keck II telescope in Hawaii. UC Berkeley astronomer Paul Kalas had previously requested viewing time on the telescope and used the opportunity Monday to confirm the amateur observation.
"We don't see other bright features along the same latitude, so this was most likely the result of a single asteroid, not a chain of fragments" as with Shoemaker-Levy, UC Berkeley astronomer Franck Marchis said in a statement.
The event could help scientists better understand the meteorology on Jupiter, Fletcher said. The scar was probably a result of the object disturbing high altitude aerosols, or dust particles, in the atmosphere.
When first analyzed, it was about the size of the Pacific Ocean. Fletcher said Tuesday that the bruise is growing and will probably continue to do so until it fades away in a few days or weeks. Even at its largest, the feature will probably remain a mere blot compared with the planet's Great Red Spot, a long-lasting storm that is twice the diameter of Earth.
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JACkory
Struggling Artist
Posts: 167
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Post by JACkory on Jul 22, 2009 12:18:11 GMT -5
What do you know about astronomy?
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Post by Ayinger on Aug 8, 2009 22:10:40 GMT -5
GAME ON FOR THE NEXT WEEK THROUGH:
Perseid Meteor Shower Might Dazzle
space.com – Fri Aug 7, 12:16 pm ET
For Northern Hemisphere observers, August is usually regarded as "meteor month," with one of the best displays of the year reaching its peak near midmonth.
That display is, of course, the annual Perseid Meteor Shower, beloved by everyone from meteor enthusiasts to summer campers. This year is expected to produce an above average number of "shooting stars" that could offer a rewarding experience to skywatchers around the globe.
There's just one problem: A bright moon will drown out fainter meteors.
The moon will be at last quarter the night of Aug. 13 and it will be at a rather bright waning gibbous phase a night or two earlier, seriously hampering observation of the peak of the Perseids, predicted to occur late on the nights of Aug. 11 and 12.
Moonrise on Aug. 11 comes at around 10:20 p.m., while on Aug. 12 it's around 10:50 p.m. The moon will be hovering below and to the left of the Great Square of Pegasus these nights and not all that far from the constellation Perseus, from where the meteors will appear to emanate (hence the name "Perseid").
Perseus, does not begin to climb high up into the northeast sky until around midnight; by dawn it's nearly overhead. But bright moonlight will flood the sky through most of those two key nights and will certainly play havoc with any serious attempts to observe these meteors.
Shower already underway
The Perseids are already around, having been active only in a very weak and scattered form since around July 17, as is typically the case for this annual shower.
But a noticeable upswing in Perseid activity traditionally begins during the second week of August, leading up to their peak. They are typically fast, bright and occasionally leave persistent trains. And every once in a while, a Perseid fireball will blaze forth, bright enough to be quite spectacular and more than capable to attract attention even in bright moonlight.
Unfortunately, because the moon was also at full phase on Aug. 5 it will always be above the horizon during the predawn morning hours (when Perseid viewing is best) in the days leading up to the peak. So even the gradual increase in the shower will be spoiled by moonlight.
The moon arrives at last quarter on Aug. 13 and thereafter its light becomes much less objectionable, but by that time the peak of the display has passed, leaving only a few lingering Perseid stragglers in its wake.
But nonetheless, the 2009 Perseids will be still be worth watching.
Comet crumbs
We know today that these meteors are actually the dross of the Swift-Tuttle comet. Discovered back in 1862, this comet takes approximately 130 years to circle the sun. And in much the same way that the Tempel-Tuttle comet leaves a trail of debris along its orbit to produce the spectacular Leonid Meteors of November, the Swift-Tuttle comet produces a similar debris trail along its orbit to cause the Perseids.
Indeed, every year during mid-August, when the Earth passes close to the orbit of Swift-Tuttle, the material left behind by the comet from its previous visits, ram into our atmosphere at approximately 37 miles (60 kilometers) per second and create bright streaks of light in our midsummer night skies.
And according to two meteor researchers, each working independently, 2009 could turn out to be an unusually intense Perseid year.
Mikhail Maslov of Russia has determined that within a matter of several hours on the morning of Aug. 12, the Earth will come close to three trails of dust shed by the Swift-Tuttle comet from three prior visits to the vicinity of the Sun (in 1610, 1737 and 1861). All three encounters will all occur within a roughly 4-hour time frame between 4 and 8 hours UT, which will be particularly favorable for eastern North America where this interval corresponds to midnight to 4 a.m. on Aug. 12; the constellation of Perseus will be gradually climbing the northeast sky during this time frame.
According to Maslov, the Earth will be passing only 87,000 miles (140,000 km) from the center of the 1610 trail at 8:07 UT (4:07 a.m. EDT).
In the absence of moonlight, an observer might see up to 200 meteors per hour around that time, a number that sadly – because of the bright moon – won't in 2009. Overall, though, the Perseids might still put on a good display despite the interfering moonlight, with at least the brighter meteors being visible to patient observers.
Another researcher, Jeremie Vaubaillon of Caltech, used a computer simulation to depict Earth's passage through the Perseids in 2009. Vaubaillon's simulation clearly shows Earth encountering significant meteor activity from about 0 hours UT on Aug. 12 through about 6 hours UT on Aug. 13, possibly suggesting better than average Perseid activity worldwide for both the late-night hours of Aug. 11 and Aug. 12, local times.
Is it safe?
Many years ago, a phone call came into New York's Hayden Planetarium. The caller sounded very concerned after hearing a radio announcement of an upcoming Perseid display and wanted to know if it would be dangerous to stay outdoors on the peak night of the shower (perhaps assuming there was a danger of getting hit by cosmic debris).
These meteoroids, however, are no bigger than sand grains or pebbles, have the consistency of cigar ash and are consumed dozens of miles above our heads. The caller was passed along to the Planetarium's then-Chief Astronomer, Dr. Kenneth L. Franklin (1923-2007).
Franklin quickly allayed any fears by cheerfully commenting that there are only two dangers from watching for Perseid meteors: getting drenched with dew and falling asleep!
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