Stars / Astronomy / Astrophotography / Telescopes / Astro

Astronomy != astrology

I was at the Baker Street Irregular Astronomers meet last night. It wasn't clear at all. Proper hazy. Still saw Jupiter's Galilean Satellites nicely though.

Astronomy != astrology

Indeed

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/patrick-moore-probably-going-to-be-remembered-an-astrologer-2012121052555

I was at the Baker Street Irregular Astronomers meet last night. It wasn't clear at all. Proper hazy. Still saw Jupiter's Galilean Satellites nicely though.

did you eat any of the revolving cake?
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V54VkWdf7tM"]Baker
Street Irregular Astronomers Christmas Cake 2012 - YouTube[/ame]

Ha no I didn't. I scoffed mince pies instead.

Could someone please help me identify an astonishingly bright star in the sky a couple of nights ago.

My location was Western Cambodia (somewhere not far from here) and we noticed and argued extensively about what it might have been in the early evenings of the 17th and 18th. My bet was heavily on Saturn as I was sure I could discern rings when viewed through 10x binoculars but others wondered if it might have been Venus. Any ideas would be hugely appreciated. With an almost invisibly thin moon the night sky was one of the most captivating things I've ever seen.

Also glimpsed a couple of shooing stars which I guess might have been the Geminids mentioned above?

Thoroughly inspired!

Jupiter's been the brightest thing in the sky recently, would you be able to see that from down there?

I'm afraid I have no idea - my ignorance of the stars knows almost no bounds!

What I saw through the bins was an exquisitely bright star with what appeared to be an almost imperceptibly feint ring ( I guess to me it looked much like a danish "ø" without being able to see the region of the crossbar that is contained within the circle) - what my colleague thought he saw was the same distinctively bright star but with what he interpreted to be feint "mini stars" (which he concluded might have been moons) almost imperceptibly distant from the main body.

I have no idea how either of those descriptions matches to what might be considered plausible for Jupiter (obv not rings!!).

Yep, those "mini-stars" will have been some of the Galilean moons of Jupiter, being the four biggest ones that are easily visible in binoculars.

Jupiter is well visible from anywhere in the world at the moment (except here, as it's cloudy).

Bingo! That is wonderful thank you. I guess my shakey hands may have caused the "mini stars"* to morph into what appeared as a ring. I'll try to hold still tomorrow but I'm back in town now.

well, they do look like stars until you crank up the magnification massively - there's one in my photo of Jupiter above, which I think was Europa.

So that Astronomy programme starts again tonight on BBC2. Was ok, in patches, last series.

Stargazing is on now..

Dark Energy... they're talking about fart gas...

Just found this thread and surprised there's no mention of this beauty heading our way later this year...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/brighter-than-a-full-moon-the-biggest-star-of-2013-could-be-ison--the-comet-of-the-century-8431443.html

well astronomy is right in the news this morning
from an amazing meteor shower over siberia to the close pass of a large asteroid this evening

the siberia shower is meant to be amazing .... the bbc said they had footage on their website must have a look

"At least 100 people - many injured by broken glass - have been taken to hospital for treatment, medical officials in the city have said."
Crazy!

quite scary, looks unreal!
http://rt.com/news/russia-meteor-meteorite-asteroid-chelyabinsk-291/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/15/mercury-dynamic-complex-nasa

google home page looks excellent today

i think that dude is gonna have to be a little richer than a multi billionaire to get 2 people to mars
sounds fun mind 500 days floating through space

will they be buying a return ticket though or is it just one way ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22539160

On Tuesday, it released the biggest solar flare of 2013 so far, an intense burst associated with a huge eruption of particles.
When these eruptions reach Earth, they can interfere with satellites and communications systems on the ground.
The sunspots that spawned these flares are not directly facing our planet, but some Nasa spacecraft could be in the path of the solar particles.

An X-class flare is equivalent to a billion hydrogen bombs. We're talking about a colossal amount of energy
Increased numbers of flares are expected at the moment because the Sun's normal 11-year activity cycle is approaching its peak - known as a solar maximum - this year.

I need to trade my 5" goto reflector telescope for some binoculars, I can see very little sky from my new garden... Any takers? PM me if you're interested...

Has anyone got one of these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00006LSVL

they want to part with? Thought I may as well ask before I got one off amazon.

Also... has anyone made their own solar filter with solar film?

As you can probably tell, starting out with the two biggest objects in the sky as I have limited chance to use my telescope outside london.

looks like someone solved the universe

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2013/may/23/roll-over-einstein-meet-weinstein