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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - May 23, 2012 - 01:17pm PT
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After seeing the interest among SuperTopians in the recent Solar Eclipse
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1814011/Solar-eclipse-to-be-seen-in-Western-US-on-May-20-2012
and noticing that Russ Walling has an excellent little telescope at his home in the High Desert
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1814011&msg=1832334#msg1832334
I decided to post this thread because I thought it would be nice to have a place to post space- and astronomy-themed items from time to time. I'll begin with an on-topic photo and a question ;-)
Taking into account the difference in gravity, would a V13 boulder problem on Earth be just V2 on the Moon?
I'm sure many of us have harboured a similar dream since childhood: to become an astronaut and explore new worlds beyond our own. Alas, very few humans (so far) have been able to realize that dream. But, I had a remarkable experience one evening, which helped me realize that we already are in space, and have the good fortune of living on an amazingly hospitable platform that affords spectacular views of the Universe.
While vacationing on Maui in the Hawaiian Islands a few years back, I happened to be driving a rental car on the narrow dirt road that skirts Maui's east coast -- you know -- the road that you sign a form for, promising you will not drive your rental car on it. There is one stretch of the road that comes right down to ocean level; when I got there it was near midnight, the sky was moonless and cloudless, there was not a breath of wind, and the ocean was, as they say, smooth as glass. I decided to stop the car and stretch my legs for a few minutes. I shut off the headlights and engine, lit a cigarette, and gazed eastward to where the Big Island would be. As my eyes became more dark-adapted, I was startled by the quantity and brightness of the stars in the sky. I was able to see the Milky Way arching overhead, and as I followed it downward I saw where it met the inky black surface of the ocean. Except the ocean's surface wasn't exactly inky black -- it had a faint glow to it. As my eyes became even better adapted to the low light, I realized that the glow I saw on the ocean's surface was actually a reflection of the Milky Way itself. I was seeing the centre of our own Galaxy, reflected off a warm, tropical sea! I was blown away by what I was witnessing and it was at that moment that I realized: we are already in space.
Not long after that experience I decided to install a semi-fixed telescope in the garden behind my home, for the purpose taking pretty pictures of objects in the night sky. Not long after I got the telescope and a specialized digital camera up and running, I found out via the Internet that there was a handful of amateur astronomers scattered across the globe who were doing real science that got published alongside the work of professional astronomers. I wanted into that game! To make a long-ish story short, I spent about 18 months going through an accreditation process administered by the Harvard Center for Astrophysics - Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) and the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which led to the assignment of an observatory code for the purpose of conducting science-grade astrometry (astrometry is the precise measurement of the position of an object in the sky with respect to a specified coordinate system, at specific moment in time). Over a period of a few years, my little observatory submitted tens of thousands of astrometric observations and was credited as co-discoverer of 21 Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and one comet; three of those NEAs were classified as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs).
Remarkably, the very first set of observations from my observatory (the Francisquito Observatory) to be published in the scientific literature
http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/mpec/K04/K04H68.html
was for an object first detected by the Haleakala Observatory on Maui, located just a few miles from where my "journey" in space began.
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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May 23, 2012 - 01:38pm PT
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Very cool story! thanks for your service!
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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May 23, 2012 - 01:55pm PT
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That shadowy right side looks like a lunar 'Streetcar named Desire', with a similarly slabby finish...
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 24, 2012 - 08:28am PT
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Still alive and kicking, 7 years, 8 months after its work was supposed to be done, the Mars rover Opportunity snapped a self-portrait yesterday as it was perched on the edge of the Endeavour crater.
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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May 24, 2012 - 10:39am PT
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DE-
Nice report! I too, have an observatory in my "back yard." I never became interested in the photographic aspsect of amateur astronomy, but prided myself on becoming a good visual astronomer. I have some pix which I will post later after retrieving them from an older computer via USB drives.
I currently have a 14.5" aperture Parallax Instruments equatorialy mounted f/5 Newtonian telescope (Royce Mirror), complete with rotating tube rings. I haven't done much with it recently due to some "personal issues." Prior to this scope, I had a beautiful TMB 203, f/7 apochromatic refractor mounted on a Takahashi NJP "go-to" equatorial mount, as well as a 12.5" Discovery Dobsonian. I still have the Dobsonian, and still use it a lot. The Parallax scope currently needs a mirror coating replacement.
I have made a hobby-within-a-hobby of observing Globular Clusters, but my real kick is hunting down and visually observing Globular Clusters in the Andromeda Galaxy, of which I've now found 9. My skies have been degraded by a neighbor building a big horse showing/training barn that he has festooned with outside lighting at night. Prior to his ruination of my skies, I could see M13 naked eye, almost every moonless/cloudless night, and occasionally M33 naked eye.
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 24, 2012 - 11:40am PT
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Wow, @brokenndown, 14.5in. is a big light grabber! Being able to see globulars inside M31 is so cool!
Sorry to hear about your light encroachment problem. Same thing happened to me, which eventually caused me to pull the plug on the observatory. But I knew it was coming, as I lived (then) at the distant edge of a fast-growing suburb of L.A.
These were the optics when the observatory was up and running: a 30cm Schmidt-Cassegrain on a GTO equatorial mount, and a 90mm Takahashi APO piggybacked to the SCT; the Takahashi was used as an auto-guider when taking astrometric images. The whole system was controlled from my office inside the house.
Speaking of Andromeda, here's a shot taken through the Takahashi when I was calibrating equipment one evening. It was a short (about 30 sec. exposure) casual shot so there's not a lot of detail, but it's still one of my favourite "pretty pictures" taken at Francisquito.
I look forward to seeing some of your photos, @brokendown! When you post 'em up I'll put up a few of mine, too.
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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May 24, 2012 - 11:45am PT
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Wow, that rover picture is so fecking cool. I can just imagine it being a lonely little robot up there, not willing to give up, and feeling so lucky that it's seeing what so many would give an eyeball for.....
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 29, 2012 - 11:51am PT
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Next up on the Big Astronomical Events calendar for 2012 is a very rare transit of the planet Venus across the face of the Sun, on June 5th, 2012.
You might not think this is all that rare, as the last transit occurred in 2004, but the previous transit before 2004 occurred in 1882, and the next one won't occur for another 105 years, in 2117!
Here in Los Angeles the transit will begin just after 3pm local time and will continue until past Sunset.
Go to this web site to determine when the transit will be visible at your location:
http://transitofvenus.nl/wp/where-when/local-transit-times/
Please remember that all the usual warnings about viewing the Sun apply to this event.
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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May 29, 2012 - 11:12pm PT
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As I mentioned in an earlier post...I have very little interest in astrophotography. I like the challenge of visually tracking down difficult to find and observe objects.
My number one observing sucess was finding and actually being able to see Palomar 12, a very faint and difuse globular cluster originally found photographically on the Palomar-National Geographic all sky survey. I became one of a handful of observers to see this faint object with an 8" aperture telescope, my now-departed TMB 203 Apochromatic triplet refractor. At one time, I had some of the darkest skies in the continental U.S.; sadly now ruined for my observing goals.
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 30, 2012 - 08:31am PT
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Oh, my, @brokendown -- an 8in. refractor!!! Owning that would have been like having bouillon in the bank. I'm not sure they're even made anymore, by anyone. Yes, it's very, very difficult indeed to find dark skies in the US in a place that is also habitable.
Here's another shot taken through my Takahashi APO (90mm), using a Hydrogen-alpha filter:
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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May 30, 2012 - 09:35am PT
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Very cool!
Thanks for sharing your photos!
Astronomy is fascinating.
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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May 30, 2012 - 09:40am PT
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I'm heading to Griffith Obs for that transit.
Used to have a 12.5 dogs. Now a 10" compound. Many climbers I know also know the sky.
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
-A race of corn eaters
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May 30, 2012 - 09:56am PT
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Very impressive, Dos.
I'd like to see more of your shots, too.
Perhaps you should find a secret spot for your tele setup in the high sierra or elsewhere to deal with the light issue.
I had an 8 inch a long time ago (I was on the sierra east side but in a lighted community) - that's what I had thought of doing.
Will you be photographing the transit?
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
-A race of corn eaters
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May 30, 2012 - 10:01am PT
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So maybe you're the one to answer a question for me...
Why are these doublet transits so rare? just once every century or so. Given the planar mechanics and all, I would've guessed they should happen more frequently. A guess: every 5-10 years or so.
Nah, that's silly. With Venusian orbit of 220+ days, once a century or so now that I think more deeply about it makes sense.
Nah, now I'm back to square one, trying to envision it, ala the pairing phenomenon too. Messy. Maybe someone will post up a diagram or gif or something as tue approaches.
Like this. ;)
So now I'm thinking, if the two orbits were exactly coplanar, then it would be every five years or so. Maybe...
.....
EDIT
DosXX, thanks for the clarification.
It would be cool if somebody on the internet posted a visual on the mechanics speeded up - where a year equals a second, something like that, then one could get a better sense of it. Maybe somebody will.
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 30, 2012 - 11:00am PT
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I'll try to answer a couple of your questions, @fructose.
Regarding the frequency of transits of the inner planets across the Sun, the main reason that they're so rare is that each of the planets orbits the Sun on a slightly different plane, as well as having slightly different-shaped orbits. You combine that, with the fact that the disc of the Sun occupies such a small part of the sky (0.5 degrees out of 360 degrees), and it's amazing that these transits don't occur at intervals of thousands of years. Here's a snapshot of the orbital paths of planets in the inner solar system, for today (March 30th, 2012). I've tilted the image so you can (hopefully) see the small difference in the orbital planes of the individual planets (the red dot in the centre represents the Sun).
To answer your other question, yes, I'm going to attempt to photograph next week's Venus transit. But I'll be trying two things I've never tried before: 1) photographing the Sun through a telescope, and 2) attaching a standard digital SLR camera to a telescope. I've ordered an inexpensive film-type solar filter for my Takahashi 90mm refractor, as well as the hardware to mount a Canon EOS camera to the back of the Takahashi. I'm going to have to practice with this setup before next week and hopefully it'll all come together in time.
I'd been scratching my head about where I ought to try to the observe the transit, and @spider's mention of the Griffith Observatory seems like a really good idea. Thanks, Chris!
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 30, 2012 - 05:58pm PT
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@fructose said:
It would be cool if somebody on the internet posted a visual on the mechanics speeded up - where a year equals a second, something like that...
Here's a case of "Your tax dollars at work" (like it or not)
1. Click on the link below
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi
2. In the Search box, type "Johnmuir" (without quotation marks) and hit ENTER.
3. You'll see a bunch of numerical info, but in the top 1/4 of the page look for a grey menu bar with the option "Orbit Diagram" and click on that option.
4. Allow a full minute or two for a Java application to load in your browser (assuming that you've got your browser Java-enabled). Eventually you'll see a diagram with the orbital paths of various planets in the Solar System, as well as the orbital path of the main belt asteroid named Johnmuir. This diagram is actually a live player. Test the different control buttons on the player and see what happens. Play with the sliders on the right and and on the bottom. Change the field of view with the Zoom slider. You can change the size of the time-step of the player by using the drop-down selector (initially set to 1 Day). With the player controls you can go forward in time, or backward.
5. Have fun!
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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May 30, 2012 - 07:08pm PT
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Will Johnmuir hit Earth?
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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May 30, 2012 - 08:02pm PT
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Perhaps it will splash down at Hetch Hetchy. Although Muir wasn't noted for being an angry or intemperate person.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
merced, california
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May 30, 2012 - 09:18pm PT
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"You combine that..."
The third rock, our observation platform, is moving as well. Another factor you should not ignore. I realize it is an inner planet, but never in the same relative position. Am I making sense?
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 31, 2012 - 09:40am PT
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@climbski2 asked:
Will [the asteroid] Johnmuir hit Earth?
No, Johnmuir is a Main Belt Asteroid, meaning it's safely locked in a stable orbit between Mars and Jupiter.
This asteroid, however, is a possible bad boy. It's classified as a PHA (Potentially Hazardous Asteroid). My little observatory is credited as a co-discoverer. As of today, though, the probability of its colliding with Earth at some future date is calculated at something significantly less than one percent.
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 3, 2012 - 11:43pm PT
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I made a systems check today in preparation for next Tuesday's Transit of Venus, and after working through a few technical issues, snapped a few photos of the Sun. Here's one taken this afternoon -- a few sunspots are visible.
I'd never photographed the Sun through a telescope before, nor had I used an ordinary SLR camera to take photos through a telescope. Here's the setup after all the bugs were worked out:
All systems are go for Tuesday!
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Cool.
I'm not much of an astronomer, but i make telescope mirrors.
Look at the next proj -
On Topic
http://atst.nso.edu/
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wildone
climber
EP
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Wow. What a great thread. I was very lucky to have the dad I had! We were in an astronomy club that was in Fresno (nearest club to us as we lived between Midpines/ Bootjack). They would get together quite often at Glacier Point, and set up some massive scopes. Big homemade refractors and reflectors, some on trailers. As for my dad, he had a 14 inch Meade schmidt-cassegrain with all sorts of bells and whistles. When he was really into it, I was too young to pick up much of it. Big regrets on my part, because he could have provided me quite the astral education. As it were, I was content to just hang out with him and look at what he wanted me to see when he found it. And accompany him on trips to observatories when we were on unrelated roadtrips. For instance, on our way to and from Philmont, we would stay in Flagstaff and go up to that observatory.
Which brings me to my present situation... He has passed on, and his scope is in my storage unit. I'd like to take it to the meadows this summer. Wish I knew what I was doing...
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Oh, I thought you said Supertacoids spaced. . .
I nominate Locker!
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 5, 2012 - 11:49am PT
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A bump for the Venusians!
Today's the day, and the LAST time to see Venus track across the face of the Sun until 2115. For those who can't get outside to see it, NASA.gov has a web page set up with links to a number of live, streaming views of today's transit (which will begin at about 3:05pm PDT for those on the West Coast)
http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/venus_transit.html
I've got my telescope drive battery, and camera batteries charged and ready to go. I'll be blasting out of my office at noon to get things set up at a viewing location in the Angeles Nat Forest, about 40 miles north of L.A.; I'll be there from the beginning of the Transit until about 5pm and anyone is welcome to stop by for a view. Just get yourself to this spot:
lat 34.598103°
long -118.493869°
You'll need a high clearance vehicle, as the road is kind of messed up right now.
EDIT: Here's an aerial view of where the telescope will be set up.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Thanks - predictably, it's raining here. But maybe the transit will be shown on webcast on the NASA or an astronomy site.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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XX,
I am looking at components to do variable star and transient photometry.
How sharp are those SC's? I am looking at getting an Astro-Tech Ritchey-Creithan, The 12" is really pricy, but everything I have heard is great.
Their F4 Newtonians are supposedly exellent for imaging as well.
Either way, I am going to take it in the rear on the mount. I keep an eye on Astromart for deals.
As for astronauts, there was this one girl who I used to skydive with in Texas who did two shuttle missions. Man, was she hot. Me and my twisted buddies would eat all kinds of sick stuff to achieve the most disgusting farts, since farting on the way to altitude is so common with the drop in pressure (no hard data on that, though).
Once I stunk out 40 skydivers on a DC-3 with one tiny puff. I looked over and Mary Ellen Weber had her face buried in her helmet. So I have almost made an astronaut puke. Which I find a rare distinction.
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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According to Astronomy Ireland, it will at 5am tomorrow morning here in Dublin, that is if we can the Sun. Met Eireann forecasts rain for tomorrow. The guy at Astronomy Ireland told me I can project it with binoculars onto a white sheet of paper, but my binocs are not that powerful. He added that it will about a 40 minute transit. And of course is the old white paper and pin trick.
http://www.astronomy.ie/venustransit.php
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 5, 2012 - 02:44pm PT
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@drljefe: I looked at the web site for the ATST -- wow! what an awesome project! I saw the photos of the beginning of the mirror base construction; I'd like to hear more about your involvement in the mirror making process. And if you could find a way to work a photo of Rosebud into the story, that'd make my day.
@wildone: I'm certain someone from a local astronomy club would be glad to help you drag your dad's scope out of storage and figure out how to get it going. Are you in the Sierra Foothills? There are some dedicated stargazers out there, though I don't know any of them personally.
@base104: SC's from makers like Meade and Celestron vary quite a bit in the quality of their optics. Celestron 11in. SCT's made in the early 2000s have a reputation for an excellent optical performance/price ratio. I have a 12in. Meade SCT and I would call its optical performance mediocre, but I needed it mainly to grab light from faint asteroids down to Mag 20; as long as I got an accurate and repeatable smudge on the CCD, I was happy. Incidentally, the optical tube for my 3.5in. Takahashi cost about 3x what I paid for the 12in. Meade SCT. An RC, from any of the better telescope makers should provide exceptional optical performance, but as you say, at a price. For an equatorial mount, made right here in the Sierra Foothills, check out Mountain Instruments in Auburn, CA; their stuff has an excellent performance/cost ratio.
Now, I'm headed out the door for an encounter with Venus :-)
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Mauna Kea is better - in colour.
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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20 minutes prep with duct tape, cardboard, and Series 9 4ND filter
projected on a piece of white cardboard and taken with a Minolta pocket camera
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 6, 2012 - 02:11pm PT
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The Venus transit images posted here on SuperTopo are really impressive -- I'm especially amazed by what Russ can do with an iPhone shooting through a telescope eyepiece.
Here's a composite image taken with my fancy-pants gear over about a 1-hr period (processed in high-contrast monochrome to bring out details in the sun spots)
Here's a single image, which seemed to have the least atmospheric distortion of all the images I took (about 750 shots total)
In this image I believe I've captured the mysterious Black Drop effect,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_drop_effect
the origins of which are still not clearly understood:
Conditions at my chosen observing site were about as perfect as one could hope:
After disconnecting the camera gear I made sure I spent plenty of time looking through an ordinary eyepiece -- it made it a more "real" experience for me and I knew I'd never see anything like it again...in this lifetime anyway.
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Awesome!
Very cool, too bad i was inside polishing a large optic all day...
Thanks for sharing those images.
Our involvement in the Solar Telescope will be limited to the polishing of the primary mirror- a 4m off axis parabola.
Even just the primary is a very involved and lengthy project and we won the contract because of our expertise with OAP's. When finished, it will be one of the most complex large optics in the world.
Just imagine the images we'll get from that telescope!!!
I am but an Optcian's apprentice working under a few renowned Master Opticians. Grinding and polishing large optics is surprisingly old school- a mix of art, trade, and science. I love it and am good at it(i guess...who knew?! No formal training or ed. )
Okay DosXx, here's da Bud
Behind the back shot of rosie heeling.
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 7, 2012 - 09:15am PT
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That's fascinating and so cool, @drljefe! Getting to work on a 4m mirror with master craftsmen...it puts you in a very select group that includes people like Galileo and Newton, who made telescopes as well. So cool.
Thanks for indulging me with a shot of Rosebud :-)
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Russ Walling
Gym climber
Poofter's Froth, Wyoming
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Cross posted from the Venus Transit thread:
Same set up as the eclipse.
C90 Celestron with an iphone on the eye piece
Edit for XX: wild huh? Lining up the eye piece with the phone lens is tricky to get it with no flare and nice and square. Besides that, very low tech and no retouch or anything. Point, shoot and post. Cool thread.
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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I missed seeing the transit visually, and regret the cloudy skies that were responsible. I did see the last transit of Mercury just about 5 years ago, though.
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 6, 2012 - 09:12am PT
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[the '99 pounds of plutonium' thread seems to be headed for an environmental debate, so I'm re-posting here]
Geeks score!
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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A big thanks to SuperTopian SOWR and the many other climbers at JPL who are involved in the exploration of Mars!
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 8, 2012 - 06:20pm PT
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An excellent video showing the reactions of scientists & engineers at JPL as the Mars Science Laboratory lands on Mars.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
A remarkable comment left on the YouTube web site for this video:
I'm a woman from Pakistan & I know how it feels to belong to a country where superstition is sacred & curiosity is non-existent.
Thank you, NASA. Thank you, science.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Astronomics has 10 of the Astro Tech 6 inch Ritchy Chretians in stock for less than 500 bucks. Those suckers are supposed to be sweet.
They have a new showroom in Norman that I visited yesterday and I saw some incredibly pricey stuff. Some good normal stuff as well.
Astrophotography with a webcam or nigh any digital camera is easy now. You can even just mount a camera on an equatorial mount and take really good deep sky images. Info is on the web.
I might need somebody from out of state to order some gear for me. If I go down the street to Astronomics I pay 8 1/4% sales tax...
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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You know...you can actually buy space on one of the ESA's rockets and put your own satellite up for relatively cheap.
Some ham radio guys or something got together and put a coffee can sized satellite in orbit.
I say we send Fish's brain into orbit when he croaks.
Locker. Please provide the graphics.
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 15, 2012 - 04:10pm PT
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Just posted today on YouTube: guaranteed to make you smile & bob your head.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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Sagebrusher
Sport climber
Iowa
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Aug 15, 2012 - 05:06pm PT
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This is a large mountain on the edge of Olympus Mons. The summit of OM is beyond the horizon!!!
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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Aug 22, 2012 - 11:20am PT
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This Summer hasn't been very conducive to astronomical observing; way too much smoke. Last night seemed kinda decent, so I took my tripod mounted binoculars out on the deck for a while. I managed to track down M22. the brightest Globular cluster visible from Northern latitudes. I was pretty disappointed, and there was still some obscuration by residual atmospheric smoke making my view of this cluster pretty lame. The binos are 18X 80 mm Schneider Optik that I had rebuilt for astronomy; originally they were W.W. II antiaircraft fire control glasses at 10X. At 18X, there was nothing but a smudge; in the past I've been able to pick out a few dim outlying stars belonging to the cluster. So...I packed it in early.
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 22, 2012 - 01:42pm PT
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@brokendown -- sorry to hear about your smoke-clouded skies this Summer.
Wow -- 80mm binocs! That sounds like a dream set-up to me, and it's impressive that you can see ANY globular cluster through them. When I look through my 90mm refractor from here in So.Cal, globular clusters are for all intents and purposes, invisible.
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Aug 29, 2012 - 01:04am PT
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Dec 30, 2012 - 06:23pm PT
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Supertopians in space, or
SUPERTOPIANS SPACED!!!!!
hee hee hee. . .
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Dec 30, 2012 - 11:43pm PT
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And to think I never clicked on this thread because I thought it would be
about spaced-out Tacoheads. Well, I guess it is, sort of.
Mike, nice shot! I presume that is also cropped some? I can't wait for
my Nikon 800mm to come - after I win the Lotto. :-(
Brokedown, if your ranchito isn't dark enough then what is? I thought your
nearest neighbor was like a mile away? Where's the light coming from?
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Dickbob
climber
Westminster Colorado
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Comet Panstarr will be visable in the northern hemisphere begining tomorrow. Anyone else following this?
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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I saw the moon pic there so I had to post my moon shot that is also over on the Canon SX50 thread. This is with just the camera on a tripod. Not bad for $400.00. Also, I was surprised when I learned that even with the Hubble Telescope, individual stars cannot be seen in Andromeda.
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Nice shot of the moon MN, but this:
"Also, I was surprised when I learned that even with the Hubble Telescope, individual stars cannot be seen in Andromeda."
is not correct. Can identify individual stars in the Andromeda Galaxy with even a modest-sized telescope on the ground.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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ok - thanks. I should have checked on that sooner. Maybe the person that told me that meant with his 15" or so scope. I just found this Andromeda link;
http://www.universetoday.com/87692/shedding-new-starlight-on-the-andromeda-galaxy/
Just for the fun of it here is the 8" mirror from the telescope I had as a young teenager. We got the scope from a telescopr builder in Chatsworth California in the early 60s. I still have the paperwork, telescope tube and mount. M13 in Hercules was one of my favorite objects to view.
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Mar 12, 2013 - 11:26pm PT
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Nice^^^^
The coating appears to be in decent shape.
Do you know the focal length or aperature?
Anybody see the comet/moon combo tonight?
Spectacular here in Tucson!
..and a perfect way to top off an after work boulder circuit.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Mar 13, 2013 - 12:02am PT
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Is the comet bright enough to see well with the naked eye?
All of you young farts totally missed out on Hale Bopp. That comet was huge and lingered for a long time. I'm lucky that I have seen a comet that fantastic in my lifetime.
Look at that rover pic at the start of this thread. Look how dirty that solar panel is.
The webpage on those things is pretty cool.
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Mar 13, 2013 - 12:06am PT
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Not WELL with the naked eye.
I used a pair of binoculars and it was perfect, pretty much what you see in this pic.
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john hansen
climber
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Mar 13, 2013 - 12:20am PT
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Thats a nice shot..
How long was the exposure?
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Mar 13, 2013 - 12:31am PT
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Not sure, my buddy in phoenix shot it.
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Mar 13, 2013 - 12:32am PT
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Waiting for ISON.. Hale-Bop was very cool but if ISON works out it will be visible during the day!
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Mar 14, 2013 - 02:56am PT
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Sep 22, 2014 - 11:55am PT
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Seems to be going well with Maven, and Mangalyaan should be joining it soon. Hot times for a cold planet. The big excitement this fall could be Rosetta trying to land on a comet.
If any of you stargazers are interested, I've started a planetary discussion on the plate tectonics thread. Feel free to jump in.
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Nov 11, 2014 - 03:05pm PT
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If all goes well Rosetta will launch a craft to land on a Comet tomorrow around 8am.
Watch live here http://rosetta.esa.int/
Here is a cool selfie it took with the comet in the background and a plume of gas visible.
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Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Nov 11, 2014 - 06:58pm PT
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Bump!!!
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Nov 11, 2014 - 11:09pm PT
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Final go has been given.Command for landing has been transmitted. The attempt will begin in about an hour.
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Tvash
climber
Seattle
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Nov 12, 2014 - 01:16am PT
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Philae is away and descending.
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Nov 12, 2014 - 06:20am PT
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The top thruster that was supposed to hold philae to the surface for full stop may not be functioning, they say 50/50. A harpoon system is hoped to work if not. Gravity of the comet is less than .00001G and the lander will impact at less than 4Mph but now could bounce right back into space. If the surface is not perpendicular in relation to the direction of descent.. ie "sloped" then that would be also a problem.
Hopefully the "cliffhanger" landing system will work..I have some doubts. So do the design and operations teams. It will take some luck.
A Harpoon unit
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Nov 12, 2014 - 07:19am PT
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Back in the Cold War days I worked for the United States Space Command undergound in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. I had a few interested tasks as part of my job.
Every day I used to calibrate the orbits of the GPS satellites. G.I.G.O. You can't get good GPs data unless the orbits are properly calibrated. I used tacking data from space sensors around the world to calculate and calibrate the orbital vectors.
I was also one of the orbital safety officers for the manned space program. There's a lot junk in orbit, which posed a real hazard to the space shuttle. (A one-pound piece space junk travelling at 18,000 m.p.h has the same kinetic energy as a 100,000-pound locomotive traveled at 60 m.p.h.) My job was to keep track of the space junk and the shuttle, and help NASA change the shuttle's orbit to avoid space junk.
It's still in the news:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/space-station-dodges-chinese-space-junk-26857653
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Nov 12, 2014 - 07:44am PT
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Seems like a very interesting job. On watch to protect our astronauts is pretty cool stuff! Ever detect an object that caused a course change? How involved where you in that sort of thing?
Philae has either landed or not by now. It's aproximately 500Mkm away so something like 25 light minutes delay for info.
Live broadcast http://rosetta.esa.int/
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Nov 12, 2014 - 08:04am PT
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Flurry of intense activity ..Control room is cheering. Anouncement coming?......seem to be double checking..all that is for sure is telemetry being received..seem to have some inconsistencies. no announcement yet.. hard to tell what they are seeing..they seem to be figuring it out themselves.
8:10 am PST Confirmed.. Lander on the surface. Harpoons fired and rewound.. lander is on the surface.
Congrats to the European Space Agency!
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Gunkie
Trad climber
East Coast US
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Nov 12, 2014 - 09:51am PT
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This asteroid, however, is a possible bad boy. It's classified as a PHA (Potentially Hazardous Asteroid). My little observatory is credited as a co-discoverer. As of today, though, the probability of its colliding with Earth at some future date is calculated at something significantly less than one percent.
Yes, but is it an ISIS or al Quada controlled comet? That would make a big difference and the US would need more Republicans in office to save us from the evils that lurk in space. Of course your funding might be cut because you can see further than 6000 years into the past and might see the face of god. And if that happens, mohammed will become gay and mass orgies will breakout in Utah. Maybe they do already.
I feel snarky today.
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Tvash
climber
Seattle
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Nov 12, 2014 - 11:10am PT
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They just aimed and dropped the thing from 22 km. No thrusters.
Dayum. Nicely done.
7 cameras on board. 1st surface pics in a few hours.
This is so cool.
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samc
Trad climber
Berkeley, CA
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Nov 12, 2014 - 11:37am PT
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Tvash
climber
Seattle
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Nov 12, 2014 - 11:45am PT
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No rack required. An 80 kg climber would weigh about a gram.
Thin cracks? Tiny flakes? No worries - glue on those Hollywood Nails and start scratchin.
But don't scratch too hard. Gotta stay on the thing.
And if you peel off - you can't fall far enough to get hurt.
A bit chilly though.
In space, no one need hear you scream.
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Tvash
climber
Seattle
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Nov 12, 2014 - 12:17pm PT
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Leave the ice harpoons at home, I reckon.
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Bushman
Social climber
The island of Tristan da Cunha
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Nov 13, 2014 - 10:12am PT
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Breaking News!!!
Comet launches probe on two year mision to earth. The spacecraft detected to be originating from comet 67P on Tuesday November 12th, 2014 has been reported to be carrying a payload of thousands of melon sized drones which will be delivered into our atmosphere upon its arrival projected to be on or around January 1st, 2017. The drones will drop into earth's atmosphere and land at predesignated coordinates whereupon they will seek out all top ranking political leaders on the planet and initiate a cranial cavity implantation procedure.
This procedure may or may not affect the ability of our world leaders to perform their duties or to make better decisions but the inhabitants of comet P67 are banking on a tried and true system of planetary dominion by attempting to provide themselves with the best neighboring government money can buy. Their mission might possibly negate the need for the comet's inhabitants to steer themselves into a collision course with earth.
In the event that this attack might take place, leaders of earth's top nations are meeting at a secret location to plan on finding a way to set the earth on a collision course with the comet as a preemptive strike. Top astrophysicists worldwide had no comment.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Nov 13, 2014 - 12:55pm PT
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Ever detect an object that caused a course change? How involved where you in that sort of thing? As a matter of fact, I was awarded a Joint service medal for detecting the first first possible orbital collision between the space shuttle and space junk. NASA sent me proposed orbital changes, and I gave NASA calculations showing which proposed orbit gave the shuttle the most clearance. They woke up the shuttle crew and had them fire the thrusters for 7 seconds to avoid the space junk.
Wikipedia has a brief story about my work:
"The first official Space Shuttle collision avoidance maneuver
was during STS-48 in September 1991. A 7-second reaction control
system burn was performed to avoid debris from the Cosmos
satellite 955."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_debris
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Nov 13, 2014 - 03:40pm PT
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Badass FA man.. nice work! How much time was there from detection to possible collision?
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jul 13, 2015 - 07:46am PT
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July 12, 2015
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
An historic moment is nearly upon us.
In only two more days, and after a long journey of nine years, the New Horizons spacecraft will make its highly anticipated flight past Pluto
and its five moons. With scientific sensors on alert, the spacecraft
will silently and quickly go about gathering precious bits of insight into what prevails on and around this body, more than 30 times farther from the Sun than is the Earth.
Its arrival at Pluto marks the start of our official exploration of the Kuiper Belt ... that distant realm beyond Neptune where dwell millions of small, pristine icy bodies, and the source of many of the spectacular comets that from time to time grace the skies of Earth.
With hopefully two more encounters with smaller Kuiper Belt objects forthcoming in the next several years, next Tuesday's flyby also marks the beginning of the end of our initial reconnaissance of our solar system. We have come far.
Already, strange features are seen on Pluto's surface (see attached 2
recent images of Pluto). Might they be as strange as the structures
Voyager found in 1989 on Neptune's moon Triton, a body of similar size and composition to Pluto, and believed also to be from the Kuiper Belt?
I would say so.
Accordingly, in preparation for our grand entrance into the Kuiper Belt in two days' time, and in anticipation of that moment when we come face to face for the first time with its most renowned member, gaze upon the phenomenal discoveries Voyager made at Triton 26 years ago, seen here in this large mosaic of Voyager images ...
http://www.ciclops.org/view_media/18314/Global-Color-Mosaic-of-Triton
... and wonder.
And allow next Tuesday to remind you that you have been blessed to live in extraordinary times.
(Mosaic caption here: http://www.ciclops.org/view.php?id=3580 ; More Triton images can be found at http://t.co/NLj3N1pQzu )
Enjoy!
Carolyn Porco
Cassini Imaging Team leader
Director, CICLOPS, Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO
Visiting Scholar, UC Berkeley, CA
Fellow, California Academy of Sciences
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Off White
climber
Tenino, WA
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Jul 13, 2015 - 08:16am PT
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I'm pretty damned excited about this, thanks Mouse.
I love this thread.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jul 13, 2015 - 08:30am PT
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Has Cosmic returned yet? I need my windows washed.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jul 14, 2015 - 10:56am PT
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Jul 14, 2015 - 07:17pm PT
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LBT
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jul 15, 2015 - 05:18am PT
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Nine point five years later...ET got his call thru.
From Yahoo's science news this morning...
LAUREL, Md. (Reuters) - A U.S. spacecraft sailed past the tiny planet Pluto in the distant reaches of the solar system on Tuesday, capping a journey of 3 billion miles (4.88 billion km) that began nine and a half years ago.
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft passed by the ice-and-rock planetoid and its entourage of five moons at 7:49 a.m. EDT (1149 GMT). The event culminated an initiative to survey the solar system that the space agency embarked upon more than 50 years ago.
"Pluto just had its first visitor," President Obama posted on Twitter. "Thanks NASA. It's a great day for discovery and American leadership."
About 13 hours after its closest approach to Pluto, the last major unexplored body in the solar system, New Horizons phoned home, signaling that it had survived its 31,000 miles per hour(49,000 km per hour) blitz through the Pluto system.
Managers had estimated there was a 1-in-10,000 chance a debris strike could destroy New Horizons as it soared just 7,750 miles (12,472 km) – about the distance from New York to Mumbai – from Pluto.
But right on time, New Horizons made radio contact with flight controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab outside Baltimore, sparking a wave of shouts and applause from an overflow crowd gathered to watch the drama unfold.
With 99 percent of the data gathered during the encounter still on the spaceship, New Horizons' survival was critical to the mission.
"This is a tremendous moment in human history," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science.
New Horizons spent more than eight hours after its closest approach looking back at Pluto for a series of experiments to study the planet's atmosphere and photograph its night-side using light reflected off its primary moon Charon.
Sending back its first post-flyby signal took another four-and-a-half hours, the time it takes radio signals, traveling at light speed, to travel the 3 billion miles (4.88 billion km) back to Earth.
Already, the trickle of images and measurements relayed from New Horizons before Tuesday's pass by Pluto has changed scientists' understanding of this diminutive world, which is smaller than Earth's moon.
Once considered an icy, dead world, the planetoid has yielded signs of geological activity, with evidence of past and possibly present-day tectonics, or movements of its crust.
"This is clearly a world where both geology and atmosphere climatology play a role," said Alan Stern, New Horizons lead scientist, with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. He noted that it appears that nitrogen and methane snow fall on Pluto.
Pluto circles the sun every 248 years in a highly tilted orbit that creates radical changes from season to season. Pluto travels closer to the sun than the orbit of Neptune before it cycles back into the solar system’s deep freeze more than 40 times farther away than Earth.
Scientists have many questions about Pluto, which was still considered the solar system's ninth planet when New Horizons was launched in 2006. Pluto was reclassified as a "dwarf planet" after the discovery of other Pluto-like spheres orbiting in the Kuiper Belt, the region beyond the eighth planet, Neptune.
The objects are believed to be remnants from the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.
"Now the solar system will be further opened up to us, revealing the secrets of distant Pluto," British cosmologist Stephen Hawking said in a message broadcast on NASA TV.
"We explore because we are human and we want to know. I hope that Pluto will help us on that journey," Hawking said.
It will take about 16 months for New Horizons to transmit back all the thousands of images and measurements taken during its pass by Pluto. By then, the spacecraft will have traveled even deeper into the Kuiper Belt, heading for a possible follow-on mission to one of Pluto's cousins.
(Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Richard Pullin)
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