Buying through this banner helps support the forum!
Page 4 of 130 FirstFirst 1234567891454104 ... LastLast
Results 46 to 60 of 1950

Thread: Astronomy

  1. #46
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    A rural part of Sweden, southern Norrland
    Posts
    3,123
    What places do you mean? The moon, Jupiter, Mars? They are all very inhospitable...

  2. #47
    Registered User NikolaiI's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    heart
    Posts
    7,426
    Blog Entries
    464
    Yep, yep, or further. I remember when I was young, my dad explaining why Jupiter couldn't be visited... how the gravity is so great it would crush anyone before they could ever reach the surface, and how the planet itself wasn't solid, but gaseous... Being told something is impossible sometimes serves to ignite one's imagination to try to figure out how it could be possible.

    But your answer sound rather like a no. Which is fine, I was just wondering.

    And of course, I know it is somewhat impractical to think of personally going to space for the experience of it, but that doesn't mean that with effort it's not possible to eventually do more of that kind of thing.
    Last edited by NikolaiI; 11-25-2014 at 01:53 PM.

  3. #48
    Maybe YesNo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Near Chicago, Illinois USA
    Posts
    9,420
    Blog Entries
    2
    The evening was clear enough to watch the moon set through the trees. I couldn't see any craters on the moon, but the dark trees against the bright moon and a house nearby was nice. Next time, I'll try to use my phone to take a picture through the binoculars. I'd do it now, but the moon has already set.

    Edit: I tried taking a picture with my phone's camera through one eyepiece of the binoculars inside. It does work, but the results are grainy. Also, I can get 4X zoom on the phone and the binoculars are only 7X. I might as well take the picture without them.
    Last edited by YesNo; 11-25-2014 at 11:56 PM.

  4. #49
    Registered User 108 fountains's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Falls Church, Virginia
    Posts
    608
    If you have a good camera with lots of pixels per area of measurement, you'd be surprised how much you can magnify something once you download the photo to your computer, although I've never tried it with anything like the moon.
    A just conception of life is too large a thing to grasp during the short interval of passing through it.
    Thomas Hardy

  5. #50
    Registered User Calidore's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Chicago
    Posts
    5,071
    Quote Originally Posted by Dreamwoven View Post
    What places do you mean? The moon, Jupiter, Mars? They are all very inhospitable...
    Until we sent probes to Venus in the '60s and found out what it was really like, sci-fi writers liked to portray it as a habitable jungle planet.
    You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi

  6. #51
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    A rural part of Sweden, southern Norrland
    Posts
    3,123
    Calidore: that does show how far our knowledge has developed even in our own lifetime.

    108 fountains and YesNo: I don't have a mobile phone at all, but it must open up a lot of possibilities to try thing like that, especially with a phone that can magnify pictures x 4.

    We are still exploring our own solar system, there is so much to learn. How many moons are there around the planets we know of and we have only recently begun to study a fraction of them from fly-bys. I think it is all very exciting.

  7. #52
    Registered User Calidore's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Chicago
    Posts
    5,071
    Agreed. When I was a kid, Jupiter had nine or ten moons; now it has dozens.
    You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi

  8. #53
    Clinging to Douvres rocks Gilliatt Gurgle's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    2,716
    I remember the first time catching Jupiter in my telescope as a kid. the telescope was a was a refractor (100 power?) strong enough to allow me to see about 5 of the largest moons, then it was on to Saturn. I was thrilled.
    Binoculars are great for star clusters such as the Pleiades.
    "Mongo only pawn in game of life" - Mongo

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKRma7PDW10

  9. #54
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    A rural part of Sweden, southern Norrland
    Posts
    3,123
    There is an interesting article published today in Space.com on Neptune: http://www.space.com/41-neptune-the-...l?cmpid=558609

    Our knowledge of the outer planets, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto and their moons, is still very sketchy.

  10. #55
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    A rural part of Sweden, southern Norrland
    Posts
    3,123

    Young Lunar Volcanos

    One of the astronomy websites I subscribe to is www.earth sky.org. A new post has been put up concerning young volcanos on the moon.

    They are apparently more common than was first thought, suggesting that the moon is not dead and volcanic activity continues.

  11. #56
    Registered User NikolaiI's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    heart
    Posts
    7,426
    Blog Entries
    464
    So no interest whatsoever in space travel?

  12. #57
    Maybe YesNo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Near Chicago, Illinois USA
    Posts
    9,420
    Blog Entries
    2
    I was hoping to get a picture of the crescent moon like the the one in the earth.sky link, but it was too cloudy. I could see last night the crescent through the leafless trees by a house across the street. I might even get a glimpse of Mars. I would need the binoculars to see this, but maybe not.

    The young volcanos video was interesting. I remember being told that the moon was dead, but that may not be true.

    The note by Deborah Byrd that there is an "invisible shield" at the outer edge of the Van Allen radiation belt was also interesting. I wonder if this is considered part of the magnetosphere which protects us from radiation or something different.

  13. #58
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    A rural part of Sweden, southern Norrland
    Posts
    3,123
    Quote Originally Posted by NikolaiI View Post
    So no interest whatsoever in space travel?
    Do you mean me personally. I am too old and unwell to even think about it.

    Of course, I would be interested to see it happen, but there is none at present. I guess that all emphasis is now on robot data collection on Mars, Moon and with fly-pass cameras, as well as more advanced telescope exploration further afield.

  14. #59
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    A rural part of Sweden, southern Norrland
    Posts
    3,123
    Quote Originally Posted by YesNo View Post
    The note by Deborah Byrd that there is an "invisible shield" at the outer edge of the Van Allen radiation belt was also interesting. I wonder if this is considered part of the magnetosphere which protects us from radiation or something different.
    You got me there, I have no idea!

  15. #60
    Registered User NikolaiI's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    heart
    Posts
    7,426
    Blog Entries
    464
    You've inspired me to get back into it, Dream. I was reading some Neil DeGrasse Tyson articles today and it was very enjoyable... I highly recommend them, they're incredibly good. This appears to be a good place to find them. So far I've just read two from the Natural History magazine, Spacecraft Behaving Badly and Delusions of Space Enthusiasts.. The first was very interesting and informative, I'm very curious to know about the follow-ups, and the latter was just extremely good all around. These were both here.

    I liked this-

    Quote Originally Posted by N. Tyson
    Having been born the same week NASA was founded, I was eleven years old during the voyage of Apollo 11, and had already identified the universe as my life's passion. Unlike so many other people who watched Neil Armstrong's first steps on the Moon, I wasn't jubilant. I was simply relieved that someone was finally exploring another world. To me, Apollo 11 was clearly the beginning of an era.
    And the last paragraph has a beautifully good point.

Similar Threads

  1. poetry and astronomy
    By andave_ya in forum Poems, Poets, and Poetry
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 11-09-2014, 06:20 AM
  2. Astronomy Question
    By LeavesOfGrass in forum General Chat
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 02-18-2010, 05:41 AM
  3. The King Who İs İnterested İn Astronomy
    By Zagor26 in forum Short Story Sharing
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 09-07-2007, 10:14 AM

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •