The Official Space and Astronomy Thread v. Well, this is weird.

[jasc15]

I got my cheap (free) telescope a few weeks ago, and have been using it to look at the moon and jupiter.  I was surprised to point it at what I thought was jupiter, and after a bit of focusing I was able to see its moons.  It's pretty tough to see with the tiny field of view, but I was just barely able to see jupiter's cloud bands, though not too clearly.  It also traverses the field of view pretty quickly with the high power eyepiece, and since the mounting is rather crude, its really hard to track.  There are simple ways to make equatorial mounts so I might try that.

The view isnt quite as good as this, but if look at this picture about 6 feet from your screen, that should give a decent idea:



I can get a pretty good look at the moon, and was able to stick my DSLR behind the telescope for a shot.  Since I don't have an adapter, there is a lot of light leakage even in a dark room, and its hard to focus.  I figure with a bit of messing around I can get a really good shot of the moon.

[Chino]

That's awesome. I almost invested in a 10" telescope a few years ago. I was ready to buy but started house shopping. The house I bought is not in good location for star gazing unfortunately.

One day.

[Vandalism]

I got my cheap (free) telescope a few weeks ago, and have been using it to look at the moon and jupiter.  I was surprised to point it at what I thought was jupiter, and after a bit of focusing I was able to see its moons.  It's pretty tough to see with the tiny field of view, but I was just barely able to see jupiter's cloud bands, though not too clearly.  It also traverses the field of view pretty quickly with the high power eyepiece, and since the mounting is rather crude, its really hard to track.  There are simple ways to make equatorial mounts so I might try that.

The view isnt quite as good as this, but if look at this picture about 6 feet from your screen, that should give a decent idea:



I can get a pretty good look at the moon, and was able to stick my DSLR behind the telescope for a shot.  Since I don't have an adapter, there is a lot of light leakage even in a dark room, and its hard to focus.  I figure with a bit of messing around I can get a really good shot of the moon.

I will never forget this scene. This was the first thing I ever saw through a telescope!

Can't help but have the all too cheesy thought of Galileo looking at the same thing and discovering the existence of more moons and much more!

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

That's awesome. I almost invested in a 10" telescope a few years ago. I was ready to buy but started house shopping. The house I bought is not in good location for star gazing unfortunately.

One day.

Pretty much my situation to, have to drive pretty far to get a good view of the night sky without light pollution.

[jasc15]

I will never forget this scene. This was the first thing I ever saw through a telescope!

Can't help but have the all too cheesy thought of Galileo looking at the same thing and discovering the existence of more moons and much more!

I was thinking the same thing, and wondering how much worse his telescope must have been compared even to a cheap 21st (or 20th) century telescope.

[Vandalism]

I think they have a replication of what he saw on one of those YT documentaries.

[Chino]

So the Opportunity Mars Rover was supposed to have a 90 day mission life. It celebrated it's twelfth year two days ago 

[Sacul]

Science, bitch!

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

[gmillerdrake]

30 years since the Challenger disaster. My wife and I watched a program on Monday where it was all the complied footage of the whole thing....the months/days leading up to the launch and all the footage and stuff after the disaster.

I remember watching a program also where basically the makers of the 'O' rings were pleading with NASA for a week straight not to launch because they couldn't guarantee the performance of the o-rings in cold weather. But, (at least this program) implied that NASA was a tad cocky because of how successful they'd been to that point and basically ignored them.

One of the most horrifying things about that disaster is that those people didn't die in the explosion....it was either on impact of hitting the water or drowning. How horrible that must have been as they just fell to the ocean....

[jasc15]

Yeah, there is a lot of evidence that some or all of the crew survived to ocean impact.  I have a book of various case studies geared toward program managers and it has a very detailed account of the challenger disaster and investigation.  Thiokol engineers (makers of the solid boosters) were very loudly opposed to the launch during teleconferences between them and Marshall SFC.  The engineers then left the room at which point Thiokol management finally relented and agreed to launch.  Marshall was really hot and heavy to demonstrate frequent launch capability of the shuttle to win air force support, which would give the shuttle program exclusive access to "high value" Air Force payloads.  The Air Force would agree to fund shuttle rather than their own efforts for launch capability.

One of my favorite people to read about, Richard Feynman, was on the Rogers commission to investigate Challenger.  He has a book called "What Do You Care What Other People Think?", and about half of the book is his first person account of his experiences on that commission.  Really excellent perspective on the subject.

Let us make recommendations to ensure that NASA officials deal in a world of reality, understanding technological weaknesses and imperfections well enough to be actively trying to eliminate them. They must live in a world of reality in comparing the costs and utility of the shuttle to other methods of entering space. And they must be realistic in making contracts and in estimating the costs and difficulties of each project. Only realistic flight schedules should be proposed—schedules that have a reasonable chance of being met. If in this way the government would not support NASA, then so be it. NASA owes it to the citizens from whom it asks support to be frank, honest, and informative, so that these citizens can make the wisest decisions for the use of their limited resources. For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.

[Kotowboy]

https://youtu.be/dYw4meRWGd4?t=4m10s

POV footage of Felix Baumgartner's freefall.

I actually gasped at 4:10 

It reminded me of the black hole sequence form Interstellar a bit.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

I actually thought he was still at the ballon until I saw the earth getting closer and later the sound of the atmopshere when he enters the Kármán line. Actually hearing the beginning of the atmosphere is by itself pretty cool when you think about it.

[MirrorMask]

The thing I love the most about it is that he arrived ON HIS FEET. People tumble down after a jump from 50 cm, and he landed on his feet arriving from freaking SPACE 

[Kotowboy]

The thing I love the most about it is that he arrived ON HIS FEET. People tumble down after a jump from 50 cm, and he landed on his feet arriving from freaking SPACE 

Well a parachute jump is a parachute jump. He slowed down to terminal velocity as he got closer to earth. Then he was able to land like any other parachutist would.

Once you reach terminal velocity - you cannot fall any faster - in normal atmosphere. And lots of parachutists can land on their feet.

[BlobVanDam]

The thing I love the most about it is that he arrived ON HIS FEET. People tumble down after a jump from 50 cm, and he landed on his feet arriving from freaking SPACE 

Well a parachute jump is a parachute jump. He slowed down to terminal velocity as he got closer to earth. Then he was able to land like any other parachutist would.

Once you reach terminal velocity - you cannot fall any faster - in normal atmosphere. And lots of parachutists can land on their feet.

That's true, although the extra wear from falling for so long in more difficult conditions could have had an impact on his ability to land nicely, so it's still impressive.
I can't even land on my feet getting out of bed.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

The thing I love the most about it is that he arrived ON HIS FEET. People tumble down after a jump from 50 cm, and he landed on his feet arriving from freaking SPACE 

Well a parachute jump is a parachute jump. He slowed down to terminal velocity as he got closer to earth. Then he was able to land like any other parachutist would.

Once you reach terminal velocity - you cannot fall any faster - in normal atmosphere. And lots of parachutists can land on their feet.

That's true, although the extra wear from falling for so long in more difficult conditions could have had an impact on his ability to land nicely, so it's still impressive.
I can't even land on my feet getting out of bed.

I woke myself brutally once by falling out of bed and dragging a lamp with me and no I wasn't hangover, instead I blame it on a small bed. Nothing to do with space so please continue...

[Chino]

The thing I love the most about it is that he arrived ON HIS FEET. People tumble down after a jump from 50 cm, and he landed on his feet arriving from freaking SPACE 

Well a parachute jump is a parachute jump. He slowed down to terminal velocity as he got closer to earth. Then he was able to land like any other parachutist would.

Once you reach terminal velocity - you cannot fall any faster - in normal atmosphere. And lots of parachutists can land on their feet.

That's true, although the extra wear from falling for so long in more difficult conditions could have had an impact on his ability to land nicely, so it's still impressive.
I can't even land on my feet getting out of bed.

I woke myself brutally once by falling out of bed

Come back when you fall of something for real

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Apparently they have found proof of gravitational waves which is a huge discovery if true. Some announcement will happen later today.

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/news/ligo20160211

[TempusVox]

Yes, this was the final proof of Einstein's Theory; so it now becomes, "Einstein's Principle of Relativity". The "Theory of Relativity" is no more.

Somewhere, Albert is looking down and saying, "Suck it!" Or more likely, "Saugen sie!"

[Chino]

Yes, this was the final proof of Einstein's Theory; so it now becomes, "Einstein's Principle of Relativity". The "Theory of Relativity" is no more.

Somewhere, Albert is looking down and saying, "Suck it!" Or more likely, "Saugen sie!"

I'm not disagreeing or arguing, just curious. Why don't we say the "principle of gravity"?

[TempusVox]

Yes, this was the final proof of Einstein's Theory; so it now becomes, "Einstein's Principle of Relativity". The "Theory of Relativity" is no more.

Somewhere, Albert is looking down and saying, "Suck it!" Or more likely, "Saugen sie!"

I'm not disagreeing or arguing, just curious. Why don't we say the "principle of gravity"?

Oh sure! Go ahead...Just cut Einstein out of it altogether now!!!

[Chino]

Yes, this was the final proof of Einstein's Theory; so it now becomes, "Einstein's Principle of Relativity". The "Theory of Relativity" is no more.

Somewhere, Albert is looking down and saying, "Suck it!" Or more likely, "Saugen sie!"

I'm not disagreeing or arguing, just curious. Why don't we say the "principle of gravity"?

Oh sure! Go ahead...Just cut Einstein out of it altogether now!!!

I didn't mean that lol. I mean we still say "the theory of gravity" like we say "the theory of evolution". Why aren't we saying "the principle of gravity"?

[kaos2900]

I love stories like this because it's a nice reminder that really don't know all that much. And as much as space is cool, it still blows mind that we know more about space than the bottom of the oceans.

[Chino]

it still blows mind that we know more about space than the bottom of the oceans.

Not me. Space is easy, it's empty. Getting to the bottom of the ocean with any kind of scientific instruments is significantly more challenging.

There's a documentary on Netflix called Deepsea Challenge. It follows the building of, and expedition with, the submersible James Cameron built to reach the deepest part of our oceans.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2332883/

[cramx3]

it still blows mind that we know more about space than the bottom of the oceans.

Not me. Space is easy, it's empty. Getting to the bottom of the ocean with any kind of scientific instruments is significantly more challenging.

There's a documentary on Netflix called Deepsea Challenge. It follows the building of, and expedition with, the submersible James Cameron built to reach the deepest part of our oceans.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2332883/

Maybe so, but the idea that we have explored more of space than the deepest depth of our oceans on our own planet is somewhat perplexing just to think about even if I agree that the science to get to space is easier than to get to the bottom of the ocean.  It's quite amazing.

[Kotowboy]

The thing I love the most about it is that he arrived ON HIS FEET. People tumble down after a jump from 50 cm, and he landed on his feet arriving from freaking SPACE 

Well a parachute jump is a parachute jump. He slowed down to terminal velocity as he got closer to earth. Then he was able to land like any other parachutist would.

Once you reach terminal velocity - you cannot fall any faster - in normal atmosphere. And lots of parachutists can land on their feet.

That's true, although the extra wear from falling for so long in more difficult conditions could have had an impact on his ability to land nicely, so it's still impressive.
I can't even land on my feet getting out of bed.

This is also the reason - on Mythbusters - if they ever needed to test something based on terminal velocity - they'd drop something from *just* high enough for it to reach Terminal Velocity.

Any higher would be inefficient and would not generate any different data.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Great video explaning the discovery and how they did it:

LIGO Detects Gravitational Waves

[cramx3]

https://patch.com/new-jersey/mahwah/watch-nj-astronaut-parts-earth-look-sick-0

From my local news, a comment from an American Astronaut who has been in space longer than any other American.  Pretty sad, if from above you can tell things don't look right.

[TioJorge]

Ugh...

Pathetic.

Just about every year that goes by I am more fearful for the world my year-old niece will be living in... I can't possibly imagine.

Funny...I'm listening to Earth Day from Devy... The fact we have a single day where we're not supposed to be killing Earth (but still totally are) is a testament to how fucked our species is. Totally fucking fucked.

[Big Hath]

Kelly said that there are parts of Asia and Central America that when look at them, you’re always looking through a haze of pollution.

can you imagine the level of cancer and other serious medical conditions that are going to present themselves in the coming decades in this part of the world?

[Chino]

China's kicking it into high gear.

https://gbtimes.com/china/china-racing-make-2020-launch-window-mars

Nasa’s Mars 2020 mission may well have company along the way, with teams in China working urgently to ready their first independent mission to the Red Planet.
 
“We are aiming to use the launch window of 2020,” says Dr Wu Ji, director-general of the National Space Science Centre (NSSC) in Beijing. “If we miss that window, it will be 2022. So it is quite urgent.”
 
The NSSC is managing the development and integration of all the science payloads for China’s Mars Mission, which will, ambitiously, combine an orbiter, lander and a rover.
 
This effectively means China will be integrating two steps into one. For its Moon exploration program, the Chinese first launched orbiters before attempting – successfully – to soft-land its Chang’e-3 probe on the lunar surface.

[MirrorMask]

https://patch.com/new-jersey/mahwah/watch-nj-astronaut-parts-earth-look-sick-0

From my local news, a comment from an American Astronaut who has been in space longer than any other American.  Pretty sad, if from above you can tell things don't look right.

My favorite quote about space is the Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan.

My second favorite one is this by Edgar Mitchell, about seeing Earth from space:

“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.”

These are the things the human leaders should care about, preserving our planet and fighting off the diseases on it, the rest are just petty problems not worth killing each other over.

[Chino]

https://patch.com/new-jersey/mahwah/watch-nj-astronaut-parts-earth-look-sick-0

From my local news, a comment from an American Astronaut who has been in space longer than any other American.  Pretty sad, if from above you can tell things don't look right.

My favorite quote about space is the Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan.

My second favorite one is this by Edgar Mitchell, about seeing Earth from space:

“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.”

These are the things the human leaders should care about, preserving our planet and fighting off the diseases on it, the rest are just petty problems not worth killing each other over.

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the Momentary masters of a Fraction of a Dot"

I love that Sagan quote as well. Might be my favorite of all time.
 

[cramx3]

https://patch.com/new-jersey/mahwah/watch-nj-astronaut-parts-earth-look-sick-0

From my local news, a comment from an American Astronaut who has been in space longer than any other American.  Pretty sad, if from above you can tell things don't look right.

My favorite quote about space is the Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan.

My second favorite one is this by Edgar Mitchell, about seeing Earth from space:

“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.”

These are the things the human leaders should care about, preserving our planet and fighting off the diseases on it, the rest are just petty problems not worth killing each other over.

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the Momentary masters of a Fraction of a Dot"

I love that Sagan quote as well. Might be my favorite of all time.

Nice quotes, honestly whenever I have some down time to myself and it's a nice night out, I like to stargaze in my hammock or if I am lucky enough to be somewhere else that has less light polution and just look up... it ALWAYS makes me feel like all the BS in life is "petty"  Quite an amazing feeling actually to be put in place.