Canis lupus
Member
You guys should watch Planetes, space portrayed in the show is beautiful.
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Space: The Final Frontier
- Thread starter Windu
- Start date
I'm the suburban sky when it's a clear night. I went camping two years ago in northern Maryland during the fall... oh man it was incredible. I immediately grabbed a beer, laid down on the grass, put on Mass Effect Galaxy Map music on repeat, and just stared at the stars for a good hour. It was bliss.
There's no place in the dutch-speaking part of Belgium where I could see anything better than "suburban/urban transition".
Some interesting numbers:
http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/documents/light-pollution-Jan2010.pdf
Some interesting numbers:
http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/documents/light-pollution-Jan2010.pdf
Partial Gamification
Banned
Amazing. There must be an alternative for the future that reduces the optical pollution. Another wavelength or augmented digital eyewear and automated transportation networks...? We lose something not living under the stars.
Insane Metal
Member
About Brazil: there's absolutely no way that info is true.
http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1242a/zoomable/
Absolutely gorgeous. Too bad this will probably kill their site.
Absolutely gorgeous. Too bad this will probably kill their site.
WeAreStarStuff
Member
Pretty great.
WeAreStarStuff
Member
It should. I had a problem with my tablet, but it worked on the PC fine.
Insane Metal
Member
Duracelllll
Member
Don't forget this picture (article) (picture) which is similar but is 150 gigapixel (91.6 Gb Tif original) with over 1 billion stars of the Milky Way 
Crazy thing is this is still probably only 1/200 (0.5%) - 1/400 (0.25%) of the entire Milky Way which is only an average galaxy out of hundreds of billions.
Crazy thing is this is still probably only 1/200 (0.5%) - 1/400 (0.25%) of the entire Milky Way which is only an average galaxy out of hundreds of billions.
abstract alien
Member
Jesus, that whole DNA storage device needs to hurry up and work itself out. Quick.
WeAreStarStuff
Member
Don't forget this picture (article) (picture) which is similar but is 150 gigapixel (91.6 Gb Tif original) with over 1 billion stars of the Milky Way
Isn't the milky way considered a pretty sizable galaxy? If I'm not mistaking I believe only Andromeda is larger in our Local Group?
Dice
Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
WeAreStarStuff
Member
Well no, but my point is, isn't the average galaxy considered to be around 100 billion stars - making our Milky Way quite large.
Edit: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/001205a.html
^States that most galaxies are smaller than the Milky Way.
Nameless
Member
Insane.
The next time you're caught in a blizzard(early next week for some) imagine for second that each individual snowflake is a galaxy and you can begin to see how immense the cosmic stage is.
check out this awesome zooming out to the universe video: http://youtu.be/Qwi5L8jcXpg?hd=1
full screen and volume up!
full screen and volume up!
WeAreStarStuff
Member
Light From Universe's First Stars Seen
Astronomers have spotted light from the very first stars in the universe, which are almost as old as time itself.
Shortly after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago, the universe cooled enough to let atoms form, which eventually clumped together to create the first stars. Ever since these stars ignited, their light has been filling the universe, creating a pervasive glow throughout space that each successive generation of stars adds to.
Now, astronomers have detected this glow called the extragalactic background light, or EBL and have separated out the light from later stars, isolating the contribution from the first stars that ever existed.
The EBL is the ensemble of photons generated by all the stars and also all the black holes in the universe," said astrophysicist Marco Ajello of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, who led the research. "The EBL also includes the light of the first massive stars that ever shone. We have a fairly good knowledge of the light emitted by 'normal' stars. Thus, by measuring the EBL we are able to constrain the light of the first stars."
More here:
http://www.space.com/18317-universe-first-stars-light-seen.html
fierrotlepou
Member
No I did not know that, holy shit. We need to work on that, asap! Too bad our government doesn't care about us space freaks.
Oh how I wish I could have an "Excellent Dark Sky Site" in my backyard...
Isn't "first stars" relative, though? I always thought we know the age of the universe as 13.7 billion years old because that's as far back as we can see with our current technology and when we develop better instruments, it may turn out that we can see even further back in time and find older stars (and that the James Webb ST was designed with this goal in mind?)
Insane Metal
Member
Actually we can't even see starts so old. But yes, we got those numbers from data collected along many centuries, from distant stars and how fast the Universe is expanding.
Gorgon
Member
No. The age of the universe is calculated from the cosmological constant, which relates to the observable expansion rate and thus gives us an age. It has no direct bearing on how potent our telescopes are.
any suggestions for a good starter's telescope (up to 500)?
i'd prefer one with a good, reliable "go-to" function and the option to mount a camera (canon EOS) on it. i'm especially interested in deep sky observation, but would also like to take a look at sol's planets from time to time.
i'd prefer one with a good, reliable "go-to" function and the option to mount a camera (canon EOS) on it. i'm especially interested in deep sky observation, but would also like to take a look at sol's planets from time to time.
WeAreStarStuff
Member
42 miles per second doubling every 3 million light years.
teruterubozu
Member
any suggestions for a good starter's telescope (up to 500€
i'd prefer one with a good, reliable "go-to" function and the option to mount a camera (canon EOS) on it. i'm especially interested in deep sky observation, but would also like to take a look at sol's planets from time to time.
For a camera and "go-to" tracking function most people go with a Schmidt-Cassegrain (SCT) style scope. But SCTs are not cheap and you want at least an 8-inch mirror if you want to "see" things beyond just planets. If you're using just a regular camera, the mounting bracket is actually really cheap, but once you get into serious astrophotography with CCD and CMOS cameras, you're looking at an insanely expensive hobby. With a regular mounted camera, you are limited to taking pictures of close-by planets (like Jupiter and Saturn) and the surface of the moon - anything else will be a blurry, hazy blob at best. For "bang for the buck" the Dobsonian style scope is the best - biggest mirror for the lowest price - but there is basically no tracking feature (unless you buy those unwieldy farm-built podium trackers). Tracking is essential for long-exposure photography of the skies. Orion, Celestron and Meade are basically the 3 big quality companies, then you get down to super expensive custom built scopes. To see deep sky objects properly you will need at least a 10-inch mirror, in my opinion, with pitch black skies of course.
Insane Metal
Member
Yeah, it's way better to spend money taking people almost to the limit of Earth's atmosphere and then jumping back.
in an interview with an austrian newspaper he recently also stated that he's pro-dictatorship, because democracies don't get stuff done.
O2 levels were low up there...
BruiserBear
Banned
The money spent on his endeavor was not tax payer money. There is a huge difference.
I still disagree with him though
Fucking moron
Good points raised:
Like the hat?
Banned
I in all honesty couldn't care less about what the guy thinks about the issue. I get that it was a cool thing that he jumped from such a height, but that doesn't mean I am going to care about his opinion on space exploration.
Money's money. It does the same thing no matter where it comes from.
NEOPARADIGM
Banned
I knew all this stuff. Still amazing.
going back to the moon?
http://io9.com/5958867/is-nasa-about-to-unveil-plans-for-manned-moon-mission
http://io9.com/5958867/is-nasa-about-to-unveil-plans-for-manned-moon-mission
Good to know
WeAreStarStuff
Member
Please, please, please let this be true. Don't toy with my emotions!
No kidding. "Hey we're going back to the moon.....j/j lol!"
Partial Gamification
Banned
Well, happy birthday Mr. Sagan! I think he lives on through his ideas, in a way.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
If we're going back to the moon, it better be to do something worthwhile there. MOON BASE OR BUST.
Insane Metal
Member
Carl Sagan would have been 78 years old today if he were alive.
Don't make me cry, man...
Happy birthday Mr. Sagan.
WeAreStarStuff
Member
Carl Sagan would have been 78 years old today if he were alive.
I wish I cared about the things that I do now when he was still around. Though his life was short he still inspires to this day. Via the poetry of nature, perhaps millions of years from now some of his atoms will compose another great scientific mind.
lilbaby Jesus
Member
Most certainly, he's one of the reasons I'm so interested in space and the importance of science. May his soul rest in peace and everyone take a moment out their day for remembrance.