Astronomy

[Bittersweet]

Join the club, Shiela.

Yea same happens to me it seems

[msslave]

I remember driving north on the freeway before the sun came up. Yes, off to shoot pictures of birds before they woke up.

There was an eclipse of the moon that morning. The full moon was shining bright and on my left. I kept glancing out my window as the Earth's shadow began to take a bite out of the shining lunar light.

As I reveled at the show about to begin and see the total eclipse, clouds rolled in and cancelled my ticket to that astronomical event.

The clouds never parted again. However I did get my Sandhill Crane pictures.

[MintJulie]

Every friggin morning its clouds. Will be sunny and bright at noon, but as soon as I step outside before sunrise... clouds...

Why does nature hate me being able to see astronomical events 😡

This morning was clear, as it is now, but we had a wedding and that was the last thing on my mind.  Might have been perfect walking away from the clubhouse out on to the golf course about midnight.

[Pornhubby]

Ground has been broken high on a mountaintop at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile—elevation 8,255 feet. They’re building something called the Giant Magellan Telescope, or the “GMT.” Yeah, I know… what about the Webb Space Telescope? Didn’t it just go online last year? And how many telescopes does it take to satisfy an astronerd?
.
Webb operates in the infrared spectrum. The GMT will operate in visible light, just like your eyeballs. 👀 and how “giant” is giant? It will be made up of 7 individual mirrors (six of which have already been cast), each one 8.4 meters in diameter. So each of the seven will be 2 meters wider than all 18 of Webb’s hexagonal mirrors combined. Which together, measures a paltry 6-1/2 meters.
.
So it’s’a gonna be a big bastardo. The combined mirror surfaces of the GMT will be 25-1/2 meters, and will have four times the image resolving power as the JWST. But again, JWST operates in a realm where GMT can’t: infrared. That’s why it can “see” so deep into space and so far back in time.
.
So, about that whole “We shouldn’t build telescopes on Earth anymore, because the atmosphere ruins all the fun” thingy…
.
From the article: “It’s ironic that the race to characterize the atmosphere’s of distant exoplanets is hampered by the Earth’s turbulent atmosphere, which makes images blurry—hence the invention of the space telescope. However, modern ground-based telescopes—including the Giant Magellan Telescope—have a clever system called adaptive optics that allow it to correct for that blurring effect.
.
As light comes in waves through Earth’s atmosphere “it gets choppy and damaged and looks like potato chip,” said Bernstein. “So we measure that and we put exactly the opposite shape onto a deformable mirror, which completely flattens out the wavefront again.” The Giant Magellan Telescope’s adaptive secondary mirrors will be able to reshape the primary mirror surface 2,000 times a second to keep up with the turbulence in the atmosphere. The tech has been around for decades, but this new era is all about advanced new algorithms to control the mirrors and ever-smaller actuators on the mirrors.
.
The result, remarkably, should be better optical image quality than space-based telescopes. After all, JWST has a 6.5-meter mirror.”
.
More from Forbes:
👇🏼
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2023/06/13/new-1-billion-telescope-will-be-fitted-with-a-large-earth-finder/?sh=114baf841a96

[Shiela_M]

what about the Webb Space Telescope? Didn’t it just go online last year? And how many telescopes does it take to satisfy an astronerd?

There will never be enough. I read one of the arguments for building it was that we need many more eyes on the sky. We have only truly studied less that a half percent of the space around us. Neil degrades Tyson was talking with another astrophysicist and they said that ig you took all the water on earth surface and balled it up, and then took and 8 oz glass of it out. That glass of water represents the space that had been studied.

Some people at NASA have already drawn up plans for a massive telescope on for on the dark side of the moon. The problem is getting the resources there.

[msslave]

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE!

Some day the little green men will be headed here. We will need advanced notice.

Sorry 
The pictures I've seen are beautiful. To a scientist they tell the tale of stars that happened billions of years ago.

[Shiela_M]

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE!

Some day the little green men will be headed here. We will need advanced notice.

Sorry 
The pictures I've seen are beautiful. To a scientist they tell the tale of stars that happened billions of years ago.

They are definitely out there.
There are so many stars and so many planets out there, that even if the chance of intelligent life existing on another planet is 1,000,000 to 1, there are going to be hundreds of thousands of planets supporting life.

Next time you see a picture of the andromeda galaxy, realize that there could be dozens of intelligent civilizations taking pictures of the Milky Way at that exact same time.

We however will never leave out galaxy, and even leaving our solar system right now is an improbable act. For the foreseeable future, we are stranded.

[Pornhubby]

Wake up early this weekend to catch a celestial sight: Five planets will line up in the sky before sunrise on Saturday.

Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter, Uranus and Mercury will appear together, weather permitting. Here’s how to spot the planet parade.

For the best views, seek a spot with little light pollution and a clear view of the horizon.

Mercury will be the last to come into view, about an hour before sunrise. If you go outside at that time, you’ll be able to see all five planets stretching across the sky — from Mercury down by the horizon to Saturn higher up in the sky — until the sun rises.

[Pornhubby]

On Saturday, July 22, Venus — the planet of love, beauty, and values — stops, pivots, and appears to begin going backward in the sky. This is called the Venus retrograde. This one is in the sign of Leo and it will last until September 3.

Retrogrades are part of the intrinsic rhythm of the cosmos — in fact, every planet in our solar system appears to spin backward. Of course, in actuality, retrogrades are optical illusions: The planets only seem to move in reverse from our perspective on Earth. Nonetheless, for thousands of years, we’ve recognized this celestial about-face as a powerful energetic shift.

Venus Retrograde occurs every 18 months, and lasts for 40 days and 40 nights. Sound familiar? Many scholars believe that all those references to “40 days and 40 nights” in the Bible were directly inspired by Venus’ backwards spin.

[Hilda]

I often wonder if the 40 years of wandering in the desert has some numerical significance. Forty years strikes me as an improbably long time.

[ObiDongKenobi]

On Saturday, July 22, Venus — the planet of love, beauty, and values — stops, pivots, and appears to begin going backward in the sky. This is called the Venus retrograde. This one is in the sign of Leo and it will last until September 3.

Retrogrades are part of the intrinsic rhythm of the cosmos — in fact, every planet in our solar system appears to spin backward. Of course, in actuality, retrogrades are optical illusions: The planets only seem to move in reverse from our perspective on Earth. Nonetheless, for thousands of years, we’ve recognized this celestial about-face as a powerful energetic shift.

Venus Retrograde occurs every 18 months, and lasts for 40 days and 40 nights. Sound familiar? Many scholars believe that all those references to “40 days and 40 nights” in the Bible were directly inspired by Venus’ backwards spin.

Thanks PH.  I knew about the Mars retrograde, didn't know all the planets appeared to reverse.

[Shiela_M]

While viewing still forming stars within the milky way galaxy, scientist realized that the Universe itself has some questions.



In this image taken by JWST, scientist were looking at two young stars that are still forming, within our galaxy, and are rotating quite quickly around each other. These stars have been studied and view since the 1950s. But thanks to the JWST things can be looked at with much more information. This new view has brought about a galaxy sized question. Literally.



The cosmic question mark. They dont know what it is at the moment, but there are two leading opinions. One is that this is a "small" cluster of galaxies that when viewed from earth line up to create the quizzical appearance. The second thought, and I'm hoping it's this one, is that it is two galaxies that have collided. This could be a view into the beginning stages of the Milkdromeda galaxy. When the Andromeda and Milky Way collide.  There are other images out there of colliding galaxies, and none look like anything like a question mark, or any other kind of familiar shape, it could just be the angle of our view.

I find two things mind blowing about this. First, every dot of light in the bottom image, is a galaxy, not just a star. Second, in a couple billions years, some civilization that hasn't even had a chance to begin yet because their stars and planets haven't even been born yet, could look out into space and see a giant shape that resembles something familiar to them, and it will be our Galaxy joining with another in a billion year long merger.

[MintJulie]

I love the articles and images coming out because of JWST fascinating. 
I appreciate you sharing them here.  I hadn't read about this one yet.  Woo 2356

[ObiDongKenobi]

I read about the "question mark in space".  Not even "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" came up with anything as weird as this 

[Pornhubby]

LOL:  RED SPACE Russian scientist who worked on failed moon mission suddenly hospitalized, after demanding ‘no cover up’ over moon lander crash.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/8884906/russian-scientist-moon-crash-hospital/

[MintJulie]

LOL:  RED SPACE Russian scientist who worked on failed moon mission suddenly hospitalized, after demanding ‘no cover up’ over moon lander crash.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/8884906/russian-scientist-moon-crash-hospital/

I kid you not, Dan said yesterday , "Putin is going to put those rocket scientists in Siberia smashing rocks for the rest of their lives."

[Pornhubby]

What we saw in Texas yesterday. It was suddenly dark, around 11 o’clock in the morning, and I thought a thunderstorm was brewing. So I went outside, and realized it was the eclipse. It only lasted about 15 minutes or so.

Photographer friend of mine, with the right equipment, took this photo.

[MintJulie]

Nice photo.  We hope to be in Texas for the full Eclipse.  April, 8th, 2024. 

The coolest thing I've ever seen.    (The 2018 one in Missouri)

[Shiela_M]

I saw absolutely nothing. It would have been a 20% eclipse here, but like every other astrological event, it was a think blanket of clouds overhead

[MintJulie]

I saw absolutely nothing. It would have been a 20% eclipse here, but like every other astrological event, it was a think blanket of clouds overhead

Even if it was a clear day and a partial eclipse, you really want to be in the path to get the full effect.

In 2024, it's a full eclipse.  The temperature will drop a few degrees in a matter of seconds.  Try to get to one of these cities, the more center to the path of totality you are on, the longer the event for your viewing pleasure. 

 

We were in Missouri in 2017.