Astronomy

One of my favorite topics, figured maybe there was some of you guys that like it also. I thought it would be a good place to discuss new findings, or even just post some pictures you see on the web.

I was just watching this short video about Betelgeuse growing dimmer. It's a variable red giant star located in the upper left corner of the Orion constellation. It's so large that if you replaced our star with it, it's outer edge would reach Jupiter.

It's also a star that I has the potential to go supernova anytime between now and approx 100,000 years from now. If it did, it would most likely be visible in daylight, and some say it could even be brighter than our moon.

This dimming phase it's going through has astronomers kind of excited hoping this could be a stage before it goes nova. Of course it could still take hundreds of years or thousands before it does anything else.

Anyways, this was the video I watched.

Another video I watched yesterday. This one's about Pluto, and goes over what we've learned so far from the New Horizons flyby. Really cool video IMO.

And one more before bed. This one I watched a few days ago. It really messes with your head, especially the end. So much so, that it's really hard to wrap my mind around how vast the universe really is.

Hope you guys watch it, it's really an amazing video.

I am a big fan of astronomy. I took it my senior year of high school but nothing any further than that. There's nothing like stargazing through a great telescope.

Great topic!

My family spent a few days in the Davis Mountains right after Christmas and we went to the Star Party at McDonald's Observatory where among other things they talked about Betelgeuse. I for one hope it goes soon! How utterly amazing would that be? People would have a shared celestial memory for decades after.

I thought this was gonna be a thread about the Blue Oyster Cult song. Nevermind.

I do love that BOC song.

I like astronomy the subject too although zoology is more my area of scientific interest.

Haha, sorry to disappoint you Freddy. It is one of my favorite BOC songs, but not worth a whole thread by itself.....Well maybe it is, but not this time.

scottmitchell74 wrote:

Great topic!

My family spent a few days in the Davis Mountains right after Christmas and we went to the Star Party at McDonald's Observatory where among other things they talked about Betelgeuse. I for one hope it goes soon! How utterly amazing would that be? People would have a shared celestial memory for decades after.

Yeah it would truly be epic to be alive to see that. Back in the late 90's I'm almost positive I saw one, but I can't find anything to back it up.

I was at work in south Phoenix, and I was outside on a smoke break looking at the moon. This was high noon, and about five degrees to the left of the moon was a bright star shining. I went in to get our computer IT guy for a witness, because next to me he was the only one that worked there with more than half a brain cell. I say "wanna see a star in broad daylight?" He looks at me like I'm crazy and says sure. Follows me outside and I point it out to him. He then really looks at me like I'm stupid because he thinks I'm pointing at the moon. I then tell him to look again to the left of the moon, and he sees it.

I wish I would have called Lowell observatory to report it, but I never thought of it at the time.

Took this tonight using my phone. I bought an adapter that allows me to hook my phone up to my eyepiece on the telescope. This was a last minute thing and I didn’t have time to adjust the adapter the way it should have been, but I’m happy with it so far.

More to come next week if all goes well.

Cool pic! I think I can see some transparency of the moon though

I don't know much about astronomy, but a buddy of mine is way into it and he clued me in a couple of weeks ago about being able to see the International Space Station passing by in the night sky. My son and I went out back and we able to see it with the naked eye. It just looked like a faded orange star, but we could follow it's path.

I thought that was pretty cool.

007 wrote:

Cool pic! I think I can see some transparency of the moon though

Anthrax_fan, is that you????

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I don't know much about astronomy, but a buddy of mine is way into it and he clued me in a couple of weeks ago about being able to see the International Space Station passing by in the night sky. My son and I went out back and we able to see it with the naked eye. It just looked like a faded orange star, but we could follow it's path.

I thought that was pretty cool.

Yeah there is websites that will tell you when it's going to be overhead. I think they have sites that track all the satellites. I e never knowingly seen the space station, but I've seen lots of satellites over the years. It's cool seeing them and trying to follow them until they fade out into the shadow of the earth.

Great photo wrecked neck!

Has anyone checked this out yet? Apparently, this comet won't return for 6800 years and is only visible in the northern hemisphere.

https://www.space.com/comet-neowise-visible-evening-sky-july-2020.html


I'd like to see our former resident flat earth advocate explain why he can't see it, although I'm sure he'd just ignore it and post another asinine video as "concrete proof" that the Earth is flat.

007 wrote:

Has anyone checked this out yet? Apparently, this comet won't return for 6800 years and is only visible in the northern hemisphere.

https://www.space.com/comet-neowise-visible-evening-sky-july-2020.html


I'd like to see our former resident flat earth advocate explain why he can't see it, although I'm sure he'd just ignore it and post another asinine video as "concrete proof" that the Earth is flat.

I've been trying to spot it this week, but no luck yet. I plan on driving a bit out of the city this weekend to try and see it. Friend of mine saw it and he lives in Vegas, so I don't need to drive out to a darker place, I just prefer it. Hopefully the adapter I bought for my phone and telescope will work where it's dark, because it doesn't do very well with a lot of light pollution. If I get a decent picture I'll post one here.

This will be cool to check out. Jupiter and Saturn will be in conjunction with each other on the Winter Solstice.


https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/03/world/jupiter-saturn-conjunction-2020-scn-trnd/index.html

007 wrote:

This will be cool to check out. Jupiter and Saturn will be in conjunction with each other on the Winter Solstice.


https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/03/world/jupiter-saturn-conjunction-2020-scn-trnd/index.html

Been watching them both for months waiting to see this. You can really notice them getting closer together now, can't wait for the 21st. Closest they've been together in something like 400 years. Pretty cool if ya,ask me.

Interesting subject. I love the photos of nebulas and supernovas.

Astronomy has always interested me since I was a kid. Watching the stars and constellations is something I’ve introduced my son to. We’ll camp out and stargaze in the warmer months. It’s amazing when you watch these videos of the galaxies and solar systems and realize just how small we are in comparison.

There is a great podcast I listen to called Astronomycast. They usually do a half hour show once a week, and have over 500 episodes. It's hosted by Dr. Pamela Gaye and Frazier Crain. Really informative and not so technical that the casual astronomy fan won't know what they are saying.

http://www.astronomycast.com

Pretty cool video of what astronomers think could happen when the universe dies. Hurts my head thinking of the time involved. Half hour long, but I found it very interesting.

Wrecked Neck wrote:

Pretty cool video of what astronomers think could happen when the universe dies. Hurts my head thinking of the time involved. Half hour long, but I found it very interesting.

Weird that if any beings are around at the end, they will have NO proof of the Big Bang nor that anything other than their solar system exists.

scottmitchell74 wrote:

Wrecked Neck wrote:

Pretty cool video of what astronomers think could happen when the universe dies. Hurts my head thinking of the time involved. Half hour long, but I found it very interesting.

Weird that if any beings are around at the end, they will have NO proof of the Big Bang nor that anything other than their solar system exists.

I know, it's pretty crazy to think about.

Short video of what might happen when Betelgeuse goes nova. I was really hoping last year was the year when it started changing color and brightness so drastically. Of course since its about five hundred light years away, it might have blown up hundreds of years ago.