Astronomy Discussion Thread

[chilla_killa]

Hey Guys,

I'm chilla_killa, I'm from Germany and I'm very interested in Astronomy, but I know noone to talk and discuss about it.

So I decided to start here a thread for all people who have knowledge or are interested in Astronomy or Stars Watching to talk about every theme you want.

My first themes/questions are:

In which country do you live? And how much can you see with your pure eyes when you watch the sky? Can you see the Orion Nebula with your eyes?
Or other Deep Sky objects?
Which star constellation can you see when you look to the south in this month?

I'm living in Germany, specified in the Ruhrgebiet in North Rhine-Westphalia, which is full of industry and it's the largest urban agglomeration in Germany.
When you look at it in Google Earth in the Night View, you can see one big light area.
So where I live is one of the worst place for Sky Watching, but Astronomy is nevertheless my passion.
I can see only the lightest stars and the biggest star constellations.
When I look to the south I can see the Orion, the Taurus, the Sirius star, and the Plejaden.

So what about you?

 

[TwistedImage]

I doubt you'll find anyone passionately interested in astronomy on the Hive. Some of the things you typed are very confusing as well.

I'll try to join the conversation (if any) if the topic lands onto something I have knowledge of.

 

[Darkness-4ever]

Generally I'm more interested about space, not really the locations & names of galaxies & constellations, but the things in space, the weird, the intriguing, the amazing, and the theoretical. Like magnataurs, dark matter, dark energy, alcohol nebulae, pulsars and etc.

 

[Mechanical Man]

I'm more interested in closer bodies, like our solar system, which affects us more than those far stars. Also because it's possible to land and study their surface.

 

[chilla_killa]

Cool, I'm interested and have knowlegde in all those things you mentioned.
My special interests are Exo-Planets and Planetary Nebulas.

@ Twisted Image:

Maybe it sounded confusing because i'm from Germany and I don't have very good skills in the English language and don't know the right words in english and tried to translate it from the german.
What was confusing?

@ Mechanical Man:

Do you think life exists under the kilometre big ice of the Jupiter moon Europa?

 

[chilla_killa]

Bump, I know you guys want to talk with me about astronomy!

 

[Mechanical Man]

Do you think life exists under the kilometre big ice of the Jupiter moon Europa?

I read about other Jupiter big moons and there is possible water on all of them (except Io).

 

[chilla_killa]

Yeah, maybe on Titan.
Do you own an telescope?

 

[Mechanical Man]

No, but I was observing with a telescope long time ago, when we had astronomical course in elementary school.

 

[chilla_killa]

Wow, astronomy in school, that would be so cool.
I want to buy me a telescope.
I would like to see Planetary Nebulas

 

[Coolty44]

Seeing a Nebula would require some power, probably something beyond your regular 1000-2000 dollar telescopes. My $700 can barley make out Jupiters moons with much detail.

And ya, I am one of those amueter astronemers. Ontario, Canada, a nice rural area with little light pollution.

 

[leet.firefox]

meh, some of the pictures NASA and whomever release are pretty.

 

[chilla_killa]

They are using super telescopes or space telescopes like Hubble.
So it's impossible to see a Planetary Nebula with a small telescope?

 

[DarkAngelAzazel]

Hmm at least you could give it a try :/

I don't know how old you are but you could always try to get a XXX (missing a work.. the thing where you test a certain job for 2 weeks to get an inside view on it. German word = Praktikum) where you can use bigger telescopes.


I am not that interested in the system which are far away from us as we will never be able to travel there.

The more intersting and important things are the planets we can reach like the Mars where we might be able to settle...

Another thing which is quiet interesting is whether the moonlanding is a fake or not.

 

[Anachron]

I am Anachron, live in Germany too, near Hanover.
We have a strong industry and are the leading country in germany.

But what has that to do with astronomy?

I think everything in the world is decided. The past, the present and the future.
They are chemical/mathematical/physic laws and the base atoms.
And since all atoms follow the law, there is no way for something being random.
How could a random thing also be?

For me randomness is just something that hard to calculate that you do not want to.
There is no randomness.

Also, because there is no randomness and things follow their laws, we could know the future, but only if we would know all laws and all states of all atoms that are in the plain moment.

Also, time is a lie. Its just a measure of changings.
And also, humans can not think. Some researchers found out that we have some gens that change the size of the nerve pathways, which leads us to decisions. So more or less we all choose the decisions which we are born to do. Ofcourse, it also depends on many other things, but we don't really have a choice what we choose, because there is no thinking in that way. We can not really choose, we just select the thing that is laying in our gens.

 

[chilla_killa]

It's because of light and air pollution

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

I'm TheTerran, from Bulgaria. For me Astronomy isn't just a hobby, it was and maybe still is an area I'd like to work in (depends...) while I currently study completely different things. This explains my change in 2006 from being interested in fantasy like LotR to being interested in technology, space, astronomy and in other words - natural sciences and SC2 when it comes to playing (for me war3 was also electronic sports, Ive played in tours vs pro players and all, that's why I dont pay attention it is a fanatsy game but now SC2 is a new players game and also futuristic).

I've observed the night sky for years with a school telescope, diameter = 50 cm. I was able to see the 4 big satellites of Jupiter as small dots near the planet, the planet alas only as an orange disc. I've basicly learnt myself the location of all contsellations in the northren hemisphere and I still remember where each of them is. I can easily distinguish contsellations and many have asked me to show them which is which. Evenr professor don't know the location of nebulae or clusters such as M15, M 33, M34 etc, yet I know some them. This is not a required thing, Im just saying i've observed a lot.

When I was in the US, there were very cool professors, they were very nice with me, would even drive me to the observatory in the mountain and taught me how to operate the big observatory telescope. One evening I arrived late and missed to see Jupiter in details, as it set at that time and that was a good chance to see the cloud layers of the planet.

How much do I see? Being in the mountains is not smth I do often, there I can see stars from different magnitude usually up to 6 with a naked eye (note: the lesser the number, the brighter the star, the moon is -14 Magnitude or so I dont remember the number). I live in a city so I don't even bother, I have no view, no vision as the pollution makes it bad and probably people would laugh at necause no1 here takes Astronomy seriously except for maybe the few who work in this area.

Here are the brighter nebulae you can see: In the summer look around Hercules, Lyra (the ring nebula), M31 - Andromeda galaxy, there are some near Auriga but you need at least 50 cm telescope for those. In Winter: the Orion nebulae, yes that one in the rectangle of orion is visible. I never purchased a telescope but with binoculars I can even see 1 of the Jupiter's satellites, my bet it is Ganimede - the largest, galaxies or clusters I can only see as dim light clouds btw. The colors that you see on pictures, you can only see trhough telescopes off the Earth.

 

[chilla_killa]

Thanks for your long post, I would like to study Astronomy, too.
I will soon enter an Astronomy Club at the next observatory.
The colours you see on pictures are often photos made with extremely good cameras, with ultra long exposure time.

 

[skamigo]

What's so intresting about astronomy if I may ask? I don't know much about it, but I wonder if knowledge about astronomy can be of value to a normal person's life, or is it only for those who are passionate by it?

 

[Coolty44]

Astronomy is the study of heavenly bodies and objects withing and out of our solar system, and is acually quit interesting when you learn alittle about it. You get to see pictures of things that we will never see in our life time with very high tech equipment. For some, its a hobby though, and most astronomers are proffesors of astronemy in University's anyway.

 

[Mechanical Man]

Yeah, maybe on Titan.

There is no oxygen. This is actually a good thing, since there is a lot of flammable methane in the atmosphere.

Another thing which is quiet interesting is whether the moonlanding is a fake or not.

These theories against moonlanding are understandable, since we younger generations weren't privileged to see it on television and now technology evolved even more, yet no landings since 1972. But the technology to go to moon now exists, besides USA, also Russia, China, Japan and EU are all able to make it, but they prefer to spend this money on weapons, meetings, luxury and other bullshit.

What's so intresting about astronomy if I may ask? I don't know much about it, but I wonder if knowledge about astronomy can be of value to a normal person's life, or is it only for those who are passionate by it?

So? What value has art then?

Astronomy may have bigger value in the future. If we would think this way, we would be still collecting fruits and live in caves.

 

[chilla_killa]

OMG, did you hear that, too?
Obama has cancelled all money for the NASA, there will be only 4 more missions and then nothing!!
This is terrible, that's the almighty Obama, all people loved.
Shall that be the change? No more space missions, but more money for an offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Iraque?
I'm shocked.

 

[chilla_killa]

Hm watcha say

 

[TwistedImage]

I say it's a good thing.

If Taliban and the other terrorists are defeated, there will be more money for science and suchlike!

 

[chilla_killa]

War is the biggest waste of money that exist.
It's impossible to create a Democraty in Irak, Afghanistan etc.

 

[Anachron]

Why does nobody replies to my post?

 

[TwistedImage]

War is the biggest waste of money that exist.
It's impossible to create a Democraty in Irak, Afghanistan etc.

While I agree with that, Obama and the terrorists don't, so I view things from a logical angle: No big-shot politician that I know of (except Gandhi if he counts, and even he believed war could solve some issues) has realized that war is pointless.

 

[chilla_killa]

Why does nobody replies to my post?

What was the question?

 

[Mechanical Man]

I say it's a good thing.

If Taliban and the other terrorists are defeated, there will be more money for science and suchlike!

They will be defeated when NATO decides. I don't see why is this a good thing, it only fuels fundamentalism

War is the biggest waste of money that exist.

This is what Henry Ford already said.

Why does nobody replies to my post?

We are discussing astronomy, not philosophical questions.


Anyway, somebody knows anything more about Eta Carinae?

I don't really get this picture, instead of a star I see rather two blobs. It's one of most massive stars known, with life expectancy about only million years.

 

[chilla_killa]

Eta Carinae is a big star of 100 sun masses, found in the Carina Nebula.
It lights 4-5 million times more then our sun and is the lightest star of the Milky Way.
Some astronomers say it will explode in a super nova within our life time.
The Carina Nebula is a star forming region.
Here's a video with some impressing pictures of the Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope:

BTW:
The picture you showed us, shows the Homunculus Nebula sourrunding this star.
More information at Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homunculus_Nebula

 

[TwistedImage]

The lightest? You mean the brightest?

"Lightest" implies that it weighs less than all other stars in the Milky Way.

 

[Mechanical Man]

Hmm, so the star it's that violet shining thing in the middle? I guess it's a blue giant, although wikipedia doesn't say much about its spectral type.

 

[chilla_killa]

The lightest? You mean the brightest?

"Lightest" implies that it weighs less than all other stars in the Milky Way.

Oh yeah, sorry, you're right. That's what I meant.
My English is very bad

Yes Mechanical Man it's the violet glowing thing in the middle.

This thing interests me.
I made a little research, not only the low quality Wikipedia and found out more.

The Homunkulus Nebula was created by a big erruption on Eta Carinae.
This erruption was in 1841 and the star lost 10 sun-masses of his weight.
Because now the star is hidden in the nebula (which is big enough to have place for more than 100 of oure sun systems)
it can only very hard be seen with pure eyes.
Before the eruption it was one of the brightest star at the sky.
Astronomers looked with small telescopes into the inner of the nebula.
Here's a picture.

Eta Carinae

Eta Carinae loses every year 500 earth masses and in 100.000 years it will be gone.
But already in 10.000 - 20.000 years it probably will explode in a Super Nova and then we will be able to see it at the sky.

 

[Reaper51]

The brighter the star - the bigger it is. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_type#Spectral_types
I can't image being in a solar system with a sun that's 100x bigger than ours
All i can say it will go out with a bang!

And if you think Eta Carinae is big check out this star: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VY_Canis_Majoris
Its between 1800 to 2100 solar radii. Now that will produce a big bang.

 

[Mechanical Man]

Yes, but Eta Carinae is more massive, as density and such.

Does anybody know where to get a starmap, because whenever I search for starmap I get the sky, but in the sky you see stars which are near on the sky, but in fact there could be thousands of light years of distance between them. I'd like to see some local 3D starmap, including near stars, like Alpha centauri, Sirus, Barnard etc

 

[chilla_killa]

You need a three dimensional star map, for the computer?

 

[Reaper51]

Did you try google earth it has sky view...

 

[Teelo]

I used to be interested in Astronomy, then I discovered the internet, and found that to be a more interesting network

 

[Mechanical Man]

You need a three dimensional star map, for the computer?

Yes, to see how are near stars close to each other.

 

[Reaper51]

Try AstroSynthesis: http://www.nbos.com/products/astro/astro.htm
Its mostly 3D and you can navigate through stars and planets.

 

[Mechanical Man]

Hm, one file has a data about near star yes.

chilla_killa, I heard in some documentary that they would be launching a probe to Europe, with some underwater robot. I really wonder if they will find anything. For me, more common scenarios are:
- the probe will drill, drill, but eventually ran out of energy, as the crust being too thick
- by drilling, some totally different material will be encountered
- they won't even send it for various lame reasons XD

Astronomy is full of speculations. Most of things are just assumed. But if the assumption that Europa has liquid water, then it's very probably also it's on Ganymede, Callisto and this could lead also to Mars.

Since you mentioned Titan too. This moon is already interesting even without water feature. It's the closest to Earth by air pressure, which is in my opinion most important feature for interesting things to happen. It has hydrocarbon lakes (mostly methane), which can lead to some interesting organic chemical reactions. (heh, I admit, I'm more interested in chemistry than in physics regarding astronomy)

 

[Hakeem]

I'm living in Germany, specified in the Ruhrgebiet in North Rhine-Westphalia, which is full of industry and it's the largest urban agglomeration in Germany.
When you look at it in Google Earth in the Night View, you can see one big light area.
So where I live is one of the worst place for Sky Watching, but Astronomy is nevertheless my passion.

Would you say you are... Star crossed?


Ba du--OW MY PUN GLAND.

 

[Steel_Stallion]

stars are purdy

 

[chilla_killa]

Let's bump this up!!

Yesterday I bought a small telescope, very nooby, but I think it's okay for my purposes.
It's a Sky Watcher Heritage 76 Dobson telescope.
76 mm mirror, 300 mm length.
Unfortunatley yesterday it was cloudy, so I couldn't use it best, but I looked at the Moon, but he was much to light (full moon)

 

[ikillforeyou]

Yeah, maybe on Titan.
Do you own an telescope?

This couldn't be the case, as Titan is full of liquid methane and other natural gasses, which form lakes, rivers, and seas on it's surface.

 

[Svenski]

This one time, I saw the Northern Lights, and it was the most beautiful thing I have ever experienced.

I also love watching the sky in general. Experienced one of the greatest meteor showers of all time back in like, 2002 or so - saw like two or three every minute it was ridiculous.

My dream is to witness a total solar eclipse. And see more northern lights. That's all.

 

[Mechanical Man]

This couldn't be the case, as Titan is full of liquid methane and other natural gasses, which form lakes, rivers, and seas on it's surface.

What you mean exactly? Well yes, (at least home) telescope it's quite useless to observe Titan as the haze obscures all the surface, same with Venus.

Anyway, I'm more interested in spacecraft photos, telescope just can't reveal the surface view, which is most interesting for me. I was wondering, if anybody know, why is this photo
http://www.harmsy.freeuk.com/oimages/venus_surface.jpg so curved. Too bad that there is not much interest on Venus, so these remain only images from the surface, damn russian, they could photograph also the panorama and the sky.

 

[ikillforeyou]

Try this one.

http://planetpixelemporium.com/images/mappreviews/venusmapthumb.jpg

 

[Mechanical Man]

403 forbidden. But I think I found what you wanted to show. However, the images taken from surface are more valuable than radar scan of the surface.

 

[chilla_killa]

Do you know those are pictures of the sowjetic space probe Venera 13 of the year 1982?
It is so hot on Venus, so Venera 13 was burned/melted after 2 hours on the scurface.
Very extreme! Fortunately it could take some pictures and send it to the earth.