General Astronomy/Cosmology Thread

[Gray-Wolf]

Had a nice end of the evening last week (11th?) with lightning flickering across my Southern/SW Horizon and Perseids flashing above me including one Golden fireball trending from my NE to the SW.......magical!

[Methuselah]

Given the recent talk of colonising other planets (Boots on Mars?) I thought that some peeps might find this interesting:

 

 

[Gray-Wolf]

Bagged a few Geminid's last night!

Maybe 13 over a half hour period from 12:15 to 12:45

Pretty objects & certainly 'fireball' like (not just a fast spark but a golden orb)

[LeonH18]

Bit disappointed, Bought a new telescope, collimated it and aligned it, adjusted it and set it up. And guess what? There's likely to be no clear skies for the next 12 days

Absolutely Brill

[Rush2019]

2 hours ago, LeonH18 said:

Bit disappointed, Bought a new telescope, collimated it and aligned it, adjusted it and set it up. And guess what? There's likely to be no clear skies for the next 12 days

Absolutely Brill

Frustrating isn't it?  I managed to see and get some photos of this seasons Noctilucent clouds, but more often than not it was hindered by cloud cover especially the nights I'd planned all night watching.  Hope you get some clear spells.

[swebby]

In what has been a weird year.

This would possibly cap it off nicely!

Scientists looking for aliens investigate radio beam 'from nearby star' | Space | The Guardian

WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM

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Tantalising ‘signal’ appears to have come from Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the sun

 

 

[Arnie Pie]

Has any of you folk had experience with Clear night/ light pollution filters ?

[Polar Maritime]

Astronomers work out when the first stars shone.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57515422

Edited June 24, 2021 by Polar Maritime

[alr1970]

This time-lapse from Meteosat 9 shows the annual variation in solar angle in a way I've never seen before.

 

[Mapantz]

I see Pleiades in the sky now, so Orion will be on the horizon later. I always look forward to seeing Orion!

[Methuselah]

13 hours ago, Mapantz said:

I see Pleiades in the sky now, so Orion will be on the horizon later. I always look forward to seeing Orion!

I'd never seen the Milky Way until I moved to Glenurquhart -- or Orion, for that matter! Alas, once owners of multiple homes moved in, halogen 'security' lights spoiled everything!

[Weather-history]

Well William Shatner has boldly gone into space....

[AderynCoch]

On 13/10/2021 at 17:00, Weather-history said:

Well William Shatner has boldly gone into space....

Thought he'd kicked the bucket for a moment there! Thank God. I was just listening to some of his classic covers for the first time in ages (such as "Mr. Tambourine Man" and, rather appropriately, "Rocket Man"). 

Oldest person to go into space.

[Weather-history]

Did a timelapse last night, not sure if these were Leonid meteors I caught or just random meteors

 

 

 

[Southern Storm]

On 13/10/2021 at 10:40, Ed Stone said:

I'd never seen the Milky Way until I moved to Glenurquhart -- or Orion, for that matter! Alas, once owners of multiple homes moved in, halogen 'security' lights spoiled everything!

Sorry to hear that, I hope you didn't move in search of dark skies, 

I'm Just getting into astrophotography and it's shocking how difficult it is to find somewhere that isn't affected by light pollution, very sad!

 

[Southern Storm]

Took advantage of the clear skies we had earlier in the week, and tried to capture Orion's nebula, using the untracked and stacked method, and was shocked at at results.

Shot at 400mm with the sigma 150-600 contemporary lens then cropped in to focus on the nebula.

700+ sub exposures @ 1.3 seconds, with around 675 of them usable, and shot on the Eos RP at 6400 iso.

The technology we have available to us in this day and age is truly incredible.

If you have a decent tripod,  intervalometer and a relatively modern camera I totally recommend giving this technique a go!

[Dreckly]

Size and albedo of the largest detected Oort-cloud object: comet...

ARXIV.ORG

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The recently announced Oort-cloud comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) is remarkable in at least three respects: (i) it was discovered...

Oort-cloud comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein)

[Weather-history]

Venus and Jupiter conjunction this morning

 

[Polar Maritime]

James Webb telescope takes 'deepest ever' view of the cosmos

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

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The new $10bn super space telescope delivers its first full-colour image of the Universe.

 

Amazing, Takes me back to Hubble's first images... And beyond.

Edited July 11, 2022 by Polar Maritime

[RebsAbbo]

Well, last night’s Super moon wasn’t that ‘super’ in terms of size once it finally appeared over here - it had appeared larger a couple of nights ago when it was lower in the sky. However it was super bright & lit up the midnight sky like it was sunrise. Pics aren’t brill, the first 2, brighter ones are taken on my mobile, the last 2, darker ones are on my DSLR in night modes….I haven’t even begun to master Astrophotography yet! So no moon detail, sorry. Just a record of the sheer brightness. Even at 1am laying in bed it was like daylight still

12.00am

12.34am

12.32am

12.36am

12.50am

 

 

[RebsAbbo]

NASA ARTEMIS 1

Awaiting today’s launch - problems with the engines & fuel tanks being worked on. Currently looking like launch will be delayed at least but by how long remains to be seen.

Live feed below…

 

[Beverley Lass]

Exciting times watching this unmanned test flight .. I can just remember the first Moon landing.
Can't wait for the ultra clear pictures that we will get this time people, (man/woman) set
foot on the lunar surface .. hopefully in 2025.
I've only just learned that the crew will transfer to Elon Musk's Starship craft to actually land on the Moon.

BL  

[RebsAbbo]

Sadly the launched has just been ‘scrubbed’ for today due to them not being able to rectify the tank/engine bleeds. Next available launch date will be 2nd Sept

[RebsAbbo]

I have to admit I am completely torn on the subject of space travel as the sheer amount of money spent should be going towards rectifying the problems on this planet. HOWEVER, I’m am totally fascinated by the science and can’t help but be excited by any ventures.

[Rush2019]

5 minutes ago, RebsAbbo said:

Sadly the launched has just been ‘scrubbed’ for today due to them not being able to rectify the tank/engine bleeds. Next available launch date will be 2nd Sept

Will it be a nighttime Launch?  Much more dramatic Visually.