Looks like all of these scenarios would be testable with Universe Sandbox ², but some of them with hundreds of planets might simulate slowly.
I'm going to work on adding some of these scenarios into a future update of Universe Sandbox ².
I am the creator & director of Universe Sandbox ².
Universe Sandbox ² is a complete rewrite in a new engine and can simulate so many things the original could not including: climate, material properties, terraforming, and awesome collisions.
I've been working on the sequel full time for 3 years (along with another ~10 years of development time from the rest of the team. So I'm unclear why you don't think this is a serious product.
I retracted the promise of a free update almost 2 years ago when I wrote this full explanation of why. Let me know if you have any questions.
From Wikipedia:
"Titan is primarily composed of water ice and rocky material. Much as with Venus before the Space Age, the dense opaque atmosphere prevented understanding of Titan's surface until new information accumulated when the Cassini–Huygens mission arrived in 2004, including the discovery of liquid hydrocarbon lakes in Titan's polar regions. The geologically young surface is generally smooth, with few impact craters, although mountains and several possible cryovolcanoes have been found."
Obligatory plug for Stellarium. It's a particularly awesome app which models what you'll see in the sky from any given location at any given time, and it'll tell you everything you could hope to know.
If you have a computer, get Stellarium! Play with the program and get a feeling of how the solar system physically works. Get a feeling of the earth's axis and rotation too. It helps me 'predict' positions of the sun, moon and planets! As well as times and periods during the year when they're visible or not!
You might also take a look at NASA’s Eyes. There are also apps for mobile phones which you can aim to the sky and will show you the current locations.
Besides software you can print out star charts, buy a globe, binoculars, etc.
Just a reminder: "Making your plans accordingly" should include PROPER EYE PROTECTION! Some helpful advice here.
A partial solar eclipse is fascinating, but it's not worth damaging your vision for.
Link for Stellarium, mentioned by /u/schorhr: http://www.stellarium.org/ (free for Win/Linux/Mac, I think $5 for Android, but it's very good on both). It takes latitude/longitude for location rather than zip code.
Thanks for the post; I created Universe Sandbox. We're working on a free update with new features like stellar evolution in an interactive way that's never been done before.
Yup, almost certainly the ISS. The ISS can be very bright because it is huge compared to normal satellites and thus reflects a lot more sunlight. It also appears to move faster than many satellites due to it's low orbit. I used Stellarium to simulate the night sky from your location, and you can see the ISS pass overhead and then disappear as it passes into the Earth's shadow.
Edit: My best guess is that you mistook Jupiter for it after it disappeared, as Jupiter is most similar in brightness.
IF you have a PC/Laptop, I would download and use Stellarium
If you are using a smartphone of some sort, there are many many apps available that will allow you to find many many things.
>Without a star-map, I mean
The best way to learn the constellations (what I think you mean by "star signs") is with a star map of some kind.
Some options:
Install Stellarium. It is free software for PC, Mac, and Linux.
Download a monthly sky map from skymaps.com
Your post is rather confusing. You seem to be describing doing three things here.
First off leveling the mount can be done with a bulls-eye bubble level and just putting it on a flat part of the mount. https://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=bubble+level
Note these next two steps are just German Equatorial mounts
Balancing a telescope is easy enough you just loosen the right ascension and declination locks and move the counter weights and telescope back and forth until they can be horizontal without moving.
You also seem to describe polar aligning the scope. You can read more about this here. http://www.astronomy.net/articles/4/polaralign.html
Yep, Jupiter! Happy cake day!
Source: the wonderful and free Stellarium.
I moved location to UK, rewound time a bit, found the moon, and saw Jupiter there.
Indeed. The Sun is a rather un-assuming G-class star. When you go outside and look up at the night sky, the vast, vast majority of the stars you see are either O- and B-class stars or giant stars, all of which are very hot and bright.
O/B stars are also extremely short-lived, and giant phases are just a small fraction of a main-sequence star's lifetime. Because of this, the vast, vast majority (these numbers are called "astronomical" for a reason) of stars in our galaxy and in the universe are actually small, cool, dim, very long-lived red dwarfs.
That is, when you look up at the night sky, by a selection effect you see an extremely un-representative sample of the stars in our Milky Way and the Universe. O/B stars and giants are a "vocal minority."
We do a really interesting 101 lab here on campus where students each pick a star by eye from a planetarium program (Stellarium; it's free! Go get it!) and calculate its size, and then draw it to scale on a 10m-long markerboard. At the start of the lab I show them the Sun, which is only 1cm across. Why so small, they wonder? All of the stars they wind up drawing are larger than 3cm across, but the average is about 15cm. There are a number of 2- and 3-meter stars that are wider than the board is tall. The stars are chosen by eye to demonstrate the selection effect: they simply wouldn't be able to see the dimmer stars without zooming in or asking the program to bring them out.
Have you looked at Stellarium? It's got some various options to view constellations in different ways. I'd recommend even if it's just for looking at our sky in general!
All constellations can be seen like this in Star Walk 2 app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/star-walk-2-night-sky-map/id892279069?mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vitotechnology.StarWalk2Free&hl=en
Hey, that's my pic! Thanks! :)
Basic info - Orion 10" DSE Dobsonian telescope, Nikon D7000 with a 2x Barlow. I line up the ISS in the viewfinder and use a remote to trigger the shutter when it's near the crosshairs. If anyone is interested, I have the EXIF data on flickr (awful new layout but it's on the right side of the page under the "i" circle if you're on a desktop browser) - https://www.flickr.com/photos/old_boone/13656177845/
And earlier Astronaut Rick Mastracchio and ISS Research retweeted my picture....I thought that was so cool!
The program is Stellarium, and yes, it does exactly as you say:
http://www.stellarium.org/en_CA/
Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
Cool picture! I got a Oneplus One and found this article for anyone else interested.
He mentions an app in the article:
Camera FV-5’s advanced controls and interface design make it the first app I would recommend for performing long exposures on a smartphone.
From the ground, they just look like lakes.
But if you like those craters, check out this one, also in Quebec: https://maps.google.com/?ll=61.270728,-73.590202&spn=0.115353,0.41851&t=h&z=12
http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Third_Party_Photo/2008/12/05/crater__1228494117_8433.jpg
It'll be down low. The sun will be just rising for morning, on the east horizon, and since a lunar eclipse is the Earth passing between the Sun and the Moon, the Moon will be on the West horizon.
Here in Florida, I'd only be able to see the very beginning of the eclipse, if I can find some high point with a clear view of the horizon. The moon will drop below the horizon before full eclipse from my location.
If you got this as an assignment, then your task probably isn't to find the answer, but also how work it out yourself. This is an important skill, not only when getting to know the night sky. I bet your teacher also wanted you to learn self reliance. If you would have searched for yourself, you would have come across valuable resources like Stellarium, or a site like this. You won't always be able to ask someone else. [/teachermode]
Your eyes are a good place to start :-)
My early forays into astronomy were summer nights, rolling a blanket out on the lawn and just lying back and looking. After a while you start to recognize the patterns and learn your way around the sky. And it's not only stars you'll see, you can see, for example, the great nebula in Orion with the naked eye from a dark place. You can also see the Andromeda galaxy and numerous bright star clusters like the Pleiades, plus Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Saturn. If you know where and when to look you can even see the ISS.
If you've got $15 buy a copy of Nightwatch which is a great introductory text to astronomy.
You can also do astronomy without even leaving your armchair. Just download Stellarium and kiss goodbye to all your spare time.
If you can save up between $50 and $100, it will be time to get a pair of 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars and blow your mind out by looking at the lunar craters.
Globular clusters are always nice to explore at lower powers. M13 (Hercules globular cluster) should be easy to see and find. M5 is another nice one.
M31 (Andromeda galaxy) near Cassiopeia is another good one since its so large.
For planets, you should be able to get nice views of Jupiter and Saturn. The moon (I know it's not a planet but I'm putting it here anyway) is another great thing to look at -- there is a lot to explore there. Try to focus around the terminator (dark/light line) for more contrast and detail.
There are a few binary stars you should be able to resolve as well.
Other than that, a lot of the time I just pick an area of the sky to look at and slowly look around. If I see something interesting, I'll figure out where I'm pointing and use Stellarium to figure out what it is (if anything). For me I have more fun just exploring randomly.
I have learned the most about the night sky and the location of various objects with a free software called Stellarium. This is a fantastic tool!
Also, reading the book "Turn Left at Orion" has been really helpful for me.
First thing might be to consider what it is about astronomy that interests you the most. For example, steering towards a career in research astronomy is very different to just wanting to be a hobby backyard stargazer; and being a backyard stargazer is very different to being an amateur astrophotographer.
If it's the stargazing aspect you're most interested in, a small Newtonian reflector telescope and a copy of the book <em>Turn Left At Orion</em> is a great place to start.
He said: > I'm the guy in the video, and it is indeed the Skywatcher 12" collapsible Dobsonian. This looks like an expensive piece of equipment, but I actually bought it off Amazon for a seven hundred dollars (on sale). > > The eyepiece, however, is where the magic/magnification happens... that's a Televue 13mm Ethos designed by Al Nagler, and provides viewers with 100 degrees of apparent field of view. This means when you lean in, the black circle around your image nearly disappears into your periphery, leaving you feeling like you're floating in space.
It looks like that eyepiece is going for $628 on Amazon.
NO! DO NOT DO THAT.
If you don't have proper eye protection, like specific solar filter or film, you can always make a pinhole camera from stuff around the house to view it with safely.
While your skiiing googles might work for the slopes, proper solar viewing materials block out 99.9999% of visible and UV light. When you look through them you literally can't see anything but something as bright as the sun.
I know several people who have caused damage to their eyes by trying to look at the sun without proper eye protection (no, 3 pairs of sunglasses layered on top of each other is not good enough either).
No mention of Nemesis yet? It was a very popular story on pop science shows in the 80s, and got a mention in some science fiction of the period (Lucifer's Hammer, if I remember right). Debate over its existence was revived a few years back.
Disclaimer: not an astronomer, not involved in the debate, just found it an interesting idea.
Assuming the picture was taken in a landscape format, the appearent movement of the stars gives a rough estimate of the Right Ascension of the objects in the image. Checking star charts does indeed suggest that this is Andromeda. Comparing nearby stars confirms this, reference image created in Stellarium to approximate what one would have seen: https://imgur.com/EKPnL . One can clearly see the match between the stars in the picture and the stars that would be around Andromeda.
Cartes du Ceil. Its totally free and more of a classic star chart than stellarium. You can also add the full 3gig UCAC3 star catalog
Its what I use more often than stellarium for making printed star charts and planning an observing session.
Thanks for including Universe Sandbox in your list of simulators. I'm its creator.
Be sure to check out the Chart Mode feature (the icon that looks like a 3 bar chart) to dynamically create comparisons of all the objects in a simulation. It works really well in 'Our Solar System' and 'Our Local Galaxies'. It's often what I'll hit first after opening up a new simulation to get a feel for what objects are included.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
And as it turns out the 8th image down in FieldofScience's first page of images is showing off Universe Sandbox's chart mode. Awesome.
Here's the paper...
Patchett, J.M., Samsel, F.J., Tsai, K.C., Gisler, G.R., Rogers, D.H., Abram, G.D. and Turton, T.L., 2016. Visualization and Analysis of Threats from Asteroid Ocean Impacts.
Perhaps you mean it is not amateur astronomy, but a picture of a planetoid, in my book, is certainly astronomy.
First hubble isn't looking for such things. Hubble's field of view is tiny and it is pointed at known targets in order to collect data on them. There are lines to get hubble time so pointing it at patches of sky for long periods to find something that may or may not exist isn't the best use of that time.
NASA doesn't look for such things without funding. Searching for faint objects far away is not a priority.
The team that found 2015 RR245 is one of only a few teams looking for such objects. They have limited resources, it takes a long time and its very hard to find these and then they can often only be found when they are on the close parts of their orbit. For something with a 15,000 year orbit we just have to be lucky its not on the far portion.
The orbital period is so far out it will never be bright enough to be seen from Earth except by the largest equipment and then purposefully looking for it. Here is a diagram. Its smaller than Pluto, never comes as close as Pluto (34 AU at 2015 RR245's closest and Pluto comes 30 AU in) but goes out twice as far as Pluto (50 AU for Pluto, 120 AU for 2015 RR245). Jupiter by the way is less than 4.95-5.46AU out from the sun.
Nibaru is bunk. I'm just going to ignore that mess.
https://sites.google.com/site/3davel/home/light-pollution/lp2001/gmap
The best place would be an area that is grey or dark grey, during a new moon. Though, even going to a green or yellow zone would be breathtaking for you.
This is mostly for the professional astronomers here, but you're encouraged to sign a petition in support of Marcy's victims. It already has over 1000 signatures (https://tinyurl.com/onef4qv)!
I'm the creator of Universe Sandbox. I'm sorry it doesn't work natively on a Mac. When I began development several years ago it was a personal project and nothing I ever expected to sell online. Knowing what I know now, I would have made a point of cross platform compatibility. I hope to offer a Mac version in the distant future.
In the meantime, the best Mac based gravity simulator that I know of is AstroGrav. I've exchanged a couple of emails with its author and he seems like a cool guy.
There sure is if you have a computer running BOINC software in the background.
You can choose the project your interested in, such as hunting for asteroids, looking for alien signals, astronomy, astrophysics, and much more.
Take a look at this link and see if it might be something you are interested in helping out on.
Best place to start is to go outside at night and look up and start noticing where the bright stars are and see if you can identify a few asterisms and constellations, like orion and the Big and little dippers, which are asterisms not constellations. Stellarium is pretty awesome, and it's it is freeware, but there is more than one download. You might want to get planisphere, but pay attention which latitude wht Planisphere is for.. i was in New orleans, using my father's plan shop here, whic was for 40 degrees north latitude,. New Orleans ist at 30 degrees north latitude.
All the equipment you need is your brain, your eyes and maybe some binoculars and a mount to hold th the binoculars steady.
Check at the the right column where there is link for first time telescope buyers. Hopefully you can afford to get a telescope with a clock drive. Don't forget pawn shops.
The bright planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus) are usually the easiest to find in the sky, in my opinion (well, other than the moon :))
Download Stellarium to see where and when everything is.
If you're observing from your backyard, you can also make a custom panorama backdrop of the backyard to import into Stellarium, so you can see what the buildings/houses will block out of view.
Hi there,
With your scope, the amount of stuff you'll get to see will be pretty limited by the fact that you only have 60mm of aperture (aperture is the diameter of the front lens of the scope and is the main thing that determines how much you'll get to see). You're going to mainly want to focus on the Moon, the planets, and the brighter deep-sky objects in the night sky (such as the Orion Nebula, Andromeda Galaxy, open clusters, etc), as most of the dimmer objects probably won't show up in your scope very well, if at all. Also, be aware that pushing the magnification over about 120x probably won't give you very good views, as you'll be pushing the maximum magnification of your scope (general rule of thumb is that the maximum magnification is 2x per millimeter of aperture, or 50x per inch of aperture). So, therefore, you won't want to use any eyepieces with focal lengths less than about 6mm (magnification = telescope focal length / eyepiece focal length).
One recommendation I have is to download Stellarium, a free planetarium program that will allow you to see how the sky looks at any given time from any given location. This will allow you to see what's up in the sky and where objects are located.
For upgrades, I'd probably suggest getting used to the scope first and figuring out how everything works before buying more accessories for it. It's up to you, but that'd be my recommendation.
Hope that helps, and feel free to ask anything other questions you might have both here and on the /r/telescopes subreddit - we're always glad to help out! :)
From my own experience: SkySafari is hands down the best app i've used on a mobile device.
For those using less mobile gadgets (as in, computers, laptops, netbooks) the Stellarium is a very good (and free, as in freedom) choice.
Think that's cool? Try this:
http://i.imgur.com/eES95Up.png
As great as this package is, it doesn't have a lot of help right in the program, you might find this helpful: http://www.stellarium.org/wiki/index.php/Interface_Guide
I would suggest that you start learning the constellations with a planisphere
Also, you might want to download Stellarium which is a great free planetarium program. You can set it to your location and it will show you what is in the night sky at any given time.
Not much I can add to this great list but there is free software out there as well. Stellarium is like a planetarium and Carte du Ciel is a good map program.
Also Internet forums.
This is, uh, extremely vague, especially with direction, where you are, and time of night unspecified
It would probably be best to get an app like Sky Map or Stellarium and point it at that spot
I spent $80 off amazon.
He’s the link: Meade Instruments 209003 Infinity 70Mm Az Refractor Telescope https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LY8JVZ2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_UhYeDbEJN634Q
Definitely worth it. By far the coolest thing I’ve ever got to see. I currently have my telescope pointed towards Saturn and I could distinguish the rings
I always thought Andromeda was much smaller than the Milky Way but apparently not (although maybe Andromeda is larger but less dense).
Also, there's likely identifiable remains of a small galaxy in the Milky Way from a recent collision. Discovered just a few years ago. The Aquarius Stream
The last place anybody should be looking for science news in the fucking Daily Mail.
Next week they are going to say that this star causes cancer.
As /r/digitalnecromancer said, do not under any circumstances look directly at the sun. What you can do, however, is make your own pinhole camera with common household items.
Turn Left at Orion is Guy's book. Turn Right at Orion is also a book, but different.
About 1274 Km (791.6 miles).
Take the distance between the Sun and Alpha centauri (~4.3 Lightyears or 4.153 x 10^16 meters) and divide that by the number you get by dividing the diameter of the Sun (1.391 x 10^9 metres) by the diameter of the golf ball (0.042672 meters).
Just ask a few questions at http://www.wolframalpha.com It's pretty darn cool.
The distance between New York and Chicago is 720 miles, so something's wrong somewhere. Could be me. Let me get a calculator...
EDIT: Yeah, I goofed a bit. I blame this napkin. Still, 720 is pretty close to 791. Here are the questions I asked of wolframalpha:
Diameter of the Sun divided by 1.68 inches.
Distance between the Sun and Alpha Centauri divided by 3.26x10^10.
EDIT: You can do it in a single question: ( Distance between the Sun and Alpha Centauri ) divided by ( Diameter of the Sun divided by 1.68 inches )
You should get a tripod and a pair of binoculars. It'll cost you maybe around 150€ but it'll be worth it. Plus, you can watch birds with it. A dobsonian would also be great, but let's not get carried away. If you speak German, do try the Kosmos Himmelsjahr. It's a book that is released annually. It has a chapter for each month, features an article about an interesting topic in every chapter and shows you the night sky any how the moons of Jupiter will progress throughout the month. It's a bit old-fashioned but it's a nice thing to go through. You could also get stelarium, which is free. It's a bit convoluted and intimidating to a beginner, but the site got a wiki and a forum and what not, so you can read up on what ever problem you may have. It's a planetarium app that can show you what's in the sky at your location and when. I use it to plan in advance what I want to look at. It also shows you planets and of course naked-eye things like the pleiades and constellations. It can be infuriating to set up, but it's a wonderful too and it's 100% free, both as in freedom and free beer.
Download a program called Stellarium. http://www.stellarium.org
Set the time and date to when you were at the festival, and adjust the location to match where you were. Then, scan the sky in the direction you were looking when you saw it. It'll help if you remember other celestial features that were nearby.
In half an hour, it should've moved a bit if it was anything celestial, but you may not have been able to discern the movement.
Judging by its brightness, the bright light in the images you posted is very likely to be Venus or Jupiter. The free planetarium software Stellarium should show you where they are on the given dates: http://www.stellarium.org/en_GB/
There is a "window in the sky" known as Baade's Window, a small patch of sky with a clear view through to the galactic core: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/what-can-you-see-through-baades-window0610201506/ Probably has nothing to do with your riddle though.
Dwonload Stellarium. Pay attention to the system requirements, because mobile devices may not have memory , capcity or bandwidth, and there is more than one download. i also helps if you already have one or more obseving sites, rural ones, if possible, where you are familiar with the western horizon. A paier of binoculars will help.. The key to seeing mercury naked eye is PATIENCE, you need to await until the Sun is far enough beneath the horizon that birght stars and planets, including mercury, have enough contrast with cky above the horizon. you need to be looking int the right areas at the right time because usually mercury will get close to the horizon and disappear into the murk before it sets.. you have about an hour to 90 minute 'window, and clouds can drive you crazy.
Success! i took a break from answering this question and went outside. I did see mercury. Fortunately there there are no other bright stars "near" Mercury, and I'm pretty familiar with the southwest horizon at my current apartment complex. Sunset was more than hour ago where i am. I've been hunting mercury for more than 5 decades, so i do know "where" to look, approximately. The binoculars are to confirm that it really is a planet and not a star. Even a cheap pair of binoculars will work. Patience and persistence are the keys to seeing mercury naked eye..
Happy New Years and happy Mercury hunting!!
http://stellarium.en.softonic.com/
I've used sourceforge for other downloads. It really is free and relatively "safe", but I usually prefer to download without using another source.
You may be interested in knowing that Triangulum and Perseus together formed an Egyptian constellation called "the bird". (Reference (PDF), see page 162) You can get an idea of what this constellation looked like by switching to Egyptian star lore in Stellarium.
Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. You can use Stellarium to figure out exactly which moon was which and help plan for future observations.
Get stellarium. It is a great free way to see what is visible and when. I wouldn't worry about a tripod until you feel you need one to keep the binos steady. I personally don't have a tripod dedicated to my binoculars and I use 10x50s.
I've just sort of picked up various names over the last few years of stargazing. At first the sky looks pretty chaotic but once you can recognise one or two of the more obvious constellations (such as Orion or Ursa Major) you'll start to find your way around easily. In this photo it was Sagitta that gave it away. It helps to have a really clear star map with you when you're observing. I find traditional paper maps slightly confusing so I use Stellarium. The constellations are the first things you pick up, after that I try and remember the name of maybe just the brightest star in each one. I've still got a long way to go before I can identify even half of the named stars in the sky :)
TL;DR Many nights out in the cold with a star map.
I would initially guess that it's Arcturus, as that's sort of in that direction and is a particularly shimmery one, but I think at 2:33am, it would have set. If you download a program called Stellarium you can punch in your location and time and look that direction to see if you can see it. Otherwise, what NancyGracesTesticles (felt weird typing that :P ) posted above would have an effect on how the stars look.
Virus Check:
The file looks clean. Here's the Virustotal report: http://www.virustotal.com/file-scan/report.html?id=29a0833c27cf152d8ca9e3e2e85792fe35be36874c268dc43aa0e3955a1caf43-1300174249
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Comment on the download process:
Rapidshare makes it difficult for the end user to download files. I suspect many people gave up before they ever started downloading the file.
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Comment on the software:
Why do you need 7 different seed numbers? Why not just a single one?
For any post processing wizards interesting it taking a crack, here is a link to the stacked .fits file without any post processing.
Homestar Pro Planetarium is pretty great.
You can buy it on Amazon.
But google it and check out the main site. It's pretty cool and pretty damn reasonably priced.
You need an eyepiece for what? What are your goals? What are you trying to accomplish that the original eyepieces don't help you with?
You could try a longer eyepiece, up to 32 mm or so, to give you brighter and wider images for DSOs. You could try to use a shorter eyepiece, down to maybe 5 mm and see if the scope delivers that kind of magnification for planets and double stars and the Moon; maybe even shorter but I kind of doubt it. Together with the 20 mm and the 10 mm that came with the scope, that should be a good set - four eyepieces evenly distributed across the useful range.
But try before you buy. Your scope's F/5 ratio is not very forgiving. But if you're fine with the current eyepieces, then you should be fine with regular Plossl eyepieces, so look for that design, they are cheap and good enough; the manufacturer doesn't matter that much, the design does.
The main reason they look that large is perspective. It doesn't really get bigger or closer, it's simply because it's close to the horizon and your brain creates the magic. That being said, you might wanna check out the hour the sun will rise/set on your local meteo website/tvchannel or whatever. You can try here for the moon I think
Yes the original of course, but it is harder to find. Neil deGrasse Tyson does the 2014 one brilliantly. If you like him at all its a must watch. He tells us the story of the day he met Carl Sagan. Not sure what region you are in but this is a link to the UK Netflix Cosmos.
https://www.netflix.com/title/80004448?preventIntent=true
Also if you use any of those Android apps you may find them there. 😊
AFAIK, intrinsically variable stars never behave as suddenly and irregularly as this one does. Compare light curves, and you can see what I mean.
Something is occulting the star, but if you ask me it looks more like a multitude of smaller objects (like a planet broken up by a recent collision) rather than a Dyson sphere.
I like to use https://sites.google.com/site/3davel/home/light-pollution/lp2001/gmap. It's a lot like the one your computer at work blocks but this one might work b/c it's a google site.
It would seem that way, but in fact, the most massive known star is 1000% "larger" than VY Canis Majoris.
The heavy weight champion of the universe: R136a1
Actually, the Earth almost always has a temporary secondary satellite snagged from the asteroid belt. It hangs around for a bit over a year before getting lost back into the belt and replaced.
Awesome photo though.
I'll recommend a class I'm taking on Introduction to Astronomy if you want something more academic. It's a free online class and you get assingments too. The class started on December and ends on March, maybe you'll have to wait until it starts again.
Very awesome! Thank you for posting this.
If anyone is interested in more free courses there are a ton available at Khan Academy on almost any topic you could think of. They also have quite a few available in their Cosmology and Astronomy section.
I think it's currently mainly in the news due to a few high-profile cases of users acting like assholes [2]
Its very cool tech, if you think about it, and I'm happy to see that there are uses for it that don't involve people getting up in each other's faces about the things.
There is a simulation of the entire universe entirely free called SpaceEngine here is the link http://spaceengine.org/download/ you can also buy it on steam for 25$ for a updated version with lots of new features and so you can support the developers. It has billions of stars, galaxies and planets to explore and over 150,000 real life objects too.
Stellarium is great for visualizing what you see at any given time. Check out Solar System Scope to understand why you see what you see.
If you spend a couple of minutes in heliocentric mode you be able to understand things like:
Looks like it's all done in post. My guess is that all shots were taken with the same exposure over several hours like a normal time-lapse. But for each frame of the final video, a sequence of images was selected and each image's brightness was modified using sequence order as a variable, with the older images in each sequence being less bright. The first frame would consist of (for example) shots 1-50 with shot 1 being dark, shot 25 being 50% brightness, and 50 being 100% brightness. The second frame would be of shots 2-51, third would be from 3-52, and so on.
Pretty awesome result. It reminds me of Universe Sandbox.
Thanks for the mention. I made Universe Sandbox. I've just hired an astronomy PhD to help make all the science more awesome.
We're working on the next version now (a free update to everyone that's purchased any version) with plans to improve the quality of galaxy collisions by adding dark matter halos and particle interactions (among tons of other improvements).
Jupiter starts rising around 6 PM at the moment, and Saturn around 8 PM. This will vary throughout the year. They rise in your southeastern sky, cross over to the north over the course of the night, and then set in the southwest.
Stellarium is a great tool for finding out what will be visible in the sky when, and which direction you should look to see things.
Provided you have good skies, you should be set. If you've never seen things like the moon or the planets through a scope before, it's going to be an unforgettable experience. I would say you should put red filters on your flashlights (I'm assuming you'll be using those) but that probably won't be necessary considering you'll most likely be observing the moon and planets, which are fairly bright and won't require well-developed night vision.
I would recommend getting a smartphone or PC planetarium app that shows you the objects in the sky, letting you know where to look and what to look at.
If you don't have access to an app like this, familiarize yourself with where the planets will be on the nights you're observing. Stellarium is a great free program for this, and they have a mobile app too. I know Jupiter will appear as a bright star near the moon these next few nights, but I can't vouch for the next week.
I found this handy webpage that'll give you lots of info if you're still curious.
Clear skies and have fun observing!
There's a free program called Stellarium that, among many other features, will allow you to plug in various telescopes, eyepieces, cameras, barlow/reducer lenses, etc and will simulate exactly what the aforementioned combinations will show you.
I threw together a few images showing how to set everything up if you're interested! Hopefully this'll help you get a better idea of what sorts of magnifications you'd like based on what you'd like to be able to look at!
Hi there! :)
I'll second the recommendation to download and install Stellarium. It's a really great piece of software, and all you need to do to learn the constellations is turn on the constellation labels and lines and then try to match what you see on the screen to what you see in the sky above you (just be sure to set it for your location's latitude and longitude first, though).
Clear skies! :)
There is a free program called Stellarium (get it here: http://www.stellarium.org/en_CA/)
If you put in your location, it can show you what will be in your particular sky at any given time. You can move forwards and backwards in time and it's actually very accurate.
I'm pretty new to the hobby, but it seems Jupiter is mostly up during the day in the northern hemishphere, at least until November when it starts peaking up around 4-5 AM.
You may be able to find other targets for bed time viewing using Stellarium though. For example, it is a great time to see Saturn in the south-west sky.
The most important thing to consider when buying a telescope is aperture. Aperture is the diameter of the mirror or lens and it determines how bright and sharp objects appear in the telescope. An 8" telescope will inherently show more/have better views than a 5" telescope.
That celestron telescope has around 5" of aperture so it is pretty good but you see that the computer adds a lot to the cost. I've never owned a computerized telescope but I have borrowed one and I found it frustrating to program and set up the telescope every time I wanted to use it.
With a dobsonian you can easily manually point it at what you want to look at with no gimmicks or possible frustrations a computer might cause (such as firmware updates, power supply, computer errors, tracking problems). Also, I find manually pointing at stuff forces you to learn constellations and the locations of objects which is a lot of fun. I use Stellarium to find objects to look at.
The Celestron NexStar 130 SLT is probably a great telescope but I strongly believe an 8" dobsonian is the perfect compromise in aperture, portability, ease of use, and price for a beginner. And YES, it is a pretty big telescope but I don't find it hard at all to pick up and move around. It can also be taken apart and fit into cars to take to dark sky locations.
I had one of those! Mine was a pre-Cosmos edition, and it looks like it now comes with better eyepieces (the ones I got were just awful) and a proper finder! It is not junk and will definitely not break. You can see quite a lot with that little scope. I saw: great views of the moon, Jupiter clearly resolved as a disc with the four Galilean moons easily visible, Venus resolved as a clear crescent, the Orion nebula, the double cluster in Perseus, the Andromeda Galaxy, and much more.
It's a super little scope for the money. My biggest complaint was mine wasn't quite collimated (mirrors aligned) so you couldn't get sharp focus since it's not adjustable, but that's not really what this scope is about. I wouldn't bother with a barlow at all, it really can't tolerate higher magnification. Moon filter is a personal preference but I never wanted one. It's only a 76mm mirror so I did not find the moon that bright.
As long as you have reasonable expectations, you can get a lot out of this scope. If you can swing it, Turn Left at Orion is a great book. If not, Stellarium is good free planetarium software. Clear skies!
Indeed, the view is beautiful. Astronomy starts with some simple bins (10x50 is all you need).
Yesterday (with the help of stellarium), I used my bins to see the comet lovejoy (grab him while you can), a faint snowball in the sky (astronomy is 50% imagination), and I was really thrilled.
This weekend I ordered a 10" dobsonian to give this new-found hobby a little boost :).
I can recommend the Dobson base, but be aware that a 10'' telescope is not handy at all. So if you are planning on moving around a lot, you'd better go for something with a tripod. However, if you want to observe from a city, this telescope has the advantage that you will still be able to see a lot of cool stuff because it collects much light (the large aperture helps in areas with high light pollution).
What will you be able to see? Popular targets for a beginner are planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Mars), nebulae (Heart and Soul nebulae, Orion nebulae), certain galaxies (Firewheel galaxy, M31...) and, of course, the moon.
To get started I found Stellarium very helpful. You can simply enter the data of any telescope, pick an eye-piece, aim at the virtual nightsky and find out what to expect :)
You could use the freeware program Stellarium to find it. Simply download and install, and hit search in the lower left panel. There you can search by name etcetera, but you can also enter those coordinates. Did a quick search myself and this came up.
It's a very faint star though...
If you enjoy this, try out Stellarium. Made by the ESA, with a lot of info on every object. You can put in your coordinates and it will show a pretty accurate version of what you will see on a cloudless night. Even has a telescope view, wich you can adjust, to replicate what you might see using a telescope, or even binoculars.
If you go out tonight the brightest thing out besides the Moon is Jupiter. It's noticeably much brighter than any other star, so it's easy to find. If you go out around 4AM Mars and Saturn are also very bright, but there's also stars out around the same brightness. They're also fairly low in the sky right now so not the greatest views.
Download Stellarium, it helps a lot.
Mostly just by entering in your coordinates to some planetarium software and looking around for something matching your magnitude (like I mentioned, the coordinates are in a pretty dense part of the sky).
I use TheSkyX myself, but other programs (like the free Stellarium application) are also very popular. If you haven't tried one out yet, you definitely should!
Yes you'll be able to see it from Boston. Look towards the East as that's the direction the constellation Gemini will rise and where the shower will appear to originate from.
You can download planetarium software such as http://www.stellarium.org/ to find out where to look and at what time from your location.
These two screenshots were taken from a free program called Stellarium. For sky and viewing options, you can choose from 14 different star lore systems. I chose to compare Western and Korean systems because how noticeably different they are, which I think is really cool. All of the different sky cultures are super interesting.
Have you downloaded Stellarium? It's really useful for getting oriented to what there is to see in the night sky.
I think the package you're describing is pretty complete for someone starting out. Once you get the red dot finder going, you should be good for several months of observing with the scope as it sits.
Get Stellarium. Singlehandedly the most helpful tool I know of. Totally free, will tell you where everything you want to know is.
When looking at the moon, it's always more interesting to look when the moon is NOT full, as you can see hundreds and hundreds of craters along the shadow lines, that you can't see otherwise.
Saturn's out this time of year, Stellarium will tell you where abouts it is in relation to your town! It's always a great thing to look at.
25 x 70 and 20 x 80's are out of the question. They are defiantly movable, but they are just too heavy to be handhold for more than 10 minutes and they quickly become hard to hold steady (my own experience). A 10x50 (or 12x50) should do you fine, and the olympus 12x50 EXPS are probably good enough.
You won't be able to see the rings of Saturn or any detail on Jupiter with binoculars. You will be able to spot the 4 moons of Jupiter, the moon (obviously), and objects such as m45 looks really well!
If you like the hobby then I will recommend you to buy a telescope at some point:)
Also, you should consider buying some books about astronomy and telescope/binoculars and download this program if you haven't already (it will help you greatly locating objects, and it's free):
EDIT: added more text!
First things first, you should download (free) Stellarium and try to learn your night sky. If you get in dark enough skies you could see andromeda with your naked eye. I live in a city, so the light pollution is really bad, but with Stellarium I know where Andromeda is in the sky (from where I am it's almost level with Jupiter, in the northwest sky.
I ditched Celestia in favour of stellarium.
It's not as pretty but is faster and works out better as an astronomy tool in my eyes. (plus there is a red light mode for night viewing!)