The Astronomy Thread

I find it bizarre Jupiter has all those almost perfectly shaped spherical clouds almost perfectly spaced out along the middle of the planet. So intriguing.

spronk said:

Newly discovered exoplanet is 'hotter than most stars' - CNN.com
The newest-discovered exoplanet doesn't act like any planet you've ever heard of. The bizarre find is 650 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Cygnus.

KELT-9b is a giant planet nearly twice the size of Jupiter, with a dayside temperature hotter than that of most stars and thousands of degrees warmer than any known exoplanet, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature.

It's so close to its host star, KELT-9, that it orbits every 1.5 days, unlike the year it takes Earth to orbit our sun. This proximity isn't exactly kind to it.

The star is twice as hot and 2.5 times more massive than our sun. It's also rotating 50 times faster than our sun -- so fast that its poles have flattened and the equator bulges out. This makes it the hottest host star of an exoplanet that we know of, said Scott Gaudi, study author and professor of astronomy at the Ohio State University.
The planet is tidally locked to its star, like the moon always shows the same face to Earth. Its dayside would look orangeish, so hot that complex molecules can't stay together and only 2,000 degrees cooler than our sun. If you poured water on the surface, it would immediately disassociate into oxygen and hydrogen, Gaudi said.

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This is one point where NDT has to be invoked. You can call that a planet, fairly and technically, but is that what we mean when we talk about planets?

The smallest stars are only about 10x the size of Jupiter, right? And this one is 2x. So this was almost a binary star system but instead of an equilibrium one of them was dominant.

I mean that's kinda neat. It seems like, if it doesn't burn out first, once the star stops spinning so fast it will have itself a snack.

I made a thread in product reviews but here seems like if fine target audience directly.

Looking for an entry telescope better than a $100 garbage costco special. (I know for example anything advertising it's 40x 20x etc magnification is shit) More about length/diameter of light intake (collimator or that the bit inside) and quality of eyepeices etc.


Don't want to jump super high end right off the back either. I've tried to talk her out of it because my dollar is on it hardly getting used especially after getting frustrated trying to use it. She's never been the technical type or one to put a lot of time into learning anything complicated. (Fancy $350 camera? Learn about Fstop etc? Nope big point and shoot on auto it is.) Because of that i figure the motorized with libraries probably better for a casual.

EDIT: Found it. What I was concerned about is how critical the accessory package would be or buying anything highly needed like different eye peices. Because at $450 it's tolerable, but jumps to $800 with the extra bits.

Amazon.com : Celestron NexStar 4 SE Telescope : Catadioptric Telescopes : Camera & Photo


She looked at this page also but I'm not sure i can trust it as in my experience most of these kinda of lists are garbage. Best Telescopes for the Money

Big Phoenix said:

We had nuclear rockets ready to go back in the 70s.

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They created an engine to test the concepts and declared it usable for being designed into a rocket. An actual engine for actually putting into a rocket was not actually ever developed (never mind actually making a nuclear rocket).

So, no, we didn't have nuclear rockets ready to go, though perhaps we could have. It's all politics, the space race was destroying the national budget, and it was felt that nuclear rockets would have committed us to a Mars mission and the continuation (or escalation) of the space race, destroying our national budget.

Searching the internet, I did not find any assessment as to the hazards (if any) of nuclear rockets. I suppose in today's age such a thing would never get approval, barring a serious space threat to mankind.

Too late for this weekend but if it doesn't come with them get some pads for next time. Basically will reduce the jitter and so forth.
Amazon.com : Gosky Tripod Vibration Suppression Pads / Vibration Dampening Pads for Telescope Spotting Scope Big Binocular and DSLR Camera Tripod Mount : Electronics

If you search Amazon for Tripod vibration pad they have all sorts. For a buck more than these you can get it with metal ball on backside and a more neutral color and bit better quality. Can also get them cheaper but just foam.

Bravo! Welcome to space addiction. Now you'll upgrade to the 21' bass boat. Use it 10x then leave it parked in your driveway for decades for the neighbors to admire!
Seriously though, I'm jealous you are camping.

Big Phoenix said:

Amazing. When I viewed Jupiter just at sunset could actually see the banding and coloration in it.

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And all the moons.

Big Phoenix said:

Amazing. When I viewed Jupiter just at sunset could actually see the banding and coloration in it.

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I sold my tellie, after the Haley comet let down. Drove the hell out of the LA light pollution for it. I lugged that thing all over. But like @meStevo, I suck at collimating. Back then the auto ones were more than I cared to spend.

Now, I'm actively looking for dark sky.

Olebass said:

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And that's just the ones we know about!

iannis said:

And that's just the ones we know about!

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Notice none of them are stupid enough to path into the sun, yet we are sending a mission to touch it. /RIP

Stunning little video, I feel like a bit of a wierdo being so constantly enamored with the fact that I am truly an ant. We live in a crazy time, the sky, Space is more ridiculous than we could have possibly imaged. However, today's story seems to be very much real. And real in the very sense that SpaceX understands the laws of physics to land fucking space rockets. And Nasa understands physics enough to send a fridge past Jupiter to meet up with a tiny ball of stuff 9 years later. A fridge traveling 36,000 mph, which in the context of everything is remarkably slow.

I love the fact that the Moon is moving, it clearly doesn't just sit there, and the sensation of watching it move in real time is quite breathtaking. Thanks for sharing.

Big Phoenix said:

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