The Astronomy Thread

Find a local club and go to a star party or whatever they want to call it. View through all sizes and styles of telescopes and get an idea of what you can see and if it's what you are after price wise. Most of them will have a dozen or more telescopes set up from really cheap ones they drag out for just those ocassions to really really expensive ones. Some clubs have just a weekly deal at a park or whatever. I know the one in Austin met weekly and anyone was open to come and ask questions and view through the multitude of scopes set up. They met at the dam each week.

Pretty cool choice by Bezos. 50 years later she finally gets a chance.

BrutulTM said:

I can't believe Bezos' board isn't telling him not just no, but hell no. If Branson wants to go down in a fiery crash it's probably not a big deal at this point but Bezos is pretty fucking important.

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I'm sure they have, but you also have to think about what Branson and Bezos' space companies want to do near term: Tourism. There's no better way for you to tell prospective clients that your platform is safe by using it yourself.

MusicForFish said:

It's a race to see which elite will blown themselves up? My money's on Branson.

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It's a race to irrelevancy because SpaceX is going to get their fully reusable first and second stage Starship combination going.

BrutulTM said:

They both want it because it's one thing that either of them has a chance to do that SpaceX hasn't already done.

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Comparing it to what SpaceX has done is kind of like comparing Go-Kart racing to Formula-one or some such. SpaceX _has_ sent people to orbit. Yes. space tourism and all that, but suborbital short hops is nothing compared to going to orbit, which SpaceX is going to do first. They'll be first company providing space tourism to the moon too.

If Bezos had pulled it off five years ago, then maybe they'd be somewhere by now.

SpaceX isn’t banking on tourism for profits, though, to the same degree BO and Virgin are currently. The vehicles Bezos and Branson are going up on are specifically made with tourism in mind.

SpaceX just adds some modular stuff to existing platforms. Like the flight in Sept, they will put a viewing window in the docking hatch spot, but other than that, no heavy modifications

Cybsled said:

SpaceX isn’t banking on tourism for profits, though, to the same degree BO and Virgin are currently. The vehicles Bezos and Branson are going up on are specifically made with tourism in mind.

SpaceX just adds some modular stuff to existing platforms. Like the flight in Sept, they will put a viewing window in the docking hatch spot, but other than that, no heavy modifications

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'just'. Lol.

SpaceX will take you to the space station. (Sarcasm Detected!) That's just a teensy bit more than a short sub-orbital hop to no where.

I sincerely doubt Blue Origin is in to space for the space tourism, no matter what they've been claiming. They're trying to partner up with old space and make money that way while pretending to be new space for the better PR (and to help bring down SpaceX). It's not going too well for them, though.

No, I mean the platforms Virgin and BO are using for tourism stuff are specifically made for that purpose (sub-orbital tourism).

Cybsled said:

No, I mean the platforms Virgin and BO are using for tourism stuff are specifically made for that purpose (sub-orbital tourism).

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No, I mean it doesn't matter which of them launches first; as space tourism vehicles and opportunities they are kiddie pool level experiences compared to what you'll be able to get from SpaceX (ie going to the space station).

You can try to rephrase all you want, but this comparison isn't going away. BO and Virgin are a joke.

Well of course, that's obvious. I never said BO or Virgin were any current competition in actual orbital space.

Weird how no one mentioned this. Pretty much over at this point as long as they can glide it in.