The Astronomy Thread

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Edaw

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giphy.gif
 
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pharmakos

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Pharmakos is 100% correct in everything he's said. His deep understanding of how hot water swirls around when it boils is fundamental to connecting the speed of light with the concept of terminal velocity. These revelations are how civilizations break through great filters.

At the end of the day it all goes back to the classical problem of how to most efficiently stack spheres in a given space. Since two particles can't occupy the same space. There absolutely is a connection. The fact that the particles are vibrating complicates things, but still. Doesn't matter if we are talking photons or hadrons, when it comes to the ways they fill space, they're going to follow roughly the same rules at the basic level.
 

Borzak

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Galaxy season is upon us. Ordered new telescope mount that is much lighter than my main mount. Plan on doing some light astrophotography with a much smaller telescope. Things have really changed in the last 15 years. Though weight is always a plus in steadiness I'm downsizing a lot.

My old mount I could and often did use up to a 8" refelector up to 4' long. New mount will be used for a 72mm scope, plus counterweights, plus camera, plus finder, plus guide scope. It adds up.
 
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meStevo

I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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First evidence of active volcanism on Venus using data from Magellan in the 90s announced today.

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Borzak

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Freaking Putin. One of the biggest and until recently only maker of Maksutov type telescopes was in Russia. It's something they are actually good at. I missed it but apparently that company went to full military stuff 5 years ago. So can't get a Maksutov Newtonian telescope now. Blah, Putin. From the name guessing it was a Russian who invented that type along with Mak Casses. Looked it up, he was during WWII.
 
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Loser Araysar

Chief Russia Correspondent / Stock Pals CEO
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Freaking Putin. One of the biggest and until recently only maker of Maksutov type telescopes was in Russia. It's something they are actually good at. I missed it but apparently that company went to full military stuff 5 years ago. So can't get a Maksutov Newtonian telescope now. Blah, Putin. From the name guessing it was a Russian who invented that type along with Mak Casses. Looked it up, he was during WWII.

Wartime economy, baby.

Was it LOMO?
 

Borzak

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They did it 5 years ago, guess Russia wa ramping up. Intes Micro.
 
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Oldbased

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Virgin Orbit has not paid any employees and all deals to be bought have failed thus far.
Sounds like they are almost officially out of the jet rocket race.
 

Sanrith Descartes

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Virgin Orbit has not paid any employees and all deals to be bought have failed thus far.
Sounds like they are almost officially out of the jet rocket race.
Just another example of Musk dominating a market segment and it's challengers falling by the wayside.
 

Cybsled

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I think part of the problem with Virgin is they focused on civilian joyrides as a business model for most of their existence, then tried to spin off a commercial satellite launch platform from that.
 
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1987

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I think part of the problem with Virgin is they focused on civilian joyrides as a business model for most of their existence, then tried to spin off a commercial satellite launch platform from that.
If their model was more effective or efficient Musk would be using it. Virgins problem is that they wanted to do something new and unique. They chose novelty over practicality.
 

Tuco

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  • Virgin Orbit is ceasing operations “for the foreseeable future” after failing to secure a funding lifeline, CEO Dan Hart told employees during an all-hands meeting Thursday.
  • The company will lay off all but 100 employees, according to audio of the 5 p.m. ET meeting obtained by CNBC.
  • Shareholders unloaded the stock in extended trading Thursday.