The Astronomy Thread

Moogalak

Moogalak

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Bought ourselves one of the seestar s50. We just received it a couple weeks ago, but I hadn't had a chance to mess with it until last night. I have to say, I am impressed at how easy it is to set up and use. The app is decent enough, could be improved. The wifi range on it is tiny, and your phone connects to the s50 wifi so you can control it. It has daytime capabilities: a solar filter so you can photgraph the sun, scenery mode which seems sketch af as the intro video literally shows the user pointing it at an apartment building in China at extreme long range, lol. It's quiet, lightweight and takes amazing exposures.

Here's some quick exposures we took in my backyard in DFW with nearly a full moon:
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www.seestar.com
 
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MusicForFish

MusicForFish

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Moogalak said:
Bought ourselves one of the seestar s50. We just received it a couple weeks ago, but I hadn't had a chance to mess with it until last night. I have to say, I am impressed at how easy it is to set up and use. The app is decent enough, could be improved. The wifi range on it is tiny, and your phone connects to the s50 wifi so you can control it. It has daytime capabilities: a solar filter so you can photgraph the sun, scenery mode which seems sketch af as the intro video literally shows the user pointing it at an apartment building in China at extreme long range, lol. It's quiet, lightweight and takes amazing exposures.

Here's some quick exposures we took in my backyard in DFW with nearly a full moon:
View attachment 506295

View attachment 506296

View attachment 506297

www.seestar.com
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Still pretty impressive at that price point, thanks for sharing!
 
Aaron

Aaron

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Never heard of Vulcan before, had to google it. Turns out it's ULA's "next-gen" heavy launcher. But it's still only single use. I'd have thought single use - at least in the US market - was by now dead thanks to Space-X? I mean, can they launch cheaper on single use rockets than Space-X can on multi-use ones?
 
Burns

Burns

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Aaron said:
Never heard of Vulcan before, had to google it. Turns out it's ULA's "next-gen" heavy launcher. But it's still only single use. I'd have thought single use - at least in the US market - was by now dead thanks to Space-X? I mean, can they launch cheaper on single use rockets than Space-X can on multi-use ones?
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Money is hardly a consideration when the US government is paying for it...

It was still a good idea to have a backup program in place, in case Space-X failed. The chances of that are now only in the case of bankruptcy, though.
 
Cybsled

Cybsled

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They still want redundancy if possible. SpaceX is doing great atm, but if something happened that prevented them from fulfilling that role, you want a viable 2nd launcher option

Otherwise you get that awkward period like we had between the shuttle and dragon for manned launches for example
 
Tuco

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
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Going to get harder and harder to justify spending $$$ for single-use rockets. I hope the US Gov is shoveling some money to ULA to simply rip off SpaceX instead of funding old-space projects that will go from arguably obsolete to completely obsolete once Starship is ready.
 
C

Captain Suave

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Tuco said:
shoveling some money to ULA to simply rip off SpaceX
Click to expand...

Easier said than done. You could outright give them the designs and tooling and they wouldn't have the human capital and institutional experience to pull off a launch.
 
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Kharzette

Kharzette

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This is the new raptor style tech with the methane stuff. First one to reach orbit in the states.

Hilariously before ULA or SpaceX could do it, the chinese stole the tech and launched one mid last year.
 
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meStevo

meStevo

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Cybsled

Cybsled

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That’s pretty awesome - I wonder how accessible it will be. Relatively warmer temps and access to plentiful water would be pretty good perks for future settlements or bases
 
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L

Lenardo

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ice 2 miles thick?...we could build a station in there, insulate and have unlimited water just on the other side of the walls
and with the ice, can seal pretty good for air tightness for pressurization most likely....
 
Cybsled

Cybsled

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Building ON the ice wouldn't be that good an idea because you'd be sitting on top of a potentially unstable surface if it heated up.

Mars equator gets pretty warm on the surface...relatively speaking. Like up to 70F during the day during the summer, although then at night it goes back to -100 lol
 
C

Captain Suave

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Cybsled said:
Building ON the ice wouldn't be that good an idea because you'd be sitting on top of a potentially unstable surface if it heated up.
Click to expand...

Seems to work fine in Antarctica, and beyond a couple feet down it sounds like the Martian soil is well permafrosted. Failing all that we've already build entire cities on pilings. Subterranean is a better bet anyway; a bit of excavation and you've got ready-made radiation shielding.
 
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