Astronomy General Space Discussion

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rippersnipper

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Jun 22, 2014
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Yeah it's Venus. It's the third brightest object in the sky, always appears low on the horizon to the east at dawn and low on the horizon to the west at dusk (hence its titles: 'the evening star' and 'the morning star'). There're also not many other bright (first magnitude) objects to the west in the evening at the moment, and Venus would still appear first in any case, given that it's brighter than all of them.
 
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Aug 27, 2014
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Is the first object to appear in the night sky at this time of year Venus or a star? It appears lowish in the western sky, way before other stars appear.
Night sky, Venus, yes as others pointed out.
The Moon is often quite visible well before night sky though. Lot of people do not notice it though, because it is not night...
It is weird how little most of us look up at the sky.
 

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This might not be the place for it, but a recent survey of uni students (i think in America) showed that a lot of them didn't know why we have seasons.
So, I asked a few people i know, and most of them didn't know, either
 
Aug 27, 2014
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This might not be the place for it, but a recent survey of uni students (i think in America) showed that a lot of them didn't know why we have seasons.
So, I asked a few people i know, and most of them didn't know, either
Not overly surprising. Most people know we have seasons, but never really think why.
I'm sure if asked most people why sky blue, most would not know why, because they never even thought to think why.
 

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Norm Smith Medallist
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Curious Planet is having a big closing down sale. How much do I need to spend to get a decent telescope?

 
Aug 27, 2014
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Not having a telescope but would like one, I would think over $300 to get a half decent one.
Otherwise just get powerful binoculars until you know you are really going to use a telescope often enough to make a bigger spend worth it.
 

rippersnipper

What up son, whatever
Jun 22, 2014
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I've been looking to buy a new 'scope for a few years now. I'm not sure what's good or not good, and the big sticking point is that it has to be a big upgrade on the two that I currently have. Unfortunately a beginner's piece won't cut it and therefore my price range is probably somewhere between $400-$1000. The other issue is that you don't want to have it shipped to you, because it'll be a bitch to deal with if it is damaged in transit. Better to get it physically from the store.
 
Aug 27, 2014
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Better to get it physically from the store.
I agree. Go get it physically. I think I had one for about six years around early 2000's and purchased at some Astronomy shop in Ringwood near some clock tower. Do not even remember the brand of it. It was good when lived out in the sticks but later when lived in suburbs light pollution put me off setting it up again and sold it on ebay at some point.
 

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trawlerman

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I've been looking to buy a new 'scope for a few years now. I'm not sure what's good or not good, and the big sticking point is that it has to be a big upgrade on the two that I currently have. Unfortunately a beginner's piece won't cut it and therefore my price range is probably somewhere between $400-$1000. The other issue is that you don't want to have it shipped to you, because it'll be a bitch to deal with if it is damaged in transit. Better to get it physically from the store.
For $1000 you can buy a really powerful reflector telescope second hand and a lot are in remarkably good condition from not being used a great deal. That's what I'd suggest and it's very wise to try before you buy.
 

M Malice

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Entertaining discussion with former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman, currently working as a Professor of Astronautical Engineering at USC and for Elon Musk as Senior adviser at SpaceX. Joe Rogan is a great interviewer, always lets his guests be the main attraction.

 

rippersnipper

What up son, whatever
Jun 22, 2014
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With all of this fanfare about Betelgeuse and it going supernova soon (highly unlikely), I find myself looking up at carina and hoping that Eta Carinae decides to call it quits. Some chance that it could produce a hypernova given it's mass, binary nature and the amount of material expelled from the system during former outbursts.

Let's hope that whichever milky way star (type Ia seems more likely) goes next is visible in our neck of the woods, and does so within our life times. Hasn't been one since the late 1800s as far as we know, and that wasn't even visible on earth (infact neither of the past two known Milky Way SNs were).
 
The closest black hole to Earth has been located in HR 6819 about 1000 light years away (our galaxy is about 120,000 light years across):


TL;DR summary: It's 4-5 times as heavy as the Sun, but only about 40 km diameter. There are two young stars orbiting close to this black hole, and apparently they are near enough to Earth to be visible to the naked eye. The next closest known black hole is about 3200 light years away.
 
Aug 21, 2016
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Who's gunna watch the SpaceX launch? It's due for 6:33 am eastern Aus time. I gather there's quite a few live streams



They've fuelled it. Fingers crossed the weather clears up. Imagine how those two astronauts must be feeling right now!

Edit - they called it off for today. Safety has to come first.
 
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