Earth, Just a spec of dust
18 July 2006, 01:27 AM
#3
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Cool pics mate!
So hard to grasp the size of it all, gives a good indication!
Hope i get to go into space one day!
(you never know, might become best mates with Richard Branson or something!)
So hard to grasp the size of it all, gives a good indication!
Hope i get to go into space one day!
(you never know, might become best mates with Richard Branson or something!)
18 July 2006, 01:57 AM
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and that's not the biggest star either... but I need some sleep first.
Lets just say that light it'self takes 6.7 hours to travel round it !!!
Anyone got a neurofen
Andy
Lets just say that light it'self takes 6.7 hours to travel round it !!!
Anyone got a neurofen
Andy
18 July 2006, 07:40 AM
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I want to see a picture of earth (visible, just!) in relation to Antares - I appreciate this would take a lot of paper or one hell of a monitor but I really want to appreciate that scale somehow!
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18 July 2006, 08:16 AM
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And if that didn't make you feel insignificant enough:
"A 24 hour clock is a scale the average person can see and understand. To do this we must take all the time which has passed from the start of the known universe until today and compare it to the sweep of the hands on a 24 hour clock. The current belief is that the clock started 12 billion years ago. To represent this on a 24 hour clock each hours sweep of the hand would represent 500 million years (1/2 billion years). On this clock the hand swept for about 15 hours before the earth, sun and the planets start forming thus starting geological time (4.5 billion year ago). Life on our planet started only after the clock had been running for 23 hours or about one hour to go (representing 500 million years ago), 28 seconds to go after the clock had been sweeping around for 23 hours 59 minutes and 32 seconds man has come out of the trees (5 million years ago) thus starting archaeological time, 3/4 of a second to go man has begun speaking and language is born and with it political and historical time (115 thousand years ago). On the clock of all known time, human history is not as long as one mississippi! Less than one second contains all usable humans knowledge. Hard concept to accept for a species which knows that the Universe revolves about him. "
"A 24 hour clock is a scale the average person can see and understand. To do this we must take all the time which has passed from the start of the known universe until today and compare it to the sweep of the hands on a 24 hour clock. The current belief is that the clock started 12 billion years ago. To represent this on a 24 hour clock each hours sweep of the hand would represent 500 million years (1/2 billion years). On this clock the hand swept for about 15 hours before the earth, sun and the planets start forming thus starting geological time (4.5 billion year ago). Life on our planet started only after the clock had been running for 23 hours or about one hour to go (representing 500 million years ago), 28 seconds to go after the clock had been sweeping around for 23 hours 59 minutes and 32 seconds man has come out of the trees (5 million years ago) thus starting archaeological time, 3/4 of a second to go man has begun speaking and language is born and with it political and historical time (115 thousand years ago). On the clock of all known time, human history is not as long as one mississippi! Less than one second contains all usable humans knowledge. Hard concept to accept for a species which knows that the Universe revolves about him. "
18 July 2006, 08:57 AM
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The only objects in that list that I haven't seen yet are Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. And only Pluto is too dim to be seen in my telescope.
Oh, and the Sun will be quite large in a few billion years when it expands to become a red giant - like Betelgeuse.
Oh, and the Sun will be quite large in a few billion years when it expands to become a red giant - like Betelgeuse.
18 July 2006, 10:39 AM
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Excellent pics.
I started playing with amateur astronomy around 6 months ago, the latest telescopes with "go to" and track facility make it easy for numpties like me to get into it in a short space of time.
Set up my scope for first time, calibrated and told it to go to Saturn. Looked through the scope thinking this is going to be rubbish and nearly fell over!!! Since then I have been looking at more and more and I have also purchased myself a CCD imager. Scope is an ETX-105 UHTC with go to and imager is an LPI CCD. You can see some examples on the link below (none of my own work btw)
http://www.weasner.com/etx/guests/20...s_planets.html
I started playing with amateur astronomy around 6 months ago, the latest telescopes with "go to" and track facility make it easy for numpties like me to get into it in a short space of time.
Set up my scope for first time, calibrated and told it to go to Saturn. Looked through the scope thinking this is going to be rubbish and nearly fell over!!! Since then I have been looking at more and more and I have also purchased myself a CCD imager. Scope is an ETX-105 UHTC with go to and imager is an LPI CCD. You can see some examples on the link below (none of my own work btw)
http://www.weasner.com/etx/guests/20...s_planets.html
18 July 2006, 12:21 PM
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Originally Posted by billythekid
Excellent pics.
I started playing with amateur astronomy around 6 months ago, the latest telescopes with "go to" and track facility make it easy for numpties like me to get into it in a short space of time.
Set up my scope for first time, calibrated and told it to go to Saturn. Looked through the scope thinking this is going to be rubbish and nearly fell over!!! Since then I have been looking at more and more and I have also purchased myself a CCD imager. Scope is an ETX-105 UHTC with go to and imager is an LPI CCD. You can see some examples on the link below (none of my own work btw)
http://www.weasner.com/etx/guests/20...s_planets.html
I started playing with amateur astronomy around 6 months ago, the latest telescopes with "go to" and track facility make it easy for numpties like me to get into it in a short space of time.
Set up my scope for first time, calibrated and told it to go to Saturn. Looked through the scope thinking this is going to be rubbish and nearly fell over!!! Since then I have been looking at more and more and I have also purchased myself a CCD imager. Scope is an ETX-105 UHTC with go to and imager is an LPI CCD. You can see some examples on the link below (none of my own work btw)
http://www.weasner.com/etx/guests/20...s_planets.html
18 July 2006, 12:46 PM
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I bought an ETX-70 and couldn't see bugger all with it. In the loft now like all the other crap I've bought through the years. You need to spend over £500 on a telescope or not bother at all IMHO.
18 July 2006, 12:55 PM
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Originally Posted by mad_dr
DBW - is that Bill Bryson? When the hell is he going to write another book?!
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/.../flat/home.php
18 July 2006, 01:20 PM
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Originally Posted by Brendan Hughes
BTW, wasn't Aldebaran destroyed by the Death Star?
.But Beetlejuice was a great film
.
18 July 2006, 01:42 PM
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Originally Posted by hail-hail
What scope do you have? I'm kinda into the stars but find it difficult with my bog standard point and look telescope.......now, being able to tell it what to do sounds just the ticket
Have you never heard of starhopping to find what you're looking for? That's half the fun of astronomy.
18 July 2006, 01:54 PM
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Originally Posted by hail-hail
What scope do you have? I'm kinda into the stars but find it difficult with my bog standard point and look telescope.......now, being able to tell it what to do sounds just the ticket
It was £550 and its been more than worth the cost. I purchased my LPI CCD via e-bay. Sky view also were very helpful giving me some good tips to get the scope set up on my first time out etc.
Some people do prefer to search the sky for their targets etc but I dont have much time and I have very little knowledge of the sky so this device allows me to really make the most of my time and knowledge.
The basic process is to align the scope with north, then level it off using a spirit level, then you turn the scope on and key in the time and date. Once you have done this the scope will set off in search of a very bright star. Once its there you look through the eye piece and centre the star in the middle, it then does this for a second star. Thats it, takes about 3mins and once thats done you just select the object / star / planet / galaxy etc you want to view and press go to.
The 105 is best used for viewing planets in our solar system and some galaxys but the key (IME so far) is getting to a site thats dark enough to start with. CCD images also help as you can take long exposures and see faint objects easily.
18 July 2006, 02:01 PM
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Originally Posted by TonyG
You youngsters Have you never heard of starhopping to find what you're looking for? That's half the fun of astronomy.
Have you never heard of starhopping to find what you're looking for? That's half the fun of astronomy.
18 July 2006, 02:10 PM
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Originally Posted by Reality
I was gonna write that but decided against it in case some smart **** corrected me or called me a geek .
But Beetlejuice was a great film.
.But Beetlejuice was a great film
. hehe
18 July 2006, 03:00 PM
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got rid of my meade schmitt cass last year as i have moved back to the city. still have my 10" dob and a 4" refractor that i can throw in the car and take to dark skies about 45 mins drive away.
18 July 2006, 03:01 PM
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Originally Posted by bigsinky
got rid of my meade schmitt cass last year as i have moved back to the city. still have my 10" dob and a 4" refractor that i can throw in the car and take to dark skies about 45 mins drive away.
