Starship Asterisk*

I saw Jupiter (not shown) and Venus. The sky was too cloudy to see Mercury or 12/P, even through a binocular.

I did see solar prominences for the first time ever, though!

Was anyone able to see a brightness gradient on last night’s eclipse? I couldn’t.

It completes one orbit in just 7 hours and 39 minutes. That's faster than a Mars rotation, which corresponds to about 24 hours and 40 minutes. So on Mars, Phobos can be seen to rise above the western horizon 3 times a day. This is better expressed “up to 3 times a day.” Since Mars is also rotating,...

The caption states that Phobos has traveled from the first dot on the right to the first dot on the left in 22 minutes. It has also stated that Mars is rotating faster than Phobos is traveling. How can Hubble keep Mars in focus if it is spinning at that speed? Read it again: “It completes one orbit...

Finally, the caption contains a mistake. APOD Robot wrote: In the sky above the Halley-type comet, the Andromeda (right) and Triangulum galaxies flank bright star Mirach, beta star of the constellation Andromeda. This is correct, but when it is put like this, it may lead you to believe that the Tri...

“Odysseus' gentle lean into a sloping lunar surface preserved the phone booth-sized lander's ability to operate, “ A phone booth is going to be a foreign concept for anyone under the age of 50…..lol. Unfortunately I am familiar with phone booths :-). This was discussed a few days ago. A few other, ...

According to https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons/app.html#/, the orbital period of Deimos is 1.263 Earth days (30.312 hours), which is longer than a Martian day. Therefore, Deimos would rise in the east, albeit very slowly. [Robert posted the text below. Thanks, Robert! —CR] Yes, this is correct. Than...

If this isn’t already called the Question Mark Galaxy, it should be.

The one hopefully constructive criticism I have is that the Moon doesn’t look bright enough to light up its surroundings to the extent shown in this composite. A more subtle means of capturing the dynamic range, as is done with photos of the corona during a total solar eclipse, would be helpful.

JohnD wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 9:39 am It's beautiful picture of a full moon! Why bring in all the false folkways?

Because humans are story tellers.

johanlf wrote: ↑Wed Jan 31, 2024 12:15 pm label error : the bright star on the lower left is not Sirius but Procyon. Checked on star chart.

I believe you are correct. And Ann can remove the question mark from the lower image.

One way to tell which colors are more like what we would see is to actually look at the objects—through a telescope. To my eyes, Jupiter looks pale beige with brown stripes, and Neptune looks pale cyan. I have not yet observed Pluto (and even when I do, it will probably be to faint to discern color)...

Rauf wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 8:40 am Nice! Can I ask what kind of binocular did you use?

It was a handheld 50×7. At my age, I should probably be using one with a smaller exit pupil, such as a 50×10, but I haven’t been moved to replace it yet.

I saw meteors last light, lots of meteors. This was easily the most prolific meteor shower I’ve ever seen, with more than one per minute. I also caught quite a few DSOs with my binocular: M31, M35, M41, M42, M43, M44, M45, M103, NGC 654, NGC 663, the Double Cluster, and NGC 1973-5-7. I believe I cau...

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Thu Sep 14, 2023 9:30 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Thu Sep 14, 2023 9:06 pm

Cousin Ricky wrote: ↑Thu Sep 14, 2023 8:45 pm I wonder if anyone has dubbed this the Leet Galaxy.

I don't get it.

Actually, it would be Teel.

Not if you use a star diagonal.

I wonder if anyone has dubbed this the Leet Galaxy.

Is there an easy explanation I can tell my 7-year-old grandson explaining why the nebula is mostly 80% red but has a distinctive blue colored clock hand about at the 3 o'clock position? Here's what I know. The red is mostly hydrogen gas absorbing the red as absorbtion from the solar winds. The blue...

What little sky is visible looks very Earth-like.

This image is mirror reversed.

JohnD wrote: ↑Sun Jul 23, 2023 2:16 pm Regaining his self respect, [Harrison Ford] plays his actual age in the modern part, although he still wields a mean right uppercut!

Not as mean as his goddaughter’s.

Ann wrote: ↑Sun Jul 02, 2023 11:29 am Here you are. But I wasn't able to find Sirius.

The tail end of Canis Major is at the extreme upper left of the photo, so no, Sirius is not in the frame.

I’ve never seen M24 with this level of clarity before.

If the dots are accurate, and I assume they are, then they're a bit of a surprise to me. I thought the path would always look like a part of an ellipse, but the shapes are a bit different than that. Note how the path on the summer solstice, especially, seems to get nearly linear near the horizon. *...

You can get a nice yellow by programming red and green just right. (Although pure yellow emitters are now being employed to free up the other color emitters). But mixing red and green via dyes gives brown. There is no such thing as a brown light gel, because brown is a very low amplitude yellow. Pu...