Starship Asterisk*

Oh, come on, Chris! You know how many objects are designated YTFJH L-54765 or something. The Moon is the Moon, Saturn is Saturn, but we don't use "Thin Saturn" or "Fat Saturn" as it displays its' rings at different angles. https://earthsky.org/upl/2018/05/Saturnoppositions.jpg Ve...

I usually think of La Nina as a southern Hemisphere phenomenon, so I am educated by referring to its effect on India. But when I looked it up, all the sites say that a strong La Nina means a cooler winter and MORE rainfall in India. That apart from the apparent diameter of the Moon, each full is ide...

Above we discussed the antiquity of astrologers' interest in "Blood-red moons", and biblical references. It goes even further back! I found by chance a BBC TV programme on YouTube, "The 2000 year old Computer", about the Antikythera Mechanism. That referred to the Seige of Syracu...

Poetry is not for understanding, it is for feeling. Science is the opposite. Just go with the flow, johnny! Just now in the UK we have a series on BBC TV, "Universe" where that Prodigy (actually he was in another group, D:Ream) Prof.Brian Cox takes us throught the wonders of said Universe...

Where does "just before the brief totality" stop and Bailey's Beads begin?
John

If true, then Col.Harry is not the Grinch that our Chris is!

But the Director of Ops at Norad, taking telephone callsfrom the public? Come on, urban myth!
Unless the misprint was his red, hotline desk phone!

By the way, changed my avatar for Christmas. Whoop-de-doo.

Oh, come on, Chris! It must be true, NORAD tracks him every Christmas!
And how do those presents arrive otherwise?

Don't listen, kids, that old killjoy will have you believe next that the Tooth Fairy is in league with Colgate!

Four years ago, when Grandson No.1 was old enough to be shown a sky object and young enough not to be sceptical, we showed him the ISS flying overhead on Christmas Eve, as Santa's Sleigh. I hope that after my criticism of the use of "Blood Moon" I may be forgiven a harmless little fable in...

Poetry is not for understanding, it is for feeling. Science is the opposite. Just go with the flow, johnny! Just now in the UK we have a series on BBC TV, "Universe" where that Prodigy (actually he was in another group, D:Ream) Prof.Brian Cox takes us throught the wonders of said Universe....

Re John D. A blood moon was written about even earlier than Emily Dickinson or Shakespeare. Joel, Chapter 2 verse 31. The Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into BLOOD, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. Thank you, De58te! But Shakespeare is my bible! I'm sure that ...

Oh, for goodness sake! May we - and this astronomy website - please stop using terms such as "Blood Moon". As shown, APoD is perfectly capable of describing the colours of an eclipsed Moon, without pandering to zombie and vampire fantasists. Nice pic, by the way! John I like the term. Not...

Oh, for goodness sake! May we - and this astronomy website - please stop using terms such as "Blood Moon".

As shown, APoD is perfectly capable of describing the colours of an eclipsed Moon, without pandering to zombie and vampire fantasists.

Nice pic, by the way!

John

Neufer's post above links to the ESO site where it says that, "Based on the expansion rate of the spiralling gas, astronomers estimate that a new “layer” appears every 800 years" A mis-description surely as the layers of the spiral are continuous, not from 800-year pulses? Do they mean, th...

"Relatively" to other stars, of course! Thank you Victor! Surely the distortion of the adjacent star is the usual diffraction spikes, like the one to left. Is there any additional "smearing". And which of those is the sidelighter? The right hand one looks as if it's a lot nearer ...

My first thought on seeing that image was - Einstein Ring!

Could a black hole be between that star and us, causing the strange spiral to appear, when the star behind is relatively normal?

JOhn

I've always wondered how an astronomer can look through such a giant telescope, when their size means that the pivot (excuse my ignorant use of a simplistic term!) and so the eyepiece, must be so far from the ground. I had visions of a chair on the end of an articulated arm! But a recent "Sky a...

I submit, M'Luds (and M'Ladies), that the shadow, and hence the Earth, is RUGBY ball shaped, not the shape of an American football! The diference is in the pointy ends, an NFL ball is more sharply pointed, and the shadow is blunt. See: https://www.exploratorium.edu/sports/ask_us_sports_july.html Thi...

That composite gives an excellent mental image of the Earth's conic shadow!

Have any guess where the meteorite has landed? 'An explosion in the sky': Golden, B.C., woman nearly hit by meteorite after it crashed through her ceiling https://bc.ctvnews.ca/an-explosion-in-the-sky-golden-b-c-woman-nearly-hit-by-meteorite-after-it-crashed-through-her-ceiling-1.5619818 quote the ...

Ann,
I believe that a meteor big enough to go fireball will be at least one meter across. The Yucatan object was 10,000 to 15,000 meters wide. The Lake Louise object was therefore 5,000 to 15,000 times smaller. The dinosaurs could have continued to sleep easy. For then, anyway.
JOhn

Strange, I've just had a one of the usual emails, notifying me that there has been a post on this thread, by one "marvini". But he ain't here! "The other day upon the stair I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today I wish, I wish he'd go away!" (William Hughes Mea...

That's NOW, Ann. What drew them together, when they started off on diverging trajectories, as in 'expanding'?
I call it careless driving, and someone should be prosecuted!

If there was a Big Bang, and the Universe has continued to expand ever since, why are any colliding?

That they do implies that someone is drunk in charge of a Galaxy!
JOhn

Like Russell, just on the assertion that there is something there, I'm not going to waste my time staring at a picture of semirandom dots in the hope that it will resolve into an image. Next!
John

It would help, Sa Ji Tario, if you explained obscure words! A ceraunometer is an instrument used for counting the number of lightning discharges within a specific radius, says the Wiki. I think it works by receiving the radio noise from the flashes, not by ringing a bell. John PS, Neufer, that pictu...