Starship Asterisk*

All,

Are there places you can go to see deep details without light-gathering? How far out from the city do you have to go? What locales or countries (that are safe) are good for star-gazing, in case I'm ever on vacation somewhere cool?

I'm talking naked-eye stuff.

Lewis

I didnt feel as if the cometary associated with the images was in any way trying to make the event seem unusual. It seemed a simple enough comparison to me.

Lewis

How do galaxy orientations generally occur, anyway? What I mean is, if you take any 2 galaxies, are their angles or tilts or relative position to each other more likely to be perfectly random? Or do galaxies in vague proximity tend to be parallel or tend to be aligned to the same plane? If I look to...

That whole balloon theory is so overused. If our galaxies were all on a two-dimensional plane, aren't there 'sides' to the balloon? You must have missed that "Mirror, Mirror" episode of Star Trek. :) Anyway, you said it yourself. It is an analogy. The comparison is only superficially appr...

Thanks to you also!

Lewis

Thanks Chris!

Lewis

accretion I know this is off topic, but I've been wondering this semi-subconsciously for a long time. Why is the term accretion used, instead of accumulation? I mean this generally in astronomy. I read the definition for both, and accretion seems to mean growth by natural or external addition. Howe...

Harsh. I went to all the trouble to make this into a nice desktop and now apparently its junk. Oh well.

I guess I'll view it as one of those quaint ancient maps of the New World, I suppose.

Lewis

I didnt notice any ice in the pics away from the craft. What are the odds there would just be ice under the craft? Maybe some condensation or something from the lander's entry ended up running off and collecting underneath, forming ice? Or maybe its a trick of the light? I guess they'll figure it ou...

In the article I read, it said that the attempts to move the arm using the relay (between the orbiter and the lander) failed and that the relay system was in standby. I'm wondering did they mean "stuck" in standby? They said they would try again on Wednesday. I'm wondering if there has bee...

I like the comment about the newest spot hitting the biggest one in August. If it does, I look forward to the image sequences that come out of that.

Lewis

Orin, That is a cool pic with the stars removed, but its too bad there isnt one like it that is zoomed in so much. I wish the APOD image associated with this thread had a version with the stars removed. It'd be cool to see what percentage of the "specks" and "blobs" on the sky we...

Which objects in the image are part of the Perseus cluster? I know the small stars are in our galaxy. I'm not sure about the circular shapes with the lens flare (or whatever that is) on them. Are they also stars in our galaxy that are close or that are aligned in such a way to make the "lens fl...

Pete,

Thanks for the explanation about the panoramic images.

Also, thanks to everyone for the replies!

Lewis

Case, Thanks for the reply. For question (1) I could see what you mean from the linked image. I would still think that the shape would make the "blended arch" (made from the perspective on the other two arms) seem to be a line, or come towards us, instead of making a rainbow pattern. Hmm. ...

All, My favorite images on APOD are the ones of galaxies. This post isnt related to any specific galaxy image from the APOD, but it is inspired by all the ones I have seen. I have 2 questions, one real and one more of a hypothetical question/statement/rambling thing. 1) I've seen a few images where ...

Hi all! I'm new to the forums and I have a related question to this topic. I see it was partially touched on but I wanted to be more direct. If you had atmosphere or life bearing planets orbiting stars in colliding galaxies, what usually happens to the planets? Are they lost from the stars because o...