Starship Asterisk*

I agree with BMAONE23, what size you want depends on what you want to see, the entire image or some very small details.

Ann

Here is a link to a whole Sky & Telescope page, where there is a picture of Comet McNaught's tail passing very clearly right in front of the disk of NGC 891. The picture is by Steve Yerby, and it's very neat, in my opinion! http://sn128w.snt128.mail.live.com/default.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0 And hey, I...

I love the picture of Comet McNaught passing galaxy NGC 891! Note the fantastic color contrast between the blue-green comet and the very yellow, dust-reddened spiral galaxy.

Ann

Chris wrote: Saying that inflation happened before the Big Bang is extremely confusing to most people. I think it is reasonable to refer to the instant of creation as the Big Bang, or refer to the extended creation process as the Big Bang. I don't think it is reasonable to take one part of that proc...

And now I'll get myself another post. :D I like the Carina Nebula too, although what I like best about it is the blue, blue cluster on the lower right. The cluster is the compact and massive NGC 3293, made up mostly by hot bright blue stars, although it contains and least one red supergiant too and ...

Hmmm, got to earn some points here, or some posts, I mean. I'm still Chekov instead of Spock, and I don't like it much. So, which of the new submissions do I like best? That's easy - it's got to be the Milky Way and its ghostly, ghostly illumination of the Earthly landscape below. Imagine that it ta...

Chris, you said that you preferred to use the term Big Bang in such a way that it referred to an entire process, not to a specific moment during that process. Does that mean that you are willing to think of inflation as part of the Big Bang? Of course. That is the standard viewpoint for the standar...

I liked the monthly average sunspot curve that was posted by Art. I guess the proper conclusion is that all stars are more or less variable, and the Sun is a star, so it is variable, too. Although I think the Sun is fairly constant as variable stars go!

Ann

I'm trying to make it to a hundred posts and earn my green ears as a science officer, so... here is a bad hair day for Medusa!



Ann

Sometimes I check out the Arxiv Astrophysics page, and even though I don't understand much of what they write there, I do realize that all kinds of wild theories are circulationg there. Often a theory is put forth by just one astronomer or just one group of astronomers. These theories never reach th...

In the upper part of the picture, just to the left of center, there is another pic of this nebula in a different false color, showing SN1987A. SN1987A! Of course! I knew I recognized it, but I couldn't remember what it was. And as I scrutinized the vicinity around SN1987A, I suddenly spotted Comet ...

I have to admit that there is a lot I don't understand about this abstract. I like this, however: Dark energy could therefore be a natural consequence of cosmic inflation close to the electroweak energy scale. I like that idea! Surely there has to be some sort of connection between the inflation of ...

I said something, in my first post here, about "falling down a hill". Well, I was referring to what astronomers call a "vacuum".It looks something like this: http://image.absoluteastronomy.com/images/encyclopediaimages/f/fa/falsevacuum.svg.png I rather like the idea that the Big ...

It's a beautiful picture. Happy Birthday, Mizzou!

Ann

Ronnie Warner said: The orange blob on the upper left is the rosette. Okay! On the upper right, I tucked in an eclipsed moon under the master's brushstrokes. An eclipsed Moon, eh? Nice! Oh, yes - now I can see the Lady in the Moon in your Moon! :D In the extreme upper right is Jupiter from a particu...

Thanks, Ronnie, now I found the Witch Head! It's looking good, too. And yes, I guess the brown blob near the Catwheel galaxy could indeed be the Eagle. But what's the big orange blob in the upper left corner? And what about the big yellow and orange "crescent" thing to the right - don't te...

It was hard to pick a favorite, but in the end I chose NGC 1275. The clincher for me was that I suddenly realized that one of the blue tidal tail of clusters thrown out from NGC 1275 is actually interacting with a small yellow galaxy to the upper right of it. Suddenly it became dramatically obvious ...

With the larger image, I found the Cartwheel Galaxy. I also found M104, the Owl, the Cat's Eye, the Eskimo, Thor's Helmet and an Einstein Cross.I also found what really just looked like a pink rose - would that be the Rosette? I found what I guess is the Ants, but I'm no great fan of planetary nebul...

I love all your comic strip and obscure Star Trek references, Art! <jumping up and down shouting with joy> So glad to see you back here, for whatever reason! We sure need someone with a terrific sense of nerd humour here! <thumbsup> <thumbsup> <thumbsup> For myself, let me just say that //beginning ...

I can see a number of planetary nebulae in Ronnie's van Gogh image, too, and I think I can spot the Crab nebula on the lower left. But Ronnie, what is that galaxy that you placed below NGC 4038, the dominant part of the Antennae? It's an extremely face on galaxy, and it looks a bit like M100 or M61,...

Well, wow!!! Look at NGC 4038 in the middle of that Vincent van Gogh painting! http://spiralzoom.com/Science/spiralgalaxies/751px-VanGogh-starry_night_edit.jpg Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/sao/astronomynews/2006S2/NGC4038-4039.jpg NGC 4038 (and 4039) by Nature! :mrg...

There were many nice images here! :D The annotated image of Leo, Cancer and Gemini with their mainstays and visitors was very nice and interesting. Vega and the twisted meteor trail made a nice couple. The Stonehenge image was beautiful and a good reminder of the fact that this monument was built at...

Geckzilla wrote: I know there are a lot of brilliant people out there doing their damnedest to brainstorm and come up with ways to find life out there. I don't think they are really trying to find life out there. I think they are coming up with ways to argue that there could be life in places where ...

Hmmm, imagine if those rockets (or whatever they are) had brought that bug back from wherever they're going.... :mrgreen: And thanks for your birthday greetings, Beyond! No, my ears haven't turned green yet, I think! Spock What, me green and envious? (And Beyond, what you said... it sure isn't easy ...

Well, I'm irritated at this constant "we have not proved that life is impossible here" approach. Just read today's AstronomyNow on line: http://www.astronomynow.com/news/n1006/08exo/ This is how the article starts: Analysis of all 79 star systems known to have transiting exoplanets has rev...