Starship Asterisk*

I loved that, with each successful stage, you could hear clapping in the background of the commentary. That a nice video. NASA really does a good job of distilling down to the essential parts for the viewing public.

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Thu Feb 18, 2021 1:53 pm Swiss Alps or Mars? Telephone poles give it away! Does indeed look like a scene from Mars!

Didn't you know that Mars has a strong communications infrastructure?

I had to double check because I didn't realize when I started the video that it was only one second. But very cool. I'll be allowed to teach the intro to astronomy class again this summer and I might have to show this when we talk about pulsars.

I love it when I can find something I recognize in the background stars. If you look closely you can see the beautiful Leo Triplet group of three galaxies just above center. They have been featured many times here at APOD, most recently April 18, 2019. Thanks for the identification! I noticed the g...

I prefer fajitas myself.

That is an amazing picture, though. I've only ever seen the aurora once. To see them from above like that would be awesome.

What is the context of the question? Is it asking the color from the surface of Earth? If so then day or night? If not the surface of Earth then where? If daytime on the surface of Earth then why is it not Blue? If nighttime on the surface of Earth then why is it not nearly Black? I think the quest...

I was fortunate enough to look out when there was a break in the clouds for five minutes. I saw the conjunction and I grabbed my binoculars and verified that I was correct in what I thought I was seeing. Then, the clouds came back in and that was it. This is a lovely telescopic view.

I wish some in the media (social and otherwise) wouldn't talk about this as if Saturn and Jupiter in conjunction is somehow going to be significantly brighter, though. I've seen some things implying it's going to be like a supernova. It's a really cool event but when it gets built up so much, the re...

I love seeing the EGGs (Eggs in the Eagle Nebula! Coincidence? Read the book.). I downloaded a high resolution version of this once and zoomed in as far as I could and just enjoyed taking in all the details, the places where star formation is happening, the patterns in the gas and dust. It's beauti...

I’m curious when the common name was changed from “Pillars of Creation” to “Pillars of Star Creation”. Were religious groups complaining? Rob In my experience, it's not religious groups that have problems with the idea of creation. :) More seriously, I haven't seen any complaints from anyone. And I...

I’m curious when the common name was changed from “Pillars of Creation” to “Pillars of Star Creation”. Were religious groups complaining? Rob In my experience, it's not religious groups that have problems with the idea of creation. :) More seriously, I haven't seen any complaints from anyone. And I...

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 1:32 pm JupiterVista_JunoGill_1080.jpg

Sort of like a stick or stone would do in water; these clouds seem to split and go around something!

It's the monolith!!

barnard68v2_vlt_960.jpg Kinda spooky little Twerp! :mrgreen: It's density is so amazing that it hides all the stars behind it! It is possible to look right through the cloud in infrared light. I'd like to see a photo of that; (maybe I missed it!) The ESO has a series of images of Barnard 68 in diff...

I feel like most people's comments on the images we get are so intelligent and/or clever and I'm like, "Oooh, pretty!" I was very pleased with myself that I recognized the Double Cluster before I scrolled down to the caption, though.

Thank you for the perspective. As I was looking at it, I was thinking that it would be nice to know exactly where this image was located. Actually, I was hoping it was one of those images where you can scroll over it and get a different perspective. It would be really neat to see this with and witho...

What is the significance of the X-Axis? It's not explained either here or at the source site. It doesn't appear to be time, and I don't believe it to be completely for aesthetic reasons <grin>. There doesn't appear to be an x-axis, really. So maybe they're just spreading them out so that the variet...

And about monuments attention to detail. Do you know that the Great Pyramid of Giza was perfectly aligned to north and east. It was only off by a hundredth of a degree or so. That takes more planning than just two sticks. There is a Mayan pyramid that has exactly 365 steps to the top, and it also h...

(Flat Earther) Anaxagoras described the Sun as a mass of blazing metal, larger than the Peloponnese (i.e., larger than 103 miles across) Ah, I stand corrected. But I will admit that it's the first time I've ever seen anything attribute a flat earth concept to Anaxagoras. The flat earth hypothesis w...

Just for some historical perspective. The first record we have of a person stating that the objects in the heavens were actual things that could be understood was Anaxagoras (a philosopher from Miletus in the 5th cent. B.C.). He described the Sun as a burning stone the size of the Peloponnese (that'...

Is there anything standardized about this or is it just whatever they decide they want it to be? I realize that it's mostly for fun and listening to it is interesting. I followed the link about sonification and they used different sounds for the Milky Way. Is this like when NASA converted the data f...

I wish I'd had this APOD at the beginning of the week when one of my students was asking about why there are constellations. I used an illustration of the Big Dipper that I found through a quick Google Search, but I really like this. Even if the distances aren't quite right, the demonstration that i...

The explanation's link to 1054 AD's first paragraph says this: On July 4, 1054 A.D., Chinese astronomers noted a "guest star" in the constellation Taurus; Simon Mitton lists 5 independent preserved Far-East records of this event (one of 75 authentic guest stars - novae and supernovae, exc...

More fun facts about the Sun: The Sun currently fuses about 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium every second, converting 4 million tons of matter into energy every second as a result. Do the math (E=mc 2 ) to see how much energy the Sun emits every second. Warning, it could blow your mind. :sh...

I was surprised that this was the APOD, but I remember this video when it first was making the rounds and it does make me smile. Nothing wrong with that. There are far too many who seem to prefer to be miserable.

Ann wrote: ↑Fri May 08, 2020 9:37 am
Beautiful! If Comet SWAN had been some ten times brighter, it would have been another Hyakutake!

Ann

Oh, I remember getting up at 3 a.m. to see Hyakutake when I was in high school. My first comet!