Starship Asterisk*

I’m curious to see if such a close flyby will reveal different heights in cloud tops, especially in/around the Great Red Spot. Will there be visual photography that may show that kind of depth?

If M63 is nearly 100,000 light-years across, does that include the outer, extended, faint spiral arms? Or are we just talking about the bright inner disk? Because if the bright inner disk is 100,000 light-years across, how big is M63 if we include the faint outer features? M63 is fairly isolated in...

bystander wrote:PBS: The Farthest - Voyager in Space

We're sorry, but this video is not available in your region due to right restrictions.
Is it the same trailer as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znTdk_de_K8 ?

I share Guest's confusion! […] And a Google for other images of 1512 find it as an oval, angulated as seen from Earth, with a distinct bar, no dust lanes and wide spiral arms, not an outer ring. See: http://www.billionsandbillions.com/ngc_1512.html Steve Mazlin, also from SSRO-South (Chile), like y...

There are smartphone adaptors for optical instruments for sale. So that the lenses align well and they stay in position (no shaky hands). Some are tailored towards specific model smartphone, but more often to a specific model scope. Some are for more general use and very adaptable. Some are easy to ...

http://i.imgur.com/BcX8Ccq.jpg Well, there it is. :D The stamp from the postcard. It appears to be free from ink from a postmark. I don’t think the small black spot below the ‘p’ is an ink stain, but it appears to be really small print (4 or 5 letters). Too small for me to read without a magnifier....

As cool as some direct imaging is, I also love the projected images and the leaf-filtered ‘pinhole camera’ multi images.

geckzilla wrote:I've been meaning to pick some of them up. I'll msg you.

Sweet!

I think this stamp should be available now. Is one of you regulars willing to send me some old fashioned snail mail featuring this special stamp? That would be great. Msg me for details. Thanks in advance.

RJN wrote:I'm not sure what to make of it!

At least APOD gets credited this time. That is not always so with the copy-paste ‘news’ sites.

The inner blueish part of the spirograph could suggest it might be a a second wave, perhaps less intense than the previous outburst, and it somewhat resembles the Cat’s Eye Nebula, with the overlapping oval shapes. Would we be looking through a cylinder of this PN, or is it likely more like a bubble...

Non-fiction Terence Dickinson - Nightfall Terence Dickinson - NightWatch (non-fiction) may have been mixed up with Nightfall by Isaac Asimov & Robert Silverberg (fiction) :wink: I’m currently reading a book on planet hunting by a Dutch astrophysicist, after attending a very interesting guest le...

So.... can we "surf" to Alpha Centauri on one? Math homework problem: how close does a black hole merger have to be, to create a wave strong enough that a space ship from Earth can ride it to the next star? As the wave is directional, how much steering is possible? How do we get off the w...

http://i.imgur.com/R9u8W6t.jpg A 3x8 mosaic of still images, the panorama was taken on May 3rd from a small drone 200 meters above the ground. The scene records the warm light of the Sun setting in the northwest and the planet's dark shadow rising in the southeast. [...] A range of exposures were c...

http://i.imgur.com/YZWlhbW.png Connecting two stars in the far part of the Big Dipper will lead one to Polaris, the North Star, Only if viewed in the Northern Hemisphere! Chile is rather in the Southern Hemisphere. The two bright stars in the Big Dipper to use are Dubhe (α UMa, second brightest in ...

Nitpicker wrote:something worth showing ... Pluto in 2013

That’s pretty neat. Thanks for sharing.

I could easily see that happening... although an envelope addressed to 52°N, 06°E might present the carrier some difficulties (or at least, some broad latitude... and broad longitude). Haha. I’ll provide more details (via pm) and will reimburse any costs, if anyone is willing. The stamps are not av...

The Total Eclipse Forever stamps may be pre-ordered at usps.com/shop in early June for delivery following the June 20 nationwide issuance. Being 4800 miles away, I still find it an interesting piece, as a collector’s item, not as paper representing value for a transport service. As they do not ship...

The 3D Solar System Simulator with the orbit of E4 helps visualise the path the comet is/was taking in our neighbourhood. Almost perpendicular to the orbital plane of the planets.

I am wondering why the Earth and Moon don't show any phase in the pix, i.e., they seem to be "full." http://i.imgur.com/gtzcVuy.png So lets do the calculation. In the Pale Blue Dot photo, the Earth is only 0.12 pixels in size, per Wikipedia description. You’re seeing it already at least 8...

Not shown are many local nebulas that will surely dissipate while new ones will likely form in different places. Perhaps reassuringly, future Earth inhabitants will still be able to recognize the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. I would think the dark dust clouds that shape the appearance of t...

What the ground looks like during the day.

APOD Robot wrote:Sometimes, though, the unexpected can be photogenic.

Serendipity. One of my art teachers introduced me to the term, way back in 1993. Be ready for it to happen and embrace it when you find it (or it finds you), the “let it go” for control freaks.

http://i.imgur.com/z2kp3V3.gif The image spans about 1.5 degrees or 12 light-years at the estimated distance of Zeta Ophiuchi. Superimposed over a DSS2 image (from Wikisky: blue/red/near infrared) of the same area, it is made obvious how different the Spitzer Space Telescope sees things than a grou...

neufer wrote:

APOD Robot wrote:The large comet is next expected to return around the year 4385.

We'll be waiting.

♫ In the year 9595 4385
I'm kinda wonderin' if man is gonna be alive
He's taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain't put back nothing ♫