Starship Asterisk*

The picture shows exaggerated elliptical orbits to more clearly answer your question. Wow, that picture really helps, thanks! :b: However, I also found this page: The general geometry of how the dichotomy occurs is easy to understand. It is where the inferior planet’s position is at right angles to...

From the first link, " Venus shines ," I learned that the dichotomy of Venus (disc is exactly 50% illuminated) always occurs 4-6 days before or after greatest elongation. How is this so? I thought that at greatest elongation the Sun-Venus-Earth angle is 90°. If this is true, shouldn't dich...

neufer wrote:I don't think that we've ever seen a picture of Beyeond.

Sure we have

APOD Robot wrote:...gentle constellation Taurus.

Chris, those are beautiful, thank you.

:idea: First, I like this APOD because it makes me reflect on our technological identity: On one hand, we've created, over a very short time, machines capable of reading, extracting, and organizing the tons of information we put out. The Wikipedia page on bar codes is fascinating and worth a read. O...

2003 An Unusual Event Over South Wales http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0310/fireball_burnett.jpg Jon Burnett, a teenager from South Wales, UK, was photographing some friends skateboarding last week when the sky did something very strange. By diverting his camera, he was able to document this rare s...

Perseus, Pleiades, and Corn on the first day of Autumn --
Sam

orin stepanek wrote:I don't have the answer to your question, but wow; that is an old APOD!

Indeed! Thanks to bystander for bringing it to my retrospective attention: http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=25355.

--
Sam

I recommend spending some time looking at the Yellowknife area in Google maps- -it's like nothing I've ever seen.
Places like that make me realize how frighteningly big the world is.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_960923.jpg Earth's Cloudy Twin Explanation: If Venus weren't so cloudy it would be more similar to Earth. This picture by the Galileo spacecraft shows just how cloudy Venus is. Venus is very similar to Earth in size and mass - and so is sometimes referred to as ...

neufer wrote:Art And Science Statues, London

"The nakedness of woman is the work of God"
-William Blake

Dinosaur Comics

rstevenson wrote:So now we have 4 Hertz and 8 Hertz -- I feel a tune coming on!

Somewhere ...

Earth's Crust Missing In Mid-Atlantic ScienceDaily (Mar. 2, 2007) http://images.sciencedaily.com/2007/03/070301103112.jpg Cardiff University scientists will shortly set sail (March 5) to investigate a startling discovery in the depths of the Atlantic. Scientists have discovered a large area thousan...

Consider also the mayhem and speculation that would ensue if we were to find, on another world, life so closely related to our own. The cases for the two opposing hypotheses, - "Life originated on Mars and came to Earth!" vs. - "Life originated on Earth and went to Mars!" would b...

I guess this was a few nights ago now, but after seeing the submissions here and here , I am now convinced that I was lucky enough to happen to be looking at the moon through binoculars just as it occulted Pi Sagittarii! (I had been confused due to a misreading of the timing charts at http://www.lun...

Using the inverse of the square of distance, isn't the statement about 1/10 size are ten times further away incorrect? You're thinking of gravity . Angular diameter varies with the arctangent of the distance (unless there happens to be a lot of gravity in between). http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikip...

bystander wrote:

neufer wrote:Don't you know that the PROPER way to break up
a 3-Musketeers is into 3 (or possibly 4) pieces.

But you still have to start with two!

Not necessarily:

I discovered, from the hydrogen link, the origin of the phrase, "Oh the humanity!"

(I thought it was the from the unknown 20th century poet, Newman.)

owlice wrote:: gnashes teeth with envy :
: weeps into her tea :

No! Don't be sad.
You rather inspired me: if Owlice can fly to Edmonton or such to see it, I can surely drive two hours.

--
Sam

Ahem. I saw:
Northern Lights
Milky Way
Lightning
Perseids
AT THE SAME TIME
From an observation tower in central Minnesota
while listening to mysterious creatures munching 100 feet below.
Pretty sure I also heard an owl.
So happy.

15:00 UTC, which works out to 10am Friday for me in Minneapolis. Maybe it will last into the evening?