Author Topic: When you watch the sky...  (Read 265334 times)

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Offline Persephone

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #80 on: October 29, 2007, 11:15:58 am »

That's a simple one: Because time itself began with the Big Bang, there was nothing before it. :nana:

Ehm, creation out of nothing? It doesn't make a sense for me, this is not sufficient answer, my mind is to narrow and wants for every question some logical answer :blush:
- but at the same time Because time itself began with the Big Bang, there was nothing before it. is the only theory I can accept cause there's no better available theory at this moment.
Sorry I know, that now I look stupid, but that's me, chronic doubter  :-[
But then again, who does.

Offline Lucy

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #81 on: October 29, 2007, 11:18:12 am »
Takes a comfy seat, some popcorn and watches :biggrin:

Offline Markus

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #82 on: October 29, 2007, 11:27:35 am »
Hey Pragensia,

I understand you very well. :) "Because time itself began..." is only right within the current standard theory of the Big Bang. If the theory proves all wrong or needs to be modified, then the answer will have to be different. This is science: Don't hope for ultimate answers - these are the domain of faith - but always be ready to doubt, and always be aware that every answer you get is implicitely "As far as we know today..."

The trouble with these questions regarding the whole universe is that they are inaccessible to human imagination. How many universes have we seen being created? Then how can we judge if creatio ex nihilo or eternal existence is more absurd? :) Our imagination is trained for earthly scales: Centimeters to kilometers, seconds to years, a few hundred Kelvin... what is far below or far above these is unimaginable to us and only accessible to rational thinking, i.e. math. That's why there's no point in waiting for an explanation that sounds understandable.

If you want to discuss this further, let's start a new thread, dedicated to these more philosphical questions. :)

Cheers!

Markus
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Offline Lucy

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #83 on: October 29, 2007, 01:44:05 pm »
Lucy, I use astronomy software like XEphem


Quote
"If everyday sky charting is all you want, then one of several more user-friendly and cheaper Windows packages will suffice. However, that's not what XEphem is all about. It's for those who need that little extra and are willing to put the effort in to achieve it. If, like me, you are in that category then I would certainly recommend XEphem."


Hmm, why am I not surprised? :roll-eyes:

Thanks for the link! :)

Offline Aluqak

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #84 on: October 30, 2007, 01:29:01 am »
 :unsure: ... Monday in Québec city. The chief Anglefish takes his head out of the window and sees.... clouds.... and snow fluries. No comet tonight for the poor fish :disgust:.
Volons, volons, laisse toi porter par ta croyance immortelle, laisse ton désir devenir tes ailes...
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Offline Lucy

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #85 on: January 21, 2008, 09:31:29 pm »
Sorry, this will be a bit long, boring, spammy, and sentimental. :blush:

Today is full moon, and there are no clouds above Budapest – I could see a beautiful moon, shining on me! A part of this Hungarian poem came into my mind:

Weöres Sándor: Galagonya

Őszi éjjel
izzik a galagonya
izzik a galagonya
ruhája.
Zúg a tüske
szél szalad ide-oda
reszket a galagonya
magába.
Hogyha a hold rá fátylat ereszt
lánnyá válik, sírni kezd.
Őszi éjjel
izzik a galagonya
izzik a galagonya
ruhája.

It’s a very rhythmical poem, about a hawthorne bush under the moon (being this only the first layer of meanings, of course). It says something like:

In an autumn night the clothes of the hawthorne are glowing. The thorn-bush is whizzing, the wind is running here and there, the lonely hawthorne is trembling. When the moon lets down a veil (on the hawthorne), it turns into a girl and starts to cry.

So stupid translation of mine... This poem is extraordinarily hard to translate by the way, because of the strict rhythm and the beautiful rhymes. I just wanted to share this magical moment, when this poem turned to reality for me at once, with You all. :)
« Last Edit: January 21, 2008, 09:41:52 pm by Lucy »

Offline Persephone

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #86 on: January 24, 2008, 09:07:15 pm »
Sorry for being so late ;)
I absolutely adore this! Go on with that!  :wub:
But then again, who does.

Offline Loke

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #87 on: January 25, 2008, 11:27:54 pm »


  A very strange phenomenom occured yesterday in mexico city the  name is , convective cell , and made the sky look like it was the end of time mates , it was soooooooooooo frightening


  here is some info bout it

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convection_cell


  yo yo yo
Scripta Manet

Offline NeMo

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #88 on: February 06, 2008, 07:26:49 pm »
You might want to check and/or post in another topic called "when you watch the sky", which is one my faves by the way.... when Markus was aroung to keep it alive :bawl:.

Nice topic, thanks for mentioning it Aluqak! :thumbup:
I started Stargazing in the year 1995 I think, because two of my friends started also. ;) And back then I wanted to fit into the society, unlike today... :biggrin:
I bought binoculars 20x50mm, I think, when I was in Russia in 1997. It's funny I bought them in Kaluga, the birth town of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky! :wOOt: But not long after that they fell on the concrete ground and got broken. I was like this :bawl: :bawl: :bawl: :bawl: :bawl: so my parents had to buy me a bigger, once again a bigger(:P) telescope in Hungary, 60mm refractor. I was like this :yeha: :yeha: :nana: :yeha: :yeha: Most of my stargazing experience comes from that one. :) I've observed Venus and its phases, Moon, Mars during the Great Opposition in 2005, Jupiter with its belts and 4 Galilean moons, Saturn with its rings and Uranus Aluqak...
I repeat, Uranus Aluqak. :biggrin: I've also observed Andromeda Galaxy, Pinwheel Galaxy, M81 & M82 Galaxies, Pleiades(), Ha & Chi clusters, a lot of globular clusters, Orion Nebula, Dumbbell Nebula and so on. I've also observed a lot of double stars, like for example Albireo, the head of MissSwan... And I projected the Sun through the telescope onto a sheet of paper and observed the sunspots. But since the eyepiece was a low-quality plastic one (as well as the whole telescope), it melted down! :ninja: After that I didn't observe the Sun anymore with the telescope... ;D Except for this VERY rare event:

Unlike Mercury, Venus crosses the Sun very rarely, once in 100 years approximately. The last such event occurred on 8th June 2004, and before that back in 1882! :ninja: My friend and I projected the 2004 crossing through a telescope onto a sheet of paper and photographed it! :yeha: You are not supposed to look directly at the Sun... you'll get instant, painless and irreversable eye damage! :afaid:



Oh, and right now I have even spotted Mercury in the dusk. :yeha: It's rather bright, but always so close to the Sun that you only get a few chances per year to see it - at middle latitudes, that is. Closer to the poles it's even harder to find, closer to the equator much easier. And now I have spotted it, even through thin wisps of clouds, while on the moon the earthshine is becoming visible.

I've also spotted Mercury ONCE in my whole life! :yeha: It was October 200?, early in the morning, half an hour before the sunrise. ;) Mercury is very hard to spot because it's very near the Sun. A lot of things need to come together in order to have a good sight of it:

1. it needs to be in the greatest elongation (apparently farthermost from the Sun on the firmament)
2. the date needs to be near the spring or autumn equinox
3. Mercury needs to be in the morning sky if it is autumn and in the evening sky if it is spring (because the angle between the horizon and the ecliptic is the greatest at that time)
4. The greatest elongation needs to be as great as possible (and that varies because Mercury revolves the Sun along an ellipse)
5. AND OF COURSE, the sky needs to be clear! :biggrin: Near the horizon... which is a rare occasion! :ninja:

Something can be tolerated a little (except for 5 :bye:) but you got the idea why is it so hard to spot Mercury. :ninja:

Ah, and the eclipse was in 1999. My first total solar eclipse. I was clouded out :bawling: but found it extremely impressive, anyway - the sudden darkness, the bright horizon, the strange colours. Even below the clouds I felt the strong impact.

That was my first total solar eclipse! I was lucky it was in my country Serbia. :) I was also clouded but, fortunately, I had a 10 seconds hole in the clouds so I DID see the Sun eclipsed! :yeha: Became TSE addicted back then... :ninja:

The next great event is the solar eclipse on March 29th. I'll be in Turkey if all goes well and bask in the umbral shadow for the third time in my life. :w00t:

I was in Turkey too, in some small desert town 100km east of Konya. Karapanar was its name. It's interesting that Markus told me he was also in some small desert town 100km east of Konya. Maybe we were in the same town! :wOOt: Btw, me and my friends were supposed to be in Konya but we heard about the clouds coming from the west, so we decided to leave Konya in the last minute... ad hoc... and head to the east. Maybe that is the same reason Markus left Konya... Still, we didn't manage to escape from the clouds, but luckily those were the wispy clouds - cirrus() so we did see the eclipse! I saw all the most important features - the dimond ring, all contacts, the corona, the totality and even the dancing shadows on a wall 30 seconds prior to the first contact! :wOOt: Though I must admit I didn't see the chromosphere... maybe because of the cirrus... :unsure:

Next TSE is to be in Novosibirsk and NTSMS will go there... :) Can't wait... :wOOt:

another unusual sight is to be seen these days: The comet 17/P Holmes returns approximately every 7 years, but it's usually a very faint object - far too faint to be seen with the naked eye, and even too faint to be of interest to most telescope skygazers. But a few days ago it went through a dramatic outburst and increased in brightness several 100.000 times! Now it's easily visible as a star-like object of medium brightness, visible to the naked eye even from light-polluted cities! Many observers even report that they see it as fuzzy object, disk-like, a small nebula.

Saw it! 8) In December, couple of days after Budapest NTSMS reunion. Both with naked eye and with my new telescope. Speaking about my new telescope...

Here is a fresh photo of me... and my best friend! :) Unfortunately, he is immobile... :'( :P :'(



I bought it couple of months ago here in Berlin... Schmidt-Cassegrain 10 inches. Compared to it, the old one I have is just a toy... :P I transported it to Serbia in December, however out of two weaks I stayed there, only one day the sky was clear... and it was marvelous... ^_^ Btw, that day I saw the comet 17/P Holmes...

I'll try to keep this thread alive and updated. :) I'll be glad to answer some questions though I must say you shouldn't expect so good answers Markus used to give. I don't have nearly so much stargazing experience like he, and to be honest I've barely stargazed during the last 5 years! :ninja: Because I moved to the city after living in a countryside. Knowing what a night sky I used to have and seeing what I have now, I completely lost the will... :-\

@Lucy: there, I hope you are happy now! :)
:fish:

26th & 27th time and still counting...
« Last Edit: February 06, 2008, 07:34:30 pm by NeMo »
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Offline Lucy

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #89 on: February 06, 2008, 07:45:06 pm »
@Lucy: there, I hope you are happy now! :)
:fish:


Thanks a lot! :)

Offline The One

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #90 on: February 07, 2008, 01:18:48 am »
Pretty impressive NeMo! :biggrin:
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Offline NeMo

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #91 on: February 07, 2008, 02:45:31 pm »
Pretty impressive NeMo! :biggrin:

What, the post or my new sig? :nana:
« Last Edit: February 07, 2008, 04:11:57 pm by NeMo »
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Offline Aluqak

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #92 on: February 07, 2008, 08:20:51 pm »
Uranus Aluqak...
I repeat, Uranus Aluqak. :biggrin:
He-he-he... nice one :biggrin:
I tried to do some stargazing when I was younger, but the fact of living in a big city surounded by mountains killed most of my initial will. Anyway, I had the chance of spotting Mars a coupled of times, seeing Venus and its fases, and the 4 Galilean moons of Jupiter (no belts though :-[). My best experience was in 1996 or 97 when I had the chance to see the comet Hale-Bopp... I was camping with some frieds, we were alone in the middle of nowhere and the sky was clear. We watched it the whole night :bow: .
Right now, I live in Canada, I don't have a telescope and I most exciting things I can see are the lunar eclipses and northern lights that we have from time to time.
Volons, volons, laisse toi porter par ta croyance immortelle, laisse ton désir devenir tes ailes...
Pazuzu, 1996

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Offline Mystique

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #93 on: February 07, 2008, 10:44:10 pm »
Woah NeMo  :wOOt:

Pretty impressive indeed  :thumbup:

I like the pics....especially the first one :)
For a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down!

Offline NeMo

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #94 on: February 09, 2008, 06:43:02 pm »
Anyway, I had the chance of spotting Mars a coupled of times

Speaking about Mars, it can be easily seen these days, during the whole night, even from big cities! ;) Look for it high in the sky, facing south around 22h. First find the constellation of Orion, you can't fail with that one! ;D



Mars looks like a bright orange star EXACTLY above Orion (approx. one height of Orion higher above Orion :wacko: :lol:). It should be similarly bright as those two brightest Orion stars (one blue another red). ;)
The best time for observing Mars was December because back then it was nearest to the Earth and brightest in the sky. However, it is not too late yet. But do not hesitate, with every week it's getting farther and farther and becoming dimmer and dimmer.

seeing Venus and its fases, and the 4 Galilean moons of Jupiter (no belts though :-[).

Speaking about Venus and Jupiter, they can be seen these days in the morning sky very near each other! I think between 6h30min and 7h (local time) in the twilight. So if you get early these days, face to the southeast horizon and look for two bright "stars" near the horizon (NO houses and trees!). The brighter one is Venus and the other one is Jupiter. ;) Again the best time for this is over but it is not too late yet! On the 1st February they were so close each other that a full Moon could barely fit between. With every DAY, Venus is getting nearer to the Sun and Jupiter is getting farther so the gap is increasing. Hurry, I think two more weeks and Venus will get so close Sun it won't be observable anymore. ;)

My best experience was in 1996 or 97 when I had the chance to see the comet Hale-Bopp...

I saw it too! :wOOt: I think that was the brightest comet of the 20th century! :thumbup: Too bad its tail was so short... :(
How could I forget mentioning that comet in my previous post? :ninja: If I didn't, it would be even more impressive... :biggrin:

Right now, I live in Canada, I don't have a telescope and I most exciting things I can see are the lunar eclipses and northern lights that we have from time to time.

Speaking about lunar eclipses, there will be a TOTAL lunar eclipse on the 21st February, visible from Europe, Africa and also from America. :)
Here are the times of contacts (in Middle European Time, like Hungary for example, for Greenwich Time subtract 1h):
-Moon starts entering the penumbra (halfshadow) at 1:36:01. However, this cannot be noticed, it will still look "normally", like this
-Moon starts entering the umbra (shadow) at 2:43:28. Partial phase. Visible! An increasing chunk of the Moon gets orange hue.
-Moon enters the umbra at 4:00:22. Totality starts! :wOOt: Expect the Moon to look like this or this depending on how deep it is going to enter the shadow. I think it won't be very deep this time so expect it to be orange. ;)
-The middle of the eclipse at 4:25:38. The Moon gets the most red it is to get this time...
-Moon starts leaving the umbra at 4:50:54. Partial phase again.
-Moon leaves the umbra at 6:07:48. It looks normally again
-Moon leaves the penumbra at 7:15:15. Still looks normally :P

Don't forget that all this is to happen on the 21st February early in the morning. So that means you need to start preparing for that on the 20st February in the evening and NOT to go to the bed. :lol3: I 'll remind you again about it, of course if I don't forget. :ninja:

@Aluqak: I think everything should also be visible from America. Convert the times to your local time and if it is night it will be visible because the Moon is to be full and full Moon is visible during the whole night. ;)


« Last Edit: February 09, 2008, 06:55:12 pm by NeMo »
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Offline NeMo

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #95 on: February 20, 2008, 04:37:49 pm »
The only total lunar eclipse of the year 2008 is tonight. ;)
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Offline Persephone

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #96 on: February 20, 2008, 04:51:01 pm »
Thank You NeMo... finally the sky is clear over the city... so probably I will see something tonight :)
But then again, who does.

Offline Aluqak

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #97 on: February 20, 2008, 07:58:40 pm »
Ready to turn my head up tonight. The sky is clear and the cold is bitting... nice stuff :thumbup:
Volons, volons, laisse toi porter par ta croyance immortelle, laisse ton désir devenir tes ailes...
Pazuzu, 1996

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Offline NeMo

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #98 on: February 20, 2008, 08:14:55 pm »
The partial phase starts in 6.5 hours... ;)
« Last Edit: February 20, 2008, 08:18:50 pm by NeMo »
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Offline The One

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Re: When you watch the sky...
« Reply #99 on: February 21, 2008, 12:17:45 am »
I'm seeing that eclipse... hopefully. :wOOt:
"All men are intellectuals, but not all men in society have the function of intellectuals" -Antonio Gramsci