Astronomy

I took a nice new picture today of the sun. I heard there were some large sunspots so I took my camera and a solar filter out to see what I could see. Unfortunately, my camera has pretty poor resolution and it was partly cloudy. When my dad gets back from his vacation, I might have to steal his 6 megapixel camera. But I did manage to snap off one good picture.

[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/images/Messier/sun2.jpg]

You can see a few sunspots over on the right side. The wispy stuff around the edges is actually clouds. Looks like solar flares or something, but alas, nothing that cool. But the little bit of clouds did help, because without them, the sun was overexposed and you couldn't see the spots.

I also got a nice picture of some clouds that I liked:

[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/images/Messier/clouds.jpg]

I also got a picture with the sun lighting up some clouds nicely. It looked a lot like a nebula so I took it into photoshop and played with it and made this image:

[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/images/Messier/nebula.jpg]

Did a few more pictures today. Mostly globular clusters so they all look about the same.

[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/images/Messier/m4.jpg]
m4 - Globular Cluster in Scorpius

[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/images/Messier/m5.jpg]
m5 - Globular Cluster in Serpens

[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/images/Messier/m10.jpg]
m10 - Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus

[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/images/Messier/m13.jpg]
m13 - Globular Cluster in Hercules

[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/images/Messier/m14.jpg]
m14 - Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus


[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/images/Messier/m27.jpg]
m27 - Dumbell Nebula

[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/images/Messier/m98.jpg]
m98 - Spiral Galaxy in Coma Berenices

I posted, then read earlier messages. So need for e to answer these n00b questions.

Topology 101 proves that a mobius strip does not have 2 sides. Maybe String Theory will help with this.

Just like a Klien bottle does not have an inside or outside. But then also result different if Eucledian or Non-Eucledian Geometry.

Or mix in VooDoo or other BS.

I guess you can prove a tesseract in real space in 3 or 4 dimensions.

Sheeeeesh....

Having just finished Angels & Demons I can verify that that quote or something close to it appears in the book. It is in reference to a character that was both a priest in the Catholic church and some kind of scientist, and was researching creation theory. Not that any of you would really care , but I enjoyed the sequel The DaVinci Coce better than the Angels and Demons.

Back on topic, thanks for posting the astronomy pics Mike. I took astronomy in undergrad, and discovered I liked looking at the pictures way more than learning the science of astronomy (red shifts, radio frequencies, etc).

~H~

a mobius strip does not have 2 sides.

Like has been pointed out, the sig line is a quote. And the whole joke in it lies in the fact that a mobius strip only has one side. Means that I argue so well that I can argue things that are wrong and still do one hell of a job.

I enjoyed the sequel The DaVinci Coce better than the Angels and Demons.

Ditto.

thanks for posting the astronomy pics Mike

Er... I'm not a Mike.

I liked looking at the pictures way more than learning the science of astronomy (red shifts, radio frequencies, etc).

The pictures got me into it, but I'm really into the science and what we can learn from those pictures.

thanks for posting the astronomy pics Mike

Er... I'm not a Mike.

Doh! Sorry about that, I know Mike started the thread (per the post reply page), so for a bit there I mixed you two up. Sorry!

~H~

More pics!

[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/images/Messier/m58.jpg]
m58 - Spiral Galaxy in Virgo

[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/images/Messier/m60.jpg]
m60 - Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo

[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/images/Messier/m61.jpg]
m61 - Spiral Galaxy in Virgo

[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/images/Messier/m63.jpg]
m63 - Sunflower Galaxy

[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/images/Messier/m64.jpg]
m64 - Blackeye Galaxy

[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/images/Messier/m104.jpg]
m104 - Sombrero Galaxy

For those that are paying attention, Scaled Composites completed its first launch for the X-Prixe today. It reached a height of ~109 km above Earth's surface. Note that that is still in the outer atmosphere. Even the space shuttle has a maximum height of just over 300 km and is still subject to some atmospheric drag.

To snag the X-Prize, Scaled Composites needs to make another successful launch of their ship, SpaceShip One, within two weeks.

Just a reminder: Tomorrow night is a total lunar eclipse. It will start around 8:00. Totality will be a little after 9:00.

If all goes well and the weather clears up, I'll be taking 40+ pictures. As of right now, it looks like there's going to be thunderstorms.

EDIT: Adjusted times to be CST instead of EDT.
J_D EDIT: Fixed times per user request

You still have my negatives from those other pics. Need to get those prints made.

Right now there's some good holes in the clouds. I'm hoping it stays that way. Forecasts are now calling for isolated thunderstorms. Might mean I get some good holes. Hopefully it'll all work out and I'll have some nice pictures to scan for you in a few days

EDIT: Here's my sky conditions right now
[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/hosting/skyconditions.jpg]

NOTE: I went back and edited some of those pictures. changed the color balance and levels on a few. I replaced them on my server with the new ones, so go back and have a look. On several of the ones there was a lot of background noise and the background wasn't really black, I fixed them.

I'm also going to be making up a single gallery so I don't have to have them scattered all over the net.

You could always do some cloud busting!

*reference "The Fisher King" w/Robin Williams

I finished making a gallery page for all my pictures. Check it out HERE. Let me know if you find any technical errors.

EDIT:Here's what my weather's lookin like now:

[image=http://s94958815.onlinehome.us/hosting/skyconditions2.jpg]

Rain

Hopefully it rains it heart out now and clears up.

That's the one bad thing about living in the city (and having little cash by the way) I only have a basic telescope so I can observe the moon, a few planets and such, but that's it....even when it's clear! I love observing in the winter, when the air is crisp and cold. I guess feeling cold gives you a little touch of space when you're gazing at the moon.

I'm planning on buying my own telescope this summer. I've found some nice 8" Schmidt-Cassegrains on Ebay for just over $500.

I only have a basic telescope so I can observe the moon, a few planets and such....

What kind of scope is it? Depending on the object, sometimes smaller scopes are better. This is because once you get to a bigger telescope with higher magnification, it spreads the light out more and it's harder to make anything out. Your biggest problem might just be that you don't know where the good deep sky objects are. I live on campus at school and the light pollution here is much worse than even St. Louis City. You can only see a few stars on campus on the best of nights. Yet with a decent telescope my roomate and I can find some very nice deep sky objects. With a smaller scope and bit less light pollution, I bet we can find you something fun. Perhaps we should try to do some observing at a fan force meeting sometime.

It's a Meade Starfinder, one of the basic ones, for I forget the model number. I haven't been out in awhile mainly because of the weather and school/work. I went nuts the first time I saw Jupiter through the scope and could see the Galilean moons

Gallelian moons you can catch through a pair of cheap binoculars. Hell, Gallileo only had 4x mag when he discovered them.