*** The Official Astronomy & Universe Thread ***

The galactic centre...

This video pans across the central region of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Half a million stars are visible in this image, which shows an area only 50 light-years across:


This video starts with a view of the Milk Way and zooms in onto the centre of the our home galaxy:

 
Cassini's upcoming Titan Encounter on April 4:


This encounter features a complex, joint observation by two instruments. It is the only flyby in the mission where the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) and the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) will observe Titan's atmosphere simultaneously at the same latitude.
UVIS will sample remotely by observing a solar occultation and INMS will sample the upper atmospheric density directly.
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Just ordered my first telescope, an Orion Classic XT8.

Hoping to see the rings on Saturn at some point with it. Any recommended eyepieces to do this? It comes with a 25mm and I've ordered a 2x barlow with it.
 
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sityeuropa said:
Just ordered my first telescope, an Orion Classic XT8.

Hoping to see the rings on Saturn at some point with it. Any recommended eyepieces to do this? It comes with a 25mm and I've ordered a 2x barlow with it.
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If you're wanting to see Saturn then you'd probably want a nice smaller focal length eyepiece. The included 25mm will be okay for helping you find your way around the sky, however using a barlow will degrade the view with it even more so probably won't have the greatest view with it.

I'd maybe go for an eyepiece around 12-15mm focal length, as that will give you around 100x magnification with the scope, then if you use the barlow it will give you a 200x mag view too?

As for the brand, I own a 12mm Celestron X-Cel LX eyepiece which is pretty good for planetary views, so would personally recommend that as a good start!
 
Tibbz2 said:
If you're wanting to see Saturn then you'd probably want a nice smaller focal length eyepiece. The included 25mm will be okay for helping you find your way around the sky, however using a barlow will degrade the view with it even more so probably won't have the greatest view with it.

I'd maybe go for an eyepiece around 12-15mm focal length, as that will give you around 100x magnification with the scope, then if you use the barlow it will give you a 200x mag view too?

As for the brand, I own a 12mm Celestron X-Cel LX eyepiece which is pretty good for planetary views, so would personally recommend that as a good start!
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Thanks, I will probably end up getting one of these.

I'm going to try some of these cheap lenses first to get an idea of size.

4.5 stars average review. About £13. Worth a go for that price. My first aim is for Jupiter and Saturn.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Orbinar-Plo...008589618/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
 
Stephen Hawking and a Russian billionaire announcement at 5pm, sounds like its going to be epic.
http://livestream.com/breakthroughprize/starshot

Last time these two announced something they put a 100m into extra terrestrial search.
This is the latest Breakthrough Prize from Milner and Hawking, with a previous project from the two being the groundbreaking $100 million Breakthrough Listen campaign, one of the most extensive searches for intelligent extraterrestrial life to date.

The name “Starshot” might imply that this is some sort of proposal to develop a vehicle to travel beyond the Solar System, or perhaps it is a new observation program to observe other stars aside from our own.
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Nanobots are go. Miniaturised spaceships (the size of a single chip) are going to be developed with the intention of getting one to our nearest star within 30 years from launch. Apparently the plan is for them to be launched into orbit, where they'll deploy a solar sail which will then be targeted by an Earth based laser and accelerated up to 100million miles per second.

Interesting times we live in.
 
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Yep exiting times, did you see the ULA & Bigelow announcement this morning as well.

Launched at 60,000G apparently electronics should have no issue.
Should be cheap to make, and have a launch rate of one a day.
It's just the laser system that will be very expensive and a dedicated power plant.
 
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