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

ThaReaperGuy said:
Was in the lake district the past week, had a chance to try my luck at capturing the stars on Wednesday night for the first time which went OK.

Interested if anyone know's what star is in the top left of the picture?
Bright orange with a what looks like an orange ring, but isn't.

21dg5s0.jpg
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Great picture what was this taken on?
 
The latest episode of Cosmos: Possible Worlds (8) was really cool. Learned a lot about the history of Astronomy in the early 1900s when Yuri Kondratyuk theorised the concept of a lunar rendezvous and wrote a book about it aimed at "anyone who would read it". Sadly Kondratyuk's story is a tragic one, a man not well known due to his hidden alias to avoid capture in his day as well as being drafted in the war. But his vision lived on and later whilst NASA engineers were scrambling to figure a way to get a rocket to the Moon, Kondratyuk's book landed on their desk and they used his concept for later Moon missions and of course using gravity slingshotting as a concept for future probes that sprawled our solar system.
 
mrk said:
The latest episode of Cosmos: Possible Worlds (8) was really cool. Learned a lot about the history of Astronomy in the early 1900s when Yuri Kondratyuk theorised the concept of a lunar rendezvous and wrote a book about it aimed at "anyone who would read it". Sadly Kondratyuk's story is a tragic one, a man not well known due to his hidden alias to avoid capture in his day as well as being drafted in the war. But his vision lived on and later whilst NASA engineers were scrambling to figure a way to get a rocket to the Moon, Kondratyuk's book landed on their desk and they used his concept for later Moon missions and of course using gravity slingshotting as a concept for future probes that sprawled our solar system.
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Not even watched the first series yet. Just doesn't quite seem the same without Carl :(
 
Hi all,

Before I start Googling i thought I'd check here in case folks know what I need - I've got the Sky-Watcher Heritage 100p and have been using the garden table to use it but am thinking of getting a tripod. I'm not sure where to start so would welcome any pointers :)
 
Raz said:
Hi all,

Before I start Googling i thought I'd check here in case folks know what I need - I've got the Sky-Watcher Heritage 100p and have been using the garden table to use it but am thinking of getting a tripod. I'm not sure where to start so would welcome any pointers :)
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Have a look on http://stargazerslounge.com/ or https://www.astrobuysell.com/ you can place a wanted ad and the folk of Stargazers are very friendly.
 
So watched the SpaceX Starlink launch last night, and then 10 minutes later walked outside, and watched the bright dot of the stage 2 + 60 starlink satellites coming over my head :)

What I've love to see now is over the coming weeks, as those 60 satellites spread out, see that tightly packed train of dots come overhead. HOWEVER, looking at the resources I have, I just don't think the timings/alignment is going to allow us to see that here in the UK? Anyone got resources that can better predict when if/when this little bubble of 60 new satellites will be passing overhead for us to see soon?
 
NeilF said:
Not even watched the first series yet. Just doesn't quite seem the same without Carl :(
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It's nowhere near as good. I wanted harder science on space-time theory. They spent far too much time on irrelevant cartoons on little known scientists. Sometimes the cartoons felt like they took up the vast majority of the episode, and in my opinion, look cheap and poorly animated.

The episode on Lead for example was interesting but was wasteful for a short mini-series. Also, it seemed like a soap-box for female scientists, which in itself was fine because indeed they are silent heroines of the past. But they are a tiny minority and pushed out Einstein and Hawkins!! Was this really the right platform for them? If they wanted to talk about it, they had enough to fill another series "women of science" or something. They wasted the last episode with ramblings about an Egyptian princess instead!

The Non-cartoon bits are superb and there is a great series struggling to get out. But it gets lost in irrelevance, so if you're going to watch it, just fast forward the animated bits. But frankly, PBS Space channel on YouTube is pretty much what i wanted anyway. If there was any way of giving that guy the money and flashy presentation that NDT has then it would be perfect.
 
So I'm keen to try and see the new Starlink satellites while they're all in a tight bunch/train.

But I must admit I'm slightly confused because all these resources seeming to list "Starlink 5,6" or "Starlink 6,7" - What does "6,7" mean? If we want to see the ones launched this week what number are we looking for?

For example, if I use the app "Find Starlink Satellite", it shows:-
Starlink-3
Starlink-5,6
Starlink-6,7​

Why "5,6" and "6,7"? Which is the one launched this week? "6,7"?
 
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