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

spile said:
And just to the left is Saturn with a slightly orange tinge. Behind you is the very bright Jupiter and to the left of that lower down in the east is Mars. For completeness Neptune is to the left of Saturn and Uranus to the right of Jupiter. You can just see Mercury before sunrise too. I managed 7 planets and 8 moons a couple of nights ago.
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Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, the Moon, and which three others?
 
spile said:
Titan, Dione and Rhea or possibly Enceladus if I remember correctly from SkySafari.
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The rings are nearly edge on so the planet looks a little different from the typical images. I managed good views last night too despite poor seeing. Jupiter was ok but Mars and Venus were both spoilt by the atmospheric conditions.
 
spile said:
The rings are nearly edge on so the planet looks a little different from the typical images. I managed good views last night too despite poor seeing. Jupiter was ok but Mars and Venus were both spoilt by the atmospheric conditions.
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Whereas the night before last had great seeing and the belts of Jupiter were very sharp. After a few minutes observing I was able to see features on Mars.
 
Just received my brand new GSO 10" dob hopefully we'll get some clear sky later.

IMG-1506.jpg
 
Joxeon said:
Just received my brand new GSO 10" dob hopefully we'll get some clear sky later.

IMG-1506.jpg
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Wow that's enormous (cue the...that's what she said).

I'd quite like to pick up a basic telescope, say £250-300 tops, Any recommendations? I've been reading a lot that says dobsonian's are the way to go but ideally want something more portable that can be packed away in the car on say, a trip to somewhere darker. I'm not sure what i'd realistically be able to see either, is there a good resource for seeing what you should be able to see with each telescope?
 
TNA said:
Seems like a good price. A used one I suppose?

If you can share some pics of what you see when using it, would be appreciated.

Not used my telescope in over a year now.
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Nah it was brand new although it was on a discount from £620.

I need to get a phone adaptor then I can take some video and stack it to see how it comes out.

I used to have a 60mm refractor as a kid so this bad boy will be quite the upgrade.
 
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Rexxar said:
Wow that's enormous (cue the...that's what she said).

I'd quite like to pick up a basic telescope, say £250-300 tops, Any recommendations? I've been reading a lot that says dobsonian's are the way to go but ideally want something more portable that can be packed away in the car on say, a trip to somewhere darker. I'm not sure what i'd realistically be able to see either, is there a good resource for seeing what you should be able to see with each telescope?
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I'd imagine you can pick up a decent 6inch Newtonian for that.
 
A question I've had floating around in my brain for a while, basically every time i come across news of the Voyager probes.

How come there's no plans, or maybe there are and I'm ignorant of them, to send out a couple of new Voyager probes?

They used the technology/understanding of the time and i assume both of those have advanced to such an extent in the preceding 50 years that there'd be more to discover.
 
Murphy said:
A question I've had floating around in my brain for a while, basically every time i come across news of the Voyager probes.

How come there's no plans, or maybe there are and I'm ignorant of them, to send out a couple of new Voyager probes?

They used the technology/understanding of the time and i assume both of those have advanced to such an extent in the preceding 50 years that there'd be more to discover.
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Money, mainly. Also the Voyager probes took advantage of a planetary alignment which allowed gravitational assists between the outer planets which only happens once every 170 ish years - otherwise journey times are horrific.

New Horizons took almost a decade to get to Pluto at full speed for a flypast that last a few hours. If you want to go into orbit around a planet you need to take a route that is much longer because of orbital mechanics and fuel loads. Missions have to be funded for all of this time, plus the development and testing phases.

It costs billions with no return on investment for a decade easily from the start of planning. That’s where politics gets involved…
 
Always seems to boil down to money, if we ignore the 170 years thing. :)

Thanks for clearing that up for me, i guess it will go in the pile of things we'll probably never do but i wish we would.
 
Murphy said:
Always seems to boil down to money, if we ignore the 170 years thing. :)

Thanks for clearing that up for me, i guess it will go in the pile of things we'll probably never do but i wish we would.
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There’s also the issue of powering anything going out past Jupiter as nuclear power sources are becoming limited and solar doesn’t cut it out there.
 
out on my run this evening saw an amazing meteor (or possibly space "junk") - was at about 6:32 - I saw a very bright large meteor that actually had bits breaking off it (never seen that before) - heading to the south
 
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