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

Cosimo

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This virtual journey shows the different components that make up our home galaxy, the Milky Way, which contains about a hundred billion stars.

It starts at the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way and with the stars that orbit around it, before zooming out through the central Galactic Bulge, which hosts about ten billion stars.

The journey continues through a younger population of stars in the stellar disc, home to most of the Milky Way's stars, and which is embedded in a slightly larger gaseous disc. Stars in the disc are arranged in a spiral arm pattern and orbit the centre of the Galaxy.

The discs and bulge are embedded in the stellar halo, a spherical structure that consists of a large number of globular clusters -- the oldest population of stars in the Galaxy -- as well as many isolated stars. An even larger halo of invisible dark matter is inferred by its gravitational effect on the motions of stars in the Galaxy.

Looking at a face-on view of the Galaxy we see the position of our Sun, located at a distance of about 26 000 light-years from the Galactic Centre.

Finally, the extent of the stellar survey conducted by ESA's Hipparcos mission is shown, which surveyed more than 100 000 stars up to 300 light-years away from the Sun. In comparison, ESA's Gaia survey will study one billion stars out to 30 000 light-years away.
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Glaucus

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Will ison be visable to naked eye tonight? (I know the real show is after its sun pass if it survives)
And where would it be located?

Going to be out on night shift all the way throuh to dawn and looks like its going to be clear.
 

Tibbz2

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Glaucus said:
Will ison be visable to naked eye tonight? (I know the real show is after its sun pass if it survives)
And where would it be located?

Going to be out on night shift all the way throuh to dawn and looks like its going to be clear.
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I think it's naked eye, may be quite feint though, but it's certainly a binocular object from what I've heard.

You need to be looking SE in the early hours (6 am maybe?) before the Sun comes up, as I think it's around the border of Virgo and Libra at the moment (just below Mercury and Saturn) :)
 
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NeilF

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Anyone able to recommend a good pair of astronomical binoculars (with a monopod?) for a hundred pounds or less? Idea would be for ISON and general astronomy...
 

Tibbz2

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NeilFawcett said:
Anyone able to recommend a good pair of astronomical binoculars (with a monopod?) for a hundred pounds or less? Idea would be for ISON and general astronomy...
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I wouldn't recommend anything with under 50mm aperture for astronomy use... You can get a decent pair of 10x50s for under £100 and won't need a monopod with them.

For bigger sizes (15x70, 25x70, 20x80) the Celestron Skymaster series is a good low priced set of binoculars :) (And I think Spook on here has some of these)

I can't help with the bigger sizes as I don't have any, I just have some cheap 10x50s to go along with the scope.
 

Tibbz2

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Cosimo said:
Horizon had an ISON special last night:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03k3881

It is on iPlayer and will be shown again on Monday at 23:20 on BBC2.
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If ISON disintegrates now after all the hype these shows and news programs are creating for the public then there will be massive disappointment, it's a bit stupid imo.

They should wait to see what happens first before even mentioning it could be an amazing sight.
 

Mik3

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I had some amazing seeing for a hour or so last night, there was a small gap in the clouds over the north west and the seeing was incredible, best its been in all year.

I cant wait to get my scope out again this winter its been gathering dust all summer. Looking forward to capturing Comet ISON and get some more Orion data. Last year was bloody terrible, hopefully we shall get some good clear nights this winter.
 

Glaucus

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Tibbz2 said:
I think it's naked eye, may be quite feint though, but it's certainly a binocular object from what I've heard.

You need to be looking SE in the early hours (6 am maybe?) before the Sun comes up, as I think it's around the border of Virgo and Libra at the moment (just below Mercury and Saturn) :)
Click to expand...

Couldn't see anything, i hope it survives and we get a better spectical.

I really want a telescope which takes a camera.
What would be the cheapest reasonable one that can fit a camera on to take photos.
Is there such a thing as a light pollution map of the uk? So you can see where the best nearest places are to go.
 
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