Man of Honour
It's all about mirrors:
*** The Official Astronomy & Universe Thread ***
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Permabanned
Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2011 a friend sent me this link today
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14792580
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14792580
Yup, saw that earlier. Some really impressive images there, but it's kind of depressing knowing that you'll never be half as good as that 
Man of Honour
Yup, saw that earlier. Some really impressive images there, but it's kind of depressing knowing that you'll never be half as good as that
Gives you something to aim at. Put the effort in and you could be there. Always aim high.
Not so much effort as money or location i feel, which aren't really things i can do much about currently
Man of Honour
Man of Honour
It's official, the Kepler mission discovers a world orbiting two stars:
Man of Honour
Dawn's flyover above the surface of the giant asteroid Vesta:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-293
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-293
Soldato
Apparently scientists are starting to think the Higgs Boson may not exist at all, still not results from the LHC.
Why do they need to find a 'particle' to prove something like mass or gravity anyway? That always confused me. Why does it 'have' to be a particle?
~Related to Universe so post it here.
Why do they need to find a 'particle' to prove something like mass or gravity anyway? That always confused me. Why does it 'have' to be a particle?
~Related to Universe so post it here.
Soldato
Because 90% of the universe is "missing" something has to fill that void and the higgs was/is supposed to be the missing part I think.
Soldato
I was under the impression that the Higgs Boson is the missing particle that gives everything mass.
Apparently scientists are starting to think the Higgs Boson may not exist at all, still not results from the LHC.
Why do they need to find a 'particle' to prove something like mass or gravity anyway? That always confused me. Why does it 'have' to be a particle?
~Related to Universe so post it here.
When you say "no results from the LHC" what you should be saying is "dozens of brilliant physicists working day in, day out crunching numbers, checking results and drawing up papers". There's evidence enough to believe that they have something really big, they just don't want to release it before they've turned over every stone.
It may be a particle, or a fundamental constituent of matter, but that's just a name - it doesn't mean it will act like you expect particles to act. As they get smaller and smaller they start to act very strangely - electrons in fact act nothing like particles and everything like waves in certain conditions.
Last night when i was taking the bin out (on the right day, but the wrong night 
) i noticed there weren't that many clouds, but more than that - that the stars were really bright. Even through the horrendous light pollution of a surprisingly bright street light shining straight into me eyes. Hell, i could make out some colour on Jupiter with the naked eye alone, and i'm sure i almost got one of the moons with averted vision. Anyway, ran back inside for the 8x40s, caught Jupiter and three moons, not much detail - just points of light but still cool. Then i noticed something that looked 'out of place' to the left of it. The Pleiades. Great to the naked eye, but through the bins even without a tripod it was beautiful. Now i understand what people mean when they say that the atmosphere was in a good mood 
So that's one off my Messier list (well, not counting M42 yet, not really seen anything more than a point of light) and i feel the need to 'invest' in some kit. I don't really have the funds for a scope, bins might be nice but i always end up using just one anyway since my left eye's so bad - so i'm thinking maybe a spotting scope? But then i am eyeing up a camera anyway... pft, money
) i noticed there weren't that many clouds, but more than that - that the stars were really bright. Even through the horrendous light pollution of a surprisingly bright street light shining straight into me eyes. Hell, i could make out some colour on Jupiter with the naked eye alone, and i'm sure i almost got one of the moons with averted vision. Anyway, ran back inside for the 8x40s, caught Jupiter and three moons, not much detail - just points of light but still cool. Then i noticed something that looked 'out of place' to the left of it. The Pleiades. Great to the naked eye, but through the bins even without a tripod it was beautiful. Now i understand what people mean when they say that the atmosphere was in a good mood So that's one off my Messier list (well, not counting M42 yet, not really seen anything more than a point of light) and i feel the need to 'invest' in some kit. I don't really have the funds for a scope, bins might be nice but i always end up using just one anyway since my left eye's so bad - so i'm thinking maybe a spotting scope? But then i am eyeing up a camera anyway... pft, money
Soldato
Nah, the missing matter is explained using dark matter, since the equations just do not add up without it. Also called WIMPS (Weakly intteracting massive particles)
Yup. Theoretical anyway! If they find the Higgs, then all is great, if they do not, then all our popular theories are wrong basically!
Associate
I think people may have seen my previous threads
M57 The Ring Nebula - the cast off shell as a star went bang!
Earlier images..
M51:
M104 The sombrero galaxy
M42 Orion Nebula
Hey Nick those are great, I especially love the natural look you achieved with the Sombrero Galaxy - a notoriously unnatural looking target
Associate
I just started a GCSE in Astronomy, I'm only in Year 9 too! So far its been pretty hard and apparently its gonna get even more challenging 
Already done our first bit of coursework too!
Already done our first bit of coursework too!
I just started a GCSE in Astronomy, I'm only in Year 9 too! So far its been pretty hard and apparently its gonna get even more challenging
Ha, i wasn't aware there was one. Which board is it? What have you actually done? Because we've been doing some stuff in A Level Physics about Photography lately and some of the stuff on the curriculum is just down right wrong. I can imagine it being a similar case with Astronomy...
Associate
So far we've worked out the longitude of Swindon using shadow sticks and plotted results into a graph and today we started looking at different nebulas and constellations. Aside from that we haven't been taught anything else about the curriculum except that our school has ordered 15. Awesome telescopes which we'll use for our aided piece of coursework.
Now that sounds incentive enough to take it