Team-BHP
(
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)
Hey guys
Tomorrow is the supermoon. Earth's celestial companion will appear 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter. I can't find any information on when is the best time to spot the moon. The moon usually looks bigger when it's closer to the horizon. So the moon turns full around 7.22 IST. Will this be the beat time to spot the supermoon in india?
Latest addition to the arsenal! The Orion 150mm Maksutov-Cassegrain on an Alt-Az GoTo Mount. It would be an understatement to say that the planetary details are amazing!
Image taken on first outing
Specs:
Aperture - 150mm
Focal Length - 1800mm
Focal Ratio - f/12
Not sure how many are following the Alien-Megastructure (KIC 8462852 )star news, but there is some latest info.
All heavy telescopes that can watch that star have been directed to collect information about that star since it has started dimming again.
Source Quote:
Over the weekend a call went out to astronomers to point their telescopes toward star KIC 8462852, which is also known as Tabby’s Star or the “Alien Megastructure" star. That’s because researchers suspected the star was beginning to dim—something astronomers have been waiting to observe since 2015, reports Sarah Fecht at Popular Science.
Dips in brightness of stars usually represent some type of body—like a planet—orbiting a distant star. Since Kepler Spacecraft's launch in 2009, the mobile observatory trained its sights on the brightness of stars to catch these blips of light, reports Marina Koren at The Atlantic. But after the Kepler data was released to the public in 2011, volunteers discovered that Tabby’s star was different than the 150,000 other stars in the survey. When it dimmed, its brightness dropped by 20 percent (for reference, a Jupiter-sized planet would drop the brightness by around one percent), reports Fecht. Something massive must be circling Tabby's star.
Researchers have been eagerly waiting for the brightness on Tabby’s star to dip again so they can get closer readings. And they're finally getting their chance. As Loren Grush reports for The Verge, last Thursday night, astronomer Matt Muterspaugh at Tennessee State University who has been watching the star, noticed its brightness was dipping. On Friday, when it dipped further, he put the call out to the astronomy community. “As far as I can tell, every telescope that can look at it right now is looking at it right now,” he tells Grush.
The cause of that drop in dimness has long been debated. Some researchers have suggested that something massive is orbiting the star, such as a cluster of comets. In 2015, astronomer Jason Wright at Penn State suggested that the dip could be caused by a Dyson Sphere—a hypothetical alien megastructure proposed physicist Freeman Dyson in 1960. A Dyson Sphere is a massive solar-power collecting structure that Dyson suggested could have been created by advanced civilizations that, during its construction, would orbit its sun and occasionally block out its light. Dyson suggested astronomers look for these spheres to help find alien civilizations.
But before you get riled up: aliens are on the bottom of the list of plausible causes for natural phenomena.
These latest observations, however, could help researchers finally come to an answer. As Grush reports, if the cause is a comet storm, then the comets will orbit very close to the star, heating them up enough to show up in infrared images. If it is an alien megastructure, well, we’re not sure what the would look like. “That theory is still a valid one,” Muterspaugh tells Grush. “We would really hate to go to that, because that’s a pretty major thing. It’d be awesome of course, but as scientists we’re hoping there’s a natural explanation.”
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Yes tabby's star is rather fascinating. Let's hope scientists are able to find the cause of the massive dips so we can finally lay these conspiracy theories to rest.
This is a question which bogs the mind of many a scientist, viz., What to do if we receive an interstellar message. This article is a very interesting take on that, got it from SETI Institute site. I hope there are some TBhpians who find it interesting.
https://www.universetoday.com/138521...ampaign=buffer
Guys, which would be the best telescope for under 10k, and would I be able to see, say the ring of Saturn from such a telescope?
Hey Guys
I have never seen any telescope in my life, but now I really want to buy one for me so please give your suggestions about which one to buy for first timers
1) Celestron Astromaster 130eq
or
2)Power Seeker 127eq
Thanks in advance
A very lucky snapshot by an Argentinian amateur astronomer, scientists have obtained their first view of the initial burst of light from the explosion of a massive star. No one has ever been able to capture the "first optical light" from a supernova, so this is great picture.
Source :
https://phys.org/news/2018-02-amateu...ampaign=buffer
Quote:
Originally Posted by sparky@home
(Post 4358867)
This is a question which bogs the mind of many a scientist, viz., What to do if we receive an interstellar message. This article is a very interesting take on that, got it from SETI Institute site. I hope there are some TBhpians who find it interesting. https://www.universetoday.com/138521...ampaign=buffer
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Great hearing from you, sparky@home! Yes, certainly there are folks here keenly following the scene.
While SETI is following one school of thought, (the main stream school) there are a growing number of folks (including several main stream scholars) who believe that SETI is too firmly grounded in traditional astronomy and its practitioners!
The idea that extra-terrestrial intelligent life forms need not necessarily come from deep space is the central theme of this school! That we are, in effect, drowning in life forms which remain undetectable to us at present.
The subject - as you can imagine - is too vast and complex to dissect here. Particularly for laymen like me! But trying to keep track of extremely vast changing developments, is in itself a fascinating exercise!
Quote:
Originally Posted by shashanka
(Post 4362494)
The subject - as you can imagine - is too vast and complex to dissect here. Particularly for laymen like me! But trying to keep track of extremely vast changing developments, is in itself a fascinating exercise!
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The following article from Seth Shostak of SETI is really thinking outside the box, a very interesting take on computer hacking. I do follow this subject very seriously, with a very open mind. Unfortunately there are too many red herrings and it has to be sifted thru to find the truth, I am with Mulder from X files, the truth is out there.
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science...ampaign=buffer
NASA: Previously Unknown Asteroid had a Near Miss with Earth today
“We dodged a bullet today. It came within one half of the distance to the moon.”
With little warning, on Sunday, April 15th, a “Tunguska-class” asteroid about the size of a football field flew through the Earth-Moon system. 2018 GE3 was discovered just the day before as it plunged inward from the asteroid belt. If 2018 GE3 had hit Earth, it would have caused regional, not global, damage, and might have disintegrated in the atmosphere before reaching the ground. Nevertheless, it is a significant asteroid, illustrating how even large space rocks can still take us by surprise. 2018 GE3 was found less than a day before its closest approach.
Source :
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/04/...s-earth-today/
Quote:
Originally Posted by sparky@home
(Post 4387569)
NASA: Previously Unknown Asteroid had a Near Miss with Earth today
“We dodged a bullet today. It came within one half of the distance to the moon.”
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When I first read that, I thought it might be a spoof. Pretty scary! We forget how IMMENSE space really is and how even something this size can escape our notice.
Funny, but I really think we as a species have become more self-involved, more inward-looking. I remember as a kid, space was a pretty important topic, we loved to hear about planets, rocket launches, the future of space exploration and colonization.
Space seems to have dropped out of favour these days. There are the astronomy fans, but generally the launch of a new smartphone grabs more mind-share than any new space-related news. Perhaps it has to do with light pollution in the cities, how can you be inspired to look up when you can't see the stars? It's no wonder that Astronomy was one of the first of the sciences to be developed, man had so much time and darkness earlier to look up at the sky and wonder...
Quote:
Originally Posted by am1m
(Post 4387720)
When I first read that, I thought it might be a spoof. Pretty scary! We forget how IMMENSE space really is and how even something this size can escape our notice.
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Actually the space is monitored 24/7 by NASA with so many satellites up there, and to boot there are so many amateur astronomers that, any abnormality is noticed. Even then this asteroid slipped thru, which is scary due to the fact that if it were headed to earth, there would be very limited time to warn anyone. It may burn up on entry, but if it does not then the impact could probably level any city it may land on. But as they say, "all is well that ends well".
Quote:
Originally Posted by am1m
(Post 4387720)
Space seems to have dropped out of favour these days. There are the astronomy fans, but generally the launch of a new smartphone grabs more mind-share than any new space-related news. Perhaps it has to do with light pollution in the cities, how can you be inspired to look up when you can't see the stars? It's no wonder that Astronomy was one of the first of the sciences to be developed, man had so much time and darkness earlier to look up at the sky and wonder...
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Well, I don't think space has dropped out of favor. Actually, there is significant interest. Perhaps, that is why we have the likes of private space companies (e.g. SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, etc) venturing into this industry.
Even today, Cosmology has so many mysteries that are waiting to be uncovered. This truly is a fascinating field
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