Thread: Space Events

Ok, so we've had a thread which was supposed to be turned in to a repository for space happenings, but since that wasn't it's original purpose, it died off.

So I am starting this thread specifically for people to post things that are going on in space, or related to space, such as telescopes, space missions, satellites etc.

Here is one coming up next year - June 6th 2012
Venus will transit the Sun.
NASA - 2004 and 2012 Transits of Venus

Picture of visibility


It only happens every 100 years, and then 8 years after that.
It's only been observed 6 times before, since the telescope was invented.




If you have any more, please post them! I will put them in my calendar and try to update this the day before they are going to happen.

And Holy crap lol
I was just putting that one in my calendar when I saw my reminder that Comet Elenin will also be visible tomorrow!

Although I just read that it has broken up in to two smaller pieces
Can't find any good info on where it would be visible from.
Probably because of all the BS surrounding it. Although NASA says it will be pretty wimpy.

Cover up, obv. Get your bunkers stocked and ready!

The transit won't be anything spectacular, just a tiny black dot moving across the sun. Hell, there are sunspots larger than Venus on a regular basis.

Originally Posted by Forsaken

The transit won't be anything spectacular, just a tiny black dot moving across the sun. Hell, there are sunspots larger than Venus on a regular basis.

Point? It will still be the only time you will be able to see it in your lifetime. Most likely.

Originally Posted by tommo

Point? It will still be the only time you will be able to see it in your lifetime. Most likely.

My girlfriend at the time and I hiked up a really, really big hill to watch it at sunrise last time around It was pretty cool. Definitely want to see the next one.

Originally Posted by Forsaken

The transit won't be anything spectacular, just a tiny black dot moving across the sun. Hell, there are sunspots larger than Venus on a regular basis.

Obviously if it's not the apocalypse then it's not noteworthy.

Interesting topic. I cannot believe I never heard of this event. (Shrugs) At least it was not too late to hear of it.

I, too, am fairly interested in space events. I usually get mine information from Space.com.

I really need to buy my reflector and refractor telescopes soon. (Shrugs) Now that I have saved up, I guess I will buy them in December or so.

Originally Posted by Aristaeus

I really need to buy my reflector and refractor telescopes soon. (Shrugs) Now that I have saved up, I guess I will buy them in December or so.

What telescopes are you looking to buy? Having owned a few, I might be able to steer you away from the crap, and boy is there a lot of crap out there...

Originally Posted by Spartiate

What telescopes are you looking to buy? Having owned a few, I might be able to steer you away from the crap, and boy is there a lot of crap out there...

What is the most reasonable price telescope that will enable me to see other galaxies or view Jupiter in great detail?

Originally Posted by Spartiate

What telescopes are you looking to buy? Having owned a few, I might be able to steer you away from the crap, and boy is there a lot of crap out there...

The three telescopes I plan to buy are the Orion Space Probe 130 EQ Reflector, the SkyScanner 100mm Telescope, and the Orion Observer 60mm Altazimuth Refractor. All three of these are purchasable on the Orion telescope website, which I will not link, lest I get in trouble for advertising. I do not know if Orion is a good company or not, though I have heard good things about it.

Originally Posted by Aristaeus

The three telescopes I plan to buy are the Orion Space Probe 130 EQ Reflector, the SkyScanner 100mm Telescope, and the Orion Observer 60mm Altazimuth Refractor. All three of these are purchasable on the Orion telescope website, which I will not link, lest I get in trouble for advertising. I do not know if Orion is a good company or not, though I have heard good things about it.

Is there any reason you want all three of those? They are quite similar and you will not notice much difference between them. I bet within a month you'll have a favourite and the others will sit in a corner collecting dust...

Even more importantly, they're all small! You want the largest telescope that you can afford to be able to collect every stray photon possible (the reason that refractors are generally smaller than reflectors is because they're MUCH more expensive for the same size). If you haven't looked at objects through a telescope yet, you may be a bit disappointed. They look NOTHING like pictures from Hubble or world class observatories. First of all there's no colour, galaxies and nebulae appear as grey smudges. Secondly there is way less structure than in a long exposure photograph, you'd be lucky to make out the spiral structure of a galaxy even in a medium-size telescope. Lastly, the planets look TINY, it's really hard to make out features like the polar ice caps on Mars and the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. That being said, if you don't have unrealistic expectations, the view from a telescope is still awe-inspiring and way better than the naked eye! However you'll want the largest aperture possible to bring out as much detail as you can...

My personal suggestion would be to pool your money into one telescope and two good eyepieces (one for wide-field and one for high-power). Look at the Orion classic XT8 on the Dobsonian mount (not the "intelligent" one), it seems to be in your price range and 8 inches of aperture is starting to be a real man's scope! There's nothing simpler than the Dobsonian mount either. Other accessories you should look into (not sure what would come with the scope): 2x Barlow (doubles the power of your eyepiece, if you get the right eyepieces you can essentially double your number of eyepieces), red dot finder, moon filter (must), nebula/deep sky filter (expensive but nice).

Originally Posted by Spartiate

My personal suggestion would be to pool your money into one telescope and two good eyepieces (one for wide-field and one for high-power). Look at the Orion classic XT8 on the Dobsonian mount (not the "intelligent" one), it seems to be in your price range and 8 inches of aperture is starting to be a real man's scope! There's nothing simpler than the Dobsonian mount either. Other accessories you should look into (not sure what would come with the scope): 2x Barlow (doubles the power of your eyepiece, if you get the right eyepieces you can essentially double your number of eyepieces), red dot finder, moon filter (must), nebula/deep sky filter (expensive but nice).

That's the one I was looking at getting.

What the intelliscope one? I saw that too, what's the difference?

Also, what does the moon filter do, and the nebula/deep sky filter.

And do you know of any good solar filters to look at the sun?



I saw a red star last night while lying on my roof, I'm really excited now and want to look at that in a telescope!

How do you watch this Venus transit without burning your eyes out?

Originally Posted by stormcrow

What is the most reasonable price telescope that will enable me to see other galaxies or view Jupiter in great detail?

Those are kind of two different missions. Planets/Moons and deep sky objects benefit from different kinds of optics. The best telescope for solar system objects is a refractor. Unfortunately, the good refractors (apochromatic) are very expensive, and the cheap ones (achromatic) suffer from various levels of colour distortion. Deep-sky objects (nebulae, clusters, galaxies, etc.) require maximum light-gathering capabilities, which directly translates into the size (aperture) of the telescope. The cheapest way to get a large telescope is with a reflector, especially on a Dobsonian mount (you'll want 8 inches or more of aperture).

A good compromise is the Schmidt-Cassegrain design, but it's not that cheap either (well nothing is in the telescope world)... Eyepieces and filters can also make the difference in your viewing experience. I've only scratched the surface of telescope design really...

Originally Posted by Wayfaerer

How do you watch this Venus transit without burning your eyes out?

You need something with enough magnification (a telescope ideally, maybe VERY large binoculars) that has an approved solar filter. Don't cheap out on solar filters, you can literally go blind with the wrong one.

special spectacles?

Visual Astronomy: Reflectors versus Refractors

Handy link with good information.

Nice thread.

Visual Comets in the Future (Northern Hemisphere)

Great site for comet people. Garradd has been a show for a while, and looks to improve next year.

For other viewable objects:

Heavens-Above Home Page

For constellations I prefer this:

Top Astronomer - Astronomy and Night Sky Guide

and this:

Auriga

Google sucks.

Spaceweather is an obvious one

Given the sun is entering a very active period, this site has become useful:

Greetings

Don't forget to check out the Orionids meteor shower on it's peak days; Oct 21-22.

If anyone else has favorite sights for space events please post.

Here is a great site for finding dark sky spots. In other words, places that have little to no light pollution.

DarkSky Finder & Destinations

If you're on the East there, you're pretty much fucked

You can also overlay a light pollution map in Google Earth
Overlay Light Pollution Map in Google Earth - IceInSpace

Also here is really great -
GLOBE at Night - Home page


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More things coming:

December 2011 Total Lunar Eclipse

December 2011 lunar eclipse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I was looking at Orion telescopes as well. But it turns out that they do not ship to Australia. So I'm going to have to try to get one from this guy in Queensland :S
I don't think they ship outside of U.S or Canada. At least not to consumers.

This is a cool thread

Originally Posted by tommo

I saw a red star last night while lying on my roof, I'm really excited now and want to look at that in a telescope!

That must have been Mars. Two of the 5 visible planets are easily seen this month Jupiter and Mars. While Jupiter easily steals the spotlight leaving the fainting Mars diminished only to play second fiddle in the night sky, Mars will not be completely out of the game as it becomes increasingly easier to pinpoint as it transit it's 2012 opposition. Jupiter is definitely taking center stage as we speak, blazing away all of it's glory in the night sky. For those who have looked up into the sky and wondered what is that amazingly super-brilliant star illuminating the eastern sky, that my friends is Jupiter. A little FYI also, Jupiter is the 4th luminous celestial body to light up the heavens after the Sun, moon and Venus. Venus the brightest celestial body in the sky dips below the horizon in the west just before darkness falls, leaving Jupiter to lord over the night this month.

Jupiter cannot be missed this month because it beams like a freaking lighthouse! Look for Jupiter to make it's world transit, westward and then upward through the night sky this entire month. It normally reaches it's high point in the sky at roughly 12:00am - 12:30am (EST)

Here's a good reference, Jupiter adjacent to the Moon. (The curvature in this image is the horizon.)

^ Stellarium?

For those who want a fantastic, free planetarium software:

Stellarium

Be sure to plug in your coordinates!

Originally Posted by Spartiate

^ Stellarium?

Yup

Originally Posted by Spartiate

^ Stellarium?

For those who want a fantastic, free planetarium software:

Stellarium

Be sure to plug in your coordinates!

Hmm, interesting program. I have always used Neave's Planetarium, but this Stellarium seems to be better.

Oh, and thanks for the telescope information; apparently I was about to make a serious mistake. I think I might settle for the XT10; it seems to be better than the XT8 (correct me if I am wrong).

NEW IMAGE CAME IN!



Contrast adjusted




There should be a comma between.... "SCIENCE, BITCH!"

RAW images will be here soon, I think they're having some problems hehe
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/

Originally Posted by Ne-yo

This is a cool thread
That must have been Mars.

Thanks. Yeah it might have been I think. It did have that cross of stars above it, almost point at it, which I took mental note of to find it later.
But I thought planets didn't twinkle like stars?

Spart, or anyone really with knowledge of these things, what do you think of these telescopes?

Saxon Dob 8 - 200mm (8 inch) Reflecting telescope system

https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Product.aspx?ID=8147

https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Product.aspx?ID=8148

This one doesn't have a mount :S
https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Product.aspx?ID=8125