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Finding Massive Gas - The International Year of Astronomy
NotASenator
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
This year, 2009, is the International Year of Astronomy. Astronomy is the study of celestial objects, and has nothing to do with if your ex-girlfriend was a bitch because she was born in September.
What does it mean to be in living in the International Year of Astronomy?
Well, here is the website, which is just a basic overview of stuff (with a page for donations).
Here are some other features:
Some blogs I like about Astronomy:
- The Bad Astronomer Phil Plait (gets into politics and skepticism and Dr. Who from time to time)
- Universe Today
If you want to learn more about how the Universe works, I suggest Relativity by Albert Einstein, which explains the maths of why if Druhim and I are in spaceships flying away from each other at extremely high speeds and the total rate of separation between the two ships is greater than the speed of light, inside either of those ships it will never look like we are moving away from each other faster than the speed of light. Then read Relativity Simply Explained because math destroys your brains and this book lays out with examples and metaphor.
You can move on to A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking which explains what happened to Sam Neill in Event Horizon and how wacky wheelchair guys can get tons of pussy if they are the smartest people on the planet.
Once you have read that, you will hate me and Science and you'll think the Moon Landings were fake, so I probably don't have to list anything else.
ASTRONOMY EVENTS FOR 2009:
Jan 3-4th - Quadrantids Meteor Shower - in the Western part of North America, you should be able to see this fun meteor shower, assuming you don't mind standing out in the cold in the middle of the night.
March 8th - Saturn will be the closest to us, so a great time for viewing her and her moons.
April 21-22 - Lyrids meteor shower
July 22nd - Total Solar Eclipse - if you live in China or Mongolia or something, I'm looking at you here Viv, your day will get very dark as the moon makes the crazies thing God is punishing them by moving in front of the Sun. One of the greatest astronomical events people can witness.
August 12-13 Perseids meteor shower - there will be a bright moon blocking this out for the most part in the early evening, but if you venture out in the early morning hours, it should look great.
August 14th - Jupiter at opposition, really close. I took a look through a 4-inch telescope at it last year when it was at opposition and you could make out the great red eye and the banding of the cloud layers. It was amazing to see and this will be your best time to see it.
October 13th - Conjunction of Venus and Saturn - these two planets are going to be right the fuck on top of each other in our night sky.
November 17-18 Leonids meteor shower, this is a good one to watch
December 31st - as if crazy people don't need more to worry about, there will be a partial lunar eclipse on New Year's Eve next year, visible through most of Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.
So here is the place to talk about astronomy, or, expectedly, just start quoting Aliens.
What does it mean to be in living in the International Year of Astronomy?
Well, here is the website, which is just a basic overview of stuff (with a page for donations).
Here are some other features:
- 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast - This is a daily podcast about different astronomy topics from the best and brightest minds out there. Learn some new shit!
- Cosmic Diary - This blog is more the human face of astronomy, with scientists and astronomers blogging about their personal experiences searching the stars.
- The Big Picture from the Boston Globe has had a ton of incredible space-themed photo essays, including the recent Hubble Advent Calender, a round-trip journey with the Space Shuttle, a birthday celebration for the International Space Station, and the greatest views of the Sun I have ever seen.
- Fuck it man, here is The Big Picture's Astronomy category. Just look at everything.
- Want to stay on the cutting edge of awesome astronomy images? Try NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day. The APOD always has tons of explanation of some of the awesome behind their images, and has an application that updates your desktop wallpaper with the latest high-res image.
Some blogs I like about Astronomy:
- The Bad Astronomer Phil Plait (gets into politics and skepticism and Dr. Who from time to time)
- Universe Today
If you want to learn more about how the Universe works, I suggest Relativity by Albert Einstein, which explains the maths of why if Druhim and I are in spaceships flying away from each other at extremely high speeds and the total rate of separation between the two ships is greater than the speed of light, inside either of those ships it will never look like we are moving away from each other faster than the speed of light. Then read Relativity Simply Explained because math destroys your brains and this book lays out with examples and metaphor.
You can move on to A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking which explains what happened to Sam Neill in Event Horizon and how wacky wheelchair guys can get tons of pussy if they are the smartest people on the planet.
Once you have read that, you will hate me and Science and you'll think the Moon Landings were fake, so I probably don't have to list anything else.
ASTRONOMY EVENTS FOR 2009:
Jan 3-4th - Quadrantids Meteor Shower - in the Western part of North America, you should be able to see this fun meteor shower, assuming you don't mind standing out in the cold in the middle of the night.
March 8th - Saturn will be the closest to us, so a great time for viewing her and her moons.
April 21-22 - Lyrids meteor shower
July 22nd - Total Solar Eclipse - if you live in China or Mongolia or something, I'm looking at you here Viv, your day will get very dark as the moon makes the crazies thing God is punishing them by moving in front of the Sun. One of the greatest astronomical events people can witness.
August 12-13 Perseids meteor shower - there will be a bright moon blocking this out for the most part in the early evening, but if you venture out in the early morning hours, it should look great.
August 14th - Jupiter at opposition, really close. I took a look through a 4-inch telescope at it last year when it was at opposition and you could make out the great red eye and the banding of the cloud layers. It was amazing to see and this will be your best time to see it.
October 13th - Conjunction of Venus and Saturn - these two planets are going to be right the fuck on top of each other in our night sky.
November 17-18 Leonids meteor shower, this is a good one to watch
December 31st - as if crazy people don't need more to worry about, there will be a partial lunar eclipse on New Year's Eve next year, visible through most of Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.
So here is the place to talk about astronomy, or, expectedly, just start quoting Aliens.
Somebody wake up Hicks.
NotASenator on
0
Posts
(I think astronomy is very interesting)
I think I should go back to my galaxy av because space is awesome. And purple stuff is awesome.
The issue here is if you buy a telescope on a motorized mount, it's probably already controlled by an interface or something. It might be better to buy a good scope and build your own motorized mount so you can control it with custom software.
themoreyouknow.jpg
I have a few star finder programs at home, like Starry Night, but nothing like that.
I mean, besides Orbiter
I just think it'd bee neat for some kid in I don't know Greece to be all "Hey mom, look at this I'm looking at Tranquility Base through this telescope in America this so cool oh hey wait the moon's gone oh it's raining there again great."
I've been wishing for this for years
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/31/dont-fire-my-husband-nasa_n_154575.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_Boundary_Explorer
Where's the love for Spitzer, Chandra, and Compton?
Squall goes on my list.
maybe just a bunch of screens showing showing all the post-processed work
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/
You too can make brilliant astro photographs with LRGB fits data and the right photoshop plugin!
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/
That one works better.
coming over to your house pronto
But the best part is that you can use a gamepad to move your telescope around.
relative size of our sun to some of its bigger brothers
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.