space-x just got their application for a launch center approved by the FAA
[url]http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/article_de0043e8-078a-11e4-9390-0017a43b2370.html[/url]
[editline]9th July 2014[/editline]
also
[url]http://aviationweek.com/blog/spacex-launch-orbcomm-falcon-9-july-14[/url]
space-x reset its launch date to july 14 (tentatively)
[video=youtube;jgYs1Mk29es]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgYs1Mk29es[/video]
Uploaded the video I took last time I got some decent images with my telescope.
[QUOTE=dije;45341304]Angara launched.
[url]http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/07/russias-angara-rocket-maiden-flight/[/url][/QUOTE]
love how people talk about how its new and innovative when it just copied the Common Core Booster we developed in the 90s
[editline]13th July 2014[/editline]
still 100% less explodey than the proton at this point
Falcon 9 launch attempt within the hour:
[url]http://www.spacex.com/webcast/[/url]
I was thinking about terraforming lately, and i think that Venus would be easier to Terraform Venus than Mars. Once we crack how the plants mysteriously turn CO2 into oxygen without applying ludicrous forces, we can use Venus as a giant gas station, and when the consumption gets greater than the production on the planet the CO2 levels will reduce to good levels
Elon Musk will be on the Colbert Report on thursday
[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/Apollo_11.jpg/1145px-Apollo_11.jpg[/IMG]
45 years today since the landing.
[QUOTE=OvB;45468537][url]http://www.spacex.com/news/2014/07/22/spacex-soft-lands-falcon-9-rocket-first-stage[/url]
vid[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=SpaceX]At this point, we are highly confident of being able to land successfully on a floating launch pad or back at the launch site and refly the rocket with no required refurbishment. However, our next couple launches are for very high velocity geostationary satellite missions, which don’t allow enough residual propellant for landing. In the longer term, missions like that will fly on Falcon Heavy, but until then Falcon 9 will need to fly in expendable mode.
[B]We will attempt our next water landing on flight 13 of Falcon 9, but with a low probability of success. Flights 14 and 15 will attempt to land on a solid surface with an improved probability of success.[/B][/QUOTE]
Have a fancy picture of a comet by Rosetta:
[img]http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2014/07/rotating_view_of_comet_on_14_july_2014/14628956-1-eng-GB/Rotating_view_of_comet_on_14_July_2014_node_full_image_2.gif[/img]
[QUOTE]NewHorizons2015 @NewHorizons2015 19m
BEHOLD! Pluto & Charon (~17,000 km apart) seen Monday by our LORRI camera. We're still over 400 million km away! [/QUOTE]
[t]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BtUNG6GCUAApMF3.png:large[/t]
Holy shit we'll finally get to know something about Pluto and its moons.
Only 9 years to get to Pluto, pretty fast when you think about it.
I think(?) I just saw a satellite! At first I thought it was a plane but it wasn't blinking and it had a red tint to it. I looked it up and the ISS wasn't anywhere near me and neither were any other satellites, so I'm not so sure what I really saw.
[QUOTE=Saturn V;45486228]Holy shit we'll finally get to know something about Pluto and its moons.
Only 9 years to get to Pluto, pretty fast when you think about it.[/QUOTE]
unfortunately its at a cost of only being able to do a fly-by, new horizons isn't there to stay
[editline]25th July 2014[/editline]
not sure if its been posted here in a while but the ICE/ISE3 return mission isn't going well
[url]http://spacecollege.org/isee3/[/url]
the satellite is functioning and its fully fueled but unfortunately the propulsion system seems dead, with only a little over 2 weeks to go, it doesn't look good at making the necessary course correction it needs to return to earth
Some images I processed from the [URL="http://telescope.livjm.ac.uk/Info/TelInst/Spec/index.php"]Liverpool Telescope/National Schools Observatory[/URL]
M1 - Crab Nebula and M27 - Dumbbell Nebula
[t]http://i.imgur.com/odPrdXR.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/3W5J6fm.jpg[/t]
NGC 4038 & 4039 - Antennae Galaxies and NGC 4449
[t]http://i.imgur.com/zE6w4M4.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/hDQJ449.jpg[/t]
NGC 4567 & 4568 - The Siamese Twins and NGC 7635 - Bubble Nebula
[t]http://i.imgur.com/frgCxyJ.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/6Jt9RSY.jpg[/t]
[t]http://4st.me/8ySCo.png[/t]
[I]Soon
[/I]Edit:
Also equipment photo (note the awesome Dew-Shield 2015™)
[t]http://4st.me/cIe3y.png[/t]
My sister has a 70-300 mm lens. Tried it at 228 mm but sadly SkyTracker ran out of batteries before I could get a good focus and the clouds moved out of the way.
Also it requires an extremely precise polar aligning so doesn't make it any easier.
All of my preparations are complete. Telescope with camera at its proper focus is balanced perfectly, tripod is nicely leveled, spots where the legs will go are marked. I also got deepskystacker live, so I will be able to see enhanced images of what I am actually looking at.
Hopefully I will be able to finally get some longer exposures with my basic equatorial mount with what is essentially a clock drive. My mount doesnt even have a polar scope, so I will try to precisely align it with the star drift method.
[editline]28th July 2014[/editline]
After three hours and lots of exposures, I got some of my first images of something other than a planet.
M57, the ring nebula
[thumb]http://i.imgur.com/6SMbIDM.jpg[/thumb]
higher contrast image
[thumb]http://i.imgur.com/yxk3hyf.jpg[/thumb]
And the star Alpha Ophiuchi
[thumb]http://i.imgur.com/f6kzVHr.jpg[/thumb]
I think its pretty good for my first successful attempt, and with such a basic setup. Most of the three hours was spent fidding with the mount and the motor drive trying to reduce the drift. All of those are one 30 second exposure or two stacked 30 second exposures.
[QUOTE=Blazyd;45492183]I think(?) I just saw a satellite! At first I thought it was a plane but it wasn't blinking and it had a red tint to it. I looked it up and the ISS wasn't anywhere near me and neither were any other satellites, so I'm not so sure what I really saw.[/QUOTE]
Definitely a satellite. IF you stay out for a longer period of time you can spot several satellites.
Went and imaged another object, the andromeda galaxy. I am getting the hang of using this mount, and these are my steadiest images yet.
[thumb]http://i.imgur.com/mUq5a3D.jpg[/thumb]
I wish I had a larger reflector telescope instead of this 80mm refractor.
Closeup of M1 in H-alpha from the same telescope
Stacked 10 120 second exposures
[URL="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5527081/M1-close-3.jpg"][IMG]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5527081/M1-close_s.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
[URL="http://www.astrobin.com/109734/"]Astrobin link[/URL]
new from ISEE
[url]http://spacecollege.org/isee3/isee-3-reboot-project-in-the-news-16.html[/url]
they've abandoned any hope of making a correction burn, so they've changed tactics to using the satellite's lunar fly-by to capture science
Sigh, brought out the scope and spied of some houses and birds. Even took a video with my new camera:
0:13 = hot telescope motor action.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDF7fvyjVNE[/media]
then it started raining and everything got wet. No space today.
That's too bad, I'm just about to head out to test the 70-300mm and 40mm macro lenses.
The tele kinda sucks since it can only do f4-5.6, but the macro can do f2. Don't have any clue what I'll be taking images of, Andromeda is a possibility or just generic Milky Way pics.
[QUOTE=Swebonny;45537173]Sigh, brought out the scope and spied of some houses and birds. Even took a video with my new camera:
0:13 = hot telescope motor action.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDF7fvyjVNE[/media]
then it started raining and everything got wet. No space today.[/QUOTE]
Whoa, the crows where you live have a white-grey body.
[t]http://files.1337upload.net/300714_1-fa444d.png[/t]
Canon 40mm f2.8, ISO100-800, 70s exposure, 100 subs.
Meh, I dunno, ok for first light I guess. Kinda uninteresting result. Small cloud formations faded out most of the pics + the lens was a bit out of focus.
I really need to go out during the day and take some damn flats to remove the vignette effect. Probably trying Andromeda next time.
[editline]30th July 2014[/editline]
Actually on the left side there's a few open clusters.
[editline]30th July 2014[/editline]
Annotation
[t]http://nova.astrometry.net/annotated_display/801467[/t]
And yeah, M39 on the left.
Right so I tried out the enhance option on Astrometry, and this happened.
[thumb]http://nova.astrometry.net/enhanced_image_full/803017[/thumb]
Also annotated versions of the previous images.
[thumb]http://nova.astrometry.net/annotated_full/803017[/thumb]
[thumb]http://nova.astrometry.net/annotated_full/803032[/thumb]
More images from the LT
M51 30x90"
[t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5527081/M51-11.jpg[/t]
If you want to try processing this one, PM me and I will send you the FITS files
Centre of M51 46x90"
[t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5527081/M51_core-6.jpg[/t]
Probably getting an Orion XT10 in a few days
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