Space Chat | Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
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Jason-3 launches on January 17th aboard a Falcon 9 (not sure if it's v1.1)
[url]https://blogs.nasa.gov/jason-3/2015/12/23/jason-3-on-pace-for-jan-17-liftoff/[/url]
[QUOTE=Bradyns;49381496]Jason-3 launches on January 17th aboard a Falcon 9 (not sure if it's v1.1)
[url]https://blogs.nasa.gov/jason-3/2015/12/23/jason-3-on-pace-for-jan-17-liftoff/[/url][/QUOTE]
It's v1.1, not the new full-thrust version that launched the other day.
Got my new APO lens for my camera, will have first light and pics as soon as its clear over here.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Cz2IJNa.jpg[/IMG]
The moon! Stacked 28 shots.
Finally figured out how to achieve focus with my DSLR without using the 2X Barlow lens. I can now fit more stuff in my frame.
[thumb]http://puu.sh/mgOjG/20d7a39de7.png[/thumb]
First light with my apochromatic lens! Took pictures of the Pleiades.
Turned out pretty well, although I am still sorting out vignetting and dust mote problems. Once I make a master flat everything should be fine.
The focus on this camera is also really sensitive.
Just saw this on a response to one of Elon Musks tweets:
[URL]https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/76866912/?ref=producthunt#fullscreen[/URL]
Also, static fire was successful - go ahead for the 17th
[media]https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/686743696469954560[/media]
[media]https://twitter.com/spacex/status/686740078387843073[/media]
I didn't know they were launching another one so soon.
broke the leg on landing, otherwise they did land perfectly. problems with the legs can be easily solved, they've got the guidance system down which is the hard part
also these are "old" rockets, the one that landed in florida was actually newer and had upgrades to it that this did not
So I just read through that paper about our best buddy, the super weird star KIC8462852. I posted what I picked up here:
[url]https://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1501914&p=49555220&viewfull=1#post49555220[/url]
And the whole paper is here: [url]http://arxiv.org/pdf/1601.03256v1.pdf[/url]
tl:dr- what the fuck is happening to this star. Honestly. Its fucking weird.
[editline]18th January 2016[/editline]
Honestly this star embodies the thread title because whatever is going on is strange, unknown, and will be a surprise if we ever find it.
its such a strange star, we probably will come up with half a dozen credible theories as to what it is, but we won't ever be able to say for certain. one thing is though, if the dimming continues for the coming decades then we'll be looking very closely at it
Incase you haven't seen the thread in SH, a pair of researchers from Caltech have found very convincing evidence for a ninth planet: [url]http://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-researchers-find-evidence-real-ninth-planet-49523[/url]
It has yet to be seen/discovered but the supposed orbit fits observations, and narrows down the search area a lot.
I can't handle the past week of astronomy news. Two big announcements Mon. Night before my Tuesday Astro class- one even bigger one night before tomorrow's Astro lecture
Also that's my first fun class at uni. It's two two hour lectures a week and normally two hour lectures are death for me since I just zone out- but in this one two hours goes by in no time at all.
Prof is helping me find research too, if the zero g 3d printing internship doesn't want me
SpaceX posted this on Youtube and Instagram.
The Dragon 2 capsule hovering last year (November I think, can't check whilst @ work).
[video=youtube;07Pm8ZY0XJI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07Pm8ZY0XJI[/video]
I did a rough envelope calculation.
The dry mass of this v2 is ~4,200kg, but this has fuel so say 5,500kg to 6,000kg - the normal force is 53,900N to 58,800N
There are 4 pods with a total of 8 super draco engines, so each engine is providing 6737N to 7350N to keep it stable.
The super dracos each produce 71,000 Newtons, meaning these were [B]throttled from 9.5% to 10.4%[/B]...
Being envelope it doesn't factor in the change in mass over time (rocket equation), and it's all just based off rough values from Wikipedia... still, it is probably in the ballpark.
holy fuck holy shit ohmygod i can't breathe
my favorite professor, one from that astronomy class, wants to meet next week (all this astro news has him really busy since his own research is tangled with one of the big headlines afaik) and discuss more AND
this is why im so hyped
get me working in the plasmas lab on campus so I can work on the various engines/reactors there- a number of ion engines, a spheromak fusion reactor, and apparently a [I]goddamn fusion drive[/I] prototype holy hell.
I actually left his office after he said that comment, got halfway down the hallway and then sorta realized "wait, he said "get me into the fusion lab" OHMYGOD"
[editline]22nd January 2016[/editline]
I've actually been using MIT opencourseware to catch up as best as I can, and have been trying to get ahead in my MATLAB class so I can try to simulate some of this stuff. or at least understand it and be able to actually contribute something to that lab besides my inane passion for the subject. because fusion reactors are the only way to solve our energy crisis and build true high-endurance spacecraft, and fusion drives are the only way we can feasibly explore the outer solar system
[t]http://cdn.astrobin.com/images/thumbs/d2786d54c90e8d2e631b87f9080fa459.1824x0_q100_watermark_watermark_opacity-10_watermark_position-4_watermark_text-Copyright%20Matti%20Hietanen.jpg[/t]
[t]http://cdn.astrobin.com/images/thumbs/7f6cf0245f83f938f69bd4bf64fc2838.1824x0_q100_watermark_watermark_opacity-10_watermark_position-4_watermark_text-Copyright%20Matti%20Hietanen.jpg[/t]
[t]http://cdn.astrobin.com/images/thumbs/6e46812eae81c65d1a67020a65a969ee.1824x0_q100_watermark_watermark_opacity-10_watermark_position-4_watermark_text-Copyright%20Matti%20Hietanen.jpg[/t]
Guess I need to start taking flats and darks at some point.
Should we have a separate thread for rockets, as I don't feel it does justice to awesome posts like the one above this to be posting news about delays in SES-9.
[QUOTE=Bradyns;49630319]Should we have a separate thread for rockets, as I don't feel it does justice to awesome posts like the one above this to be posting news about delays in SES-9.[/QUOTE]
I don't think the threads would be active enough if we had a separate rocket thread.
This one is already slow enough as it is (I do agree with the final comment in your post though).
what no keep it together
i don't like splitting astronomy and engineering as is- they're both for people who love space but like doing different things. Or just have different minds. People like me get out of college and help design the instruments astronomers use, or work on rockets that help build infrastructure for more space data, etc. Sometimes I feel the split is done out of people continuing to enjoy the worship of engineering over other majors (not that you are doing that, at all), since it seems to be an opinion I see among some people I know.
Space science and space engineering can be bffs <3
[editline]29th January 2016[/editline]
like hey look a pic form chinas yutu rover its probably late but high res pics of the moon are always cool with me
[t]https://i.imgur.com/9dfK0pK.jpg[/t]
Cool beans.
Well, as I mentioned, there is [URL="http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=39348.msg1483936#msg1483936"]apparently a delay in the SES-9 mission[/URL] which was scheduled for NET 6/2/16, and [URL="https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/693200275113447425"]now there is apparently a delay in CRS-8.[/URL]
[QUOTE=paindoc;49632660]like hey look a pic form chinas yutu rover its probably late but high res pics of the moon are always cool with me
[t]https://i.imgur.com/9dfK0pK.jpg[/t][/QUOTE]
for those interested there are more images here [url]http://moon.bao.ac.cn/multimedia/img2dce3.jsp[/url]
and videos here, including real time landing [url]http://moon.bao.ac.cn/multimedia/flv.jsp[/url]
I had some really nice high res panoramas, both from Yutu and Chang'e 3 but I can't seem to find them now
[QUOTE=Hattiwatti;49599347][t]http://cdn.astrobin.com/images/thumbs/d2786d54c90e8d2e631b87f9080fa459.1824x0_q100_watermark_watermark_opacity-10_watermark_position-4_watermark_text-Copyright%20Matti%20Hietanen.jpg[/t]
[t]http://cdn.astrobin.com/images/thumbs/7f6cf0245f83f938f69bd4bf64fc2838.1824x0_q100_watermark_watermark_opacity-10_watermark_position-4_watermark_text-Copyright%20Matti%20Hietanen.jpg[/t]
[t]http://cdn.astrobin.com/images/thumbs/6e46812eae81c65d1a67020a65a969ee.1824x0_q100_watermark_watermark_opacity-10_watermark_position-4_watermark_text-Copyright%20Matti%20Hietanen.jpg[/t]
Guess I need to start taking flats and darks at some point.[/QUOTE]
Sick shots. That's really amazing. What was the process?
[QUOTE=Swebonny;49665938]Sick shots. That's really amazing. What was the process?[/QUOTE]
Full-spectrum Canon 600D on a 150/750 Newtonian + a coma corrector.
HEQ5 Pro connected to a laptop.
A smaller 80/400 refractor attached on top for auto-guiding connected to mount and laptop.
Laptop running BackyardEOS, Cartes du Ciel + EQMOD, Astrotortilla and PHD2.
Exposures were ~5-10 minutes each @ ISO800 totaling to at least 2 hours per image.
Quick stacking with DSS, no flats, no darks etc.
Processing with Pixinsight: background extraction, color correction, histogram stretching, increasing saturation, getting rid of green noise, a bit of noise reduction, making the stars a bit smaller, local histogram stretch/multiscale processing to give some contrast to smaller details.
Photoshop for getting rid of bigger noise and making the background blacker.
Actually looked worse on my laptop screen so I decided to reprocess M33 and Fireworks.
[t]http://cdn.astrobin.com/images/thumbs/2fe1c896a9e3c2309487938b10b03ca3.1824x0_q100_watermark_watermark_opacity-10_watermark_position-4_watermark_text-Copyright Matti Hietanen.png[/t]
[t]http://cdn.astrobin.com/images/thumbs/ebd1f303df715f0e85d17f04323aafcb.1824x0_q100_watermark_watermark_opacity-10_watermark_position-4_watermark_text-Copyright Matti Hietanen.jpg[/t]
Gonna get a MoonLite focuser this month and see if it'll help with my coma problems. I'm like 95% sure I get coma issues because the stock focuser can't support the camera unless it's directly on top or under the scope.
[QUOTE=Whomobile;49368189]I've started to get a bit into stargazing and a couple of nights ago I saw a slow moving, dull red light that flashed every few seconds, It was moving too slow to be a plane or helicopter (plus I couldn't hear any plane noises on a quiet night) and after checking a few videos I don't think it was an Iridium Flare. any ideas what it might have been?
[editline]22nd December 2015[/editline]
It was a single red dot too, definitely not a plane's light.[/QUOTE]
In 2012 I was earning my Pilots license and was on a flight from Iowa to Denver in a small aircraft. As we crossed over Grand Island Nebraska we were tuned into their departure and arrival frequencies. I vividly remember there being one aircraft departing to the North and another on the inbound for Omaha coming out of the South. Just before we crossed the airport a bright white light appeared in front of us.
Assuming at first it was another aircraft who was heading straight for us and had switched on their landing lights, we diverted course about 20-30 degrees to the South and began an ascent to avoid an incursion.
The light followed. As if it were taped to the dome windshield of the Da-40 we were in. We sort of freaked and began trying to troubleshoot. We checked it out through a pair of binoculars, consulted the TIS (Traffic Information System, which provides a limited aircraft - based radar system), and called Grand Island tower. None of them reported anything to the West for greater than 50mi.
The light stayed constant and remained with us for about 15 minutes. Then, slowly, it began moving to our left at an unusually steady pace. When the light matched up with the left winglet off in the distance it idled for about 2-3 minutes before slowly fading out into nothing. The skies were clear and the rest of the flight uneventful.
But I will never forget it.
[QUOTE=Whomobile;49368189]I've started to get a bit into stargazing and a couple of nights ago I saw a slow moving, dull red light that flashed every few seconds, It was moving too slow to be a plane or helicopter (plus I couldn't hear any plane noises on a quiet night) and after checking a few videos I don't think it was an Iridium Flare. any ideas what it might have been?
[editline]22nd December 2015[/editline]
It was a single red dot too, definitely not a plane's light.[/QUOTE]
That is, without a doubt, a flying chinese lantern that was set airborne for the Chinese New Year.
Trust me I saw that too
[t]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ca2gU-cUMAA4rg-.jpg[/t]
[t]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CbCyMlQW4AA--Ov.jpg[/t]
It's so smooth and sturdy~
Bumping with a reprocessed Iris and M97 & M108
[t]http://cdn.astrobin.com/images/thumbs/82efd4eefe9908ee33e5bfcc9820c2d7.1824x0_q100_watermark_watermark_opacity-10_watermark_position-4_watermark_text-Copyright%20Matti%20Hietanen.jpg[/t]
[t]http://cdn.astrobin.com/images/thumbs/5172d5791dec7b9153e0d8282f8c18eb.1824x0_q100_watermark_watermark_opacity-10_watermark_position-4_watermark_text-Copyright%20Matti%20Hietanen.jpg[/t]
Took a picture of the virgo galaxy cluster.
Probably the longest exposure yet, also did some flat frames but they are not perfect.
I am beginning to find that the light pollution where I am is also pretty bad.
[IMG]http://puu.sh/oMDia/c747e974e5.png[/IMG]
can anyone recommend me a good astrophysics book? i've been deeply interested into astronomy for about 5 years now and i've become very knowledgeable about the subject (at least, quite knowledgeable for my age of 13). but now that i know a lot about astronomy i've been wanting to move on to astrophysics and maybe physics in general because i think that i might be interested. i bought a brief history of time and i understood most of it (it was also kind of interesting), but i want a book about astrophysics specifically and how it affects the development of stars, planets, etc. so i was wondering if you people know a good book for someone who wants to begin studying astrophysics?
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