Space Chat | Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. - General

damn those are some fine-ass squigglies bitches love science

I got an Orion XT-8 recently and i'm loving it so far.

Space is fucking awesome, always wanted to be a cosmologist or an astronomer when I was younger but I realize I'll never be able to do what I dreamed of due to my crippling inability to do mathematics :(

i have an 8" dobsonian made by orion, but i live in such a light polluted area that i can hardly see anything when i go out, even if i drive a bit away. its kind of a shame.

[QUOTE=Lone Wolf807;43614232]Space is fucking awesome, always wanted to be a cosmologist or an astronomer when I was younger but I realize I'll never be able to do what I dreamed of due to my crippling inability to do mathematics :([/QUOTE] I failed math my junior year of high school (and passed with crap grades for something like 3 consecutive years before that) and I just finished my bachelor's degree with a math major. Telling yourself you're just bad at math is a good way to never be good at math.

[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;43614490]I failed math my junior year of high school (and passed with crap grades for something like 3 consecutive years before that) and I just finished my bachelor's degree with a math major. Telling yourself you're just bad at math is a good way to never be good at math.[/QUOTE] How did you become better? Not just "A lot of practice", what was your method? I suck at math you see, and it's a thing I want to become better at.

I've never been very good at math either. I always think I understand the concepts well until I get tests back and I failed it. Failed freshman Algebra, barely made it through the rest of high school, and took college algebra 3 times.

[QUOTE=brainmaster;43615005]How did you become better? Not just "A lot of practice", what was your method? I suck at math you see, and it's a thing I want to become better at.[/QUOTE] Looking for a shortcut? You'll be disappointed: there aren't any. I think what did it for me was studying enough physics to see the math I needed to understand. It's the need to understand that makes me motivated to learn something. Just start studying astrophysics. If you don't understand a mathematical concept, find a math textbook (or go to khanacademy) and learn it. If your mathematical knowledge isn't enough to get that concept, go a level down and read up on the prerequisites. In the end, though, it's still gonna take a lot of practice. Especially if it's not a problem understanding the concepts, you're going to need to just work problems until you can use the techniques correctly in your sleep. It takes a while, but wanting to know more physics made me good at math. After a while, all the exposure to math made me appreciate math in its own right. Nowadays I'm better at math than at physics. I don't know which one I want to go to grad school for. I wish more people around here like the theory. Stop looking in your telescopes, dammit, I want someone to discuss black holes and cosmology with! tl;dr an insatiable itch to understand a topic is what will motivate you learn more math. Lots of practice is the only way to really get good at the math. [editline]21st January 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=OvB;43615338]I've never been very good at math either. I always think I understand the concepts well until I get tests back and I failed it. Failed freshman Algebra, barely made it through the rest of high school, and took college algebra 3 times.[/QUOTE] Algebra as it's taught in high school and before calculus is so goddamn boring. It's a smattering of seemingly unrelated concepts that you're forced to memorize equations to solve with almost no understanding necessary. Calculus, on the other hand, has obvious and intuitively understandable core concepts that serve an apparent purpose. And if you ever go past intro calculus into proof based math, you're almost always learning everything that's going on from the most basic principles and forced to develop an intuition for the subject in order to solve problems. I think it's such a shame most people never learn past algebra.

[QUOTE=Slippery-Q;43603836][img]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01350/eye_of_god_1350800c.jpg[/img] nebulas are my fav[/QUOTE] galaxies. [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/6Me4BaI.jpg[/img_thumb] I can stare at a picture of a galaxy for 20 minutes and just wonder

[QUOTE=LarparNar;43585995]I stuck a camera on the end of mine: [img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2668640/cmount.jpg[/img] Feels safe and stable. (Actually it is surprisingly stable, so that's good). Still waiting on clear skies though..[/QUOTE] I have one similar to this one. I'll post a pic today when I can.

I'm going to get some motors for my scope as soon as I get more cash by the end of this month. I gotta take dem nice space pics.

[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;43615474]It takes a while, but wanting to know more physics made me good at math. After a while, all the exposure to math made me appreciate math in its own right. Nowadays I'm better at math than at physics. I don't know which one I want to go to grad school for. I wish more people around here like the theory. Stop looking in your telescopes, dammit, I want someone to discuss black holes and cosmology with![/QUOTE] Buying a telescope is easier than understanding general relativity :/ You must live in an alternate universe dije.

[QUOTE=Chubbles;43616852]I have one similar to this one. I'll post a pic today when I can.[/QUOTE] aaand here we go. not as fancy as the other one, but I built this puppy all on my own. [t]http://i.imgur.com/l44ACjZ.jpg?1[/t]

[IMG]http://lolsnaps.com/upload_pic/HoldStillLarry-97428.png[/IMG]

SpaceX just shared this on their Facebook [t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/41041550/spacexion.PNG[/t]

I gotta say I'm super jealous of all you nerds with the dobsonians, I got my hands on one at school and had a blast just pointing it at stuff. I think it's just how long they are makes it fun to swing em around to look at shit. My little 90mm maksutov definitely feels small now, gotta start looking for a sweet 8 inch schmidt or somthing.

[QUOTE=Kfacat;43623691]I gotta say I'm super jealous of all you nerds with the dobsonians, I got my hands on one at school and had a blast just pointing it at stuff. I think it's just how long they are makes it fun to swing em around to look at shit. My little 90mm maksutov definitely feels small now, gotta start looking for a sweet 8 inch schmidt or somthing.[/QUOTE] 8 inch Schmidt would be really expensive, but really awesome.

Yeah I'm thinking of selling a couple of guns to fund the big scopes, should be able to get at least 70% of the money I need for an 8 inch

[QUOTE=Geeray;43591145]Just pulled an old telescope out of my basement. No idea what I'm doing and missing eyepieces. Its a beat up version of this. [IMG]http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00oBvQwAtnLGgs/Astronomical-Telscope-BM-900114A-.jpg[/IMG] Only information I can find on it is a site called "Madeinchina.com" which leads to some small chinese optics company. Off to a great start![/QUOTE] Well, R.I.P that telescope. This thing is missing far too many parts (View finder, Control rod, which makes the thing impossible to keep stable, and no eyepieces) to be worth rebuilding considering the prices of new telescopes these days. Any suggestions on some nice telescopes? Looking for a nice mid-range one.

How do you go about attaching your camera to the telescope. I know there must be a better way then holding the camera up to the lens.

[QUOTE=Mad.Hatter;43627695]How do you go about attaching your camera to the telescope. I know there must be a better way then holding the camera up to the lens.[/QUOTE] It depends on your camera. If you have a DSLR then you should get a T-ring that fits your camera and a T-adaptor that fits your telescope. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/oYo4ZBz.jpg[/IMG]

Turns out Ceres has water! [url]http://www.space.com/24366-dwarf-planet-ceres-water-ice-volcanoes.html[/url] [quote]Using European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory, scientists detected water vapor escaping from two regions on Ceres, a dwarf planet that is also the largest asteroid in the solar system. The water is likely erupting from icy volcanoes or sublimation of ice into clouds of vapor.[/quote] Seems like we're finding water all over nowadays.

[QUOTE=LarparNar;43635208]Turns out Ceres has water! [url]http://www.space.com/24366-dwarf-planet-ceres-water-ice-volcanoes.html[/url] Seems like we're finding water all over nowadays.[/QUOTE]Water is one of the simpler chemical bonds, am I not right, so it makes sense. If we have it here and many comets consist of the stuff I don't doubt we can find it anywhere

[QUOTE=dije;43635659]Water is one of the simpler chemical bonds, am I not right, so it makes sense. If we have it here and many comets consist of the stuff I don't doubt we can find it anywhere[/QUOTE] Water is a lot more common than people think, you just need to know where to look. Speaking of water, I hope there's a mission to Europa in the near future to check out if there's any underwater oceans.

[QUOTE=Blazyd;43637284]Water is a lot more common than people think, you just need to know where to look. Speaking of water, I hope there's a mission to Europa in the near future to check out if there's any underwater oceans.[/QUOTE] We should be careful though, [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_Report]it might have irradiated octopi in it.[/url]

Virgin galactic testing liquid engines for it's orbital payload launcher: [url]http://www.nbcnews.com/science/hello-newton-virgin-galactic-unveils-its-other-rocket-engine-2D11922691[/url] [t]https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1620469_10152210937339297_994829401_n.jpg[/t] [t]http://media1.s-nbcnews.com/j/streams/2014/January/140123/2D11401708-140122-coslog-rocket.blocks_desktop_large.jpg[/t] [t]http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/streams/2014/January/140123/2D11401357-140122-coslog-testsite.blocks_desktop_large.jpg[/t]

Nasa TDRS-L launch: [URL]http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#.UuHC_xAo7Dc[/URL] T-20 minutes [editline]23rd January 2014[/editline] delay due to data dropouts [editline]23rd January 2014[/editline] new t-0, I don't speak clock so I don't know what it is [editline]23rd January 2014[/editline] t-4 minutes [editline]23rd January 2014[/editline] [IMG]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13781308/ShareX/2014-01/2014-01-23_21-34-10.png[/IMG]

[t]http://d1jqu7g1y74ds1.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/IMG_1496a_Orion-at-KSC_Ken-Kremer-386x580.jpg[/t] just waiting on the CSM....and the rocket......and even then its not going to be manned for 3 more years... BUT its almost done!

I got to be part of an event where we got to ask [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_S._Hopkins"]Michael Hopkins[/URL] and [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mastracchio"]Richard "Rick" Mastracchio[/URL] from the current ISS mission a few questions live from space. Was pretty incredible being able to talk to them from that distance. I think the video might be up on NASA's channel soon if you want me to post it, not sure if it's up yet.

I love the mystery and astonishment of space, yet I have a deep fear of it. Does anyone share this with me?