Space Chat | Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
659 replies, posted
Missed the chance for some star pictures last night and now the clouds won't leave. How many more stars come out in the picture than what you can see?
Shit dudes check out what I'm working on for my telescope!
[IMG_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/s4fCUOe.jpg[/IMG_thumb]
Picatinny rail that'll connect right to the scope ring mount on my telescope; 3D printed using the schools resources so I cranked out a couple of prototypes to see how well the rail will work
I'm fuckin hype as hell to get this thing done!
[QUOTE=OvB;44036297]Missed the chance for some star pictures last night and now the clouds won't leave. How many more stars come out in the picture than what you can see?[/QUOTE]
I'd say I couldn't see half of the stars in that picture with a naked eye. Then again my vision is shit, so that might have something to do with that.
[QUOTE=Kfacat;44038300]Shit dudes check out what I'm working on for my telescope!
Picatinny rail that'll connect right to the scope ring mount on my telescope; 3D printed using the schools resources so I cranked out a couple of prototypes to see how well the rail will work
I'm fuckin hype as hell to get this thing done![/QUOTE]
3D printers seem pretty handy.
Well took a while to get the polar alignment but it's out there in the yard taking pictures of the milky way @ 18mm/f3.5 / 3 min / ISO 800
Will check on in after an hour or so. Hopefully the Milky Way will be somewhat visible, could've probably picked a higher ISO.
[editline]25th February 2014[/editline]
The night sky was beautiful too.
Man you're making me want to get one of them trackers.
But I blew all my dosh on my scope :v:
Can someone tell me why they don't use parachutes to attempt recovery on rocket stages at all anymore?
I know parachutes can weigh a lot, and refurbishing everything costs money, but it like it might be worth it at least some of the time!
Well ofc I forgot about dew, so the lens got wet after about 8 shots
[t]http://4st.me/oUYzU.png[/t]
You can't do much with 8, but I guess you can see something.
[t]http://4st.me/mTTTz.png[/t]
I could probably get rid of the glow + get a better Milky Way if I waited for 3AM and photographed north-east since there's pretty much 0 light pollution there. I was planning to do that in the coming weekend, but forecast shows clouds.
[QUOTE=jaredop;44046888]Can someone tell me why they don't use parachutes to attempt recovery on rocket stages at all anymore?
I know parachutes can weigh a lot, and refurbishing everything costs money, but it like it might be worth it at least some of the time![/QUOTE]
Salt water is a big reason. It does some pretty crazy damage to the parts in a short amount of time.
That's also part of the reason why SpaceX wants to fly the spent stage back to the launch pad.
[editline]26th February 2014[/editline]
[QUOTE=Hattiwatti;44047021]Well ofc I forgot about dew, so the lens got wet after about 8 shots
[t]http://4st.me/oUYzU.png[/t]
You can't do much with 8, but I guess you can see something.
[t]http://4st.me/mTTTz.png[/t]
I could probably get rid of the glow + get a better Milky Way if I waited for 3AM and photographed north-east since there's pretty much 0 light pollution there. I was planning to do that in the coming weekend, but forecast shows clouds.[/QUOTE]
You've captured the Andromeda galaxy right at the edge near the bottom there! :D
Awesome stuff.
[QUOTE=LarparNar;44047654]
[editline]26th February 2014[/editline]
You've captured the Andromeda galaxy right at the edge near the bottom there! :D
Awesome stuff.[/QUOTE]
Oh, didn't even notice!
Edit: Here's an annotated image generated by /r/astrophotography
[img]http://i.imgur.com/otAbVSI.png[/img]
Clear skies tonight. ISS flyover too! Tried to shoot the ISS but I'm afraid light pollution may have been an issue. Shooting a generic long exposure at some stars to get a feel for it. It's 35mm film so won't be able to tell how it went until I can get back to class.
[t]http://i.imgur.com/3VL8oVU.jpg[/t]
Cool.
Angular size comparison between Andromeda and NGC3162
[url]http://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/comments/1za22i/angular_size_comparison_between_m31_and_ngc3162/[/url]
Had to get GM so my avatar could live up to it's name.
SLS compared to the proposed Chinese CZ-9
[IMG]http://ww4.sinaimg.cn/mw1024/5f50f3afgw1ee0d21r6unj20rs0zkjx7.jpg[/IMG]
So I went to a island in my country and although the west is full of hotels with light pollution, where I stayed there was no city near so no light pollution, and I gotta say the sky was amazing at night, I could see the stars shape up the Milky Way sideways, and a plus is that the meteor shower Leonidas would set up at 12 am, and when I was with my dad on the car, I was looking through the window when I saw a flash in the sky, looked in front of me, a meteor burning up in the atmosphere, then I knew there was something, and saturday stayed up all night watching the Leonidas show, but only saw like 4 trails.
TL;DR, the cosmos is amazing and you can see amazing things at night
Lawmakers discuss potential Mars flyby mission in 2021
[QUOTE]Experts and lawmakers reviewed an alternative plan for Orion’s first crewed mission into deep space on Thursday, claiming a Mars flyby mission in 2021 could be viable. The Science, Space and Technology hearing was held without an official NASA presence and admitted a large amount of evaluations will be required to address numerous challenges associated with cost, schedule and crew safety.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/02/lawmakers-potential-mars-flyby-mission-2021/[/url]
that obvously proves lawmakers should have no say in space funding...
you can't send people on a 2 year mars fly-by in an unproven vehicle, apollo 8 was dangerous but if anything went wrong there was physically enough air and water to last for the duration of the trip, but a mars fly by, anything goes wrong they are dead.
NASA should really have full say on where the vehicles go, you can't just have a bunch of senators throwing darts on a chart of the solar system deciding where the funding goes
Today's XKCD reminded me about this.
If ISEE 3 still had fuel and had 12 out of 13 instruments running, why attempt to shut it down in the first place? Why not hand it over, along with the hardware for transmitting instructions, to a university with a powerful transmitter and let them use it for less important research or teaching?
[editline]4th March 2014[/editline]
You could nudge it into an Earth orbit and use it for whatever you want.
Europa Mission Gets Boost From President’s New NASA Budget
[QUOTE]A dedicated mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, one of the best bets for life beyond Earth in our solar system, has inched a little closer to reality today.
The Obama Administration’s 2015 NASA budget request (.pdf) asks for $17.5 billion for the agency, a slight drop from last year and more than a billion less than its 2010 peak of $18.7 billion. The request represents the things that the White House would like to see NASA pursue and includes funding for “pre-formulation work” on a mission that would fly by Europa, make detailed observations, and perhaps sample its interior ocean. Far bigger chunks of the budget are allocated to the development of a new manned spacecraft called Orion, the James Webb Space Telescope, successor to Hubble, and an extension of the International Space Station’s lifespan to 2024.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/03/europa-flyby-mission/[/url]
[QUOTE=Swebonny;44114725]SLS compared to the proposed Chinese CZ-9
[IMG]http://ww4.sinaimg.cn/mw1024/5f50f3afgw1ee0d21r6unj20rs0zkjx7.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
I always find it hard to imagine how large these rockets actually are until I see a scale like this.
[QUOTE=Blazyd;44130726]I always find it hard to imagine how large these rockets actually are until I see a scale like this.[/QUOTE]
It's crazy how big they are. I mean you could fit two moons inside the cargo SLS.
Polar alignment during cold weather and with a wobbly tripod is quite annoying to do.
Then I finally got it after a while and managed to move the tracker while repositioning the camera.
Shooting Alkaid @ 55mm f/5.6 2 minute exposures. Ultimate goal is to make M51 visible, even a little bit.
Now that I think, a longer exposure would be better since it's only f/5.6 and ISO 1600... Oh well, going to check on it after a while to clear any dew.
Well looks like I need another battery since my current one (1120mAh) runs out pretty quickly.
What I got:
[t]http://4st.me/ZYwXq.png[/t]
Nothing gorgeous, 3 stars of the Ursa Major.
But at least I got what I wanted:
[t]http://4st.me/KFT0Z.png[/t]
Yay for Whirlpool galaxy.
I'll only post when I have something more interesting next time.
[QUOTE=Kfacat;44141860]Aww yeah mission accomplished!
[IMG_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/2EOh9jo.jpg[/IMG_thumb][/QUOTE]
I think I have the same Plossl.
Where would space science be without 3D animators?
[sp]Nowhere.[/sp]
I've been lucky enough to have a Long term planner (he's a sedimentologist) for NASA's curiosity mission for the past term, and apparently they're going to be starting the bids for the 2020 landing sites pretty soon!
I should have found this thread earlier, only got one more lecture with him for the next 2 years.
First Cosmos episode tomorrow (Monday for us Europeans)!
[QUOTE=Swebonny;44169026]First Cosmos episode tomorrow (Monday for us Europeans)![/QUOTE]
Stupid Nat Geo Norway are going to show it here, but not until next fucking Sunday.
Frustrating as shit.
:I
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
