Cool astronomy photos

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Mon Dec 31, 2018 5:15 am

Clearly fake!!!11!

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Jan 01, 2019 1:52 am

Anaxagoras wrote: ↑Mon Dec 31, 2018 5:15 am Clearly fake!!!11!

Indeed. Fisheye lens to hide the flatness of the Earth!

If you have time on your hands:

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Jan 01, 2019 2:54 am

How to spend New Year’s Eve with NASA watching New Horizons’ flyby of Ultima Thule

This New Year's, you can go to a boring old bar like everyone else, or you can celebrate the dawning of another year by watching NASA's New Horizons spacecraft make history.

At 12:33 a.m. EST on January 1, the craft will fly within 2,200 miles (3,540 km) of 2014 MU69, more commonly known as Ultima Thule, an object far out beyond Pluto in the Kuiper Belt. NASA will be broadcasting the event on NASA TV and providing updates through their social media channels. You can find more details through the New Horizons mission page.

This will be the farthest object ever visited by a spacecraft, and New Horizons will come three times closer to Ultima Thule than it came to Pluto in 2015. The object is around 19 miles (30km) in diameter, shaped something like a peanut and is likely red in color. Ultima Thule orbits the sun about once every 295 years, and has likely been almost undisturbed since it was formed during the early days of the solar system, making it an exciting target for astronomers.

The flyby will take place about four billion miles (6.6 billion km) from Earth. Because of this, radio signals carrying information from New Horizons to NASA's Deep Space Network will take more than six hours to make the trip, and we'll have to wait just a little bit longer to see Ultima Thule.
[…]
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory will provide a live webcast of the event which can be viewed here.

http://www.astronomy.com/news/2018/12/h ... tima-thule

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Tue Jan 01, 2019 8:47 am

Link to discussion or higher-res version

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 12:49 am

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 1:49 am

Bruce · Post by **Bruce** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 3:14 am

Space gourd

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 4:57 am

Chang’e 4 successfully landed on the far side of the moon.

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 11:15 am

Witness wrote: ↑Thu Jan 03, 2019 4:57 am Chang’e 4 successfully landed on the far side of the moon.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/02/china-l ... -moon.html

Looks surprisingly like a pretzel or hotdog street vendor cart.

In the earlier post, I wondered what the orbit of the relay satellite would be. I figured a very elliptical orbit to minimize black-out time. Wow was I way off track.

Those clever fuckers.

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 1:30 pm

Witness wrote: ↑Thu Jan 03, 2019 4:57 am Chang’e 4 successfully landed on the far side of the moon.

First photos published:

https://www.businessinsider.com/photos- ... ing-2019-1

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Jan 04, 2019 3:41 am

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Sun Jan 06, 2019 1:43 pm

https://gfycat.com/HospitableObedientCurassow

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:06 am

And then it will capsize in the crater ahead, I presume.

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:12 am

I wonder if it can go into the crater safely, and if it does, whether it can get back out again.

I suspect they won't take that risk. At least not yet anyway.

But gravity being so light there, I would imagine it would be possible. Going up a slope would be easier than going up a similar slope under Earth gravity.

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Mon Jan 07, 2019 9:39 am

Anaxagoras wrote: ↑Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:12 am But gravity being so light there, I would imagine it would be possible. Going up a slope would be easier than going up a similar slope under Earth gravity.

But only 16% the traction. And those wheels ain't exactly snow tires.

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Mon Jan 07, 2019 3:48 pm

Rob Lister wrote: ↑Mon Jan 07, 2019 9:39 am
Anaxagoras wrote: ↑Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:12 am But gravity being so light there, I would imagine it would be possible. Going up a slope would be easier than going up a similar slope under Earth gravity.
But only 16% the traction. And those wheels ain't exactly snow tires.

True, and although the weight would be less, the mass is unchanged.

The Apollo astronauts had a moon buggy. I wonder if it even got stuck and needed someone to get out and push.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Jan 08, 2019 1:11 am

Hubble takes gigantic image of the Triangulum Galaxy

This new image of the Triangulum Galaxy—also known as Messier 33 or NGC 598—has a staggering 665 million pixels and showcases the central region of the galaxy and its inner spiral arms. To stitch together this gigantic mosaic, Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys needed to create 54 separate images.

Under excellent dark-sky conditions, the Triangulum Galaxy can be seen with the naked eye as a faint, blurry object in the constellation of Triangulum (the Triangle), where its ethereal glow is an exciting target for amateur astronomers.

At only three million light-years from Earth, the Triangulum Galaxy is a notable member of the Local Group—it is the group's third-largest galaxy, but also the smallest spiral galaxy in the group. It measures only about 60 000 light-years across, compared to the 200 000 light-years of the Andromeda Galaxy; the Milky Way lies between these extremes at about 100 000 light-years in diameter.

The Triangulum Galaxy is not only surpassed in size by the other two spirals, but by the multitude of stars they contain. The Triangulum Galaxy has at least an order of magnitude less stars than the Milky Way and two orders of magnitude less than Andromeda. These numbers are hard to grasp when already in this image 10 to 15 million individual stars are visible.

https://phys.org/news/2019-01-hubble-gi ... alaxy.html

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Jan 08, 2019 7:38 pm

https://i.imgur.com/2HAQexm.gifv

Sidereal day length and axial tilt for the 8 largest planets in our Solar System.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Jan 11, 2019 5:07 am

The Chinese rover has awakened and taken a picture of the lander (he's mirrored next to the flag):

https://gbtimes.com/yutu-2-rover-reawak ... objectives

I'm astonished by the whitish stones looking out of the regolith. Don't remember anything similar on the other face.

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Fri Jan 11, 2019 5:39 am

Perhaps it comes down to better camera technology?

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Fri Jan 11, 2019 10:11 am

sparks wrote: ↑Fri Jan 11, 2019 5:39 am Perhaps it comes down to better camera technology?

Concur

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Fri Jan 11, 2019 10:24 am

Abdul Alhazred wrote: ↑Fri Jan 11, 2019 10:17 am Isn't there supposed to be a significant difference in geology between the two sides?

yea

https://slate.com/technology/2014/07/th ... erent.html

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Fri Jan 11, 2019 11:24 am

I wonder what that green thing is in the upper left quadrant. A galaxy?

Doctor X · Post by **Doctor X** » Fri Jan 11, 2019 11:28 am

Your Mom?

--J.D.

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Fri Jan 11, 2019 11:33 am

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sat Jan 12, 2019 4:32 am

sparks wrote: ↑Fri Jan 11, 2019 5:39 am Perhaps it comes down to better camera technology?

Hmmm...

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sat Jan 12, 2019 5:10 am

Where are the whitish stones? A matter of light direction?

https://gizmodo.com/see-the-first-panor ... 1831671449

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 3:09 am

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed Jan 16, 2019 12:47 am

Moon with earthshine:

Details: https://old.reddit.com/r/Astronomy/comm ... arthshine/

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 3:43 am

https://i.imgur.com/6zsNGcc.gifv

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 3:44 am

Spectacular.

And faked.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 4:01 am

sparks wrote: ↑Fri Jan 25, 2019 3:44 amfaked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh0x-6UBkQA

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 4:26 am

Double down.

Sorry.

No fucking camera ever made could take that video as ... given.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 4:39 am

Okay, I'll be happy to learn – as you made the claim. Or are you just pulling my leg?

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 4:50 am

Once again, I offer no proof as I didn't make the claim. You did.

Now then, you and I have both looked through telescopes at distant objects (excluding Doc X's Mom of course) and we both know how difficult it is to take a decent picture of even so close an object as the Moon. To get a shot of Saturn 'rising' with the brightness of the Moon in the foreground is just too damned ridiculous to contemplate.

I remain skeptical unless and until you offer the appropriate evidences.

I think that just about sums it up my friend.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 5:16 am

Ah, OK, I understand your skepticism now.

I'll try to locate the source of the GIF.

Meanwhile, some facts:

Moon albedo ~ 0.12 (the Moon is roughly the color of coal)
Saturn albedo ~ 0.5
Saturn/Earth solar irradiation ratio ~ 0.011

0.12/(0.5*0.011) ~ 22

So the Moon's surface is 22 times brighter than Saturn's (at most, depending on the angle of the sunlight to the Moon's surface), or 4 to 5 stops in photographic parlance. Any camera can manage that.

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 5:55 am

I bow to your superior photographic expertise.

And just as soon as you reproduce that shot yourself, you let us all know, Umkay?

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 7:00 am

I'm pretty sure that Saturn isn't as close as that Gif would suggest

must be fake

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 10:39 am

Saturn as it reappears from behind the moon in 1997 from Whipple Observatory, Arizona. Krzysztof Z. Stanek

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 10:41 am

An occultation of Saturn as seen from the UK in March 2007. (Source: Damian Peach)