Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 9:46 am
Rather nice grouping of the crescent moon above Jupiter and Saturn this evening.
Keep an eye out on the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on Monday - the closest they've been since 1623 - but that was too close to the Sun to have been visible, so the closest visible conjunction since 4th March 1226 (25th Feb Old Calendar).basementer wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 9:46 amRather nice grouping of the crescent moon above Jupiter and Saturn this evening.
Due to the time of year, any discussion of this on the media is accompanied by a mandatory attempt to link it to the star of Bethlehem. No one points out that people in the classical era were perfectly capable of working out where the planets would appear in the sky, so any genuinely wise man from the east would have just gone "Ahem, I think you'll find that this 'mysterious star' is actually a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn."Gfamily wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 10:47 amKeep an eye out on the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on Monday - the closest they've been since 1623 - but that was too close to the Sun to have been visible, so the closest visible conjunction since 4th March 1226 (25th Feb Old Calendar).basementer wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 9:46 amRather nice grouping of the crescent moon above Jupiter and Saturn this evening.
The whole thing about the star and the wise men was made up by whoever wrote the gospel of Matthew, along with the whole thing about Herod killing all the children under two years old, to make Jesus seem more important to his target audience.snoozeofreason wrote: ↑Sun Dec 20, 2020 3:26 pmDue to the time of year, any discussion of this on the media is accompanied by a mandatory attempt to link it to the star of Bethlehem. No one points out that people in the classical era were perfectly capable of working out where the planets would appear in the sky, so any genuinely wise man from the east would have just gone "Ahem, I think you'll find that this 'mysterious star' is actually a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn."Gfamily wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 10:47 amKeep an eye out on the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on Monday - the closest they've been since 1623 - but that was too close to the Sun to have been visible, so the closest visible conjunction since 4th March 1226 (25th Feb Old Calendar).basementer wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 9:46 amRather nice grouping of the crescent moon above Jupiter and Saturn this evening.
It could be even faster with a post bag/train system and a trampoline.Gfamily wrote: ↑Fri Jan 01, 2021 10:22 amIt seems that SpaceX has plans for its next launcher to 'be caught by the launch tower' rather than having its own landing legs.
Given the precision they seem to be achieving with their landings so far, this doesn't seem unreasonable, but it does show how much they have achieved in changing what can be done.
It's even being suggested that they could have a turn-around time of hours between landing and re-launching.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/30/elon- ... unch-tower
I think they faked the colour, it's really monochrome.
That is very cool indeed (no pun intended). Thanks for that.
The volume to surface area thing works wonders.Gfamily wrote: ↑Sun Jan 03, 2021 4:50 pmI'm not exactly sure how the image was created, but there's some detail here...
https://physics.stackexchange.com/quest ... of-the-sun
It's a very low resolution image though - the neutrino source in the Sun subtends an angle of about only about 3 arc minutes (1/20th of a degree), whereas the 'image of the source' subtends about 30 degrees.
Fascinating fact - the energy generation per cubic metre in the Sun is less than the heat energy generated in a well managed compost heap.
Is Perseverance going to the moon now?Gfamily wrote: ↑Fri Jan 29, 2021 10:03 pmI don't know who here has seen Luke Jerram's amazing "Museum of the Moon" and "Gaia" artworks (7 metre globes of the Moon and Earth respectively).
Anyhow, he's now* produced a Mars globe. Can't wait to see it.
It's being promoted by UK Space at the Natural History Museum in advance of the landing of Perseverance mission on the Moon
JL Mars.jpg
* ETA - apparently - this was 'now' in 2019
No idea what you meanGrumble wrote: ↑Fri Jan 29, 2021 10:26 pmIs Perseverance going to the moon now?Gfamily wrote: ↑Fri Jan 29, 2021 10:03 pmI don't know who here has seen Luke Jerram's amazing "Museum of the Moon" and "Gaia" artworks (7 metre globes of the Moon and Earth respectively).
Anyhow, he's now* produced a Mars globe. Can't wait to see it.
It's being promoted by UK Space at the Natural History Museum in advance of the landing of Perseverance mission on Mars
JL Mars.jpg
* ETA - apparently - this was 'now' in 2019