Starship Asterisk*

Freefall74 wrote:Anyone notice this (I had to look at the full size picture to see it.
There are seven dots on the image that look a little too symmetrical.
Is this an illusion/aberration/camera trick?
I've circled the region here:
http://www.geocities.com/shadow1122/ngc ... fall74.jpg

Gecko23 wrote:I came here to post what I think is the same thing. Here's an example, cropped from today's APOD. Why does this appear in this image? I'm sure there is a good reason, but I am curious, and I want to learn that reason.

Gecko23 wrote:

Craine wrote:The image contains a number of defects or optical effects of some kind. Mostly they seem to be several grouping of black dots spread out at seemingly random places. And in one case, above and to the right of NGC 3621, 6 white dots circling a 7th dot. Does anybody have an idea how these are caused? Or did we find the Fleet of Worlds?

I came here to post what I think is the same thing. Here's an example, cropped from today's APOD. Why does this appear in this image? I'm sure there is a good reason, but I am curious, and I want to learn that reason.

http://www.netmoon.com/starwars/ships/tiedv.htm wrote:
<<In the battle of Yavin Darth Vader takes a ship into combat against the Rebels himself. This prototype ship, the TIE Advanced X1, features an original rear-deck spaceframe and reinforced durasteel-alloy hull built around standard TIE/In cockpit and wing brace elements. While similar to the standard TIE/In in many components, the advanced X1 sports a more powerful drive system. Speed performance is only slightly better than the TIE/In, however, due to the added mass of the vessel, which includes hyperdrive and shields. A good deal of the ship's extra power is bled off to the shield generators. While less maneuverable than standard TIE fighters, it can take a beating. The TIE Advanced X1 has twin heavy-blaster cannons in a fixed, front-mounted position, like the TIE/In. In addition to its shields, it had a modest hyperdrive but no life support system. Against the Rebel X-wing and Y-wing fighters in the Death Star trench, Darth Vader's personal ship proves to be a devastating opponent, and Vader cuts down one pilot after another with the X1's high technology.>>

Craine wrote:The image contains a number of defects or optical effects of some kind. Mostly they seem to be several grouping of black dots spread out at seemingly random places. And in one case, above and to the right of NGC 3621, 6 white dots circling a 7th dot. Does anybody have an idea how these are caused? Or did we find the Fleet of Worlds?

Chris Peterson wrote:

orin stepanek wrote:Just how do standard candles work? I mean; It's still just educated guess work, isn't it?

I suppose you could say that every conclusion drawn from an observation is an "educated guess". But that's probably not the term I'd use.

A standard candle is a light source (normally a star) with a known brightness. If you know the brightness, you can estimate the distance. Certainly there are assumptions involved: that the object is actually what we think it is, that the rules of physics are the same at its location as they are nearby, that nothing in the intervening space is absorbing light.

• -----------------------------------------------
  . The Merchant of Venice > Act V, scene I
  
  PORTIA: How far that little candle throws his beams!
  . So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
  
  NERISSA: When the moon shone, we did not see the candle.
  
  PORTIA: So doth the greater glory dim the less:
  -----------------------------------------------
  . Macbeth > Act V, scene V
  
  MACBETH: And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
  . The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
  -----------------------------------------------
  . King Lear > Act I, scene IV
  
  Fool: So, out went the candle, and we were left darkling.
  -----------------------------------------------

orin stepanek wrote:Just how do standard candles work? I mean; It's still just educated guess work, isn't it?

Does anybody have an idea how these are caused? Or did we find the Fleet of Worlds?

. Some of its brighter stars have been used as standard candles to establish important estimates of extragalactic distances