Starship Asterisk*

It is my understanding that due to the long exposure times required, b&w imaging provides the best contrast and relative exposure values. See an explanation of the process:

http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/glossary/lrgb.html

... I would love to see an APOD that shows the difference between an untouched versus touched up pic of a galaxy or nebula, for example. So often we see that the pic is a "false color image." I understand that this is so that we can make out what we're looking at better. I'm not an astron...

I was wondering that myself. It looks like a bow shock wave, but what's the source? the cat's eye is in the wrong direction. Maybe the star in the upper left corner of your blowup.

As for the comet shape, I had missed that. Looks like that region of space may be busier than it looks.

Perhaps the Ring Nebula
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040704.html

or perhaps supernova remnant Cassiopeia A
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050615.html

or one of my favorites "The Colorful Clouds of Rho Ophiuchi"
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060714.html

Stephen Hawking outlines most of the major points in "A Brief History of Time" using language even most laymen can understand.

Harry I agree with cosmo_uk and nasa that the big bang (singular) happened every where at once. So to state the converse of what I laughingly said earlier. "What if our big bang was simply sombody else's black hole?" It wasn't meant to be serious, maybe a theme for a SF novel. I realize th...

I still like Carbon Nano-Tubes and Space Elevators. I just don't want to be around when the cable breaks and comes crashing back to ground :lol: But seriously, I'd thought work was progressing on the " spaceplanes " X-34, X-37, and X-40A, as well as " scramjet " Hyper-X technolog...

No, niether is the one I am looking for. I agree, however, that they are very nice. Thanks for sharing.

BTW, your boys from Live at Leeds, Pete and Roger, are supposed to be here, Live in Oklahoma, next month.

ckam wrote:not an apod but check

Cool, that was very informative, but they forgot Uranus. Figure it's about the same size as Neptune.

I use a slide show of these as a screensaver, many of which have been apod's.

CFHT's Hawaiian Starlight Image of the Month Archive

Thanks, if they're not launching 'til 9/08, maybe they can still get a fix for the ACS.

What if our "black holes" were just somebody else's "big bang".

Last I heard, NASA had reconsidered and were planning on returning to Hubble for one last time. Does anybody know if they are still going to fly one last maintenance mission to Hubble? It would be a shame for such a valuable resource to die from lack of support. I seem to remember they were planning...

Thanks, but no. I pretty sure it wasn't the Rosette Nebula at all. :( I think it was a reflection nebula and an associated dark dust cloud that looked like a long stemmed rose from the side. The blue rosebud (reflection nebula?) was to the right with the stem (dust cloud?) extending to the left. Sti...

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070214.html Ok, I agree this is appropriate for today's date, but can't you think of something new to say? :wink: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050214.html http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010214.html http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980214.html http://ant...

It is to be used, once per APOD. Also, other astronomy-related questions were permitted, only not about same APOD. OK, I get that, but you have that opportunity outside the thread. Why would you go inside the thread of one APOD to create a new thread for a completely different APOD. I makes sense i...

aichip and l3p3r both made good points. Sometimes images are going to raise multiple questions. I believe each subject (not each apod) should have its own thread. Let the moderators decide which ones should be merged.

Why have a "newtopic" button if it's not to be used?

Just went and looked at Minoru Yoneto's other photo's. There are several with both Magellanic Clouds visible. Lot's of nice photos.

http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~mkyoneto/star/mcnaught.htm

Spectacular image link from apod/ap070212

The SMC is further identified by the two globular clusters, 47 Tucanae just below and NGC 362 slightly to the right.

Quite an impressive photo. Too bad we can't see all of the LMC.

Future observations from Cassini during Titan flybys will further test the methane lake hypothesis, as comparative wind affects on the regions are studied. Effects, not affects. :roll: You are quite right. I misread the statement as [wind affects the regions] as compared to [wind effects on the reg...

See "McNaught Meteors???"

http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... php?t=9784

craterchains wrote:It would seem highly dubious at best that the sun could provide enough heat to cause these craters in Hyperion's current orbit.

Could gravitational stress from Saturn provide enough heat for outgassing?

Ah, but which is which? Would not the larger (and lower one) of the two smudges be the LMC? We can't see all of the one at the upper edge of the photo. I believe that one is the LMC. The one in full view is the SMC. IMHO also see http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060809.html http://antwrp.gsfc.nas...

AnotherPOD wrote:Didn't know where to post this, but it should be 28 years, not 18. I was just practicing for the math section of the GRE, so I'm absolutely positive about that.

The picture is from 1997, so the age of 18 is right, relative to the time of the photo.

I, too, am curious. I suspect the lower smudge is the SMC and the smudge at the edge of the photo is the LMC.

So Pluto, Ceres, and 2003 UB313 are dwarf planets. What about Charon. It was under consideration as being a binary planet with Pluto. Is it no longer even a dwarf planet? It can't be a moon, it doesn't orbit Pluto, they both orbit each other. The center of mass is somewhere between the two bodies, n...