Starship Asterisk*

astrix wrote:frankly. i see no relationship to venus(? )

I would guess that the relationship is that both are visible at roughly the same times of day (near dawn & dusk) and also in roughly the same parts of the sky (relatively close to the horizon).

ColCampbell50, the story you read could not possibly be true. An observer only hears a sonic boom from an airplane after it passes (a supersonic plane is by definition, "moving faster than its sound"). Keeping this in mind, and factoring in even amazingly fast (dare I say, "supersonic...

That's what I thought. So today's picture is not a sonic boom, but instead a shock wave occurring in the transonic range. A true picture of a sonic boom should be seen with the vapor cone occurring behind the aircraft, as in this video compilation of supersonic passes: http://youtube.com/watch?v=GEf...

Curious - if this cloud is, in-fact, the visual expression of a sonic-boom, then how is it that these clouds have been photographed at airshows all around the US, situations where breaking the sound barrier is expressly forbidden by FAA and military regulations? a couple of examples: http://www.teda...

Lee (and anyone else interested :wink: ), I think you should be able to get started using the equipment that you already have. Again, thanks to software, single long-exposures are no longer absolutely necessary to capture dim stars and sky features. The software I'm trying out is located here: http:...

Much appreciation for the info on your image, John (Wonderful shot, BTW). It'll come in handy when I head out to start experimenting. Good to know that the EQ-1 is a decent piece of gear, too. I'm looking forward to using it. Thanks again.

Hi, all. Noob to the forum here. Hopefully my first contribution can be of some help. As has been said, you'll need a tracking mount. I recently bought this one http://www.telescope.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=296&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=6&iSubCat=24&iProductID=296 f...