Starship Asterisk*

Request the airline tickets!

Wow - really? I take them for granted. Must remember that as I scrape the frost off my windshield!!!

I find it amusing, but my wife can't get enough of it. She obviously has a soft spot for geeks!

I'd say they are Virgos.

What does it mean?

Actually, it means you've eaten way too many mushrooms, dude.

How about this one? http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090121.html

Does the "moon illusion" still apply to a solar eclipse?

moonstruck wrote:Just above and to the right of Leo Minor there is a faint streak. Meteorite suppose?

Or an airplane or satellite.

Many recent discussions have surrounded the human sense of "sight" and the physiological perception of "colour". Because our eyesight is so imporant we put a very heavy emphasis on it's value. What if for a moment - we consider the eye just another sensor (stimulus-response), som...

Ann wrote: you can see a rather large, pinkish "halo" around the Sun. I have no idea what that is

Me neither. The halo is less pronounced and darker colour in the second photo. It could be lens flare inside the camera.

Why doesn't the debris appear as a full disk?

Um - ya. It's gotten well over my head. But thanks, I really appreciate the effort.

Ann wrote: because you get my point, don't you?

So you're telling me there's a chance... Ya!

Anybody want to get rich? Let's build some replica conkers for arachnophobes. I bet they'd sell like lottery tickets!

So if area 1 is moving at 0.5c and area 2 is moving the same speed in the opposite direction, they are separating at c. - seems easy enough.
Is there a limit, could you say the fastest that two areas could separate is 2c?

I've noticed some regions appear to consistently produce more frequent (and better quality) aurora borealis than others. Surprisingly the most northern of areas weren't the best ones.
Is there any science to support or explain this - or am I just crazy?

OK. Are other aurora colours (pink/blue) attributed to other specific atmospheric compounds?

I heard somewhere that northern and southern lights events occur simultaneously, is this true?

It's a Festivus Pole. Very high strength-to-weight ratio

Say - can any of you guys calculate the centrifugal force on that pole? Or does it need a mass for that?

On an SLR the mechanical action of the mirror lifting shakes the camera enough to distort a bright star image. It only takes a second to dissipate.
Note the "butterfly wing" blur of the surrounding stars indicates movement in the same direction as the distorted trail.

Does anyone know the direction of travel (is there any way to tell from the image)? Assuming it's towards the right I vote camera shake.

Is this a double exposure, why are the contrails separated far from the rocket track?