Starship Asterisk*

So, I'm too late to get either solar glasses or other eclipse viewing paraphernalia (I'm only in a 95% totality band anyway), but if I was interested in getting something to use with binoculars in the future, what's the best choice? I know there are specialty "solar-only" binoculars with ...

Badbubble wrote: ↑Sun Apr 07, 2024 7:55 pm Jonhnnydeep,

Don't give up on getting solar glasses yet. I have been told that some convenience stores and libraries have them. Your favorite astronomy club may be able to help you get them.

True. Thanks for the reminder!

So, I'm too late to get either solar glasses or other eclipse viewing paraphernalia (I'm only in a 95% totality band anyway), but if I was interested in getting something to use with binoculars in the future, what's the best choice? I know there are specialty "solar-only" binoculars with b...

Now that i look closer at the unwound image, it DOES show something better that i have always thought unexplained. The spiral arm that passes to NGC5195 is clearly bent towards it, and the fatter spiral arm next down is clearly bent away from it. Some sort of large scale dynamics at work here. The ...

I don't see the scientific lesson here about the unwinding. Although you can't see it on the APOD main page, if you click on the larger screen version for it you can see double. The rectangle is divided into two double portions, the left and right sides are with with the identical star formations i...

Sun's flattening is 0.00005 = 1/20,000 If we stitch a 20k pixels × 20k pixels panorama of Sun, we will know the equatorial diameter by being a pixel wider than the pole-to-pole one. Ok, but it would still not be possible to determine a fixed longitudinal coordinate since there isn't one. And this w...

I suppose the Sun has no meaningfully permanent longitude map that would allow these two coronal un-wrappings to be matched up. Which makes sense since the Sun is just a ball of plasma! But I gather that the rotational north-south pole line should remain the same long term. Or does it? I know the r...

I don't know. I guess you'd have to look at all the average distances involved (Earth to Sun, Earth to Moon) and figure out whether the angular size of the Moon- on average- is larger or smaller than the Sun. Which should suggest which might be more common. FWIW, I've personally seen three annular ...

Another question about the upcoming eclipse. I know a big deal is made of how the remarkably coincidental almost exact same apparent size of the Moon and Sun allows for viewing the Sun's entire corona at once and provides the best opportunity for science to study it, but wouldn't any total eclipse ...

I suppose the Sun has no meaningfully permanent longitude map that would allow these two coronal un-wrappings to be matched up. Which makes sense since the Sun is just a ball of plasma! But I gather that the rotational north-south pole line should remain the same long term. Or does it? I know the r...

I suppose the Sun has no meaningfully permanent longitude map that would allow these two coronal un-wrappings to be matched up. Which makes sense since the Sun is just a ball of plasma! But I gather that the rotational north-south pole line should remain the same long term. Or does it? I know the ro...

Some random comments: .... - And finally, Ann, what exactly is a "color commentator" (though I suppose that is obvious) and how did you acquire that title? (After two years here, I figure I'd ask. 😊) Well, the title was given to me soon after I joined Starship Asterisk* in 2010 (before we...

Some random comments: - Is it just my imagination or does the central star look like it's at the center of a cluster of stars? (Answer: probably I'm being misled by the radiating gas/dust lines). - So, I gather that WD J005311 ("the hottest star known") is the "zombie star". - It...

Are different, despite the appearance after all the directions light travels have been distorted. That's my understanding. Ok. My brain doesn't see it yet. Oh, and what of the nice symmetrical depiction of the magnetic field lines we see here: would it also look the same from any POV? (I may have m...

To be clear, the geometry of the accretion disk and of the magnetic field changes with orientation. It's just a product of the extreme curvature of space around the black hole that the appearance doesn't change much. So the accretion disk "looks" the same from any POV, yet the geometry of...

I can't answer as to what the field looks like. But as noted above, the accretion disk looks similar from most observation directions, and we don't really know what the inclination of Sgr A* even is. Best estimate is inclined 60° to the galaxy or 30° to the ecliptic, but there's a range of tens of ...

Minor nit. The lines indicate polarization of electromagnetic radiation. This is most likely a proxy for magnetic fields. So if the accretion disk can be seen perpendicularly to the line of sight from any angle (as other posts of videos point out), and we're viewing the magnetic field lines in the ...

I have nothing to say about the magnetic lines in today's APOD, but there is a video that explains why the black hole images (minus the magnetic lines) look the way they do. Minor nit. The lines indicate polarization of electromagnetic radiation. This is most likely a proxy for magnetic fields. So ...

Steen Thomsen wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 11:05 am Tycho Brahe was certainly a nobleman, but he had no 'de' or 'von' or 'af' in his name.
Best regards from his grand-10-nephew
Steen Thomsen

Yup. That leapt out to me as well.

... Spectrographic evidence suggests that the darker, reddish streaks and features on Europa's surface may be rich in salts such as magnesium sulfate , deposited by evaporating water that emerged from within. Sulfuric acid hydrate is another possible explanation for the contaminant observed spectro...

I can hardly wait the 6 more years for Europa Clipper to arrive at Jupiter! (Assuming it launches ok in October.)

Any educated speculation about the cause of the rusty coloration of the long, curving fractures? ... Spectrographic evidence suggests that the darker, reddish streaks and features on Europa's surface may be rich in salts such as magnesium sulfate , deposited by evaporating water that emerged from w...

I am not. I'm suggesting that "leftover galaxy core" is a lousy term for it, and that it isn't even a globular cluster, except visually. My point is that there's no evidence that globular clusters (plural, in general) are "leftover galaxy cores". Ok, but it seems the paper is ar...

What of it? Well, doesn't it say that Omega Centauri is - or very well could be - the remnant core of a cannibalized galaxy? And aren't you arguing that it's not? I am not. I'm suggesting that "leftover galaxy core" is a lousy term for it, and that it isn't even a globular cluster, except...

I would not characterize the remnant of a collision as a "leftover galaxy core"! In any case, the hypothesis that Omega Centauri isn't a "true" globular cluster, but rather something left from a collision, is based on the observation that its stellar population looks very differ...