Starship Asterisk*

The weather is fine here, but I just wish that it could stay like that for the transit!

Chris Peterson wrote:altaz telescope mounts have difficulties tracking through the zenith.

Which is one of two reasons why it's hard for me to view M51 right now. The second reason is that it's storming right now.

Who on earth uses not the numbers on the right side? People who've never had to enter numbers other than on an occasional basis. And especially, people who use laptops, which more often than not don't have keyboards with separate number pads. Nowadays most laptops have an Fn key that enables them t...

So far the northern area of KC has been dry, and the southern area has been wet! So far rainfall totals for south KC are over 7 inches, while up north it has not even broken the 1-inch line, even after that rainstorm a few days ago that dumped at least three inches of rain and caused flooding in Lee...

How would you put these measurements into standard notation (°, ', ")? Or are certain symbols equatorial and altazimuthal?

At least we know now that if we ever run out of water on Earth we can look to Europa for help!

I always read the explanations mainly because I like to learn about these objects. I would like you to keep it up with the site and the explanations and links. Thank you!

Twice already this month I have seen mother and father geese walk their little goslings across the street, the first down south and the second near the center of KC. I had to slow down to let the geese in the center of the city cross, but it was a wonderful sight to see.

Dammit, and just before I go on my vacation to Germany next month! But something seems a little weird about this date... Actually, the day! Oddly enough, that date falls on a Sunday. So it is either by coincidence or it was actually planned out. But anyway, if the world does end then, we stil have f...

astrofiles wrote:There are soooo many beautiful apods that I think it's very hard to tell a favorite one. Perhaps we should ask what's the worst apod

This APOD seems to be one of the worst among many people.

Here is an amateur close-up picture of the supermoon I took just recently.

Supermoon

Just wondering... could this galaxy's active center qualify as a quasar?

Just as I expected. The storms fell apart before they got here. I guess I can take down the map (which had been tracking the storms all this time somehow!).

A line of thunderstorms to the west of Kansas City is strengthening and moving northeast. There are a couple of cells to the south of Emporia in particular that are in the most unstable air of these storms; they are following I-35. Luckily, cool air is surrounding us here, so these storms should wea...

One moment to accidentally install... 3 months to get rid of it. Honestly, I don't know how it got in there in the first place. I don't download anything I don't trust. I don't get any of that stuff with my IE9. Actually, I downloaded IE9 just a month ago, and those links appeared even after. That ...

Finally found the problem. There was a suspicious program called "I Want This" in my Programs and Features folder made by some company called 215 Apps. Who knows what that is or how it got in there, but I uninstalled that program, and now none of those Text Enhance links appear anymore!

Wow, we dodged a HUGE bullet last night with all of those storms. There was a supercell and a squall line threatening tornadoes that headed our way. The supercell fell apart after it hit Wichita. Unfortunately, a tornado formed in Wichita, causing millions of dollars of damage. The squall line weake...

So far over one hundred tornado reports! Wow! And these storms have not made it here yet but are expected to by around three o'clock. Hopefully they will weaken by the time they get here!

So far over one hundred tornado reports! Wow! And these storms have not made it here yet but are expected to by dawn. Hopefully they will weaken by the time they get here!

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Baseball-sized hail is tearing the siding off homes in northeast Nebraska, a tornado has touched down in Kansas and forecasters are warning residents across the nation's midsection to brace for "life threatening" storms. The National Weather Service says a rain-wrapped ...

The Midwest is in the spotlight! Snow in the west, warm temps in the east, and severe weather right in between. Already over tWelve tornadoes have been reported across the Great Plains, and the storms seem to be heading this way! :shock: It's still unknown whether these storms will strengthen or wea...

Nice image, with lots of detail. I too was confused with the positions of the objects and where the text located them. People must have different views of what these objects look like, as I do not see a star cluster shaped like a christmas tree but rather the nebula looks like one to me. What appear...

Wow! A nice image of the Seven Sisters plus our own sister planet!

The galaxy is not 'towards' the constellation Ursa Major. APOD captions regularly make this mistake. It's IN the constellation Ursa Major. Constellations comprise everything within an irregularly-outlined cone, stretching to infinity, whose apex is at the observer's eye. I love APOD though! That se...

Taken on Nowruz , the March 20 equinox, from Esfahan, Iran, planet Earth, Kinda wondering what's with the "planet Earth" in the description. Unless there are some people who don't know that Iran is a country in Asia on planet Earth, or if there are aliens that don't know about Iran, I don...