Starship Asterisk*

On "Maxwell Smart", the "Cone of Silence" was clearly dome shaped.

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! Hmmmm.....

neufer wrote: <<The decline in populations of Swan galaxiids (Galaxias fontanus) has been...

Neufer,

From where do these gems of thought and wondrous information spring forth???

Absolutely stunning image! Clicking through the links embedded in the caption, came to the Hubblesite.org website, where this image was posted Jan 10, 2005. It's an interesting reflection to see how far we've come with computing power and digital imagery since then, as the "full resolution"...

The libration point on this day was pretty far to the SE (about 6 degrees south, 4.25 degrees east, 7.5 degrees at phase angle 214) making the SE features of the moon unusually visible! Good views of Mare Marginis and Mare Smithyii, (out past Mare Crisium area), and even Mare Australis (way, way out...

But just think, somewhere up in the arctic circle there's some poor fellow with his 20" scope, eager for some deep-sky work, who looks out his remote cabin window and says "drat! another night of viewing ruined by these blasted auroras!" :) But more seriously... Is one reason we love ...

This is one of my pet peeves about science fiction movies. Every time I watch one of those movies, I want to SCREAM at the silver screen, "YOU IDIOTS! YOU CAN'T HEAR SOUNDS IN OUTER SPACE!" WHY can't they do this right? And, even more importantly, the impact sound effects scared my cat as...

Be sure to click on the "Moon formed" link, in the last sentence, to a video of William Hartmann's theory. My question, up for anyone who wants it: many planets have moons... and, while I'm not well-read on the subject, my impression has been that this theory (huge planet-sized impact ejec...

Here is a listing of the daily SRS (solar region summary) data for AR1429 from first to last appearance, from http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/forecasts/SRS.html Sorry about the formatting, but I can't get this to line up right with the columns. Columns are: Date, Active region number (1429), locati...

Beyond wrote: And that 'space cat' sure has a l--o--n--g tail.

I puzzled over this for quite a while, but finally got it. For those who need help:

In the APOD description, click on the link to "humorous pose"

I've been watching Jupiter & Venus for some months now, and have a question... If the two planets are on the same orbital plane, why is a conjunction not a single point in the sky? The planets' orbits are close to being in the same plane, but not exactly. Using earth's orbit to define the plane...

Be sure to check out the photographer's original composition (and variations), the APOD is the "cropped" version:

http://spaceweather.com/submissions/lar ... 600807.jpg

Nicely done, Marek!

Another reference on diffraction spikes (from APOD itself):

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010415.html

Hey, sumthin' ain't kosher! The vertical shadow below the heliostat should continue onto the horizontal surface above it. Where is it?!?! Unless the post or whatever was casting the shadow happens to be just that tall. Rob This view from Google Earth shows two poles, the one further back, which I'v...

geckzilla wrote:

jandotto wrote:The expected solar maximum is likely next February, not in a few years - and is much weaker than recent cycles maximums.

What makes you say that?

Here's a good article:

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/sc ... veyorbelt/

I've seen some similar presentations, but this is the best yet... great job, Cary & Michael! Some of the concepts were quite different... the stacked heights of all humanity? The cumulative orbital distance the earth has traveled around the sun? That took some creative thinking! Call me "po...

One neat optical "illusion" that makes this picture outstanding is the pseudo-depth-of-field effect. The back part of the galaxy is partially obscured by the intervening gasses/nebulosity. This tends to blur it out. However, we are accustomed to seeing this differential background blurring...

Although I find today's image aesthetically more pleasing, this image:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100319.html

Makes the moniker "seagull nebula" more obvious.

Prior versions:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110112.html

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100319.html

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090327.html

The west wall... This raises an interesting question, what is east, and what is west? This past summer I delved into solar observing, and was quickly confused by a concept I thought I already knew... because in solar observing conventions, "east" and "west" are reversed from luna...

A cosmic rose for Valentine's Day... how appropriate!

Ann wrote:The filters used were infrared, yellow-orange and yellow-green

Ann, how can you tell what filters were used? Just curious & wanting to learn.

Mark

Found it on Google Earth!

Latitude: 41 deg 18' 12.56" North
Longitude: 113 deg 51' 49.73" West

This is the first repeat picture I've seen on APOD (see February 25, 2008 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080225.html) Have there been other repeats in the past which I haven't caught? Actually, this isn't a repeat. Due to the time-space distortions created in the warp field environment, two parallel u...

Question for those APOD followers from the southern hemisphere: I've never been down that far south, and have often wondered just what the Magellenic clouds look like to the unaided eye. I've seen photos, of course, but can anyone describe what it's like to actually look up and see them? Thanks, San...