APOD: Big Dipper Above and Below Chilean... (2017 May 09)

[Ann]

My mistake. I didn't think it necessary to admit that I didn't read any of the legislation in the recent Republican health care bill in your fair union. God Save the Queen.

You are weird! (I really expected this one to go over the heads of you & Ann.)

Ah! Thanks for the translation, Nit! (And... yes, it went over my head. Ooops.)

Click to view full size image

[c]Hepatica nobilis, "blåsippa" in Swedish.
Photo: Urban Rundström.[/c]

And this will be my last word on long urls. I don't suppose you've noted my love of posting pictures? Well, I was trying to post a lovely picture of a spring flower known as "blåsippa" in Swedish - ~"blue anemone" in English, I suppose - and the address to the picture contained that darned "å". I was utterly unable to post it as a picture, although I could have posted it as a link, I know. But hey, the impact of a picture is so much more in your face than a boring link!!!

Ann

[Nitpicker]

You are weird! (I really expected this one to go over the heads of you & Ann.)

It would have gone over my head, but I was curious to know who spoke the words you attributed to Ann and me. So I googled the phrase "You have an entire staff to really vet these things" and subsequently found the CNN article at the top of the list. Thank you again, Google.

[Nitpicker]

Ann, I can google that same blåsippa image, but it gives a different URL. Probably something to do with Google's Blogger service.

Click to view full size image

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KnvpKDIbrmY/T ... GP3297.JPG

But what was the link that contained the "å"? I feel like there must be an even prettier picture of a blåsippa, out on which I am missing.

[Guest]

How far from our Sun would a spacecraft have to travel, before the constellations began to change ? What would be the first ones to distort ?

The stars are quite close, ranging from about 60-120 ly. So you'd only need to move a few light years before some distortion was quite apparent, and a few tens of light years for it to be so severe you wouldn't easily recognize the asterism anymore.

Google 3d big dipper and you'll get quite a few animations and images that show the stars of the Dipper from different angles.

Great visualization of the 3D reality of the Big Dipper there! Thanks for the link.
Since NASA seems to always know ahead of time what face of a planet will be presented to a spacecraft's cameras (or landing sequence) at showtime, or when an Iridium Flare will occur, etc, I figure future FTL craft will have computer simulations of the more 'stable' Constellations running all the time. When the ship returns to sublight, there will be a navigational model that matches what its Nav telescopes are seeing, somewhere in memory, and it can figure out where the ship is, regardless of reference point distortions caused by distance.

[Nitpicker]

In my FTL spaceship, the 4-D navman operates at all speeds. It plugs into the cigarette lighter socket. The maps can be a bit sketchy at times/places, though.

[neufer]

You are weird! (I really expected this one to go over the heads of you & Ann.)

It would have gone over my head, but I was curious to know who spoke the words you attributed to Ann and me. So I googled the phrase "You have an entire staff to really vet these things" and subsequently found the CNN article at the top of the list. Thank you again, Google.

<<(CNN) Hours after scoring a victory in the House to effectively kill Obamacare, US President Donald Trump praised Australia's universal health care system during a press conference with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. "It's going to be fantastic health care," Trump said, referring to his new health care plan. "I shouldn't say this to our great gentleman and my friend from Australia because you have better health care than we do."

US Senator Bernie Sanders quickly picked up on the remark which came after Trump's new bill passed by a handful of votes. The new law still has to pass the US Senate. "Well Mr President, you're right, in Australia and every other major country on Earth they guarantee health care to all people. They don't throw 24 million people off health insurance. So maybe when we get to the Senate we should start off with looking at the Australian health care system," Sanders told CNN's Anderson Cooper.>>

[Ann]

Ann, I can google that same blåsippa image, but it gives a different URL. Probably something to do with Google's Blogger service.

Click to view full size image

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KnvpKDIbrmY/T ... GP3297.JPG

But what was the link that contained the "å"? I feel like there must be an even prettier picture of a blåsippa, out on which I am missing.

Oh, the picture I posted now is fine! There is no "å" in the address. The picture I tried to post, and failed to, had an "å" in its address. That was a few years ago.

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

Oh, the picture I posted now is fine! There is no "å" in the address. The picture I tried to post, and failed to, had an "å" in its address. That was a few years ago.

The problem wouldn't have been with the address. The character is valid. But software such as what's behind this forum sanitizes various inputs and links in order to avoid exploits. That sanitization involves replacing some characters and escaping others. That might break some links within the forum. But this board seems now to be handling those characters in links just fine.