Google oops?

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FreebirdsWB
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Google oops?

Post by FreebirdsWB » Thu Aug 23, 2007 2:23 am

Downloaded Google Earth 4.2... which I'm calling Google Space.

Found an object I'm wondering about... sure looks like an image of a telescope.

Dec -13deg 30'08.89"
RA 6H39M34.39S

Anyone? And why's it there?

Of all the awesome pictures of the Pleiades, why did they not pick one to put in?

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BMAONE23
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Post by BMAONE23 » Thu Aug 23, 2007 5:42 am

INTERESTING FIND

Wierd blue thing above canis major

Image

Andy Wade
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Post by Andy Wade » Fri Aug 24, 2007 7:06 pm

There is another of these in Lyra:

Image
Regards,
Andy.

astrogeek
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Internal reflections

Post by astrogeek » Fri Aug 24, 2007 10:48 pm

The bluish features in both images are internal reflections in the telescope. When there is a very bright object in the field of view, the light can reflect around inside the telescope and camera before being recorded. The artifact is blue because both examples are from blue stars. There is probably a red artifact, too, but it is much fainter and more difficult to identify.

Canis Major contains the brightest star in the sky, Sirius. Vega is somewhere near the top 10 brightest stars. These are both likely to create reflection artifacts. The "spider" shaped shadow in the middle of the reflection is due to the secondary mirror of the telescope.

The blue streaks near the top of the APOD image on November 30, 2005 are due to light leakage from sigma Orionis (one of the bright stars in the belt of Orion).

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BMAONE23
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Post by BMAONE23 » Thu Sep 06, 2007 11:10 pm

nice sim. going to take some practice to get the feel of the controls

Aquila
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Post by Aquila » Sun Sep 09, 2007 3:02 am

I was playing around in Google Space earlier.. and found something strange. It appears one of the stars in Canis Major (the base of the "neck") has been.. removed? There is just a big yellow dot that looks like somebody just roughly covered it in MS paint or something.. any ideas, or am I the only one seeing this?

The location is Dec -16deg 36'48.31" RA 6h45m08.32s, just southwest of the blue artifact shown in the shot from the previous post.. which doesn't appear to have the same issue as I'm seeing. If you want an image let me know.. feeling too lazy to upload right now. Thanks!

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BMAONE23
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Post by BMAONE23 » Sun Sep 09, 2007 6:17 am

it looks like the star you are speaking of is Sirius. The artifact could be due to the inherent brightness of this hot star. The star itself is very bright and noticeable if you zoom way in on it, you also notice the colorful blue & yellow mask that is there too. I cannot say what the mask is about though.

Aquila
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Post by Aquila » Sun Sep 09, 2007 7:03 am

Ah, I see. I appreciate your response.. The thing that is confusing me is that the image of it in Google Sky is coming up as a large imperfect yellow "blob" shape that doesn't correlate with any images I've seen in the past, with anything I can find elsewhere tonight, and with it being known as a white dwarf. When zooming in close I do see some detail that makes it appear to be star-like... Ah well, I'm utterly amateur with this. I have an on and off love for astronomy that's been perked up again thanks to the new feature.

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BMAONE23
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Post by BMAONE23 » Mon Sep 10, 2007 4:47 am

No problems.

check out Betelgeuse in Orion it looks strange up close too

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