Starship Asterisk*

rigelan wrote:At what point will we actually see the crescent of Venus?
I have never seen it with my binoculars. I thought with a zoomed in image like this one - I might see it.
I think right now, its not a crescent anyway - its a 3rd quarter phase.

Chris Peterson wrote:

rigelan wrote:At what point will we actually see the crescent of Venus?
I have never seen it with my binoculars. I thought with a zoomed in image like this one - I might see it.
I think right now, its not a crescent anyway - its a 3rd quarter phase.

I find the phase of Venus to be quite evident when viewed with 8X binoculars. Perhaps the brightness is confusing your eyes; try it during the day, or as soon after sunset as you can find it- against a bright sky it may be easier.

It is often apparent in images made with typical telephoto lenses that Venus is in some partial phase. But the planet is brighter than the Moon, and much brighter than most landscape objects, so to get a nice image often involves substantially overexposing it, which can hide its true shape.

Chris Peterson wrote:

rigelan wrote:
At what point will we actually see the crescent of Venus?
I have never seen it with my binoculars. I thought with a zoomed in image like this one - I might see it.
I think right now, its not a crescent anyway - its a 3rd quarter phase.

I find the phase of Venus to be quite evident when viewed with 8X binoculars. Perhaps the brightness is confusing your eyes; try it during the day, or as soon after sunset as you can find it- against a bright sky it may be easier. It is often apparent in images made with typical telephoto lenses that Venus is in some partial phase. But the planet is brighter than the Moon, and much brighter than most landscape objects, so to get a nice image often involves substantially overexposing it, which can hide its true shape.

http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/starry/galtele.html wrote:

[img3="Galileo's 37mm diameter plano-convex objective lens were
"stopped down" to 25mm (or less) to limit chromatic aberration."]http://calitreview.com/images/galileo_telescope_1.jpg[/img3]

<<The story of Galileo's telescope is well known, as he recounted it himself in the Starry Messenger. In July 1609, Galileo was in Venice, when he heard of an invention that allowed distant objects to be seen as distinctly as if they were nearby. In October 1608, a Flemish spectacle-maker by the name of Hans Lipperhey had already applied for a patent (which was refused), and news of the gadget was widespread in Europe by the time Galileo had heard of it. Around the same time, a foreigner turned up in Padua with the instrument; Galileo rushed back to Padua, only to learn that the foreigner had gone to Venice to sell his instrument. Galileo's friend, Paolo Sarpi, had advised the Venetian government against purchasing the instrument from the foreigner, since Galileo could at least match such an invention. By then, Galileo had worked out the principle of the telescope and returned to Venice himself with an eight-power telescope. The Venetian government doubled his salary, though Galileo felt that the original conditions were not honoured.

Galileo gradually improved the power of his telescope, grinding lenses himself, and began observing the heavens. In the first two months of 1610, he was writing The Starry Messenger, and by 12 March, the book was already printed at Venice, dedicated to Cosimo de' Medici.

Galileo continued his observations with his telescope, some of which he conveyed in [anagram] ciphers to Johannes Kepler, who had already responded enthusiastically with the Conversation with Galileo's Sidereal Messenger:

Galileo's discovery of the 'handles' of Saturn was encoded in 'Smaismrmilmepoetaleumibunenugttaviras',
which could be unscrambled as 'Altissimum planetam tergeminum observaui': 'I have observed the highest of the planets three-formed.'

[However,] Kepler deciphered the anagram as 'Salve umbistineum geminatum Martia proles': 'Be greeted, double knob, children of Mars.'

For the discovery of the phases of Venus, the code 'Haec immatura a me jam fru(s)tra leguntur oy' (this was already tried by me in vain too early) hid the [near-anagrammed] message, 'Cynthiae figura(e) aemulatur mater amorum' (The mother of lovers [Venus] imitates the shapes of Cynthia [the moon]').

Despite this [cipher] exchange, Galileo never accepted Kepler's elliptical orbits.

From 1616, Galileo tried to apply his knowledge of the satellites of Jupiter to the determination of longitude at sea. In order to ensure observation at sea, the Tuscan arsenal made for Galileo a headgear which had a telescope attached. Around this time, he also designed a brass 'Jovilabe', a computing device for prediction positions of the satellites. He hoped to gain support from the Spanish crown for this project, but failed.>>

neufer wrote:Smaismrmilmepoetaleumibunenugttaviras

FloridaMike wrote:

neufer wrote:Smaismrmilmepoetaleumibunenugttaviras

bless you...

• Or spunne out Riddles, or weav'd fifty Tomes
  Of Logogriphes, or curious Palindromes;
  .
  *Or pump'd for those hard trifles, ANAGRAMS* ,
  .
  Or *Ecrosticks* , or your finer flames
  Of Egges, and Halbards, Cradles, and a Herse,
  A paire of Sizers, and a Combe in verse;
  Acrosticks, and *Tellesticks* , or jumpe names.

http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/starry/galtele.html wrote:
<<Galileo continued his observations with his telescope, some
of which he conveyed in [anagram] ciphers to Johannes Kepler,
who had already responded enthusiastically with the
Conversation with Galileo's Sidereal Messenger:

Galileo's discovery of the 'handles' of {SATURNUS} was

encoded in *SMAISMRMILMEPOETALEUMIBUNENUGTTAVIRAS* ,

which could be unscrambled as the ANAGRAM:

*ALTISSIMUM PLANETAM TERGEMINUM OBSERVAUI:

'I have observed the highest of the planets three-formed.'

[However,] Kepler deciphered the anagram as
'Salve umbistineum geminatum Martia proles':
'Be greeted, double knob, children of Mars.'>>

Mysterium Cosmographicum (1596): Kepler proposed
that the distance relationships between the six
known planets at that time could be understood
in terms of the 5 Platonic solids, enclosed within
a sphere that represented the orbit of {SATURNUS}.

APOD Robot wrote:The familiar Moon might look a bit odd as the exposure shows significant Earthshine -- the illumination of the part of the Moon hidden from direct sunlight by the sun-reflecting Earth.

flash wrote:

APOD Robot wrote:The familiar Moon might look a bit odd as the exposure shows significant Earthshine -- the illumination of the part of the Moon hidden from direct sunlight by the sun-reflecting Earth.

This sentence seems ambiguous (or at least awkward).