George Jones

If you have time on your hands, you could wait for 120 million years. Then, the baseline, the diameter of the Sun's obit about the centre of our galaxy (about 60000 light-years), could be used for parallax measurements of distances to far away galaxies. I have been lazy, and I have not calculated if effects of the expansion of the universe would be noticeable with this method.

I like theoretical physics, but I completely agree with In another thread, I wrote

Any attempt at total understanding of this will necessarily be incomplete.

Meaning you want us to recommend books that will put you to sleep? A couple of books that I like for bedtime reading are "Universe: the Definitive Visual Guide" (Marin Rees is editor), and "The Story of Astronomy: From Babylonian Stargazers to the Search for the Big Bang" by Peter Aughton. I find that I can open them at random and start reading. Liking a book, however, is a very personal thing.

I was only nine, but I remember when this happened. A few days ago, I pulled out my copy of he Haynes "Apollo 13 Owners' Workshop Manual An engineering insight into how NASA saved the crew of the crippled Moon mission". I ordered this book from Amazon after learning about it in a thread here on SGL.

The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) is one place. https://academic.oup.com/mnras

An aid for remembering the classification of stars given in the 2010 book "Foundations of Astrophysics" by Barbara Ryden and Bradley M. Peterson: "The traditional mnemonic for this sequence is 'Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me'. However, if you prefer kissing guys (or goats or gorillas), feel free to make the appropriate substitution."

This is an example of cruel and unusual punishment. Before I got my scope, I knew that I wanted to observe Jupiter, but I did not realize just how deeply I would fall in love with observing the activity of Jupiter and its moons. I love going out with my scope and Moon atlas, and finding features. I love coming back again and again and again to the Double Cluster. Observing open clusters makes me feel like I am actually in deep space, like in Star Trek or Star Wars.

From where did this question come?

I have a Ph.D. in theoretical physics, and I have a rewarding, interesting, and fun job as a Senior Lab Instructor at a small Canadian university. For my job, I: organize and coordinate first-year labs; teach interesting second-year labs; perform outreach to the local high schools and community; teach some lecture courses (this semester, I teach a general relativity course, and next semester I am scheduled to teach an astronomy/cosmology course for non-science majors). Also, I am currently the co-supervisor of one M.Sc. student and sole supervisor of another, but I do not have to do this, and this is on top of (not in lieu of) actual job duties. The physics world, however, is insanely competitive. I got my present permanent position 19 years after I finished my Ph.D. The journey was very interesting, but also long and difficult. In the end, I happened to in the right place at the right time. I can give details of this journey if you (or anyone else) is interested. The majority of people who get B.Sc. s in physics do not end up in physics-related jobs; the majority of people who get M.Sc. s in physics do not end up in physics-related jobs; the majority of people who get Ph.D. s in physics do not end up in physics-related jobs. Most folks end up in interesting jobs, though. I consider myself to be very lucky.

I always wanted one of these.

If it's the temperature, then your set-up would not like it here; 4C this morning and 2C yesterday morning. Should be at least a few mornings in Dec. and Jan. when the (actual) temperature is in the -30Cs. I will still go for my 20-minute morning walk, but I will not do any (sedentary) observing. The electronics in my goto works at -15C, but I have no desire to check it at colder temperatures!

When I lived in the US Virgin Islands, I had many bats outside my ground-floor apartment door and also at my place of employment. Take care, however. See https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/rabies-death-bc-vancouver-island-bat-1.5213460

I have used one scope and three eyepieces for the last ten years. Evolution of my kit: 1976 10x50 bins; 2006 15x70 bins and camera tripod; 2009 C8SE scope and 3 Hyperion eyepieces. It seems that compared many folks, I am a minimalist! That notwithstanding, my visual observing sessions mean more to me than I can express in words.

Does Jupiter have cloud belts? My last several sessions have been with hazy, turbulent conditions, and I was starting to wonder. After the great conditions last night, my faith has been reaffirmed. Nice, crisp views of Jupiter and Saturn and lots of other stuff. The Wild Duck (M11) was amazing at x254.