maw lod qan

First, thanks for posts like this. I do enjoy and appreciate learning from those with greater knowledge than I have. I think of life as one long school, me trying to learn everyday. With that said, Please humor my ignorance, but wow, it could have reduced in size by 92%? That in itself is just mind boggling to me when I think of how large it has been. Could it possibly recover from such a large reduction in size? I understand that as it burns heavier and heavier material, it changes, but would the extreme heat generated during this be enough to make rebound to its former size.

Very nice! Thanks for posting it.

Too bad our leaders, local and long distance, can't have the foresight to do something along these lines!

Very nice!

I like it. But then I am a nut for the moon.

I have also enjoyed this thread. But excuse me while I go wipe the tears from my eyes from where I read you were a teenager in the 80's!! 😂😂 It's the 60's for me!

It's all about the money! Every vendor is saying we're trying to bring internet access to areas that dont have it. But do you think they are going to hand out free iPhones and internet service to those in those isolated villages in Africa, or the little towns in North Korea??

Am I reading that right? An 18" refractor?? Wow!

Here in Fla in between 3 and 4 according to the LP maps I see on the internet. M31 is rather difficult on most nights to see the core naked eye. On those nights I can see the core fairly well with my 8" dob. On good nights if I sit comfortable for 30 minutes viewing it, more of the faint outer regions become visible. Good skies and patience pay off.

Amazing image. Looking at the surface, it makes me quite envious of the few brave men who stood there looking off at the horizon. I do hope that they, if for just a moment, were able to forget the scheduled task at hand and look at the beauty in awe!

Absolutely incredible!

👍👍I do enjoy photos of the Moon.

Beautiful!

I like how Voyager was even worked into the first of the Star Trek movies. After almost what, three or four century's, V-ger returns home wanting to download everything its learned. It wants to meet its creator. I would like to hope that someday, if there is intelligent life out there and they stumble across it, they smile and say wow!

Siberia has seen its share of meteor events, hasn't it?

Thanks. I wanted to try and get a look a Neptune on this 4 day off run I'm in, but we're going through one of our new cold front every other day. Cloudy again, just like last night.

Thanks for the explanation. My mind still yearns for knowledge.

I have to offer a word of caution! Seeing Jupiter or Saturn with your own eyes can and will cause a serious case of astronomy addiction! After a visit to a local club, or even just search the internet for anyone in your area that sets up their scope to let others get a peek into the heavens, you'll start considering your own scope. I bought my 8" optical tube assembly, just the tube and mirrors, for a little over 200.00. I had to build the Dobsonian base to hold it. Its given me many hours of joy.

I see they're working to keep Voyager 2 doing what it's done for so many years. I guess power usage is giving them issues, but for what I read they hope they have corrected the problem. 17 hours time lag one way for transmissions. Powered by radioisotopes. Am I correct in assuming (I'm worried using that word) that's simple terms for nuclear power? They hope it will continue to work for 4 or 5 more years. They also said it will be another 2300 years till it reaches the inner edge of the Ort Cloud. 30,000 to get past it.

Thanks for the post and link. It's amazing to think how little we know concerning something so important to life on our world and our day to day existence! Just strengthens the argument for the monies spent on space related sciences.

Hate the idea of more dots in space, but oh do I love a good rocket launch! 🙂 And to watch the booster return to land and be reused again makes me feel like a kid in the 60's and 70's again. I can dream of what's to come.

Last night was one of the best skies I've seen for a while. A crescent moon with Venus right there below it. My skysafari app said Neptune was right there as well! Orion was rising looking quite spectacular and inviting. Taurus, Cassiopeia and the Pleiades were stretched out to the zenith. With me still feeling the cold I came down with and the mosquitos swarming I didnt stay out as long as I would have liked. Still, it was refreshing. I just wish you all could have one sky a week like last night.

Yep, that area of clouds over Florida stops about five miles North of my house!😖

I have to agree with everything said so far. I do think that even though the "space race" of the 60's was political, it had its benefits. The weapons knowledge that was acquired by both sides to a certain extent has kept us, semi-safe, since then. The fear of mutual mass destruction has kept what conflicts, much smaller than they could have been. I'm not certain if we will ever see as much determination to accomplish what we did during those years as long as there are no science focused minds in the political system. We have and will continue to waste so much money that we could have already had men on both Mars and the Moon. Even with the technology we had. But there is no cutting age science that will not have serious risks. I mourn the losses we have suffered, but if you think of all the airforce pilots that were lost taking us to the point we could get into space, the astronauts are a small number. As much as I hate to admit it, we will lose more astronauts, unless we leave man on the ground. And that would be just as sad.

Like always, I'm in awe at the talents the members have here imaging. I wont live long enough to acquire such ability.