computer astronomy

[alecras2345]

what about the science in books, do i skip it?

[AstroMuni]

1 hour ago, alecras2345 said:

what about the science in books, do i skip it?

If it goes above your head then yes 🙂 You are reading what interests you, right?

Edited June 1, 2022 by AstroMuni

[alecras2345]

I've got the book called Planets by Brian cox and Andrew something i can't remember.   I find this book easier to read than Wanders of the solar system because there's no science, whereas in the book Wanders of the solar system, he talks about the science E=MC2 and things, WHAT!   no not interested.   Shall i skip Wanders of the solar system and just read Planets?    They are the same thing really, they are part of the solar system.   Here is a review i found about Wanders of the solar system,  

Narcissistic personality disorder involves a pattern of self-centered, arrogant thinking and behavior, a lack of empathy and consideration for other people, and an excessive need for admiration. Others often describe people with NPD as cocky, manipulative, selfish, patronizing, and demanding.

I bought this book for my ten year old son, to further his interest in astronomy, a book we read together. I am satisfied my son's intellect was not impaired by the experience of reading this as he came to the same conclusion I did, a conclusion which best described as unfavourable.

Ash

Edited June 1, 2022 by alecras2345

[iapa]

Do you just want to look at the night sky, or do you want to take pictures?

You could always try a copy of Turn Left At Orion, that seems to be good for letting you find things you may want to look at, or, Making every photon count, which does include basic geometry mathematics around how you can track a particular target, more geared to capturing and processing images.

 

 

[alecras2345]

Ok, im disabled and use a wheelchair, i can't go outside at night to stargaze because the cold weather makes my disability worse, so i want to do astronomy indoors on the computer.   I got in touch with an astronomy club who put me in touch with someone at a site called Go stargazing.   Here is a copy of his e mail to me, 

Hi Ash,
Neill Sanders, from Go Stargazing, asked me to get in touch with you. I run online stargazing courses, and have some spare slots (valid 3 months) for some remote telescopes.

Would you like me to set you up? There's no charge.

Regards,

Gary

The site he's given me access to is slooh.com  which is an observatory on top of a mountain in the canary islands,   you tell the telescope what images you want it to take and it sends the image to a photo hub on your slooh dashboard which is the slooh homepage.    There is also a solar telescope you can access on slooh which looks at the sun allday in H alpha and other wavelengths.   

[iapa]

1. Do you have any equipment available or are you starting from nothing?
2. do you have visibility on the sky to the North ( this helps in setting up)
3. Do you have some one who can help with the physical aspects of setting things up?

You could start with a DSLR with lens, sitting on a lightweight tracker, such as those listed here: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/star-tracker-astronomy-mounts.html.

This will automatically track a target, however, does need some setup steps to make sure it points in the right direction (which any telescope needs to have setup).

It is possible to set up a system to control a 'scope on a mount from indoors, but, it does need some work out side - as does anything above.

However, astronomy does require some financial outlay; mount, telescope, camera, and if you can't be outside, a control system.

Edited June 1, 2022 by iapa

[iapa]

It just occurred to me, there is someone (based in Glasgow I think) who gets great results from their system which is indoors with limited views through an open window.

[alecras2345]

No i have no setup. it's always cloudy here and there are street lights.    My bedroom window faces south but there are houses all around, i live in a cul de sac.   I don't know what the solution would be to my stargazing problem.   Like i said i want to do it online but i don't know what site to use.     I like reading about the solar system and i was reading the book Planets yesterday and he mentions that Mercury has an elliptical orbit so on one side of the sun it can be very hot but at the other end of its orbit can be very cold.   Brian cox also mentioned that mercury has a spin orbital resinance,  does that mean that mercury spins 3 times for every orbit?   im not sure.     Brian cox also said that venus and mars once had seas and were earth like, but that was when the sun wasn't as hot as it is now .   Something like that.

Ash 

[iapa]

28 minutes ago, alecras2345 said:

 mercury has a spin orbital resinance,  does that mean that mercury spins 3 times for every orbit?

Mercury spins on its axis three time for every two rotations around the sun.

I found this which describes it, with a video of the motion. https://www.skymarvels.com/infopages/vids/Mercury Spin-Orbit Resonance.htm

[Pixies]

Was that your letter read out on Awesome Astronomy?

[alecras2345]

No i don't think it was read out on Awesome astronomy, that's news to me.

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Phil Plait has already been mentioned however I'll reiterate. This 48 video Astronomy course is fantastic. Pick the videos that interest you. Pause and ponder if you get stuck:

 

If you cannot get out but want to take part and have an interest in science without a scientific background, the Zooniverse has many ongoing citizen science projects:

https://www.zooniverse.org/projects?discipline=astronomy&page=1&status=live

https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/mikewalmsley/galaxy-zoo-mobile

Edited June 4, 2022 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[alecras2345]

=I've never understood galaxyzoo, i thought it was no more.   i was looking at Backyard worlds, planet 9, which looked interesting but i don't know what to do?

[Xilman]

On 01/06/2022 at 15:13, alecras2345 said:

what about the science in books, do i skip it?

Yup.

Everyone skips "stuff" they do not understand at first reading. This goes equally for researchers working at the bleeding edge of their field as for complete newbies.

I have been at both ends of that spectrum and have personal experience of skipping stuff.

There is always time later to return to stuff you don't understand immediately --- after you have gained experience.

 

 

[Xilman]

On 02/06/2022 at 11:04, alecras2345 said:

No i have no setup. it's always cloudy here and there are street lights.    My bedroom window faces south but there are houses all around, i live in a cul de sac.   I don't know what the solution would be to my stargazing problem.   Like i said i want to do it online but i don't know what site to use.     I like reading about the solar system and i was reading the book Planets yesterday and he mentions that Mercury has an elliptical orbit so on one side of the sun it can be very hot but at the other end of its orbit can be very cold.   Brian cox also mentioned that mercury has a spin orbital resinance,  does that mean that mercury spins 3 times for every orbit?   im not sure.     Brian cox also said that venus and mars once had seas and were earth like, but that was when the sun wasn't as hot as it is now .   Something like that.

Ash 

I will be amazed if it is ALWAYS cloudy!

I started out by going into the garden with a pair of binoculars and a pair of eyeballs, sometimes without the binoculars. Naked eye observing can be fun and informative. It is how I became a variable star observer. I estimated the brightness of delta Cephei each clear night and recorded it and the date and time when observed. Some weeks later I plotted the results on graph paper and derived the period of how often it changed. Still have those hand-written observations in a notebook which is pushing fifty years old now.

Edited June 4, 2022 by Xilman
Expansion

[Gfamily]

On 03/06/2022 at 10:30, alecras2345 said:

No i don't think it was read out on Awesome astronomy, that's news to me.

It was read out on Episode 120 June Part 1.

What might be interesting is for you to use planetarium software (like Stellarium) to have a look at the region of the sky that the Hubble Space Telescope is currently looking at. 

So - start with https://spacetelescopelive.org/latest which will show you what HST is currently looking at 

If, when you look, it says "Hubble is acquiring a new target" - you can use twitter to see what it's been looking at recently on https://twitter.com/spacetelelive  

Each tweet has a link to an observation - an example is here https://spacetelescopelive.org/2022-06-08T11:18:57Z 

and the observation will be part of a research proposal. The research proposal will give a list of targets. 

However, as you can see, the thumbnail image includes the RA and Declination of the target, and you can bring this up on Stellarium  (You might want to set the display to use "decimal degrees" rather than hhmmss  (hit F2, go to the Tools tab and it can be selected there). 

You might find it fun to explore the same area of the sky as one of the 'Big' scopes. 

 

Edited June 8, 2022 by Gfamily

[alecras2345]

im interested in galaxyzoo, however i've never used it,  is it good?    i looked at space telescopelive, it showed recent images but no information.