The amazing universe.

[Phil47uk]

Went out with my telescope last night and looked at Saturn, the M42 nebula in Orion. Belteguese and a few other interesting objects viewable from the night sky at this time of year over here. Saturn was amazing and looked like a bright dot with a line running through the middle as the rings were edge on. I'd like to see it when the rings are tilted.
Just thought I'd post this vid for those interested and also for those not familiar with the immense sizes of some of these stars.
Belteguese is the red supergiant just above and to the left of three three bright stars in Orion. The three bright stars making up Orions belt are easily identifyable in the northern hemisphere in winter in the south at night. You only need a pair of binoculars to see the M42 nebula in the sword of Orion, which are the stars going downward from Orions belt.
Take a look at this area with a pair of binoculars and you will see a fuzzy grey patch which is the M42 nebula. It's in the pic below and you can just see it as a redish blur below the three stars of the belt in the center of the sword..

Through a small telescope and binoculars it should look like this.

Anyway, here is a video showing the comparitive size of our Sun and planets compared to the real heavyweights of our galaxy. Awesome..

 

[MenaceMartin]

those look awesome! thanks for sharing

 

[LazyDays]

No backwards green comet? LOL Here's a pic...as seen from some where in Virginia...

That's so cool that you saw Saturn!

 

[Alligatorbling]

i know i whore this video but i just find it so amazing at how small we really are... thanks for the awesome post!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0co8PD8zTT0]YouTube - How big is the universe? Science of space.[/ame]

 

[Phil47uk]

those look awesome! thanks for sharing

Yeah some of those stars are an amazing size.

 

[Phil47uk]

No backwards green comet? LOL Here's a pic...as seen from some where in Virginia...

That's so cool that you saw Saturn!

I'd love to see this comet, but I'd doubt if I'd find it with my knowledge of the night sky..
You'd be surprised at just how difficult it is to train a telescope manually on a small object. For instance when I looked at Staurn I went up to a fairly high magnification with a 12mm lens on, I then tried a 6mm, but do you think I could get the blasted thing in the viewfinder. I was at it for about 15 mins. Even with a red dot finder scope pointing at the object, one tiny mm fraction of a movement with the main scope can send you about 10,000 light years off target. With higher magnifications the viewing field is narrowed so much, it's like trying to focus and find a grain of sand ten yards away. Personally I prefer a wider field of view with less magnification.
The more magnification, the less light.. ( Bit like a zoom on an SLR camera in a way ). Look at the Pleides through high magnification and you get about two stars in the viewfinder. Step down to say a 25mm lens and you see the whole thing in it's splendour. It's a better way to observe star formations and clusters unless you have use of something like the Hubble telescope, as even through a large telescope, stars don't have any surface features and only appear as bright points of light.

 

[Phil47uk]

i know i whore this video but i just find it so amazing at how small we really are... thanks for the awesome post!

YouTube - How big is the universe? Science of space.

Yeah that video is awesome Bling... Just shows one how really insignificant we all are in the big scheme of things. But what is even more fascinating is that everything you can see in that video was all contained in an area no bigger than a pea at a fraction of a millionth of a sceond after the big bang.
Lots of people assume that the big bang was an explosion in the emptiness of the blackness of space and not an explosion of time and space, which it was.. In other words there was no space.
Blows your mind doesn't it and makes you wonder what the hell is going on.

 

[cme2n]

Awesome stuff...I am a big science/space nut too....it's amazing (and humbling) to think about how large the universe really is and how insignificant we really are.....a look into space always put things in perspective...at least for me anyways....

Most people like to ask….”What was before the big bang?” and I have always struggled with the answer myself….there simply wasn’t a “before the big bang” as there was nothing to relatively perceive and therefore a sense of before and after wasn’t applicable….


It’s awesome to think about the implications of modern science, especially quantum mechanics….some people see science as dull or un-interesting but I really don’t see how scientific inquiry doesn’t excite anybody who has any sense of wonder…..honest scientific inquiry is the single greatest tool we have today and is much more inspiring and a more appropriate social moral compass than any set of bronze age desert myths…

Thanks for posting…..

 

[bad261]

Phil,
The comet is supposed to be visible with binoculars in Virginia tonight. It's very close to Saturn, so I think you could check it out.

 

[brimay]

Phil, might you be brian may?

 

[Phil47uk]

Awesome stuff...I am a big science/space nut too....it's amazing (and humbling) to think about how large the universe really is and how insignificant we really are.....a look into space always put things in perspective...at least for me anyways....

Too right man.. It does my head in reading books into the night about time and space..

One day Betelguese will explode and go supernova.. Maybe tomorrow, or maybe in ten thousand years. No one can tell, but it's already unstable and ready to blow. I'd love to be around to see it from earth, as for a couple of months we would have two suns in the sky. The night sky would be filled with the explosion.. Something like this. ( Artists impression.)

Our Earth compared to our Sun .

Our sun ( One pixel shown in tiny arrow bottom left ) compared to Betelgeuse.

 

[EEF13]

i have always liked stuff like this

 

[Alligatorbling]

Too right man.. It does my head in reading books into the night about time and space..

One day Betelguese will explode and go supernova.. Maybe tomorrow, or maybe in ten thousand years. No one can tell, but it's already unstable and ready to blow. I'd love to be around to see it from earth, as for a couple of months we would have two suns in the sky. The night sky would be filled with the explosion.. Something like this. ( Artists impression.)

Our Earth compared to our Sun .

Our sun ( One pixel shown in tiny arrow bottom left ) compared to Betelgeuse.

dayum! that would be wicked having that in the night sky!

 

[LazyDays]

I'd love to see this comet, but I'd doubt if I'd find it with my knowledge of the night sky..
You'd be surprised at just how difficult it is to train a telescope manually on a small object.

You seem to have quite a bit of knowledge where alot of things are concerned Uncle Phil. And I'm not surprised at all to hear how difficult it is to find something that small when you realize just how massive the universe is. I could find the moon and that would be about it.

 

[Stowburst]

i have always liked stuff like this

Yep me too.. its amazing stuff! I must get a decent telescope as soon as I have some cash.

 

[SKATTERBRANE]

I tracked Jupiter until it got obscured by the Sun's aurora. And I am tracking Venus, now, but where is Saturn these days? (in relation to Orion or Venus, let's say)

 

[Phil47uk]

You seem to have quite a bit of knowledge where alot of things are concerned Uncle Phil. And I'm not surprised at all to hear how difficult it is to find something that small when you realize just how massive the universe is. I could find the moon and that would be about it.

........

 

[Phil47uk]

Yep me too.. its amazing stuff! I must get a decent telescope as soon as I have some cash.

The great thing about living in the middle of nowhere is that I don't get any light polution down here. The sky is thick with stars at night and the milky way goes over my house in a white band. The nearest street light to me is over two miles away, so it's real dark here at night.
The problem with a telescope in a city is that there is so much light polution, that you can only see some of the brightest objects.
Refractors are easier to mantain than relfectors.

Refractor..

Reflector..

A Schmidt Cassegrain is very nice, but a ridiculous price in the UK.


A Schmidt Cassegrain

 

[geochem1st]

I tracked Jupiter until it got obscured by the Sun's aurora. And I am tracking Venus, now, but where is Saturn these days? (in relation to Orion or Venus, let's say)

Saturn is located in the constellation Leo until very early September 2009.

 

[Phil47uk]

I tracked Jupiter until it got obscured by the Sun's aurora. And I am tracking Venus, now, but where is Saturn these days? (in relation to Orion or Venus, let's say)

Hi Norbe. Over here in the UK Saturn is rising in the east about 7.30 pm.
About 9pm it's still fairly low and approx SE.. Left and lower of Orion which is approx S.
At present the rings are edge on, but I'd sure like to see them tilted towards us.