Astronomy Stuff

[Pcenginefx]

Oh believe me, I want to see a live launch.  I've been to KSC twice but never during a time of a launch....you really need to live there to see it because they scrap or move the launch date so often it is really hard to fly down for something like this.

[Necromancer]

Space Shuttle launch tomorrow at 7:55PM EST/4:55PM PST.

Thanks for the reminder.  I'll make sure I'm home to watch the hopefully safe and uneventful launch.

There aren't many more times we'll be sending up the Space Shuttle.  It is 30 years old and the fleet is definitely due for retirement.

But this one is only 17.  She's not even legal yet!

[Lord Thag]

Yeah, they need to retire the space shuttle and start building particle cannon armed star cruisers. How else am I going to be able to take over the galaxy? 

[ceti alpha]

Yeah, they need to retire the space shuttle and start building particle cannon armed star cruisers. How else am I going to be able to take over the galaxy? 

Don't hold your breath. NASA is retiring the shuttle in favour of 1960s style rockets. 

It's unfortunate that NASA doesn't get the funding it deserves, but with today's economy, NASA is going to probably be put even further on the backburner. I guess I can't complain, since I don't pay taxes in the US. heh Our aerospace program is terribly underfunded as well. It's pretty bad when private companies are ahead of NASA.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-rocket0608feb06,0,3395376.story

[Lord Thag]

Very true ceti. The ironic thing is that much of our current technology came from the space race. It's a shame we don't have a reason to push space flight. Imagine the resources we could mine from all of those dead moons and planets.

Besaides, I'd really like a Battlestar or Star Destroyer to tool around the solar system in. Planetary bombardment is so much fun 

[Pcenginefx]

Live Shuttle coverage has started....we are OK TO GO (in 2 hours).

Update: Cabin pressure test starting.  NASA says no issues blocking launch at this point.

Update 3:41PM PST: Planned count hold starting.  NASA says 80% chance of launch (20% chance of weather causing issues).  Whiteroom crew leaving pad.  We are OK TO GO.

Update 4:36PM PST: HDNet cable coverage has started.  Launch is a OK TO GO in 20ish min.

Update 4:41PM PST: Someone might not have secured a door in the white room and NASA is investigating.....update again, the door is not secured.   Looks like they will launch with the door unsecured so it will just break off....

Update 4:51PM PST: LET'S LIGHT THIS CANDLE!

Everything looked great for launch....ET sep just occured.....they are in space

[SignOfZeta]

I thought I'd bump this thread since I got a Celestron PowerSeeker 80EQ for Xmas. I didn't get around to putting it together until tonight and now I'm geeked to stare at shit.

[guyjin]

I thought I'd bump this thread since I got a Celestron PowerSeeker 80EQ for Xmas. I didn't get around to putting it together until tonight and now I'm geeked to stare at shit.

The sky is the world's biggest, highest-definition screen, after all

[SignOfZeta]

OK so I went outside tonight to mess around with things. I've got a lot to learn about this stuff.

The moon (no stars are visible since its supremely overcast this week) is in a weird spot right now, especially in my neighborhood with all the trees and houses and stuff. By the time its dark its so high in the sky my tripod can barely point my scope at it. Therefore I decided to wait until it had passed overhead completely. I went out there again (btw, its 19ºF here right now) and by this time it had descended a bit too far, so I had to view it through some trees. Since there are no leaves now though, the trees are just sticks.

Anyway, the view is AMAZING! You can see all the craters and shit and its crystal clear. Yes, very "HD".

Tomorrow I'm going to try to catch the moon in daylight/dusk and see how that works. I also need to see what I can do about the shakiness of this tripod. Since I just put it together tonight there might be some things I can tighten down. At the same time I can definitely see the experts always say the quality of the tripod is in many ways more important than the quality of what sits on it.

[Pcenginefx]

Saw some great stuff these past few nights from our place in Seattle - Mars (comes up to the East during the evenings), Jupiter (to the south/southwest), about 3 or 4 star clusters, Pleiades and a faint galaxy.

[SignOfZeta]

Absolutely no viewing tonight since its snowing several inches, but I did do some research on how to use the German Equatorial Mount so...no more struggling to point straight up!

My basic opinion of this telescope so far is that they obviously cheaped out on several things to make it fit into the low price point, but they made it count where they could. The tripod is a bit shaky, but totally usable. The viewfinder is really cheap, but also totally usable. The barlow lense...basically its garbage. I expect to never use it. The mount however is very nice, and the optics in the scope, 90º and eye pieces are very nice. So really the only thing lacking is the tripod, and even that is something I don't plan to upgrade for a while.

I think I'm going to check out the local club, University Lowbrow Astronomers, which is in good with the school and has open access to a 24" reflector (the viewfinder on which is bigger than my actual telescope) and is somewhat out in the country.

[guyjin]

The barlow lense...basically its garbage. I expect to never use it.

what is it, and what's wrong with it?

[SignOfZeta]

It

what is it, and what's wrong with it?

A Barlow lens is something you add between the scope's body and the eye piece to increase overall magnification. This one is 3x, so it triples whatever magnification you currently have based on the main lens and eyepiece. In theory they are great but this particular one is really cheap. Its all plastic, possibly even including the lens itself (!) so clarity is abysmal. One person wrote something online about how it was probably included just so that Celestron could compete with "Christmas garbage" scopes that sell themselves primarily on magnification power. In real world use magnification power alone is almost meaningless, and with something as small as this 80mm lens, it isn't going to let enough light in to really work well at its maximum magnification of 525x. In all honestly I'm having the most fun using this thing at its lowest magnification.

When I actually get a non-snowy night and I get a chance to take it into the countryside, then maybe I'll be interested in magnification power more.