Astronomy stuff - Life, the Universe & Everything

Seem to have developed a fixation about the Moon.
Taken last night on a neighbours new camera.



Comparison picture on my phone

 

Comet visible in the night sky
Tonight | EarthSky

 

Out on the patio in the cold air tonight, trying to photograph the Orion Nebula but the camera thingummy took ages to search for it due to clouds moving in.

.
Clouds moving in phonecam

My interest isn't astronomy, the robotic camera ranges like an artillery gun but moves very slowly.
We saw a few aircraft and the ISS moving over the sky but the houses got in the way.
Gave up and went inside.
Might have more pics of the moon tomorrow as it was used to set up the ranging shots.
He now has to fiddle with the software.

He's off to Wales over Easter so has plenty of hills to stand on and watch the stars with less light pollution.

 

More pics of things in the sky yesterday

The Sun with sunspots


Orion Nebula

 

Heard about this on Radio4 today.
Looking forward to Friday 13th April 2029 now.

Apophis - NASA Science

Edit. Did a forum search after posting this & see Apophis has already been mentioned a few times.
Is there any topic we've not covered on here?

 

We do try to be of banal assistance
Be Prepared the 2038 Computer Bug and Comet AG15 in 2040 Plus Asteroids

 

Perseids is well on its way...



...and I've been in a rush over the last couple of days, to build a prototype night-sky camera in time for the peak. But the only box I had to hand was an ice cream tub...



...which explains the red 'ghost' in this image, which is caused by a red l.e.d. leaking light into the protective glass cover.

I'm new to this, but my interpretation of this star-trails image is:-
- the red-white dotted lines are probably aircraft, mostly flying in over the southern coast on their way to HR or Gatwick
- the short lines with 'heads' or flares are shooting stars
- red isolated dots are just 'hot-pixels'
- white isolated dots are UFOs (as in "I'm Unable to identify this Flying Object")
- long faint lines are probably satellites

Some of the meteors are very bright, like this one diving out of the bottom of this photo...


...and while aircraft can be a nuisance, they sometimes look nice...


So lets hope for clears skies over the weekend!

 

After a bit more work on my rough-and-ready night sky camera, I'm getting much better results.
I haven't recorded huge numbers of meteors, but I've got a fairly restricted view of the sky, so can't capture the full sky like the boys with their 180' camera systems.

I'm mainly interested in capturing the brighter meteors and the so called fireball meteors (which are typically brighter than any star or planet). I don't think these two are quite bright enough to be called fireballs...


The milky looking band across the middle of these two photos is [I think] the Milky Way



I also tilted the camera in a more northerly direction the other night as there was a higher than normal level of geomagnetic activity...



...but I think the slight glow near the horizon is what the late, great Sir Patrick Moore used to call: the aurora bognor regis (we currently live about 4 miles from his old house in Selsey).


For non-Brit readers: Patrick Moore - Wikipedia

 

Harvest Moon from my bedroom window
23:40 17.09.24
Galaxy S10

 

BBC News
Yorkshire photographers capture supermoon and partial eclipse

 

The stuff that chap does is bringing the Tomorrow's World into the now.

His 5ft 8in robots are the things of science fiction.
I'll be back

 

As I watched this on the news, I was reminded of this...
https://external-content.duckduckgo...4695a5c7c3a97737a27d306cabc4b160d5&ipo=images

 

I think it is pure genius and helping make massive advances in technology. Just what we need. With NASA investing in his rockets and the like its the way to go
“Hasta la vista, baby"

 

...so long as he stays out of politics!

 

And gives credit where credit's due (but realistically I don't hold out for the bloke doing either)

Elon Musk accused of copying designs by I, Robot director

This has the feeling of an ambulance chasing type lawsuit only a whiff of rocket fuel away (with non-disclosure out of court settlement to follow).

Kind regards, never a favourite scent for me, always,

Jim.

 

With a 3D printed muskgiteer bonce hopefully (and same end result )

Kind regards, change the scent, always,

Jim.

 

It'll run and run (unlike much of Elon's built in redundancy stuff )

Patrick Tatopoulos on Instagram: "MAYBE IT IS JUST ME? Or should I feel honored that Elon found some inspiration in my I ROBOT designs? Probably my imagination running wild. Well either way it’s fun to watch. #irobot #elonmusk #ai #robots #future #futuristic #today #patricktatopoulosdesigns"

Kind regards, nothing new in show business, always,

Jim.