Unofficial Taylor Guitar Forum - UTGF
The Lounge => The Lounge => Topic started by: cjd-player on March 16, 2012, 10:39:07 PM
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I've always had a bit of interest in astronomy, but never pursued it too seriously apart from getting some star maps and an inexpensive telescope many years ago. After hearing a program on the radio this past week, for the past few nights I've been watching the fairly rare dance of Venus and Saturn in the western sky. On the 25th and 26th of March the moon will join the dance. Kool stuff.
Apparently there is some readily available software in which you can watch the movements of the stars and planets over time and during any year that you choose. The kind of stuff that NASA uses when they launch a space probe.
I also recently watched a DVD about what the sky looked like in the early first century. Really fascinating information. Here is a link to the web site: http://www.bethlehemstar.net/ (http://www.bethlehemstar.net/) and I highly recommend the DVD.
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I would love to get into it from a photography perspective. I've seen some of the stuff people get when they use telescopes to shoot with, and it's pretty impressive...
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When I was a teenager, I actually got some pretty good pictures of the moon through my telescope.
An old Kodak Instamatic camera just held up to the eyepiece. The lens surround and eyepiece were the exact same diameter.
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I love astronomy, and for a time was very interested in the science behind it all. I had a 10" Dobsonian for a long while, but alas, I am one of those people who cannot stay awake past 10:30, so I find it pretty much impossible to be an observer. So I just read about it and look at the pictures of fascinating deep space sites on the Internet.
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Carl, I have that DVD you referenced, and I think it's spectacular! :)
When I was in elementary school, we took a couple of field trips to a planetarium in Trenton, NJ. That was sooo much FUN and informative. Has anyone else ever had the chance to go to a planetarium?
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Carl, I have that DVD you referenced, and I think it's spectacular! :)
Yea, just phenomenal information. ;D
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What did the DVD do? Show what possibilities there were in nature for a nova around the potential time of Jesus's birth? (Not trying to get into religion here, just curious about the science behind the video.)
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The DVD shows some of the animations that are available in the mapping software. By calculating the positions of the celestial bodies, and then rapidly stringing those calculations together, an animation can be created to speed up the natural movements. In other words, the movement of say, Jupiter, across the star field over a period of several months in any given year can be seen as an animation in a few seconds.
The DVD shows a unique convergence of Jupiter and Venus that occurred about 2 BC (using our current Western Civilization calender). The two planets "touched" but did not overlap, thereby making the pair the brightest "object" in the night sky, and which exhibited some unique "movement" in the sky because of the relative movements of the Earth and those two planets. Hence, the "Star" of Bethlehem. It also shows rare celestial events that occurred in 33 AD (again using our calender).
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I used the stars and moon to move in the woods at night while hunting.Man, it's easy to get lost on a cloudy,moonless night.
When my older son got out of the Navy he taught me to read maps and use a compass. Now we both have GPS units, but still map read to stay in practice. GPS has to have the satallite.
Steve
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Carl, coincidentally a Facebook friend commented on a video which shows The Stars as Viewed From The International Space Station (http://vimeo.com/38409143). It's so incredible! Around here I can see a few stars in the night sky, but this video is LOADED with stars!
sachi, to add to what Carl mentioned about the Star of Bethlehem DVD, the guy used information from the Bible and was able to identify the year of Jesus' birth as well as his death (although some people may view the conclusions as speculation) and some other historical events that occurred. Using the software, he was able to go backwards in time which allowed him to see the sky as it would have appeared in biblical times.
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http://scaleofuniverse.com/
That is sooo cool! I am sending it to everyone I know.
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So, I checked out the video it was very cool.
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Another great site http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html) a different picture and explanation each day. Scroll down and click on the Archive link.