5596

Heh, neat.

5597

This is what I mean.

Although, I’d probably insert the phrase “millions of miles away”! Roughly a tenth of the way to Mars so fairly impressive I think.

5598

Defending against asteroids, or the Kodan Armada?

5599

Woolen wins the contest, not only for being first but also providing more thorough instructions. Sometimes I forget to hit enter. I feel that JMR’s post provides a mild spoiler of what is in store, but it still deserves silver because sillhouette included a superfluous word which is inefficient.

5600

So it passed another asteroid just before it hit this one?

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03067-y

5601

Yes. They targeted the smaller of a double-asteroid system. The small one orbits the larger one, and we’ve studied it so long we know exactly how long it takes to orbit the larger one. We have estimates on much that orbit will slow down after the impact, but they’ll have to wait to see how it settles out.

5602

Also

Hubble:

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Webb:

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5603

NASA and SpaceX have said they’re looking into SpaceX boosting Hubble into a higher orbit. Anything in low Earth orbit will encounter minute amounts of atmospheric drag, but that adds up over years. Eventually the orbit will decay and it will burn up in the atmosphere. The shuttle missions boosted Hubble’s orbit, but the last one happened a long time ago.

5604

Filters arrived yesterday, but rain meant no looking.

Tonight was gorgeous, so I was out there testing them on Saturn and Jupiter.

Now with no filter at the best magnification on my scope I can almost just barely discern two dark stripes across Jupiter. The near equitorial band, and one at about 60°N. But not super clear, the brightness washes out most detail. But if conditions are just right and I look closely I can see the hints.

So the filter set I ordered is this:

Now of these the 12,21,23A filters had no discernible benefit. I only have a 76mm mirror, so max magnification around 150. Good views, but a far cry from some scopes (its firmly on the larger size of beginner scopes). However the 56 green? That was pretty great. A lot more detail popped there. Same 82a blue. Its a pretty light filter as these things go, minimal really, but it did help bring out some. Actually when I stacked these two it was pretty good. A lot more detail, and a lot more stable. Which was cool as one of Jupiters moons was about to transit across. Well technically it was Io or Europa just about to cross behind Jupiter. I looked it up when I came in. But it was real close in to the planet, perspective wise.

But yeah, those two were very handy. I will be curious to check Venus and Mars through some others later this year. Mars is just starting to be caught up to, and so prime viewing coming this winter.

But definitely don’t regret getting filters, it really does help.

5605

SpaceX Crew Dragon launch to space station in t-minus 6 minues.

5606

SpaceX launched another Starlink mission from Vandenberg, less than 8 hours after launching Crew Dragon from the Cape. They are head and shoulders above anyone else in space operations capability. It makes you think they really could get to launching a Starship every three hours.

5607

Which telescope do you have again? I’m sure it will be good for Venus and Mars. Venus is fun to see for the first time and make your own minor ‘discovery’ which I will hide behind spoiler tags (worth waiting and seeing for yourself). What? It’s a half-disc like the moon! No way!.

I have a 130mm reflector, the Celestron Starsense DX 130. It has the app to find things which works pretty well.

I’m looking for a clear night to drive out to a viewing spot outside Toronto to tag Neptune, which is near and behind Jupiter right now. It’s a very challenging target because of how insanely far away it is - 4.4 billion kilometers or so. Most people recommend an 8" scope to see it but I bought a high-quality 15mm eyepiece to find it, and a 7mm plus Barlow to look when I do find it.

In terms of filters, most color filters aren’t that great. Green can help with the moon a bit. The neutral density filter can help with Jupiter and the moon too; I have a 12.5% which is about right for less than 2/3rds moon. I also bought a pricier SVBONY UHC filter which I recommend, as it cuts out a fair bit of light pollution.

So much fun.

5608

So mine is a Celestron Firstscope, 76mm mirror 300mm focal length. I upgraded with a fantastic Svbony 6mm wide angle eyepiece and 4mm wide angle. Also have a 2x Barlow. Its good for a lot of basic viewing.

I did see Neptune the other day, but only knew it was Neptune through careful use of Star Walk app. Not enough juice to make it more distinct.

I am getting an upgrade though. My dad found a Meade Polaris 900mm focal length 114mm mirror telescope at a farmers market in Michigan recently for $30, with its own equatorial mount. I’m actually flying to Chicago for my sisters wedding tonight and will pick it up then.

Firstscope will be the designated camping scope, this will become the main user I think :)

5609

Good find and a nice upgrade. I’ve actually been looking for a small tabletop scope like the Firstscope, as my existing telescope with mount is too big to bring as a side-item, like for camping.

Facebook marketplace is great for lower-end scopes, which are fine to an extent (not the non-branded super low-end, those are terrible). I personally think that darker skies are more important than bigger telescopes.

5610

yeah the only down side is its an older scope on .965 sizing. But a simple adapter was all I need.

And fortunately Oregon has plenty of places for dark skies not too far away. The bigger challenge is smoke! That haas ruined a few summer sky watching trips.

5611

Cool, looks like you are sticking to a budget which is a good way to do it really. My most recent purchase was the SVBony eyepiece, 15mm, 68 degrees. SVbony 68 Degree Eyepieces 6/9/15/20 mm It’s good quality and viewing angle for the price. I also have the Celestron XCel 7mm which is a higher-end eyepiece at around $120 CAD. With my 650mm relatively short focal length, these give me 43X, 93X, and 185X power, a pretty good range I think.

5612

Yeah thats basically the same I have in 6mm. Definitely a great eyepiece value.

5613

Throwing small objects into space! What could go wrong? But really, if nothing does, this is a pretty cool alternative to big fuel-guzzling rockets.

5614

By sending those objects into suborbital paths, as opposed to orbital paths, is the idea that eventually they could launch devices with boosters to get them into orbit? Or is this the world’s most powerful trebuchet?

5615

This is just a proof of concept version. The full scale version is supposed to get them most of the way to space and then a rocket engine does the last bit.