The smallest detail visible on the Sun with ground based Telescopes is about 1 second of arc. How large of a region does this represent on the Sun?
1 second of arc = 1/3600 degree = (1/3600)*(180/pi) radians
Linear distance = angle in radians * distance to sun
i`m only 16 but i am thinking about going into Astronomy but i don’t have a clue what you have to do for it! it would be really helpful if you could mention uni courses to get into it? and how hard is it? any suggestions about NASA?
The joke when I was an undergrad applied mathematics was that the graduate astronomy students and junior faculty daily read the obituaries rather than the help wanted ads when looking for work.
One fellow undergrad, an astronomy major, cursed in my presence while doing a physics problem. He expressed his disappointment saying that it was too difficult for him to visualize more than 10 dimensions at one time. I said that I have a problem with 4 (I was in the process of flunking the div grad curl part of calculus), how could he do 10? Oh, easy, he said, x,y,z, and t and momentum and acceleration in the spatial directions. I believed him.
Study astronomy for the love of it. I was in kindergarten when sputnik went up and we all dreamed of being physicists and engineers and astronauts. Physics and math and more physics and more math should be your coursework. Take a few other sciences and engineering to see how the theory you are learning is applied–just for a breadth of education.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena has summer programs for high school students. Try to get into one.
The new WorldWide Telescope enables space ex[ploration from the desktop. It stitches together imagery from Telescopes all over the world into a spatially navigable map of he universe.
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Moon interfers with dark sky viewing this week unless you are willing to get up very early in the morning. There are some brief but fairly bright passes of the ISS in the early evenings. Still time to view Jupiter in the early evening. Mars is getting a bit bigger and brighter. It will be at opposition with Earth in late January. There is a transit of Io, Ganymede, and the GRS Friday evening. Might make neat video sequence for dedicated planetary imagers.
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I wonder if earth based telescopes or orbiting satellites such as Hubble will be able to observe the navy’s attempt to shoot down the disabled U.S. spy satellite. That would very interesting to see footage of.
Hubble will not be able to watch the attack upon the crippled spy satellite, but the U.S military has had telescopes for decades that can observe satellites and other objects in space. Moreover, there has been programs to develop anti-ballistic missiles and live tests have been conducted over the Pacific ocean. Telescopes have been able to follow both the interceptor and the target vehicle until they collided and destroyed each other. If they shoot the satellite down while over territory where a space surveillance telescope can observe the attack, we will probably see footage on the evening news. Successful destruction of this crippled spy satellite would demonstrate not only to the American public but to potential adversaries as well that the U.S. can destroy a satellite in space in wartime. As a bonus, the debris will re-enter the atmosphere in a matter of weeks and will pose no threat to other satellites, the Space Shuttle or the International Space Station.
I want to go into Astronomy in my college/university years, and I want to know which school in (or near) Michigan have good schools for studying in Astronomy.
Central Michigan University is pretty good. Also Michigan State. But my top choice would be University of Michigan – Ann Harbor, it is world-class.
Actually, it really doesn’t matter where you study for the first two years as an undergraduate, if it has a good physics department. You can always get your Masters somewhere else, when you know what part of astronomy is most interesting.
In other words how far is the farthest thing in space that we can view from Telescopes?
We can see a diameter of 156 billion light years due to the expansion of the universe, anything past that has no causal link with us anymore!
I’m looking for examples of non-traditional Astronomy clubs, where there are no bylaws, no annual dues and no formal structure. Yet they have active members, regularly scheduled events and sell/trade equipment, just like traditional clubs.
Lots of yahoo groups are kind of like that. I am a member of some of them.
Whats Up for April? Did you know you can see other galaxies through modest telescopes or binoculars? Well you can!
Hello and welcome. I’m Jane Houston Jones at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California During 2009, were celebrating International Year of Astronomy by taking you on a tour of one of the months best celestial objects. This month, its the Whirlpool Galaxy!
Join me as we step away from our solar system, look beyond our own galaxy, and view the spiral arms of another galaxy.
Because we are inside our own galaxy – about two-thirds of the way from the galactic core, we can’t see the whole thing. But we can see the spiral arms and so we know we live in a spiral-shaped galaxy.
Early astronomers looked up in the night sky and saw patches of light which appeared like faraway clouds. They called these patches nebulae.
In 1845, Irelands Third Earl of Ross, William Parsons, used his huge telescope at Birr Castle in the center of Ireland to observe and sketch the spiral structure of the Whirlpool Galaxy.
Other 18th and 19th century astronomers, including father and son William and John Herschel, noted the structure of this galaxy, too.
A galaxy is an enormous collection of gas and stars held together by gravity. Since the 19th century, astronomers have aimed telescopes at galaxies, discovering their composition.
In the 20th century, NASAS orbiting Telescopes have looked at this amazing galaxy to see it in many portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio to infrared, on to visible light, and past visible to ultraviolet, X-Ray and on to gamma ray.
NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope looks at galaxies in the infrared part of the spectrum. It can see long lanes in the spiral arms. They are stars and gas laced with dust.
The Hubble Space Telescope sees similar views in a different wavelength. It looks at the optical part of the spectrum or what we think of as visible light. Thats the light we can see.
NASAS Chandra X-ray observatory reveals black holes, neutron stars and a glow between the stars of the Whirlpool Galaxy.
And last, but not least, the GALEX telescope shows that hot young stars produce a lot of ultraviolet energy.
Dont forget to view Saturn this month either. Its higher in the sky and easier to see.
You can read all about the Whirlpool and other galaxies in the distant universe this month on NASA’s International Year of Astronomy website: astronomy2009.nasa.gov
And you can learn all about NASA’s missions at: www.nasa.gov
That’s all for this month. I’m Jane Houston Jones.
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To celebrate this stargazing year, amateur astronomers around the world are going to encourage their communities to look to the stars.