jakieś mgiełki na informatykeAstronomy for Amateurs
Posted in Astronomy on April 3rd, 2010 by admin
http://lgno.me/cJmip0 – http://lgno.me/aNiqPm – During our open mic session at the last Gnomedex, my good friend Derek Miller came up on stage to show off some backyard Astronomy that his Dad has done. Derek reminds us all that you don’t have to work at NASA to get amazing photographs of things found in our solar system. All you need is passion for what you’re looking at, and a telescope! http://twitter.com/penmachine – http://twitter.com/chrispirillo
Duration : 0:2:8
Astronomy in the Tetons
Posted in Astronomy on March 20th, 2010 by admin
Headed south and managed to find a great secluded spot for astro in the Tetons.
Friday 21th Aug 2009
After much thought of whether to head onto Butte or back to Great Falls, Falls won, simply as I new the lay of the land there. I knew there was a walmart which was the first stop to buy a portable hairdryer. Second was onto starbux where I rendered and uploaded another movie. Shortly after midday I started the trek down to Butte. When I got there I was disappointed to find the Sears I was heading to had no auto. Picked up fuel and food and headed on down to Idaho falls. Got there about 6pm and was surprised that their sears was still going. Got an oil change and tyre rotation (up to ca 10k miles). Then onto the pass of the tetons where I hoped to find a nice observing site. I got VERY luck and found a fantastic place. There are two passes between Idaho Falls and Jackson. The first and smaller one was the one I stopped on and was surprised to find a good quality dirt road leading out back (thats great as it got me off the main road, which turned out to have traffic on it throughout the night). Set the scope up and collimated. Jupiter looked good and the seeing, while showing some turbulence was pretty good. By midnight the milkyway formed a glowing arch over the velvety black celestial sphere. I set the camera up firstly on andromeda, then moved to M33, the triffid nebula and M51. After that I was getting tired and so set up the timelapse on Jupiter (taking a frame a second). The tracking was still slipping periodically and I had to somewhat babysit the tracking. The terrain was not good for the night wanders and hunters in that it was open and very still, such that it was impossible to approach without making noise in the dry grass. However one incident got me out of my chair quickly. Initially I heard a sound like something big breathing, but wasnt certain, then a few seconds later something like a large snort a hundred or so meters away. I scanned the surrounding eagerly and purposefully, ready at a second notice to head for the security of the car, but my flashlights revealed nothing and I heard nothing else. Then about 4ish there was a multitude of howling across the valley, the night hunters were at work, and moving around too, I could hear the canine vocalization moving around the tree covered hills opposite. There are wolves in the tetons, and I was alone on a hilltop. Orion rose brilliantly just before dawn, and as the seeing on Jupiter was now terrible I gave it a go, and for only the second time in my life, I captured the horsehead nebula! Also took a brief look at Mars and Venus, but one was rather small, and the other rather bright. By then the sky was lighting up with vibrant pastel colors and I packed up and headed down to the pass carpark where I looked for a place that would get some shade from the firey sun that would soon rise, and I went to sleep just before dawn.
Saturday 22th Aug 2009
Back to Idaho falls and spent day processing piccies of timelapse. Had taken a piccie per second with the webcam, and using registax 20-40 frames gave a very good result. However was it labor intensive. I couldnt figure out any way to automate it (well I could have done, but if its a one off, writing the automation would take longer than just doing in the labor intensive way. The result blew away previous results, but by the time I was finishing up it was dusk in Idaho falls. By chance there was a walmart out back of the starbux so I just went for a wander (I was tired after a day of CPU work) and to my surprise found something that would do the AV record for the plane only 80 bux too! I bought it (last one) but after an hour or so of messing with it in the car worked out that it wouldnt sync up with the feed. Plus it died with loss of signal (same as the HD aiptek). Headed back to the pass but it was seeing (a good thing too as I was not really in any state to do anything). Slept on pass I had done the astro on the night before.
Duration : 0:5:39
Ancient Astronomy
Posted in Astronomy on February 27th, 2010 by admin
Ancient Astronomy – Best Of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos (Part 17)
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• http://www.youtube.com/Best0fScience
• http://www.youtube.com/SagansCosmos
• http://www.youtube.com/FFreeThinker
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BEST OF CARL SAGAN’S “COSMOS”:
1) 10 Years After: Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Reflect:
2) Lost Between Immensity And Eternity:
3) The Realm Of The Galaxies:
4) Our Galaxy, The Milky Way:
5) Our Solar System:
6) Eratosthenes And The Round Earth Model:
7) The Library Of Alexandria:
A Short History Of The Universe:
9) Artificial And Natural Selection:
10) The Cosmic Year:
11) Tree Of Life – 4 Billion Years Of Evolution:
12) The Miracle Of Life:
13) DNA – The Common Basis Of Life:
14) Abiogenesis The Origin Of Life:
15) Astronomy vs Astrology:
16) Pictures In The Sky:
17) Ancient Astronomy:
18) Triumph Of Modern Science Over Medieval Superstition:
19) The Mysterious Tonguska Event:
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Carl Edward Sagan, Ph.D. (1934-1996) was an American astronomer, astrochemist, author, and highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics and other natural sciences. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI).
He is world-famous for writing popular science books and for co-writing and presenting the award-winning 1980 television series “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage”, which has been seen by more than 600 million people in over 60 countries, making it the most widely watched PBS program in history.
A book to accompany the program was also published. He also wrote the novel “Contact”, the basis for the 1997 Robert Zemecki’s film of the same name starring Jodie Foster.
During his lifetime, Sagan published more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles and was author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books. In his works, he frequently advocated skeptical inquiry, secular humanism, and the scientific method.
http://www.carlsagan.com
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Duration : 0:8:58
NASA – Whats Up for April 2009
Posted in Telescopes on November 10th, 2009 by admin
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.
Duration : 0:3:1