MetaFilter posts tagged with astronomy and stars

The Sun Is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma

Upton O'Good — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 21:49:59 -0800

...the lyrics to that last song were basically taken from an encyclopedia written in the 50s, and since the 50s, some remarkable things have happened...

In 1959, a number of songs about science were released on an album called Space Songs. One of these was later covered by the band They Might Be Giants: Why Does The Sun Shine? (The Sun Is A Mass of Incandescent Gas). Only one problem: it isn't--the song was based on an incorrect text from 1951. So they wrote an answer song to themselves: Why Does The Sun Really Shine? (The Sun Is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma). Bonus link: see for yourself! (previously)

Zeta Reticuli is watching the Brady Bunch

Artw — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:19:22 -0800

If extraterrestrial civilizations are monitoring our TV broadcasts, then this is what they are currently watching.

Star light, star bright, how many stars can I see tonight?

filthy light thief — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:51:10 -0800

"The arc of the Milky Way seen from a truly dark location is part of our planet's natural heritage," said Connie Walker, and astronomer from the U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Arizona. Yet "more than one fifth of the world population, two thirds of the U.S. population and one half of the European Union population have already lost naked eye visibility of the Milky Way." In these areas, people are effectively living in perennial moonlight. They rarely realize it because they still experience the sky to be brighter under a full moon than under new moon conditions. "Reducing the number of lights on at night could help conserve energy, protect wildlife and benefit human health," astronomer Malcolm Smith of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. One study found an increased risk of breast cancer for women living in areas with the most light pollution (abstract). Some communities are embracing their dark skies, such as the New Zealand community of Tekapo, possibly home to first "Starlight Reserve," waiting on UNESCO's official approval. Not sure where to look in the vast night sky? Follow some guidelines, or check the view in Chile, Queensland, Australia, or Texas.

An Interactive Map of the Night Sky

netbros — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:20:34 -0800

Star Viewer ― merging Google Earth (Sky) with Hubblecast videos to learn more about what you're seeing in the night sky. Alternatively, if you have Google Earth 4.3 or above you can watch these videos in Google Earth (Sky). Virtual Tourism has its own layer in the Sky section of Google Earth that includes most of the videos on this page. The layer can be found under the 'Education Center' folder. Hubblecast also now have a layer of videos in Google Earth. Alternatively you can download this kml of the videos. The checkboxes at the top of the page will turn on a number of layers. The 'Sat' checkbox will turn on the locations of satellites orbiting the Earth. The 'Hubble' checkbox will turn on the current position of Hubble. The 'Constellations' checkbox will turn on the constellations.

Dark Skies Awareness

homunculus — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 13:45:00 -0800

Time to turn off the lights. "Cities needlessly shine billions of dollars directly into the sky each year and, as a result, a fifth of the world's population cannot see the Milky Way. Malcolm Smith explains why a dark sky has much to offer everyone." [Via]

Mammoth Stars

homunculus — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 15:19:14 -0800

WR 25 And Tr16-244: Previously Unseen Mammoth Stars Get The Hubble Treatment.

Stars In Your Eyes

Miko — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:36:12 -0800

See Saturn this Saturday April 12 is the second annual International Sidewalk Astronomy Night, a worldwide event coordinated by the Sidewalk Astronomers. The group, founded in 1968 by John Dobson (subject of this documentary), is dedicated to a sort of guerrilla astronomy -- experienced stargeeks bringing their really good telescopes out to places where people are. So even on your way to the bars, the shows, and the honky-tonk you can see stuff like this and this - like these people did.

Billions and Billions

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:38:08 -0800

Billions and Billions astrophotography CCD gallery / film gallery / equipment / tutorials

We live in a wonderfully insane universe.

brundlefly — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 01:18:55 -0800

NASA Astronomers Find Bizarre Planet-Mass Object Orbiting Neutron Star [via]

And the baths of all the western stars, until I die

blahblahblah — Sun, 06 May 2007 22:34:25 -0800

Under alien skies: Start with the simply stunning Exosolar, a flash-based interface for navigating through 2,000 nearer stars in 3-D, including all discovered planets outside our solar system. See what the skies would look like from other planets and suns. Explore star maps from many science fiction universes, from Star Trek to Dune. Watch the Big Dipper change its shape over a hundred thousand years. Zoom into a face-on map of the Milky Way that would cover 16 square meters if printed, and see the Atlas of the Universe. [prev. on extrasolar planets, prev. on star maps]

Wikisky - Online Starmap and Wiki

Jimbob — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 23:30:51 -0800

It's like Google Maps...for space. Wikisky is a draggable, zoomable, web-based star map. And if you click on a star or other object, it brings up a page with all the information you could want on it, including recent articles and astrophotos that contain that object. And it does lots more. Go explore.

See a nova in Scorpius

frecklefaerie — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:45:24 -0800

"A Naked-Eye Nova in Scorpius" - Scorpius, the constellation home to M4, has a nova visible to the naked eye. Skytonight.com has a cool javascript almanac for you to see when it will be most visible for where you live.

For your nocturnal viewing pleasure

nekton — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 08:34:48 -0800

The clear sky clock (this one is for Boston) provides a graphical representation of seven factors that affect the clarity of stargazing: cloud cover, transparency, seeing, darkness, wind, humidity, and temperature. Once you've figured out where and when to go stargazing (probably somewhere rural) make a custom map for your location so you know what you're seeing.

Huh, your world, maybe, pathetic earthlings!

Eideteker — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 22:49:51 -0800

The Size of Our World. A brief study in pictures of the relative sizes of some astronomical bodies.

Stellarium

fire&wings — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 17:32:14 -0800

Stellarium. A free program which renders realistic skies in real time, and more. Handy for anyone who ever wrangled with one of these. And very cool to watch in fast forward.

Star Cluster and You

dfowler — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 07:38:44 -0800

First Super Star Cluster detected in Milky Way, while in the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), MYSTERY Star Clusters are found.
Unique? Us? Haw. Plenty of Earth-like planets await discovery, say researchers.

Even the Non Scientist and Curious!

breezeway — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 09:40:51 -0800

On the mission to understand and communicate miracles of Life on Earth and the mysteries reaching beyond the stars.

The Great Bear

homunculus — Thu, 28 Oct 2004 20:34:34 -0800

The Great Bear in Maine.

Isabel Gill, Victorian Stargazer

penguin pie — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 09:10:54 -0800

IN 1877 Isabel Gill visited an inhospitable volcanic blob in the mid-Atlantic to help her husband with ground-breaking astronomical measurements. Then she wrote a wrote a book about it, including an attempt to explain to fellow Victorian ladies the concept of a solar parallax in terms she thought they might be able to grasp:"I myself do not understand mathematical terms, so how could I use them with the hope of explaining these things to my readers? However, I can use knitting-needles, and perhaps they may do just as well."
Wierdly, more than a century later another astronomer visited the site and found the sandy paths which marked the Gill's lava-top camp still undisturbed by the Atlantic winds.

Shooting Stars

digaman — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 09:32:47 -0800

Step away from the computer. Go outside. Have a look. The annual Perseid meteor shower is gracing our skies for the next 48 hours, looking better than ever, as Earth passes through a filament trailing from a comet's tail. (Hopefully, the comet won't smash into us in 2126.)

Sky for sale

asok — Sun, 06 Jul 2003 02:44:18 -0800

Become a GLM (Galactic Lord and Master) Your chance to invest in an expanding market (or is it steady state now, I forget), the Universe is up for grabs! Do you have a favourite astral body that you'd like to lay claim to? From Newscientist - Feedback.

Aonther massive celestial object, with a companion star in tow,

Smart Dalek — Tue, 19 Nov 2002 13:29:03 -0800

Another massive celestial object, with a companion star in tow, has been discovered hurtling through the Milky Way. Unlike similar discoveries confirming the bow shock theory of stellar dynamics, this week's phenomenon is considerably older, as it's an aftereffect of the galactic core's formation. The French and Argentine astromoners making the discovery believe what they've witnessed may be a black hole, though theoretically, the collasped matter may be a gravistar.

iconomy — Tue, 10 Sep 2002 17:31:24 -0800

Celestial Atlases are perhaps some of the most beautiful scientific books ever published, capturing the mystery and the grandeur of the heavens, and rife with beautiful and often intimidating interpretations of the constellations. Out Of This World has been my favorite website since the dawning of time, and one I go back to over and over again even though it never changes. The period from 1603 to 1801 produced the most beautiful star maps, and you don't have to know a thing about astronomy to appreciate how heavenly these are.

gottabefunky — Mon, 19 Aug 2002 09:36:16 -0800

Archaeoastronomy examines how ancient cultures studied and worshipped the heavens. From the arrangement of the Stonehenge stelae to the Mayan reverence for the planet Venus, this science has resulted in some fascinating and often beautiful discoveries, including star charts found in tombs in Ireland and Japan, the Lascaux caves in France, and rock paintings of a supernova in 1054 that resulted in the Crab Nebula. My personal favorite is the “Sun Dagger” in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (scroll down for photos).

y2karl — Thu, 11 Apr 2002 09:03:19 -0800

Quark Star Observations of two stars, one unusually small and the other unusually cold, have led astronomers to think they are seeing evidence of a new form of matter and a new kind of star, one possibly made of elementary particles known as quarks and denser than any cosmic object other than a black hole. (NYT link: yada yada) Here's a related link on neutron stars and quark matter. I rather like the phrase strange quark matter... Anybody else hear about this?