Anyone into Astronomy?

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rbartlett9671
rbartlett9671 Posts: 193 Member
in Introduce Yourself
I'm just curious... have found some like minded Whovians here on MFP... but I've yet to find anyone into astronomy...

...feel free to add me as a friend if you are :)
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  • mahirob
    mahirob Posts: 35
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    I always was as a kid, but stepped away. I learned the constellations when I was in boy scouts, but it's been so long I don't know if I could point them all out. I do remember how to line up the little and big dipper to get to the north star. I was in Hawaii this past summer and had an hour with a NASA researcher who showed me a few planets and you could see Saturn incredibly clear through the one telescope he had.

    If you haven't check out http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html . They post awesome pictures/facts.
  • The_Enginerd
    The_Enginerd Posts: 3,982 Member
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    Not much into looking at stuff in a telescope, but reading my space.com feed in Google Reader in my other tab and have this Cassini photo as my background, so I guess I would count :wink:

    newrings_cassini.jpg
  • rbartlett9671
    rbartlett9671 Posts: 193 Member
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    Hey guys,

    I've been into astronomy since I was six... you can blame Star Wars LOL

    mahirob, I've been to Hawaii too but you were lucky to have time with that researcher. I'd love to have that opportunity! (I'd ask how he got the job LOL) I"d also love to work at one of the observatories they have at the top of Mauna Kea. They advertise on LinkedIn, but unless you went to school until you were 33, you don't have much hope of getting anything.

    rally, that's an awesome photo :) I think you count for sure! I always loved looking through my scope when I was in Oklahoma - I used to "discover" something new every night :)
  • ohenry78
    ohenry78 Posts: 228
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    I can't say that I'm into astronomy as in I study it, but I've always found it fascinating. I love documentaries on various aspects of astronomy and outer space. Trying to wrap my mind around black holes is always a fun thought experiment. And some of the other things like Saturn's crazy moons or dark matter are infinitely interesting.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    I find a lot of scientific things fascinating, especially the natural world, universe etc. Never studied astronomy in depth, apart from getting lost in wikipedia astronomy pages on occasion (i.e. reading something, then something else catches my eye... ad infinitum).
  • ohenry78
    ohenry78 Posts: 228
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    I find a lot of scientific things fascinating, especially the natural world, universe etc. Never studied astronomy in depth, apart from getting lost in wikipedia astronomy pages on occasion (i.e. reading something, then something else catches my eye... ad infinitum).

    Haha, I think we've all done that on Wikipedia before...they need to put the old "It's a trap!" meme on the front page as a warning, I think.

    It's like, I came here to find out how to eat a dragonfruit, and now I'm reading a List of Hypothetical Solar System objects. Where did this all go wrong?

    (that last one is a real Wikipedia page, btw)
  • Squeakadink
    Squeakadink Posts: 2
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    New here. My daughter is helping me get on track. Would like a support group. Doing this for me,my wife,and my grandchildren. I love Astronomy,Genealogy and also History.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    I find a lot of scientific things fascinating, especially the natural world, universe etc. Never studied astronomy in depth, apart from getting lost in wikipedia astronomy pages on occasion (i.e. reading something, then something else catches my eye... ad infinitum).

    Haha, I think we've all done that on Wikipedia before...they need to put the old "It's a trap!" meme on the front page as a warning, I think.

    It's like, I came here to find out how to eat a dragonfruit, and now I'm reading a List of Hypothetical Solar System objects. Where did this all go wrong?

    (that last one is a real Wikipedia page, btw)

    totally!! yes it definitely needs a warning lol...

    *goes onto wikipedia to check "List of Hypothetical Solar System objects"*
  • luvinna
    luvinna Posts: 50 Member
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    I've been interested in astronomy for as long as I can remember. I volunteer at a small non-profit observatory not far from my house (www.starkids.org). The Orion Nebula is my favorite thing to look at through the telescopes. We have two: an 18" cassegrain and the old 24" from Mount Wilson that was used to research landing sites for the Apollo missions. :glasses:
  • phoenix_59
    phoenix_59 Posts: 1,123
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    Stargazers Forecast for Comet Pan-STARRS
  • rbartlett9671
    rbartlett9671 Posts: 193 Member
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    Hello all :)

    It's nice to see a few fellow astronomers on here (I hate the term stargazers - makes me sound like I just stand outside and stare up at the sky.)

    I did wonder if it was worth creating a group but didn't know how many would be actively involved with it. Any thoughts or opinions?
  • caroleannlight
    caroleannlight Posts: 173 Member
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    Hi I am interested but not that knowledgable - my husband is the real astronomer in the household. We are both on mfp to lose weight and part of that is being more active. We did take a walk over in Greenwich incorporating the royal observatory and visiting the planetarium. We are hoping for some clear skys over Easter for our trip to France so we can get our telescope set up for a "star party"
  • ihad
    ihad Posts: 7,462 Member
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    I am. I like to look at the constellations and planets with my kids using the skywalk app, and then we go look things up and learn about them more. Feeds my love of science and opens them up to new things.
  • rbartlett9671
    rbartlett9671 Posts: 193 Member
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    I've been into astronomy since I was six; I used to have my own website and wrote the software and website reviews for Astronomy magazine between 2001 and 2003. When I lived in Oklahoma I was out almost every moonless night with the 'scope - I have a 4.5" Orion XT Dob - but since I moved to Louisville in 2008 it's been gathering dust *sigh*

    I'm trying to relocate across the country now; hoping to get to WA (for a number of reasons.)

    Am thinking we should start an MFP Astronomy group - would anyone be interested in joining if I did?
  • caroleannlight
    caroleannlight Posts: 173 Member
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    I would join but I guess we will have different skys here in Europe.
  • rbartlett9671
    rbartlett9671 Posts: 193 Member
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    Not as much as you'd think... what you see is related to your latitude rather than longitude.

    I'm from Luton originally and now I live in Louisville. I'm about 13 degrees further south, so I can see the whole of Scorpius and most of Sagittarius - constellations I wouldn't have a hope of seeing from England. I can't see them as well as I'd like, but I've still been able to see clusters like M4, M6 and M7 - those would be lost in the haze on the horizon in Blighty.

    Besides that, the Plough isn't circumpolar here but it's as-good-as... the other differences are fairly minor too :)
  • BinaryPulsar
    BinaryPulsar Posts: 8,927 Member
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    I am!
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    Not as much as you'd think... what you see is related to your latitude rather than longitude.

    I'm from Luton originally and now I live in Louisville. I'm about 13 degrees further south, so I can see the whole of Scorpius and most of Sagittarius - constellations I wouldn't have a hope of seeing from England. I can't see them as well as I'd like, but I've still been able to see clusters like M4, M6 and M7 - those would be lost in the haze on the horizon in Blighty.

    Besides that, the Plough isn't circumpolar here but it's as-good-as... the other differences are fairly minor too :)

    going from the UK to Bahrain, the biggest difference is in what angle things look like they're at. For example in the UK, Orion is standing up (so to speak), in Bahrain he's lying on his side (so to speak lol) - and with the moon, in the UK the crescent moon is such that the two points of the crescent point sideways............ in Bahrain it's like it's lying on its side with the points pointing upwards. Plus here on a clear night you can see the whole zodiac going over your head like an arch, in the UK it goes around the side of the sky (so to speak)
  • SandersWifey
    SandersWifey Posts: 387
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    I teach math and science.....so I am into geeky stuff like that! :glasses: :wink:
  • besaro
    besaro Posts: 1,858 Member
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    skyview app ftw!

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