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Post by whitstabletangerin on Mar 11, 2011 16:41:57 GMT 1
No, this has nothing to do with the sighting of any of our superstars but being a tad bored just wondered if you know a little about the stars in the night sky. One of my favourite sights, providing there is no cloud cover, mist or fog is to look for the constellation ORION, on a winters night bewtween November and April. It is made up of a group of stars easily seen at this time of year looking south at nightfall and s/west a few hours later at an angle of roughtly 45 deg or roughly half way up looking towards the south west. Recognisable by the three stars in a line close together at an angle being ORION'S belt. One particular star is a favourite one for me and is called BETELGEUSE and lies above the three belt stars and to the left and compared to the other stars in the constellation is of an orange colour. Now if you happen to spot this star which is very bright but not the brightest in the Northern hemisphere, you would probably say well it's a star, so what, but do you know how large it is? If I said the earth was 8,000 miles aprox in diameter and the sun 90million plus miles away was 870thousand miles in diameter, well the star Betelgeuse is a whopping 1,000 times more in diameter than our sun. She is huge, so why does it look so small just like any other star. It lies some 520 light years away, yep thats right a bloody long way away, so that's why it looks just like any other star. The light you see when you look up at it was transmitted from that star 520 years ago and in the same constellation a star named Saiph, very fiant but seen by the naked eye and laying below the three belt stars is as a comparison 2200 light years away and as you look at that star the light you see was transmitted around the time of Christ's birth. Most of you have probably dropped off to sleep by now, so will add just one more item. A light year in miles is aprox 6mil mil mil miles. sweet dreams.
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Post by Tangerine Sherlock on Mar 11, 2011 16:54:30 GMT 1
Don't you just love Fridays whit the one day of the week when the forum is always dead. As for your question I find their is to much glare to get a good view of the night sky, saying that my daughter is interested in all things space.
she informed me the other day that she had to correct her teacher about how a black hole comes about and its effects on the universe, while also trying to explain to me how many years the sun has got left.
The kids loved the lakes at christmas because on the odd clear night we had you could really get a good view of the night sky.
oh well guess i better get some more work done. hate Fridays
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Post by yeoldetangerine on Mar 11, 2011 17:20:19 GMT 1
Actually, I also love this stuff, it puts mankind and UEFA in context!!! lol Did you see the programme on the telly last Sunday re the cosmos. Knew most of the past and present stuff, but the future was totally new to me, fascinating stuff. Can't get my head round the number of galaxies and scale of the universe, as baffling as going the other way to subatomic level need a lie down and more beer
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Post by bigjohncraven on Mar 11, 2011 19:26:45 GMT 1
Brian Cox explaining the second law of thermo dynamics and its effects on the future of the universe on telly the other night. My eggs are truly scrambled. As previously stated I am a confirmed space cadet who's best experience of looking at the night sky was many years ago in the sinai desert in Israel.Never really understood just how insignificant our little home was till then. Good post whit
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Post by april13th1970 on Mar 11, 2011 20:21:15 GMT 1
also trying to explain to me how many years the sun has got left. probably as long as they can find girls with big tits
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Post by yenilira on Mar 11, 2011 20:42:19 GMT 1
Very interesting post, Whit.
Makes the Earth pale into significence as regards the size of things up/out there.
Always turn my head sky-wards every night, no matter where I am, to seek out the 'Plough' .
#ok#
YL.
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Post by mickyg on Mar 15, 2011 12:04:41 GMT 1
Small, by comparison to other constellations, but Cassiopeia (a.k.a. "the seven sisters") has always been my favourite.
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Post by whitstabletangerin on Mar 15, 2011 13:57:28 GMT 1
Now she is a long, long way away Micky.
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Post by mickyg on Mar 18, 2011 22:35:03 GMT 1
Go to Facebook and search "Supermoon"........apparently we're going to have the "largest" full moon for over 2 decades on Saturday night!
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Post by whitstabletangerin on Mar 19, 2011 21:51:27 GMT 1
Micky, it certainly looks very big tonight.
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