Comments on: Favorite Pictures of the Universe

By: Count Iblis

Count Iblis — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 12:40:28 +0000

Take Monday off to sleep in, if you have a 4.5-inch or larger telescope this will be worth checking out. 2004 XP14 will appear to be about 11th magnitude, and it will cross more than 7 arc-seconds per second. It will be crossing an angle equivalent to the size of the full moon in less than ten minutes. To find it, pick a star from the chart that is within one eyepiece radius of the asteroid's path, and wait for it to swing through.

By: PK

PK — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 14:03:18 +0000

Thank you HST!

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 23:31:09 +0000

Amara thanks also for the link from your comment#30…

When the author of this article made a passing reference to “falling trees,” I became reminded of a typical Einstein-like question being posed to Bohr: “If a tree falls in the forest and there’s nobody around to hear it, does it still make a sound?” When Einstein expressed disdain for the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, I still – at times – find myself becoming quite empathetic towards his conviction: the conviction to reveal a deeper truth in the universe. Moreover, when my thoughts become unconstrained, I find myself wondering: How, what, when, where and why does the quantum world distinguish itself from the classical world? Perhaps I simply having a childish moment with a set of childish questions…

By: Navneeth

Navneeth — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 18:29:05 +0000

Here’s another favourite of mine from one of my favourite (advanced) amateurs, Jay Ballauer.

http://www.allaboutastro.com/rhoantares.html

And this is a picture of comet Machholz “shooting out” of the Pleiades.

http://www.allaboutastro.com/machholzandm45.html

By: Amara

Amara — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 15:20:36 +0000

HST was a joke outside of the US too, in those early times. In July 1991, I visited Estonia’s Tartu Observatory and saw an exhibit in the front lobby that showed the amount of money spent and the condition of HST. Even though the language escaped me, the idea of the exhibit was clear.

By: Count Iblis

Count Iblis — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 15:05:08 +0000

When Hubble was just launched and it transpired that it wasn’t working well, there was a cartoon in some journal (I think it was American Scientist) about the Hubble pictures. It showed a warped image of Saturn, some other deformed/warped objects. Then the Hubble looked down at Earth and a deformed picture of the angry taxpayers was shown

By: citrine

citrine — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 13:34:54 +0000

To me, the most spectacular Astronomical images are the ones dealing with the birth and death of stars. Besides being visually wondrous, they convey an idea of the forces that keep the Universe running.

These picture DO speak a thousand words or more!! I became interested in the Physical sciences after seeing Astronomical images. I think that these pics are a great motivational tool for Science educators.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 23:57:33 +0000

Amara thanks for the links, the images are beautiful….I agree with you, images of objects with dynamics that we understand are a great way to teach science, especially colliding or exploding objects. I found that kids tend to like the “when” question too – as in how long before they crash? And what’s going to happen at the end? I like to say that at the end they’ll turn into a big egg of a galaxy if they evolve the way we think they do. And then pop up images of ellipticals. But ellipticals are not quite as fascinating…

Philip, gorgeous pictures….

By: quasar9

quasar9 — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 16:49:51 +0000

Hi philip great link.

PS: “Photons captured by me and redistributed to you” great title. Great stuff! on your photography pages. Q

By: Philip Downey

Philip Downey — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:35:58 +0000

It’s odd how everyone has focused on professional telescopes. They all have very narrow fields of view, which always limits them to one object, or a zillion faint ones in the case of lensed clusters. Even the Hubble galaxy shots are composites of multiple images.

It’s all great detail, but only amateurs with smaller telescopes can get stunning wide field views (admittedly a composite image):

http://robgendlerastropics.com/Oriondeepfield.html