Astronomy

[riskllama]

how can u even see the stars in cowtown, 2dimes? pretty bad light pollution, iirc...

[2dimes]

It's 8-9 here so obviously if I'm setting up the telescope for something besides the Moon, I'm probably camping. The cutbank airport is a 4 and the Milky Way is impressive to my naked eye there. There are lots of 2 areas an hour and a half away.

[riskllama]

It's 8-9 here so obviously if I'm setting up the telescope for something besides the Moon, I'm probably camping. The cutbank airport is a 4 and the Milky Way is impressive to my naked eye there. There are lots of 2 areas an hour and a half away.

wow, an astronomy snob.

[2dimes]

Because I am lucky enough to live in the west part of the continent, or because I can look up locations to figure out their bortle scale.

[mrswdk]

Maybe this is the right thread to ask:

I've been to rural Africa once, and when I looked up at night there whole sky was full of stars (peppered with dozens, possibly even 100+) and something that I assume was the Milky Way. I've looked up at the sky from the countryside in the UK and, although fairly starry, wasn't as impressive. Does living in different parts of the world make any difference to the stars that are visible from where you are, or was it just coincidence that I saw the cool stars when I was in Africa?
Also how far does light pollution reach - when I've been looking at stars in the UK I've generally been doing so within about 15-20 kilometers of a big city and only about a kilometer away from a town of 10-20,000 people. Don't know if that's still close enough for light pollution to have an impact.

[jusplay4fun]

You have at least two questions:

1) impact of light pollution. This site will help:

http://www.bigskyastroclub.org/lp_bortle.html also,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bortle_scale

2) Does your geographic location impact which stars you see? Yes, for sure. One cannot see the North Star (Polaris) in Australia and those in Australia see the Southern Cross, which is not visible north of the equator. You did not say where in Africa you were; what you see in Morocco or Egypt is not the same is what you see in Namibia or South Africa. (North/South or latitude matters, BUT not so much East/West or longitude)

A good website is harder for me to find and I do not normally use them.

You can try:
[url]
http://www.kidscosmos.org/cosmos/cosmos_star_maps.php[/url]

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-information/

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronom ... telescope/

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronom ... telescope/

The two above is for 2dimes, so he can see what he got and what upgrades he may want to get.

I hope this information helps. Let me know.

JP4F

Maybe this is the right thread to ask:

I've been to rural Africa once, and when I looked up at night there whole sky was full of stars (peppered with dozens, possibly even 100+) and something that I assume was the Milky Way. I've looked up at the sky from the countryside in the UK and, although fairly starry, wasn't as impressive. Does living in different parts of the world make any difference to the stars that are visible from where you are, or was it just coincidence that I saw the cool stars when I was in Africa?
Also how far does light pollution reach - when I've been looking at stars in the UK I've generally been doing so within about 15-20 kilometers of a big city and only about a kilometer away from a town of 10-20,000 people. Don't know if that's still close enough for light pollution to have an impact.

[mrswdk]

I am capable of using Google. Just wondered if anyone already knows about this and is able to supply a quick answer from their own knowledge.

[2dimes]

Without getting too specific, yes light pollution makes a big difference in what you see both naked eye and even with a good telescope. That is why NASA launched Hubble into space.

Bortle 4 looks like the best you can do in the UK. Obviously there are parts of the dark continent that are 1.

You should be able to see the Milky Way if you find a place that is out in the country side, in a 4 area without a house or other light at least a hundred yards away. That was what happened to me at Cutbank Montana a couple years ago.

Also your night vision takes at least twenty minute wandering in the dark to get fully developed. White light will shut it down and you have to start over. That is why you use dim red lights in old timely dark rooms when developing film.

Caught me off guard as I had not seen it since I was a little kid visiting family farms at night. I can't remember appreciating it back then.

This site https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoo ... B0FFFTFFFF will show light pollution and if you zoom in and tap on a spot it will give elevation and Bortle scale number.

[Bernie Sanders]

I am capable of using Google. Just wondered if anyone already knows about this and is able to supply a quick answer from their own knowledge.

You should at least thank all the time that my bestest friend in the whole wide world put into answering your question about light pollution and star positions.

JP4F don't let our Chinese gender confused poster get under your skin, ok. Everything will be ok, just take your bi-polar medication this morning and use that mouth guard so you won't be grinding those little nubs you call teeth.

Mrswdk, please play nice with our more sensitive posters.

[jusplay4fun]

I did supply a quick answers from my knowledge.

Most of this I KNEW, but thought you may want to know more than my cursory knowledge. iF you are so good at using Google, don't ask such questions. Google it yourself.


JP

I am capable of using Google. Just wondered if anyone already knows about this and is able to supply a quick answer from their own knowledge.

[2dimes]

Calm down.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/what-to-know-before-buying-a-telescope/

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronom ... telescope/

The two above is for 2dimes, so he can see what he got and what upgrades he may want to get.

I hope this information helps. Let me know.

JP4F

I'll check those out since you can never have too much info, provided it's decent and so far skyandtelescope.com is.

I have learned a ton this year looking for info on eyepieces.

The guys at this shop actually are on an acreage and actually use their stuff. https://www.all-startelescope.com Very knowledgable but they don't even mess with the mid range eyepieces. Cheap eyepieces to them means just over $100. Looking for a fifty dollar special, I had to reluctantly get one off amazon, that's why I have to wait to see how good it will be with my inexpensive firsts cope. Eventually I will buy my next telescope there unless I just bum along with my brother and satisfy myself. He has an 8 or 10"" dobsonian and some other sizes of mid grade Plossl eyepieces.

[jusplay4fun]

It is good to get help from someone knowledgeable. I certainly do not put myself in that category. I have a cursory uderstanding of the topic and think that I might want to one day buy a telescope.

Keep us posted on your discoveries; it is fun to see and talk about.

JP

Calm down.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/what-to-know-before-buying-a-telescope/

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronom ... telescope/

The two above is for 2dimes, so he can see what he got and what upgrades he may want to get.

I hope this information helps. Let me know.

JP4F

I'll check those out since you can never have too much info, provided it's decent and so far skyandtelescope.com is.

I have learned a ton this year looking for info on eyepieces.

The guys at this shop actually are on an acreage and actually use their stuff. https://www.all-startelescope.com Very knowledgable but they don't even mess with the mid range eyepieces. Cheap eyepieces to them means just over $100. Looking for a fifty dollar special, I had to reluctantly get one off amazon, that's why I have to wait to see how good it will be with my inexpensive firsts cope. Eventually I will buy my next telescope there unless I just bum along with my brother and satisfy myself. He has an 8 or 10"" dobsonian and some other sizes of mid grade Plossl eyepieces.

[2dimes]

Also, this is exactly why I'm against being serious on the stupid internet. In theory you can get all the info you need in the world. Just ask Jeeves.

Unfortunately you have to wade through sixteen tons of Coal and probably will miss the diamond if there is one at all.

The least likely information that will be useful is the link someone suggests because there are just too many trolls, getting great pleasure in misdirecting folks.

Hey, why not? Tricking someone into looking at lemon party is great fun. Don't google that unless you like old naked guys.

[mrswdk]

Thanks 2dimes. Hadn't realized light pollution could affect you that far away from the light source.

I was on the equator when I was looking at the stars in Africa.

[mrswdk]

@2d yes the skill is knowing which information to trust and which to filter

Just ask Jeeves

...

Tricking someone into looking at lemon party is great fun. Don't google that unless you like old naked guys.

Some much internets nostalgia right here.

[2dimes]

Thanks 2dimes. Hadn't realized light pollution could affect you that far away from the light source.

I was on the equator when I was looking at the stars in Africa.

Oh man, that must have been incredible. Part of why I'm starting to get so into this is actually being able to apreciate the simple act of stoping to look at it.

We camp a lot to get away from staring into a little lit screen.

Currently I'm the father torturing my son making him put away the device to play with the canines. He actually just joined to play here yesterday.

So far he can still switch gears and enjoy playing with a stick in the woods but he does hate going fishing. Can't blame him, I quit fishing at that age too. My dad has not caught a fish since he was my sons age. I keep trying to fix that, at least they both like to eat the fish me and Mrs dimes catch.

[mrswdk]

Yeah the sky there was awesome. Never seen anything like it before or since.

Add in how peaceful it was (we were on a farm in the absolute middle of nowhere) and I definitely want to go back at some point.

[2dimes]

I love to visit the city. Get me some doner kebab.

I'd like to live in the country with a heated shop, near a small airstrip, with a 2 on the bortle scale, where I can eat me a lot of peaches, tend a veggie garden, gather some eggs for breakfast and walk to a river or pond with my canines to catch some tasty fish.

I don't ask much, that ranch is probably only a few million bucks Canadian plus an airplane.

[tzor]

I disagree, tzor. In the course of the History of science, it is Galieo's methods of experimentation that we teach in Physics TODAY.

And it's a quaint myth produced centuries later by European Protestants (forgetting that Luther hated him more than the Pope did) to suggest that the Church (you know the source for all major European Universities) was "anti-science." Galileo was not a proper scientist in the sense of the word. He frequently mixed in philosophy, religion and science in his arguments.

If you want a "scientist" pop along a little less than a hundred years. Sir Isaac Newton was a scientist in every sense of the word. If you want to talk about the sun centered universe, he is the one to put real scientific arguments to the cause. Now of course, I haven't been to Freshman Physics since 1980 but back then it was Newtonian Physics that I was taught back then.

[tzor]

Without getting too specific, yes light pollution makes a big difference in what you see both naked eye and even with a good telescope. That is why NASA launched Hubble into space.

Actually it was atmospheric distortions. Most of the major optical telescopes are located in areas with little light pollution. They are also located really high, but that is mostly to reduce atmospheric distortion although it does help with the light polution.

[KoolBak]

pssst....dimey.....every star you see is the "milky way"

Whats the furthest bright object we can see....10 light years? and we're approx 25 from the center of the galaxy, which is 100 across? Like at my cabin in the high desert of central oregon, the band of the galaxy is incredible....like a bright ribbon across the sky, and we are still seeing so little. Boggles the mind....

[2dimes]

Yes, I keep writing about seeing it as in when you are in darker areas you can see how the stars that are usually too dim to see, make a cool shape.

Also I know we are inside it so the stars are all part of the thing, plus the part behind (relatively speaking) the planet I'm standing on, we can't see for a few months because once the earth turns around, the closest star makes it day light.

Happy? Agreed, boggles my ever shrinking mind.








I was just looking at this.

1) impact of light pollution. This site will help:

http://www.bigskyastroclub.org/lp_bortle.html

Pretty cool to read the bortle classes described. Most people will never even get to a class 1 sky area. I imagine most will never see a class 3 or better actually. Many will have no idea about it either.

[jusplay4fun]

To answer the question posed:

How far the human eye can see depends on how many particles of light, or photons, a distant object emits. The farthest object visible with the naked eye is the Andromeda galaxy, located an astonishing 2.6 million light-years from Earth. The galaxy's 1 trillion stars collectively emit enough light for a few thousand photons to hit each square centimeter of Earth every second; on a dark night, that's plenty to excite our retinas.

https://www.livescience.com/33895-human-eye.html

Also:

I want to go out to the Western USA, partly to see the landscape, but partly to see the sky at night and I want to see the Milky Way Galaxy in the sky. There is too much "light pollution" in the sky where I live to see much more than JUS the brightest stars and planets. I used to be able to see most of the stars of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major); I doubt I can see most of them now. I assume that this is due to the fact that there are more lights, especially brighter street lights, where I live. I have read about light pollution in the past several years. The Bortles scale is interesting.

JP

pssst....dimey.....every star you see is the "milky way"

Whats the furthest bright object we can see....10 light years? and we're approx 25 from the center of the galaxy, which is 100 across? Like at my cabin in the high desert of central oregon, the band of the galaxy is incredible....like a bright ribbon across the sky, and we are still seeing so little. Boggles the mind....

[riskllama]

every beer bortle i return to the bortle depot is a shiny dime in my pockets.

[jusplay4fun]

When you look up at the stars and planets and far away galaxies:

1) you look into the past;

2) you get a sense of magic and awe;

3) you get a feel of the wonder of creation and the entire Universe. Amazing views.

JP