Robert W Williams

Stunning discovery! The Vera C. Rubin Observatory arrives in the nick of time to help sort this out.

That would have been a winner photo. Here at 59°N in southwest Norway, the night sky has been overcast and rainy for nine weeks, minus 2 or 3 nights of intermittent non-cloudiness. Frustrating.

Yeah, it's a lot of work. More than a regular solid glass disk. One must not exert much pressure on this kind of glass.

Oh well, it's only takes years of trial and error studying various techniques and inhuman quantities of patience. Here's 2000 hours compressed to 30 seconds. 24 inch (62 cm) diameter f/3.4 paraboloid primary mirror.

Oh well, it's only takes years of trial and error studying various techniques and inhuman quantities of patience. Here's 2000 hours compressed to 30 seconds. 24 inch (62 cm) diameter f/3.4 paraboloid primary mirror.

Precisely! These satellites are simply pinhole cameras producing an image of the sun, which at 600 km distance is 5 km in diameter. A "giant" 18-meter reflector is an imaging optic of focal ratio f/33333. That's not solar power boosting. It's a brighter than usual Iridium flash!

Precisely! These satellites are simply pinhole cameras producing an image of the sun, which at 600 km distance is 5 km in diameter. A "giant" 18-meter reflector is an imaging optic of focal ratio f/33333. That's not solar power boosting. It's a brighter than usual Iridium flash!

Thanks for the info. So it can be a rubble pile. I didn't know they could be so tightly packed!

Assuming a rubble pile with a density of 1800 kg/cubic metre, the gravitational acceleration on its surface is 2,77e-6 metres per second squared. Spinning once in five minutes, the centrifugal acceleration is 870 times more than gravity. It couldn't exist as a rubble pile. Seems to be a solid body.

Assuming a rubble pile with a density of 1800 kg/cubic metre, the gravitational acceleration on its surface is 2,77e-6 metres per second squared. Spinning once in five minutes, the centrifugal acceleration is 870 times more than gravity. It couldn't exist as a rubble pile. Seems to be a solid body.

Yes! In addition to moons in movies and TV, ever since the Renaissance, nocturnes have rarely shown a gibbous moon, favoring a crescent or full moon instead.

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2001: A Space Odyssey
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Arrival

Yes, thats why all the giant observatories are at low attitudes. Most are between apprx 28 deg north (Hawaii & Canary Islands)) and south (Chile & South Africa). One can see both the northern and southern skies. Ah yes, a mobile phone + eyepiece will do the Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

Thanks. The northern hemisphere offers enough nebulae, galaxies and star clusters to keep one busy for a lifetime. The beauty of the southern hemisphere is that the core of the Milky Way passes overhead, instead of only appearing low on the southern horizon. The core is truly sublime. Breathtaking.

🤣It would seem so! However, mainland Norway's latitude (58-71 N) is not optimal for optical astronomy. No total darkness from April to September, and winter skies are often overcast. North of 65 degrees, the aurora is a problem. What's more, the beautiful southern sky is always below the ground.😞

Thanks so much! 🙂

Yes, I built the machine myself. It is based on the "fixed-post" or "spindle grinder/polisher" concept. My goal was twofold: Make it 1) much more stable than necessary, and 2) pleasing to the eye. The former is always a good idea in optics and the latter is simply because it's possible! 🙂

Thanks. I hope to finish it by the end of September. Then it's off to Hamburg for aluminizing.

Many thanks.🙂

Since I recently retired, I can gleefully work all day figuring and testing my 62 cm (24 inch) cellular primary mirror. Having produced a good spheroidal figure, it's finally ready to parabolize. Amazingly, this is Norway's largest optical telescope. 🔭

I feel your enthusiasm; that would induce squee! However, my inner pedant says that to subtend 1/2 a degree when held at arm's length, the disk must have a diameter of half the width of our little finger.

Elegant idea! A quick, qualitative documentation of seeing at a particular time and altitude above the horizon.

It is. Yes it is.

1. Astronomy
2. Physics
3. Geology
4. Paleontology, fossil microplankton

Excellent thread. Is my reasoning sound? …At the moment of the Big Bang, the locus of the surrender, to occur 13.8 billion years in the future, was the entire universe.

He has a Bachelor’s degree in physics.

The trepidation is inconceivable even for Klaes Ashford.

Yes, you are correct. It is the most beautiful transition in music, ever. The entire second movement is a gift to humanity from Dmitri Shostakovich.

Sláinte mhath

You do excellent work, Jordan. If I had a hat, I’d take it off to you. 👌

Oh my. This is what happens far too often. A friend once said “The old dictum ‘what can be misunderstood will be misunderstood’ is not true. The truth is: everything will be misunderstood.” 😞