Astronomy

[ozarkman417]

Does anyone on this forum have an interest in or have any knowledge about astronomy? My twin brother will not shut up about it. I told him I would try to read up on it over the summer just so I can know what he is talking about, but I just couldn't get myself in to it. My vision is just not as good as his, so I wouldn't be able to see everything he can anyways. My dad recently bought the 1.5k Orion XT10 go-to motorized telescope for him. We invite our neighbors over occasionally to view things in it including the soon-to-fade Great Red Spot and the Rings of Saturn. Now he wants a Camera for capturing high-quality photos so that might be another $500. Since he hasn't even started studying to get his permit I will be the one driving him to dark-sky places (once I get my license) and as a roadgeek I do not mind this.
My school had an Astronomy course up until my 8th grade year, so I missed it by one year. I may put some of his photos here later.

[MNHighwayMan]

I love astronomy too. Few things are better than a nice, dark, clear night sky.

including the soon-to-fade Great Red Spot

We still don't know for sure what will happen to it.

Scientists are hesitant to predict what will happen to the Great Red Spot in the coming years. The storm may continue to contract. It could also rebound and swell.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/jupiter-shrinking-great-red-spot/557456/

[Max Rockatansky]

Used to be into Astronomy as a kid but it was one of many hobbies I didn't keep up with after leaving the Mid-West.  I would imagine some of the night skies in the Sierras or Mojave Desert would have some kick ass clear views.

[Beltway]

Been interested in astronomy since about 8 years old.

Went to the Richmond Astronomical Society skywatch Friday.  Jupiter and Saturn were the main attractions.  The ISS flew over at about 8:00 pm, and that is always a great sight, it is about as bright as Jupiter.

[1995hoo]

Astronomy was always my favorite science. Can't see many stars at home any more due to all the light pollution (we can see Orion at the correct time of year and not a whole lot else). It made our trip out west in 2015 a real treat when we stayed at a B&B in Utah's Valley of the Gods–an isolated area with very dark skies and no other buildings for a good 14 miles–on the night of a total lunar eclipse. It had been probably 30 years since I'd seen anywhere near that many stars plus the Milky Way.

My high school had a planetarium and the astronomy course was held there. I liked it a lot both because I got a good grade and because it was one of the very few air-conditioned rooms in the school.

[kurumi]

Does anyone on this forum have an interest in or have any knowledge about astronomy? My twin brother will not shut up about it.

Be enthusiastic about it! Tell him you love astronomy and that you're a Scorpio

[ozarkman417]

Does anyone on this forum have an interest in or have any knowledge about astronomy? My twin brother will not shut up about it.

Be enthusiastic about it! Tell him you love astronomy and that you're a Scorpio

Libra*

[vdeane]

I was really into astronomy a lot when I was younger.  In college I was a member of a club that included weekly trips out the the campus observatory.  Given that Clarkson is in a small town in the North Country, and the observatory was at the edge of town near the small airport, there was a good view with a lot less light pollution than I'm used to.  Highlights of what we would see include Jupiter, Saturn, the Orion Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy, and Alberio.  We also looked up close at the Moon a couple times.  One time we even caught a faint glimpse of the northern lights!

[qguy]

One of the things I do is substitute teach at local area middle schools and high schools. I'm currently teaching Earth and space science in a planetarium classroom at a nearby middle school. I use a lot of the pics and videos I've collected over the years. The planetarium dome gives me the largest screen in the school. Of course, teaching in the planetarium automatically makes me one of the "cool teachers."

Got to watch the space station pass overhead just after sunset a few nights ago and explain it to the kids the next day.

[Desert Man]

I had an interest in astronomy and stargazing when I was younger, but I still like to explore more of the night sky, a window to the universe with our telescopes to see more of it (galaxies, nebulas, pulsars, etc).

[nexus73]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY7h4VEd_Wk

"Astronomy" rocks!

Rick

[US 89]

Does anyone on this forum have an interest in or have any knowledge about astronomy? My twin brother will not shut up about it.

Be enthusiastic about it! Tell him you love astronomy and that you're a Scorpio

If somebody is actually interested in astronomy, talking about star signs is the fastest way to make them hate you.

[Beltway]

Be enthusiastic about it! Tell him you love astronomy and that you're a Scorpio

If somebody is actually interested in astronomy, talking about star signs is the fastest way to make them hate you.

Astrology and astronomy are two very-similar sounding words, but refer to entirely different things.

[ET21]

Astronomy is my backup passion behind meteorology. Love learning about space

[hbelkins]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY7h4VEd_Wk

"Astronomy" rocks!

Rick

Gag. That remake is awful. The original is much better, as is the live version from the 1970s.

And this cover isn't too shabby either.

[qguy]

For two interesting near-daily updated astronomy sites, Google NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) and Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy.

[english si]

Astrology and astronomy are two very-similar sounding words, but refer to entirely different things.

They aren't entirely different - in fact they used to be part of the exact same thing (hence the similar words) that we split into two.

You have beginner level grunt work: 'star arranging', looking at where the stars (and planets, etc) move in relation to each other. This was (and still is) pretty pointless without 'star study' asking "why" and "so what" questions.

For some reason* 'star study' is a dirty word among those who do it (do it using modern methodologies and the like), so they don't use it - leaving it for the quacks to own, and keeping life in the nonsense of stars aligning and Jupiter falling in Aquarius and the like.

*other fields don't do this. We don't reject the word science because mainstream science in Europe for a few hundred years ending ~1600 was basically just study of Aristotle and nothing more than slight adjustments of his thought - eg there's 5 senses (we know there's more, they knew in Aristotle's day there's more, but as the Greek guy said that the number of senses match the number of elements, and that there are 4 elements so 4 senses (with aether and taste added later on)). Perhaps it is because the Greek guy (despite being the root of most medieval stuff we point and laugh at) is treated as merely outdated, but the Babylonian/Egyptian/etc roots of astrology as a field discredits it as they are barbarian cultures - despite them both being people spouting nonsense.

[Beltway]

Astrology and astronomy are two very-similar sounding words, but refer to entirely different things.

They aren't entirely different - in fact they used to be part of the exact same thing (hence the similar words) that we split into two.

Well, no, they come from antiquity and from entirely different concepts.  Astronomy is scientific and astrology is a religion.

Per Wikipedia --

Astronomy (from Greek: ἀστρονομία) is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies, and comets. Relevant phenomena include supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, astronomy studies everything that originates outside Earth's atmosphere.

Astrology is a pseudoscience that claims to divine information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the movements and relative positions of celestial objects.  Western astrology, one of the oldest astrological systems still in use, can trace its roots to 19th—17th century BCE Mesopotamia, from which it spread to Ancient Greece, Rome, the Arab world and eventually Central and Western Europe. Contemporary Western astrology is often associated with systems of horoscopes that purport to explain aspects of a person's personality and predict significant events in their lives based on the positions of celestial objects; the majority of professional astrologers rely on such systems.

The word astrology comes from the early Latin word astrologia, which derives from the Greek ἀστρολογία–from ἄστρον astron ("star") and -λογία -logia, ("study of"–"account of the stars"). Astrologia later passed into meaning 'star-divination' with astronomia used for the scientific term.

Divination is an occultic religion.

[english si]

Well, no, they come from antiquity and from entirely different concepts.  Astronomy is scientific and astrology is a religion.

Astronomy in antiquity was astrology. The idea that they are different things is something we made up when we changed the methodology we did astrology by to the modern scientific method.

The issue here is unlike biology, physics, etc, we didn't keep the name of the academic field - instead picking up the name of the grunt work and using that to describe the new field. Pretty much all science did literally used to be applied ancient philosophy (normally pretending the world matches the philosophy - eg we have the same number of senses as there are elements and ignore/conflate other senses to get that number) and the problem is that Astrology used Babylonian philosophy rather than Aristotelian.

[vdeane]

The idea that they are different things is something we made up when we changed the methodology we did astrology by to the modern scientific method.

It must be tough to publish horoscopes each day when you have to get peer review.

[Beltway]

Well, no, they come from antiquity and from entirely different concepts.  Astronomy is scientific and astrology is a religion.

Astronomy in antiquity was astrology. The idea that they are different things is something we made up when we changed the methodology we did astrology by to the modern scientific method.

I quoted the Greek reference, and that is from the ancient Greek language, and this -is- in the time of antiquity.

In early historic times, astronomy only consisted of the observation and predictions of the motions of objects visible to the naked eye.  People have always watched the sky and noted the various planets and bright stars, the Moon, the Sun, comets, etc., irrespective of any religious import thereof.

Astrology has never been a science, it is a subset of occult religious practices.

[Duke87]

Astronomy in antiquity was astrology. The idea that they are different things is something we made up when we changed the methodology we did astrology by to the modern scientific method.

The idea that the physical reality of how things in space work is a different concept from trying to tell fortunes based on them isn't "made up" - it's fact that in antiquity we hadn't necessarily figured out yet.

[thspfc]

I'm more interested in our own ball of rock than the uninhabitable ones millions of miles away.

[Beltway]

I'm more interested in our own ball of rock than the uninhabitable ones millions of miles away.

I was at an astronomical skywatch event yesterday, and the main attractions to the visitors were Saturn and Jupiter.

One of the amateur astronomers commented to me that he thinks there are over 100 advanced civilizations in our galaxy, but we both agreed that they are too far away for Earth to ever be able to make contact with. 

Our galaxy the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter between 150,000 and 200,000 light-years.  It is estimated to contain 100—400 billion stars and more than 100 billion planets.

[CtrlAltDel]

They aren't entirely different - in fact they used to be part of the exact same thing (hence the similar words) that we split into two.

Well, you tried. It's weird how resistant some people are to this idea. To offer a different Wikipedia cite:

"Astrology and astronomy were archaically treated together (Latin: astrologia), and were only gradually separated in Western 17th century philosophy (the "Age of Reason") with the rejection of astrology. During the later part of the medieval period, astronomy was treated as the foundation upon which astrology could operate. Since the 18th century they have come to be regarded as completely separate disciplines."