Star Gazing

In reply to
Photo i took below, doesn't do it any justice really to how it really was when seeing it but pleased to get a pic of what we saw:



Can't see the stars but the sky was full of them and the green lights swirling around.

I always wondered about the northern lights - do the swirl & move quick, or is it quite slow? Can you even see it moving?

Would love to see these myself one day - must be amazing!

A while ago some one gave us a telescope for free, a pretty good one too considering it was free. It regularly gets used.

The one that changes colour is defo Sirious Did you know that what we actually see as one star is actually 2 different suns close together, thats why it twinkles like that.

If you look out when its just starting to get dark, At the moment you'll be able to see 2 really bright stars, the one high up is Jupiter, and the one lower down nearer the Horizon is Venus. Venus is the brightest star in the sky by far, it doesnt stay around for long, its there from about 4-5pm till about 7-8pm. I was looking at it through my telescope the other night, and you can actually see what look like solar flair style things coming of it!

Jupiter is usually out all night, and if Venus isnt out then Jupiter is the brightest star in the sky, you should see that through a telescope, you can even see its 4  moons.

Stargazing live tonight on bbc 2 at 8:30

Anyone ever seen a shooting star. I see one every single time I go outside and its a clear night! Every time! Ive taken other people out and shown them too so its not me seeing things. Im starting to think they may not be shooting stars.....

A few weeks ago a group of 4 of us went to this hill near my house where you get a full 360 degree view and can see for miles in the distance, and we saw all sorts of shooting stars and stuff, something even streaked across the sky, it just looked like a star moving really fast, faster than any plane or anything, but then it lit up really really bright, like it had just entered our atmosphere, and then dissapeared off into the distance! at least 4 people saw this thing.

EDIT - and no, no one had taken any drugs either.

hmmmm, maybe it was....

Its funny how you point these things out to people and they dont believe you. When I noticed Venus for the 1st time I said to someone 'thats Venus', and they laughed and say 'yeah whatever', so out comes the sky map to prove it, and all of a sudden its 'wow, thats actually really cool!'

My brother told me how he pointed out Jupiter to someone the other day and they told him to fuck off haha! so out comes the sky map and they say 'fucking hell, it is as well!'

When you actually see them and think 'thats an entire other planet' its quite awe inspiring.

We went to the Mount John Observatory when we were in New Zealand last year. It was superb. Got a picture of Saturn by pointing my camera up to the massive telescope they had up there. Checked out a few different planets, the moon etc, had a hot chocolate and got some pics. Lovely

In reply to
And stars don't "twinkle". It's our atmosphere that creates the affect. Most stars have been a constant source of light for hundreds of thousands, maybe even, millions of years! 

Then how come the planets dont 'twinkle'?  Their light passes through the same atmosphere?

(Genuine question btw, not trying to be sarcastic or anything )

The really bright star far to the right at the moment is Jupiter, You cant see Venus anymore. Venus is even brighter than Jupiter!

yup Pleiades, AKA 'The Seven Sisters'

Its what Subaru use as their logo

Can't beat a bit of casual star gazing when pop out, Orions belt is really clear here this evening.  Did a meal out in the outback at Ayers Rock with some star gazing included on hols which was pretty ace. 

Anywhere!

Its really difficult to get camped right beside a lake though coz the bloody National Trust dont do much trusting & think you're gonna wreck the place so they move you on to proper campsites. If you can though its amazing - there's nothing like waking up on a nice morning with the lake like a mirror & the sun rising over the fells!

As for star gazing you can do that pretty much anywhere so it doesn't matter where you go.

In reply to

WhiIe was in the army a friend of mine brought into the camp a former Soviet military telescope he won at some random auction in Russia. Between the stand and the telescope was a battery powered motor which alligned and tracked planets according to the Earth's rotation, going by settings he punched into this little control panel. It was a clear night as the forecast predicted and we were on a guard tower on the Green Line high in the mountains. He told me he was going to setup something for me to see first and after about 20 seconds he told me to look. I looked through the lens and I was looking at a black and white image of Saturn, rings and all  After looking at it for 10 minutes he said he was going to turn to motor off to see how fast the objects travel. The he turned off the motor and Saturn was out of sight in about 8-10 seconds. I dont know if it's exciting for other people but it's an image I'll never forget,

Never had a blanket of stars above my head, though on a flight back from the US, I had a window seat and directly beside me for at least 5 hours of the flight was the largest and birghtest full-moon I had ever seen. Was listening to Massive Attack and felt like I was in space.

Yeah its mad how quick they move out of view. once Ive got a planet lined up you have to adjust the telescope after about a minute or 2 cos its not in the telscopes line of site anymore.

Never seen Saturn through a telescope yet but its something I would really like to see.