Space and stuff

[dholliday]

What constitutes a decent enough telescope
Asking for a friend.

home-telescope level: aperture of minimum 120mm with good eyepieces, suitable mount/tripod with go-to tracking, good location

 

[degsy]

Mount Palomar

Not big enough or so it seems
To see the flag, which is 4ft, you would need a 600ft+ diameter telescope
The biggest we have is aprox 33ft diameter
The Hubble is about 8ft diameter

Size DOES matter

 

[Chewbacca]

Not big enough or so it seems
To see the flag, which is 4ft, you would need a 600ft+ diameter telescope
The biggest we have is aprox 33ft diameter
The Hubble is about 8ft diameter

Size DOES matter

Still not big enough to see a flat earthers brain

 

[degsy]

home-telescope level: aperture of minimum 120mm with good eyepieces, suitable mount/tripod with go-to tracking, good location

Not big enough or so it seems
To see the flag, which is 4ft, you would need a 600ft+ diameter telescope
The biggest we have is aprox 33ft diameter
The Hubble is about 8ft diameter

Size DOES matter

So, who is right?
2nd opinon required, sorry 3rd opinion.

 

[dholliday]

Not big enough or so it seems
To see the flag, which is 4ft, you would need a 600ft+ diameter telescope
The biggest we have is aprox 33ft diameter
The Hubble is about 8ft diameter

Size DOES matter

oh just seen you're referring to seeing evidence of the moon landings...as I said earlier and as you just wrote now, there's no such thing as an earth-based telescope which can see evidence of the moon landings.

my 120mm recommendation is for anyone starting out: you'll see 4 of Jupiter's moons, Saturn's rings and many smaller craters on the moon.

 

[Dylan]

So, who is right?
2nd opinon required, sorry 3rd opinion.

Unequivocally you can NOT see the moon landing sites with any telescope we currently have.

What you can do, is fire a laser beam from earth at the reflectors left up there and confirm that there is in fact, laser reflectors up there.

Hubble's 94.5-inch mirror has a resolution of 0.024″ in ultraviolet light, which translates to 141 feet (43 meters) at the Moon's distance. In visible light, it's 0.05″, or closer to 300 feet. Given that the largest piece of equipment left on the Moon after each mission was the 17.9-foot-high by 14-foot-wide Lunar Module, you can see the problem.

Did I say problem? No problem for NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which can dip as low as 31 miles (50 km) from the lunar surface, close enough to image each landing site in remarkable detail.

https://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/how-to-see-all-six-apollo-moon-landing-sites/

 

[Rugby Toffee]

I need more space for my stuff apparently

 

[dholliday]

Perseid meteor shower 2018: Fantastic display of shooting stars will be 'brighter than ever' because of new moon

 

[Dylan]

Delta IV Heavy about to launch the Parker Solar Probe in about 6 minutes.

Watch on NASA's live stream

 

[Dylan]

Bah, looks like the launch is being scrubbed and held for 24 hours :/

 

[LostLegend]

Planet 9, Planet X, or Nibiru, is looking more & more like a real thing. A dark, possibly rocky (but freezing), planet around 3 times the size of Earth somewhere in the vastness between Neptune & Pluto. The estimates say every 20-thousand years this planet swings close enough to Earth to be visible in the sky (as its also shone sufficiently by the sun), and remains so for a few thousand years before swinging out of view for another circa 15-thousand years. At its most visible it may have an angular diameter from Earth somewhere between Jupiter & the moon...so very noticable!

Historical anecdotal evidence points to ancient civilisations having seen a noticable round object in the sky which was neither the moon nor the sun, with the last recorded civilisation to have referenced it being the Babylonians around 5000 years ago.

It's very interesting as this mixes real scientific progress with old pseudo-scientific ideas.

To get an idea of the scale within our own solar system from the Sun to Pluto, this is the best tool I've found. It's mindboggling, you'll even be surprised how far away our moon is from Earth. And when you mentally convert to 360° you get an idea how hard it is to find a dark distant rocky planet out there in the void. It's a miracle we found Pluto.

http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html

I remember reading that if you were to build an actual scale model of our solar system and made the Earth the size of a pea, Pluto would be 10km away and the size of a pin-head.

Not sure how accurate that is, but it's staggering if anywhere near correct. That's just our tiny little solar system... my head hurts now...

 

[dholliday]

I remember reading that if you were to build an actual scale model of our solar system and made the Earth the size of a pea, Pluto would be 10km away and the size of a pin-head.

Not sure how accurate that is, but it's staggering if anywhere near correct. That's just our tiny little solar system... my head hurts now...

sadly it remains inconceivable we'll ever physically visit other star systems based on our current understanding of interstellar travel. Another galaxy far far away? Insanely impossible.

Still, that hasn't stopped our brightest sci-fi writers to come up with ideas. My favourite living space-fiction writer is Stephen Baxter. He has some truly awe-inspiring concepts for how we can spread out, the most epic is SPACE. Check out some Amazon user-reviews then buy it for a penny!

@GrandOldTeam Amazon links don't work, I just see a blank white space:

Amazon product ASIN 000651183X

 

[roydo]

Some space expert involved with this voyage to the Sun explained how close it would get.

If Earth is a metre from the Sun, the probe will be a few centimetres away from it.

 

[degsy]

I remember reading that if you were to build an actual scale model of our solar system and made the Earth the size of a pea, Pluto would be 10km away and the size of a pin-head.

Not sure how accurate that is, but it's staggering if anywhere near correct. That's just our tiny little solar system... my head hurts now...

Type in to your search engine - scale model of solar system in sweden

 

[summerisle]