Yah but we're talking 90" focal length compared with 30", 300% more light collection and a huge jump in resolution. It's hard to compete with big APO refractors for planets.

BUT.... lets look at the Orion Nebula with each scope and see which one can show the wide view : ) Lets pan the Milky Way and see which one takes in enormous starfields. Your 6" f/5 has its merits.

I have a hard time getting along with fast scopes, I am also using an f/9 refractor these days. I miss the wide fields though.

Very cool! What was happening around the Earth when the light left the nebula.

>> ^ant:
What's with the lightings?


I'm not 100% sure what you mean by your question, but as an amateur astronomer (and photographer) I'll take my best guess at what you're asking. Astronomers prefer red lenses in their flashlights for two reasons.

(1) Red flashlights have the least impact on your dark adaptation. It takes nearly an hour of complete darkness for your eyes to FULLY dilate to the point of maximum sensitivity. This dilation greatly enhances your ability to detect extremely faint objects such as galaxies and nebulae. One instant of white light will undo this effect. Red lenses have the least impact on your dark adaptation.

(2) Thanks to light pollution astronomers tend to gather in large groups in the few remaining places where we can actually see the sky. The plethora of red lenses is quite the spectacle. Especially in time lapse.

Hope that helped.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

^From the outset you have to make an assumption that ETs are trying to make contact with other ETs. That might be a pretty irrational assumption- but it's one that we could easily make. After that, it's just a matter of finding the medium.

You're right, it could be something so far beyond us- that we have no way of grasping it.

All of our rapid advances in communication tech over the last 100 years has given us some species hubris that we are cutting edge- to a type III civilisation, we would be ants building nests - but even ants have a kind of ambition- so maybe we shouldn't lose hope.

Also, with regard to pulsars, or any stars for that matter- there could be barely discernible fluctuations in the light strength that would form a kind of modulation. The pulsar pattern might be the bigger signal saying "hey look at me" and then the subtle message comes after you know that's where to look. If I wanted to create a message beacon that many galaxies could tune in to, I would use something like a pulsar- so at least people would know where to look.

This snippet from the Wikipedia article on pulsars is very interesting:

In 2003 observations of the Crab nebula pulsar's signal revealed "sub-pulses" within the main signal with durations of only nanoseconds. It is thought that these nanosecond pulses are emitted by regions on the pulsar's surface 60 cm in diameter or smaller, making them the smallest structures outside the solar system to be measured.

Also check: http://www.videosift.com/video/Space-Frog-X-Ray-Follow-Me-1997

Lyrics:

Mitternacht!
Mitternacht!

Wenn die Gondeln Trauer tragen
Und es hallt der Toten Klagen
Tief im Nacken das Grauen sitzt

Wenn die Uhr beginnt zu schlagen
Kalte, dichte Nebelschwaden
Berühr'n dich sacht
Mitternacht

Loca in ferna in nocte
Loca in ferna in nocte
Animae in nebula
Mitternacht!

Media nox obscura nox
Crudelitas animarum
Campana sonat
Duo decies
Mitternacht

Media nox obscura nox
Crudelitas animarum
Campana sonat
Duo decies
Mitternacht

Gefriert das Blut dir in den Adern
Schnürt dir Angst die Kehle zu
Hörst du dein Herz und die Glocken schlagen
Ist es Nacht
Mitternacht

Loca in ferna in nocte
Loca in ferna in nocte
Animae in nebula
Mitternacht

Media nox obscura nox
Crudelitas animarum
Campana sonat
Duo decies
Mitternacht

Mitternacht
Loca in ferna in nocte
Animae in nebula

Es ist Mitternacht!

Media nox obscura nox
Crudelitas animarum
Campana sonat
Duo decies
Mitternacht

Media nox obscura nox
Crudelitas animarum
Campana sonat
Duo decies
Mitternacht

-----------------
English:

Midnight.
Midnight.

When the small gondolas carry the mourning
And the crying of the dead resounds,
Up to the neck the gray sit.

When the clock begins to sound
Cold, dark clouds
Touch you lightly.

Midnight.

Loca in ferna in nocte.
Loca in ferna in nocte.
Animae in nebula.

Midnight.

Media nox obscura nox.
Crudelitas animarum.
Campana sonat.
Duo decies.

Midnight.

Media nox obscura nox.
Crudelitas animarum.
Campana sonat.
Duo decies.

Midnight.

Your blood freezes in your veins.
Your fear catches in your throat, too.
You hear your heart and the clock strike.
This is night.

Midnight.

Loca in ferna in nocte.
Loca in ferna in nocte.
Animae in nebula.

Midnight.

Media nox obscura nox.
Crudelitas animarum.
Campana sonat.
Duo decies.

Midnight.
Midnight.

Loca in ferna in nocte.
Animae in nebula.

This is midnight!

Media nox obscura nox.
Crudelitas animarum.
Campana sonat.
Duo decies.
Midnight.

Media nox obscura nox.
Crudelitas animarum.
Campana sonat.
Duo decies.
Midnight!

In reference to what i am getting from this thread is there is no God and this is all just one big cosmic coincidence? Now how much belief does that take?

2 points here, firstly, How much belief it takes? well, to me, its not really a matter of belief or "faith", its a matter of evidence. Scientists have studied the universe for a long time and concluded, based on EVIDENCE, that the universe is expanding at an exponential rate. By comparing stars at various distances, we can look back in time, literally, and see how the early universe looked and behaved. Which brings me to point number 2: "cosmic accident" is a gross oversimplification of our current understanding of the universe.

We have deduced, based on evidence that the early universe was much denser and hotter and simpler than it is now. Brian Cox used a snowflake as a metaphor, this old, "frozen" universe is complex and interesting, where as the early universe, like a melted snowflake, would just be a dense , hot gass of sorts, ultimately with only hydrogen in it. As Carl Sagan said: This (meaning us humans, earth and every living creature on it) is what you get when you give Hydrogen atoms 14 billion years to evolve.

Right now, our Sun with its immense gravitational pressure fuses 700 million tons of hydrogen into 695 million tons of helium, EVERY SECOND. 5 Million tons of pure energy is released, equaling something like 200 million Hiroshima bombs EVERY SECOND. Yet these extreme numbers are peanuts compared to the events that shaped our universe. Our sun simply isnt powerful enough to fuse helium and create heavier elements. For that, we need bigger "Weapons of Cosmic Destruction Creation" Supernovae, red giants, galactic collisions and supermassive black holes, nebulae and gas clouds beyond all imaginations. From cosmic events like this, all the ingredients we take for granted here on earth, (like carbon etc) were originally created. Again when talking about grand stuff like this that I know little about, it is best to qoute Carl Sagan again:

We are the Stuff Of Stars.

I love that quote because it is literally true.

So thats the "accident" before life arose. The exact chemical reactions that gave rise to the first self-replicating molecule is not fully understood, but once that first barrier was crossed (achieving high-fidelity replication) Evolution by natural selection is INEVITABLE.It still took a good 2 billion years before cells start grouping into multi-cellular organisms, but when that revolution happened, we went from flatworm to primates in a measly 700 million years.

That account of the Cosmic accident is a far to brief, incomplete and rough draft of what happened, of course, I only mean to point out that this isnt some mad scientists guesswork. The processes and events above have been predicted, discovered, tested and examined and calculated and peer-reviewed and-- you get the point. They are our current best shot at understanding the universe, based on the available evidence. Naturally, much is left to discover, and thats what makes science interesting.

^I took AST 205: Stars and Galaxies awhile back and had to learn all about the particle physics, GUT and spectroscopy, etc.

Bear with me, it was a few semesters ago so I may forget/muddle some of the details. Basically, as the molecules of hydrogen, helium and other trace gases are squeezed together by gravity, the electron shells of the individual atoms begin to collide with one another. When they do, the electrons collide and change their orbit around the nucleus, and then revert back to their original orbit. This releases a store of energy as photons. The same thing happens when an X particle strikes a weak boson. The larger the bang, the farther the change in orbit and the more energy is released, when it returns back to its original orbit. Or something like that. Look up the Bohr model, Planck's Constant, etc for more info.

Long story short, the resulting photons which are released make up the electromagnetic energy in the universe, depending on frequency, etc.

It's all through measuring light via spectroscopy and a little triangulation that we can tell the size, rotation speeds, mass, velocity, age, composition, etc, of the stars and galaxies, nebulae and other celestial objects. Pretty crazy once you get your head all wrapped around it.

Siftbot wants to fire his pork rocket into our chocolate nebula.

Here is a list of things that can also power the Texas Instruments micro controller: Aardvarks, ants, apples, Avril Lavine, Breadfruit, baguettes, Brussel sprouts, Bark, Batteries, Coneys, Carpet, Cats, Crumbs, Crap, Dams (beaver or man-made), Droids, Energy, Flies, Fruit (any kind), Fire, F-words, Fusion reactors, Grenades, Gum, Guilt imposed on you by your ex, Hedgehogs, hemroids, hockey players, Ion engines, Jack in the box food, kinetic energy, killer bees, linen, locomotives, morose code, melons, Montgomery Burns, name calling, nebula, noogies, and anything you can find in a grocery store or McDonald's.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'space, hubble, NASA, telescope, nebula' to 'space, hubble, NASA, telescope, veil, nebula, hubblecast' - edited by kronosposeidon

EVE Online is about the only game I consistently play right now.

Some older favorites:

Neverwinter Nights and Expansion packs (One of the best game experiences ever especially Hordes of Underdark, NWN 2 was disappointing)

Sacred (This was like Diablo set in a larger open world, I actually finished this game 3 times)

Counter-Strike 1.3 (after that and Source it wasn't the same at all - The AK47 was so awesome in this version)

Quake 1, 2, 3. - Bots, Multiplayer and gibs. Nuff said.

Unreal Tournament (The original is still the best, UT3 was a huge consoley disappointment)

Freelancer 1 & 2 (Anyone remember pulling GTVA space patrols in a nebula? It was my own personal BSG)

Transport Tycoon Deluxe (Laying roads, train tracks, air and sea transport routes, was never so much fun, Locomotion was a huge disappointment)

Jagged Alliance 1 & 2 (Squad control mercs! Ivan Dolvich was hilarious)

Ivan Dolvich: You do not speak Russian? Ah, I miss days when Russia was at war with everybody.
Ivan Dolvich: [Speaking Russian; after killing an enemy in a rather brutal way] And that's why my nephew is an alcoholic.
Ivan Dolvich: [Speaking Russian; upon finding a weapon he likes] If I keep quiet, I will be able to keep it for myself!

Soldner (Like a JA clone set in a pulpish WW2 setting)

UFO: Alien Unknown (Oh my god this game was so scary, especially when you started getting Psiattacks from the aliens, still unrivaled today, even though countless companies tried direct copies, I didn't really like X-Com because of the underwater setting)

Heroes of Might & Magic 3 (I loved the 2D graphics, the newer 3D one isn't as magical nor did it have near the amount of units/artifacts/heroes as HMM3)

Rise of Nations (This was really one of the best and most enjoyable RTS games I ever played)

Total Annihilation (Visceral, primal RTS combat with robots, Supreme Commander lost that magic touch)

Morrowind (Oblivion was good but not as good as Morrowind which had more of an open ended feel, and not as consoley based as Oblivion)

I would say my favorite genre is FPS, though so far all am looking forward to is Fallout 3 and Jagged Alliance 3/3D/4 (if it ever makes it), I was looking forward to a shooter that was said to cover all the weapons from the 20th to 21st centuries following a familial history but I forgot the name, it had a really cool trailer too.

Astronomers are not totally sure about the ultraviolet fluoresence of the Mira trail. They think the bow shock of this star (the star is travelling at almost 300,000 miles per hour relative to the matter the star is colliding with) is producing enough heat to cause the gas to fluoresce. Think HUGE amounts of REALLY hot matter spread out in a gigantic tail in an environment with little conductive or convective heat loss. This thing would glow for a long time. (Like nebula surrounding the remains of a supernova where only the released energy of the event long ago has the shells of gas still glowing.)

know what's funny?

the poster on my wall, right above my monitor, is the Orion Nebula.

My non technical definition of a "riff" would be anything piece or part of a song that digs into your skull and will not go away. It's the part of the song that when you hear it makes you say Hell Yea! and go scrambling for the volume knob.
The riffs haven't disappeared over the last 10 years they just don't reside on the radio dial anymore. It's not hip hop(that was 20 years ago) that drove them into hiding it's "core" music. You know metalcore, mallcore, emocore, breakdowncore, whatever you want to call it. That coupled with corporate run radio have driving anything with heart deep down into the underground. So you have to look a little harder for it. It's there. Examples? Ok
From the last 10 years:
High On Fire-Hung,Drawn and Quarter(they also just put out a new album that is so rifftastic it's scarey)
Kylesa-Time will Fuse It's Worth(whole album)
Tragedy-The Point Of No Return(The acoustic part give way to the brutality)
Hellshock-Your World(awesome!)
Grand Magus, Fu Manchu, Down, Nebula all have a Sabbath like vibe to them and they are all current along with a literal ton of others in that vein. And they all have no shortage of riffs.
Not to mention the myriads of old bands still in service, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Morbid Angel, Entombed(total riff band), the new Voivod rules, ect.
It's there I promise you just have to accept the riffs they offer as your personal savior and all will be right. Now go in peace and don't forget to feel it when you listen because if you don't feel it then you are just wasting your time.

It kind of shocks me that it looks like someone else tried to absorb this nebula award story and present it as their own.

Like all realizations of treasured works, I had trouble with this one: the two aliens being meat and making meat sounds at each other while being amazed that we were meat is just off. I'm no video producer, but I would want some light tinkling at other evanescent stuff while observing meat. They could have still used the cool costumes!