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Kiss your asteroid hello
Topic Started: Jul 28 2010, 06:14 PM (1,199 Views)
George K
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Finally
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1298285/Massive-asteroid-hit-Earth-2182-warn-scientists.html?ITO=1490


A massive asteroid might crash into Earth in the year 2182, scientists have warned.

The asteroid, called 1999 RQ36, has a 1-in-1,000 chance of actually hitting the Earth at some point before the year 2200, but is most likely to hit us on 24th September 2182.

It was first discovered in 1999 and is more than 1,800 feet across. If an asteroid of this size hit the Earth it would cause widespread devastation and possible mass extinction.

And scientists say that any attempt to try and divert the asteroid will have to take place more than 100 years before it is due to hit to have any chance of success.


If the asteroid had not been spotted until after 2080 it would be impossible to divert it from its target, they warned in a new research paper.

While the odds may seem long, they are far shorter than that of the asteroid Apophis, which currently has a 1 in 250,000 chance of striking Earth in 2036.
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
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KlavierBauer
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HOLY CARP!!!
Ah - but don't forget that Apophis had much greater odds of hitting us when we first discovered it too. Now we know it is very unlikely to hit us. Anything coming close to the earth also gets close to other things on its way here, making it virtually impossible to tell what might hit us. RQ36 will be close to be sure, but we won't know exactly how close until it gets here I think.
"I realize you want him to touch you all over and give you babies, but his handling of the PR side really did screw the pooch." - Ivory Thumper
"He said sleepily: "Don't worry mom, my dick is like hot logs in the morning." - Apple

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George K
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Finally
I can wait...
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
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KlavierBauer
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HOLY CARP!!!
It's exciting!
Of course, Planet X will hit us December 20th 2012, so we won't be around to see this other collision.
"I realize you want him to touch you all over and give you babies, but his handling of the PR side really did screw the pooch." - Ivory Thumper
"He said sleepily: "Don't worry mom, my dick is like hot logs in the morning." - Apple

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Mark
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HOLY CARP!!!
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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
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KlavierBauer
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HOLY CARP!!!
Don't worry George - the movies make it much more interesting than it actually is. You won't be able to watch the thing come sailing into the land or anything. An asteroid large enough to be a "global killer" puts off so much ultraviolet heat (read: white hot) as it's coming in, that the entire hemisphere below it is basically combusted in the 2-3 seconds it will take that thing to travel through our atmosphere at 17,000+ mph.
The other half of the world dies right after that when the fallout from the collision starts falling on their side of the planet - huge chunks of earth crust, a blast wave hotter than hades, etc..
In other words, don't worry about it - if it hits on your side of the planet you're done before it even hits, no messy stuff.
"I realize you want him to touch you all over and give you babies, but his handling of the PR side really did screw the pooch." - Ivory Thumper
"He said sleepily: "Don't worry mom, my dick is like hot logs in the morning." - Apple

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Mark
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HOLY CARP!!!
You all can come watch it with me.

Posted Image

Just call a day or two in advance. ;)
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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
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KlavierBauer
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HOLY CARP!!!
Mark - that thing's beautiful!
Specs?
I've been thinking recently about one of these:
The Zhumell 10" dob
Posted Image
"I realize you want him to touch you all over and give you babies, but his handling of the PR side really did screw the pooch." - Ivory Thumper
"He said sleepily: "Don't worry mom, my dick is like hot logs in the morning." - Apple

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Piano*Dad
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Bull-Carp
My son, who is now setting his sights on aerospace engineering or astrophysics is now interested in a telescope. What sorts should I be evaluating?
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Piano*Dad
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Bull-Carp
KlavierBauer
Jul 29 2010, 08:38 AM
Don't worry George - the movies make it much more interesting than it actually is. You won't be able to watch the thing come sailing into the land or anything. An asteroid large enough to be a "global killer" puts off so much ultraviolet heat (read: white hot) as it's coming in, that the entire hemisphere below it is basically combusted in the 2-3 seconds it will take that thing to travel through our atmosphere at 17,000+ mph.
The other half of the world dies right after that when the fallout from the collision starts falling on their side of the planet - huge chunks of earth crust, a blast wave hotter than hades, etc..
In other words, don't worry about it - if it hits on your side of the planet you're done before it even hits, no messy stuff.
Pardon my complete ignorance, KB, but why would the asteroid be hot until it began to interact with our atmosphere? Wouldn't that occur only moments before impact?
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KlavierBauer
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HOLY CARP!!!
Piano*Dad: Yes, it would begin heating as it enters our upper atmosphere. And it would heat extremely quickly, going into the purple/white range of heat before getting close to the surface. It makes the trip in about 3 seconds, but is heated up at the beginning of that journey. Many asteroids explode due to this heat well before hitting the surface, which is what most likely happened with the Tanguska Event.
A large enough asteroid though, will reflect enough heat back to nearly instantly incinerate everything.

I'm currently writing a response to your telescope question - but Mark's way smarter here and will have great input as well.
"I realize you want him to touch you all over and give you babies, but his handling of the PR side really did screw the pooch." - Ivory Thumper
"He said sleepily: "Don't worry mom, my dick is like hot logs in the morning." - Apple

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KlavierBauer
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HOLY CARP!!!
Ok, so there are two main types of telescopes - reflectors, and refractors. In telescopes, typically the bigger the aperture, the better. So most people want to find the best quality (optics, mount, etc.) with the largest aperture within a given budget.
So Newton's design (the reflector) uses mirrors to reflect the collected light, and tend to be the more useful of the two types, as they are typically much smaller for a given aperture than their refractor counterparts. The refractor is sort of the "original" telescope design - it's what Galileo used. It uses lenses to capture the light, and focus the image for the eye. Because of their design, refractors tend to be very long relative to their aperture, and are not very popular for that reason (and other reasons).
They are however very affordable.
I have a refractor which is probably about 4 feet long, and at that length I only have a 4" aperture. So what I can see is very limited, compared to a Newtonian of the same length (such as the dobsonian style scope I imaged above) which has a 10" aperture. These dobsonian style Newtonians are often called "light buckets" because of their ability to capture the most amount of light for the least amount of money. Their one big drawback? Their mounting system. You can see in Mark's pic he has a very nice mount for his scope. Nicer mounts add a lot to the price of a scope, but are for some people well worth it. With a young astronomer you may enjoy having something with a "drive" system that can take you on a tour of the heavens without you having to manually find things. I personally enjoy hunting for what I'm looking for with a star map.
The Schmidt-Cassegraine is often one of the more expensive reflectors, creating a wide, and very short tube which is very portable. Orion makes a telescope in this style that's I believe 6" in diameter, and has a drive system for I think around $800 (I may be mistaken).

For me personally, I'd love to have a nice Schmidt-Cassegraine someday, but for now I'm on the cheap. So that means finding something that will give me the best light capturing ability, with the nicest optics. And it seems (to me) that the easiest way to do that is with the Dobsonian style. Yes, it's less portable and it requires me being able to find stars on my own - but I think the payoff is huge in the ability to see some truly deep-sky objects for $500 or so.

To start out, you might find that the best way to go is a nice set of binoculars. This is often advocated in astronomy groups as a great way to learn the sky - and you'd be amazed what you can see with a nice set of stargazing binocs.
Also, find a local star club or amateur astronomy club - they typically have monthly meetings where they all meet and setup their scopes and allow the public to come and peer through them. Here, the Northern Colorado group meets at Rocky Mountain National Park once a month. They setup some massive scopes, and it's a great way to begin seeing some fun things for free, through scopes you'll probably never be able to afford.

Just some thoughts...
"I realize you want him to touch you all over and give you babies, but his handling of the PR side really did screw the pooch." - Ivory Thumper
"He said sleepily: "Don't worry mom, my dick is like hot logs in the morning." - Apple

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Mark
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HOLY CARP!!!
KlavierBauer
Jul 29 2010, 08:55 AM
Mark - that thing's beautiful!
Specs?
I've been thinking recently about one of these:
The Zhumell 10" dob
My telescope is an Astro-Physics 130mm EDF GT

Posted Image

Posted Image

It breaks down into three components to make it meet airline carry-on specs.

Posted Image

A 10" Dob is a sweet spot aperture. Anything bigger and you will not be too enthusiastic about lugging it outside. Anything smaller in a reflector with a large central obstruction and contrast will suffer. You will have to deal with diffraction spikes on bright objects and you will have to learn about keeping all of the optics in optimum alignment (collimation).

I prefer refractors (like the one I have) or highly optimized Maksutov Cassegrains like the 8" I used to own from Telescope Engineering Company (TEC) located in Colorado.

But my 130 GT is my pride and joy. 5.1" of the finest optics on the planet. The contrast and level of detail I get from that little telescope is amazing.
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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
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Mark
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HOLY CARP!!!
The German Equatorial mount I use is an Astro-Physics Mach1 GTO.

Posted Image

You can see all of the equipment designed, manufactured (In the USA I might add) by Astro-Phyiscs here:

http://www.astro-physics.com/
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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
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Luke's Dad
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Emperor Pengin
George K
Jul 28 2010, 06:14 PM
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1298285/Massive-asteroid-hit-Earth-2182-warn-scientists.html?ITO=1490


A massive asteroid might crash into Earth in the year 2182, scientists have warned.

The asteroid, called 1999 RQ36, has a 1-in-1,000 chance of actually hitting the Earth at some point before the year 2200, but is most likely to hit us on 24th September 2182.

It was first discovered in 1999 and is more than 1,800 feet across. If an asteroid of this size hit the Earth it would cause widespread devastation and possible mass extinction.

And scientists say that any attempt to try and divert the asteroid will have to take place more than 100 years before it is due to hit to have any chance of success.


If the asteroid had not been spotted until after 2080 it would be impossible to divert it from its target, they warned in a new research paper.

While the odds may seem long, they are far shorter than that of the asteroid Apophis, which currently has a 1 in 250,000 chance of striking Earth in 2036.
Not to worry. The US Government has already contracted BP to put together a team of loveable but tough roughnecks from Deepwater to travel to the asteroid and take care of it.

Unfortunately, they've yet to come up with a way to get there as NASA is now a diplomatic branch of the Government specializing in making Islamic Nations feel good about themselves.

Guess we'll just have to take out a loan and pay the Chinese to do it.
The problem with having an open mind is that people keep trying to put things in it.
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KlavierBauer
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HOLY CARP!!!
I didn't really mention in my post that refractors can be some of the best scopes around - they're just typically fairly expensive, and can get large pretty quickly.
Yours is very portable, and has a nice aperture. Coupled with really nice optics that would make a very pleasant viewing experience.

Have you done any astrophotography with your scope?
"I realize you want him to touch you all over and give you babies, but his handling of the PR side really did screw the pooch." - Ivory Thumper
"He said sleepily: "Don't worry mom, my dick is like hot logs in the morning." - Apple

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Luke's Dad
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Emperor Pengin
KlavierBauer
Jul 29 2010, 12:20 PM
I didn't really mention in my post that refractors can be some of the best scopes around - they're just typically fairly expensive, and can get large pretty quickly.
Yours is very portable, and has a nice aperture. Coupled with really nice optics that would make a very pleasant viewing experience.

Have you done any astrophotography with your scope?
:lol2:
The problem with having an open mind is that people keep trying to put things in it.
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KlavierBauer
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HOLY CARP!!!
Wow - that looks horrible rereading it.
"I realize you want him to touch you all over and give you babies, but his handling of the PR side really did screw the pooch." - Ivory Thumper
"He said sleepily: "Don't worry mom, my dick is like hot logs in the morning." - Apple

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Luke's Dad
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Emperor Pengin
That's not why I was loling. While you've been away, Mark has posted many wonderful photographs that he's taken with his scope. One of the highlights of TNCR, IMO.
The problem with having an open mind is that people keep trying to put things in it.
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KlavierBauer
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HOLY CARP!!!
Oh... everyone's always laughing at me - it gets confusing.
"I realize you want him to touch you all over and give you babies, but his handling of the PR side really did screw the pooch." - Ivory Thumper
"He said sleepily: "Don't worry mom, my dick is like hot logs in the morning." - Apple

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Improviso
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HOLY CARP!!!
I was only snickering...I swear. :lol:
Identifying narcissists isn't difficult. Just look for the person who is constantly fishing for compliments
and admiration while breaking down over even the slightest bit of criticism.

We have the freedom to choose our actions, but we do not get to choose our consequences.
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Mark
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HOLY CARP!!!
KlavierBauer
Jul 29 2010, 12:20 PM
I didn't really mention in my post that refractors can be some of the best scopes around - they're just typically fairly expensive, and can get large pretty quickly.
Yours is very portable, and has a nice aperture. Coupled with really nice optics that would make a very pleasant viewing experience.

Have you done any astrophotography with your scope?
Here is one taken last year using the 130 and my Canon 50D DSLR.

M27 - The Dumbbell Nebula

Posted Image

And too big to post inline is this photo of a portion of the Veil Nebula, NGC 6995

http://www.bigcigarastronomy.com/PageMill_Resources/NGC6995Rev1_jpeg64Compressed.jpg

And of course our Website url:

http://www.bigcigarastronomy.com/
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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
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Axtremus
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HOLY CARP!!!
Mark
 
No wonder it has to be such a big file! The picture is so noise-like that there's really not much one can "compress." I suppose that's the nature of stars and dust distribution in space. :shrug:
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Mark
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HOLY CARP!!!
A very star dense region of the milky-way.
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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
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big al
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Bull-Carp
Thanks for posting that link again, Mark. I went looking for it after Ls'D posted the laugh, because I knew why he laughed. I was sure I had it somewhere among my bookmarks, but couldn't find it.

Big Al
Location: Western PA

"jesu, der simcha fun der man's farlangen."
-bachophile
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