Anyone for an astronomy thread?

[Moonlight Shadow]

I'm pretty sure I once saw the ISS, I was out for a hike on the moors above Chorley. It was towards the end of the day and I saw this bright object in the sky going at great speed, much faster than a plane and no contrails. Is it even possible?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The Lake District has started the process of becoming a Dark Sky area, or whatever it's called. Exmoor's already done this. I assume it doesn't entail everyone in Aspatria having to blackout their windows at night, but I'm not sure.

[hobbes]

And hobbes, is it true that on a perfect sundown (I think I read down, not up), that you can see MIR swishing by on the horizon without using any goggles or scope or anything?

Sorry. Missed this at the time. You definitely can't see MIR as it took a dive into the atmosphere back in 2001-ish.

Do you mean the ISS?
In which case if it's going over you at night you can see a fast moving, bright object travelling from horizon to horizon, West to East in about 10 minutes, every 90 mins. It won't be distinguishable as the ISS though. To see the shape you need binoculars (which is hard as it moves fast.) alternatively if you know it's passing across the moon, and you time it right you can get a shot of it. Google "ISS moon transit" to see some shots. I can't figure out how to embed Google images anymore.

First time I ever used my solar scope the ISS went across the face of the sun, which was amazing to see. I had no idea it was going to.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

It may be time to finally say goodbye to Opportunity. It was supposed to be finished after 90 days in april of 2004, It lasted to june of 2018.

then again

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

I find stuff like this just amazing.

I was wondering whether anyone else noticed this in the news. It's quite spectacular once you see it graphically, how far it's ventured.

And hobbes, is it true that on a perfect sundown (I think I read down, not up), that you can see MIR swishing by on the horizon without using any goggles or scope or anything?

[Ginger Yellow]

Speaking of twee earth science stuff, that "A Day in the Life of Earth" thing the other day was proper rubbish. The 24 hours conceit was completely pointless, the framing device was a series of cringingly scripted encounters with imaginary people, and they spent most of the budget on bad CGI to repeatedly convey the idea "this number is really big".

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I find stuff like this just amazing.

[Sits]

I thought it was a bit twee. I had to give up when I read something like "Mars, I feel you". Otherwise this is of course brilliant.

[ad hoc]

It has a twitter account if anyone is interested @NASAInSight

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

hah, I don't think some of their instruments would have appreciated bouncing across the surface. That's a big step forward for them.

[hobbes]

Proper sci-fi jet landing too. None of this sky hook or bouncy ball stuff.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Insight touches down on Mars!!!

[Sits]

As this appalling photo shows, my memory is playing tricks, although this is a month ago so it's changed since:

[Sits]

Was trying to work out last night what the southern hemisphere perspective on the current arrangement is, Sits. Did Mars appear just above the Moon from your point of view?

I'm not paying terribly close attention, but last time a saw a planet in close proximity to the moon it was Venus, below and to the left of the moon. Mars was opposite in the sky.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Thanks all, and especially VA. Sounds as if it must have been Mars that I was looking at.

[Various Artist]

Was trying to work out last night what the southern hemisphere perspective on the current arrangement is, Sits. Did Mars appear just above the Moon from your point of view?

[Sits]

We’re still getting Venus and Mars nice and bright in the evening sky, roughly opposite one another. Both about 20 degrees elevation, Venus WNW and Mars SSE. Jupiter above but gradually getting nearer Venus.

[Various Artist]

Mars is just below the Moon tonight, by the way and its been atypically bright lately so easier than normal to confuse with the giant planets.

[Various Artist]

Not due south-maybe-a-tiny-bit-east though! Jupiter, Saturn then Mars all come up in that direction, but Venus is much further round to the west.

[hobbes]

Could Venus. In Cyprus last week we could see Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars all up just after sundown.

[Various Artist]

Quick question for you amateur astronomers: that bright thing in the sky which right now, from the UK, is due south maybe a tiny bit east, and pretty low in the sky (20 degrees above horizon perhaps) - so maybe 10 degrees to the left of the moon and a tiny bit lower - is that Venus?

Whatever it is, it won't be Venus. The latter is poetically known as the "Morning Star" or "Evening Star" because it is invariably found near the Sun in the sky from our perspective here on Earth, due to being closer to it than we are. So at the moment it's the bright thing (brighter than anything else in the night sky bar the Moon) you'll see in the west for not long after sunset, following the Sun down.

I can't remember where the Moon was the last night or two but you'll find that Jupiter and Saturn are to be seen to the south, with the latter some way further east (i.e. to the left) and lower down, i.e. rising later in the night and not making it as high above the horizon. Jupiter is brighter than anything bar the Moon and Venus, Saturn is bright too but not so much so. Binoculars and a steady hand will show the latter has characteristic 'ears', which are the rings stretching out on either side of the planet.

As GY suggests, there's some good and free apps available. I have two on my phone, Star Chart and [Google] Sky Map, both of which enable you to hold your device up to the region of sky and show what you should be seeing in that same direction (provided you've got some sort of compass sensor in it), with constellations marked out and the paths of the planets and so forth.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I don't know if it matters that much tbh. It would depend on what you want to use it for. Mining it is going to require a lot of specialized heavy equipment, and doing anything with it would also require specialized heavy equipment. And it's really hard to get lots of really heavy equipment to the moon. There was talk of using it to create hydrogen and oxygen for spaceship fuel, but the advent of reusable rockets, and the likely future developments on these lines is going to mean that it is always easier to launch fuel from earth, than the moon.

Something that is important to remember about the moon, is that the lack of atmosphere makes it a massive throbbing pain in the arse to land on, and also to get back from. If you send a rocket ship to mars, it going to use the martian atmosphere, such as it is, to wipe off 90% of of the speed of the rocket, and you only need to be heading off to mars with enough fuel to slow you down by the 10% needed to ensure that you arrive on the surface of the planet mars travelling at exactly 0 m/s. You then spend the next 2 years waiting for the opportunity to go home, manufacturing fuel out of the atmosphere, and out of water.

If you go to the moon, the lack of atmosphere, means that you have to arrive there carrying enough fuel to completely cancel out 100% of your speed. and then you have to be carrying enough fuel to get you home. To give you an idea of the impact of this, this planned rocket that SpaceX are building right now, can go to the Moon or Mars. But it requires one launch of a shuttle, and five launches of a tanker, to send 150 tonnes to mars. But it would require one launch of a shuttle, and 10 tanker launches to get 50 tonnes to the surface of the moon and back. But you wouldn't have to wait two years to go back.

[Moonlight Shadow]

Reading that news about ice found on the surface of the moon, I wonder if one major hurdle to a permanent base has not been cleared. Provided the quantities are substantial enough...

[Ginger Yellow]

Have you got a smart device? Download Star Walk and just point it at the object.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Quick question for you amateur astronomers: that bright thing in the sky which right now, from the UK, is due south maybe a tiny bit east, and pretty low in the sky (20 degrees above horizon perhaps) - so maybe 10 degrees to the left of the moon and a tiny bit lower - is that Venus?