Anyone for an astronomy thread?

[ursus arctos]

I had forgotten about that

[Gangster Octopus]

Isn't this the Voyager thread?

[ursus arctos]

This is outstanding

For the first time since November, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems. The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again. The probe and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to ever fly in interstellar space (the space between stars).

[Balderdasha]

We did star gazing at beavers on Friday which is the first time in my 41 years that I've really looked properly through a telescope. I got to see Jupiter with four of its moons and a close up of the craters on our moon. Really awe-inspiring stuff, only slightly hampered by having to corral my son who was distressed at finding it hard to focus through the telescope, my friend's son who was crying because my son won the password breaking game, another boy who was kicking everyone in sight, and my daughter who kept forgetting that she was meant to be there "helping" and was trying to shove beavers aside to get a better view.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

indeed. How does your machine work? It looks like you're far too close!

[torres]

Hobbes they are brilliant pics.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Seems Starship's second "oribital" flight test went fine until just after hot staging. At which point the separated booster exploded, and then at some point during the second stage burn (but quite a while after separation) the self destruct triggered.

It seems at this distance, that the problem with the booster came down to lighting the second stage on top of the still moving first stage caused the fuel to slosh around inside the tank, which killed the flow of fuel to the engines, and likely broke things inside it. Something appears to have leaked in the upper stage, and it ran out of oxygen and itau exploded, not far off orbital speed. The new launchpad seems to have worked very well, with only charring on the lounch ring, and a bit of lost paint. The Big fuel tank covers got more dented, but those tanks are going to be replaced with ones on their side. The next launch could be very soon, given that the launch pad wasn't torn apart like the last time, and there's a few of these rockets waiting around to be launched.

Shock Diamonds are so pretty.

[hobbes]

[hobbes]

Here’s a couple I took on my solar scope.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Hmm, not brilliant trying to hold my eclipse glasses over my phone camera lens - looking through them gives a much sharper disk, some sellotape might be required - but this gives a general idea. Sun, in a bright midday clear sky.

[colchestersid]

Yeah. Lovely and clear view of that last night.

Jupiter was spectacular last night

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

My eclipse glasses came, they're cool! It's been bright and sunny here yesterday and today, so I've been testing them out looking at the sun. Through them in daylight, it looks just like an orange disc in a black sky, a bit like a full moon at midnight. I'll try to get my camera to take a pic through them and post here.

[torres]

Yeah. Lovely and clear view of that last night.

[Discordant Resonance]

Not a great photo, you’ll have to zoom in. The Moon and Venus this morning.

Bit of a watery sky here, but in other locations, you should be able to see a conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter now.

[Ginger Yellow]

Seems Starship's second "oribital" flight test went fine until just after hot staging. At which point the separated booster exploded, and then at some point during the second stage burn (but quite a while after separation) the self destruct triggered.

[torres]

Not a great photo, you’ll have to zoom in. The Moon and Venus this morning.

[torres]

A very nice Venus in the early morning Eastern sky at the moment.

[Fargo Boyle]

If anyone is in a dark sky area, there's a strong Aurora at the moment. Just come back from Ravenscar, and there's a lovely showing to the North across Robin Hood's Bay. Visible all the way to the south coast in the UK apparently according to Twitter reports

[S. aureus]

There's a partial solar eclipse here right now, hidden behind nice thick cloud cover.

[San Bernardhinault]

I feel like I’ve seen this in a sitcom somewhere. Or maybe in Don’t Look Up. It doesn’t end well.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

You're going to lose your mind when you find out how much of the apollo suits were made by playtex

[Guy Profumo]

What could possibly go wrong here?


Fashion brand to design spacesuits for NASA



https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67022619

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

That's amazing. Every step involved in that whole mission is so absolutely extraordinary. Here's hoping the Mars Sample return can be just as successful. Now there's a project of grandiose scope and vision.

[ursus arctos]

Bennu in da house


https://twitter.com/bbcbreaking/stat...JOIS_CpbTtDBow

[Ginger Yellow]

The "live coverage of the landing" was underwhelming, to say the least. It was a Bollywoodish cartoon animation of the lander, with actual Modi waving a little flag and giving a hugely protracted speech. Is there live feed from, er, the actual moon, yet?

Not a live feed, but some images.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/worl...india-66576580