Re: Follow that star at Christmas : Thu Dec 22, 2011 4:20 pm  

McLaren_Field wrote:

Can I also add, I'm fascinated by this astrology thing and space travel (I'm a child of the 50s, we all expected to be living on the moon by now)

Hee hee,
I can remember myself and my mates sitting at the side of the road (east lancs at Astley) trying to imagine what life would be like in the year 2000. We couldn't even count up the years to 2000 this was about 1970 and we were around 7 years old. We knew there would be Martians on earth, that was a given but one or two weren't keen on staying around Astley & Leigh and quite fancied living on the moon probably when they retired from work. It is a bit late for us now though one or two are always spaced out but there has been enough technology and development in our life time to be pretty impressed. I can remember at the age of 8 or 9 you would run home for three miles to tell your Mum that you were staying out for a few extra hours then run back to join your mates. Nowadays they've got mobile phones at that age the lazy buggers.

I saw Saturn and it's rings through telescopes at Jodrell Bank as a kid that was fantastic and absolutely incomprehensible to understand how far away it actually was.

Re: Follow that star at Christmas : Thu Dec 22, 2011 4:37 pm  

Quite a timely thread, this. Anyone have any recommendations about these ? http://www.nauticalia.com/uk-c/optical/ ... index.html

Quite a timely thread, this. Anyone have any recommendations about these ? http://www.nauticalia.com/uk-c/optical/ ... index.html

Re: Follow that star at Christmas : Thu Dec 22, 2011 5:56 pm  

El Barbudo wrote: Quite a timely thread, this. Anyone have any recommendations about these ? http://www.nauticalia.com/uk-c/optical/ ... index.html Good view of ISS from here tonight. Of those, i don't like the "plastic telescopes" much. For mine, you'd be better off with a Philips Planisphere and a red LED torch. The Celestron Sky Scout OTOH is an amazing piece of kit. I have never tried one but it has had great reviews and being "point and shoot" GPS based, is as foolproof as I suppose it gets for a budget. Cheap it ain't, (£175 or so minimum) but I reckon not that dear for what it is.

El Barbudo wrote: Quite a timely thread, this. Anyone have any recommendations about these ? http://www.nauticalia.com/uk-c/optical/ ... index.html Good view of ISS from here tonight. Of those, i don't like the "plastic telescopes" much. For mine, you'd be better off with a Philips Planisphere and a red LED torch. The Celestron Sky Scout OTOH is an amazing piece of kit. I have never tried one but it has had great reviews and being "point and shoot" GPS based, is as foolproof as I suppose it gets for a budget. Cheap it ain't, (£175 or so minimum) but I reckon not that dear for what it is.

Re: Follow that star at Christmas : Thu Dec 29, 2011 12:20 pm  

Maybe your last chance to see the International Space Station tonight till next year, as later evening is the only sign of clear skies for the foreseeable. It will come across between 17:30 and 17:36 and at approx 17:36 it will "collide with"* Jupiter - which is the bright thing towards the south east.

Or would, but for Jupiter being many millions of miles more distant!

Here's the track

Re: Follow that star at Christmas : Fri Dec 30, 2011 3:40 pm  

In terms of ISS watching, I tend to use this website for viewing times etc. : http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/si ... on=England It also gives details of the additional resupply / shift change missions etc. As long as you know your compass, such as roughly what direction North is from where you are standing, then the rest is fairly easy to work out and especially if you pick observation nights where ISS is visable over the horizon for 3-4 minutes. It is that bright (well brighter than any star in the sky) then as long as the night is clear and you're broadly looking in the right direction, then there's usually no problems seeing it. As for the bright 'star', given its prominence in the night sky at the moment, could the object be Jupiter ? Other than the Moon, is this is about the brightest natural object visable at the moment and has in the days leading up to Christmas been in the same part of the sky as the Moon. PS - I hold a GCSE in Astronomy, if that counts ?

In terms of ISS watching, I tend to use this website for viewing times etc. : http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/si ... on=England It also gives details of the additional resupply / shift change missions etc. As long as you know your compass, such as roughly what direction North is from where you are standing, then the rest is fairly easy to work out and especially if you pick observation nights where ISS is visable over the horizon for 3-4 minutes. It is that bright (well brighter than any star in the sky) then as long as the night is clear and you're broadly looking in the right direction, then there's usually no problems seeing it. As for the bright 'star', given its prominence in the night sky at the moment, could the object be Jupiter ? Other than the Moon, is this is about the brightest natural object visable at the moment and has in the days leading up to Christmas been in the same part of the sky as the Moon. PS - I hold a GCSE in Astronomy, if that counts ?

Re: Follow that star at Christmas : Fri Dec 30, 2011 4:37 pm  

AdmiralHanson wrote:

As for the bright 'star', given its prominence in the night sky at the moment, could the object be Jupiter ? Other than the Moon, is this is about the brightest natural object visable at the moment and has in the days leading up to Christmas been in the same part of the sky as the Moon.

Saw it again last night on my Dads Taxi routine (has been cloudy recently but last night was a bit clearer), its a bit higher in the sky than it was when I first mentioned it and almost directly north (not checked it with a compass though).

I'm on Dads Taxi duty tonight again and then will be on NYE at 3am-ish so if its clear will check it out at that time and if I remember will take a compass bearing too.

Re: Follow that star at Christmas : Mon Jan 02, 2012 2:49 am  

AdmiralHanson wrote: In terms of ISS watching, I tend to use this website for viewing times etc. : http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/si ... on=England It also gives details of the additional resupply / shift change missions etc. The site is good for info such as that, but http://www.heavens-above.com is far better for the purpose of watching satellites. The killer feature is if you register and create your actual location, you can print out a sky map showing the path the ISS (for example) will take; and you can print out star charts for fainter targets. AdmiralHanson wrote: ... As for the bright 'star', given its prominence in the night sky at the moment, could the object be Jupiter ? No, Jupiter is in the south, SE to SW. I thought we'd established the low bright thing in the NW/N late night was definitely Vega!

AdmiralHanson wrote: In terms of ISS watching, I tend to use this website for viewing times etc. : http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/si ... on=England It also gives details of the additional resupply / shift change missions etc. The site is good for info such as that, but http://www.heavens-above.com is far better for the purpose of watching satellites. The killer feature is if you register and create your actual location, you can print out a sky map showing the path the ISS (for example) will take; and you can print out star charts for fainter targets. AdmiralHanson wrote: ... As for the bright 'star', given its prominence in the night sky at the moment, could the object be Jupiter ? No, Jupiter is in the south, SE to SW. I thought we'd established the low bright thing in the NW/N late night was definitely Vega!