Not really important, but I am pretty damn proud of my scientific achievement here. This is copied from my amateur astronomer thread, but I wanted to show it to the only audience that really cared about this stuff on CP. This was taken Friday Aug 6th at about 2 am:
Okay people. I finally took my first astrophotos. Not the best quality, but I am pretty satisfied for a first attempt. This is a picture I took of Jupiter using the Neximage CCD camera. Basically a modified Phiilips webcam optimized for astrophotography. It was a tedious process to get Jupiter in the field of view, as the CCD camera it narrows it quite a bit, I would estimate about 80%. So it was a lot of trial, error and scope realignment to get it to track long enough to keep it on my laptop screen without wandering away. I can definitely see the merits of a German Equatorial mount, and I will be adding one very soon. Anyway, this is a stack of 30 seconds of frames, at 5 FPS. I am pretty sure you can see the GRS just on the lower right. Focusing was a bitch, as I had to do it manually by turning the knob, so a motor focuser is in the cards as well, as it allows for ultra fine adjustments.
I will add the actual movie file I used fonce I load it to youtube.
Last edited by pylon; 08-08-2010 at 03:26 AM.
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Good to remember after all our gasping at space videos/images that there's an alien world right here under us in the oceans with staggering beauty and sometimes outright scary looking life.
These two bones from Dikika, which have been dated to roughly 3.4 million years ago, provide the oldest known evidence of stone tool use among human ancestors. Both of the cut-marked bones came from mammals -- one is a rib fragment from a cow-sized mammal, and the other is a femur shaft fragment from a goat-sized mammal. Both bones are marred by cut, scrape, and percussion marks. Credit: Dikika Research Project, California Academy of Sciences
We keep going further back don't we
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No news in this regard but one of my favourite scientific topics, the Mars Science Laboratory:
This beast will be the new generation Mars Rover originally dubbed the Mars Science Laboratory and now known as Curiosity. It will be launched in November 2011 and will land in August 2012.
It is over 5 times as heavy as the previous mars rovers and carries more than 10 times the weight in scientific instruments.
Mock-ups for size comparison (Sojourner is the little tiny guy, the current rovers are the medium-sized and the huge one is Curiosity):
Curiosity has a big advantage over the current generation of rovers in that it does NOT rely on solar power.
Curiosity will have a Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator(RTG) which will provide not only round-the-clock and round-the-calendar power for Curiosity but also the waste heat from the generator will be used to keep its instruments warm so it does not have to waste power on that task. Curiosity's RTG will also produce four times the power of the current generation rovers and the RTG will have a minimum lifespan of 14 years.
Curiosity will be much faster, able to cover 90m/hr with an expected average cruise speed of 30m/hr. The maximum speed of the current rovers is about 30m/hr although they are much slower in actuality.
Curiosity will also be able to roll over obstacles up to 2.5 feet tall.
Its primary objectives are as follows:
Determine the nature and inventory of organic carbon compounds.
The mission has a planned length of 2 years with minimum life expectancy of the RTG of 14 years. (Current rovers had a planned mission length of just 3 months and they have been in operation for over 6 years. Although Spirit has not been heard from since March and may be dead, Opportunity is still in good working order.)
The Canadian Space Agency will be providing one of the instruments for Curiosity, its Alpha-particle X-ray Spectrometer which will allow it to determine the elemental composition of samples.
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Last edited by Nehkara; 08-14-2010 at 02:06 PM.
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In terms of cool Canadian science information, this is about as cool as it gets:
Northern Light is a 100% Canadian-built spacecraft that consists of both a lander and a rover (the rover's name is Beaver Rover).
The project is a joint venture of the Universities of York, Alberta, Toronto, Waterloo, Winnipeg, Western Ontario, Saskatchewan, Calgary, New Brunswick, McGill and Simon Fraser.
The Canadian Space Agency is NOT involved in this project.
Communication with the spacecraft and tracking of the spacecraft will be done using the re-conditioned Algonquin Radio Observatory.
Thoth Technology is the primary contractor.
If the investment targets are met, the spacecraft will launch in 2012 on a private rocket.
Lander:
Algonquin Radio Observatory:
(This is the observatory as it appeared in 2008. Thoth Technology is currently doing extensive renovation and refurbishment to the observatory and intends to restore it to "pristine" condition.)
A maternal ancestor to all living humans called mitochondrial Eve likely lived about 200,000 years ago, at roughly the same time anatomically modern humans are believed to have emerged, a new review study confirms.
Good to see that scientists are starting to come to their senses. They've now proved that Eve from the bible existed. They've still got the date wrong. She couldn't have lived 200,000 years ago because the earth is only 6,000 years old. I'm sure when they refine the study more, this will be proved as well.
Good to see that scientists are starting to come to their senses. They've now proved that Eve from the bible existed. They've still got the date wrong. She couldn't have lived 200,000 years ago because the earth is only 6,000 years old. I'm sure when they refine the study more, this will be proved as well.
I don't know whether to laugh or repeatedly punch myself in the face....
If you are being sarcastic then good on you, if not then maybe realize that the reason for them calling the ancestor "Eve" is the biblical reference, they are not accepting the fact that Eve actually existed. Here for instance is man made tools that date back millions of years...http://heritage-key.com/blogs/ann/ol...vered-ethiopia
These human beings would then be "Eve's" ancestors.....which would mean life existed before "Eve" would it not? or is this all part of a master plan by the flying spaghetti monster in the sky to trick us into believing that the earth is actually millions of years old?
Last edited by Since1984; 08-19-2010 at 12:54 PM.
Reason: additional rhetoric
Location: In my office, at the Ministry of Awesome!
Exp:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Since1984
I don't know whether to laugh or repeatedly punch myself in the face....
If you are being sarcastic then good on you, if not then maybe realize that the reason for them calling the ancestor "Eve" is the biblical reference, they are not accepting the fact that Eve actually existed. Here for instance is man made tools that date back millions of years...http://heritage-key.com/blogs/ann/ol...vered-ethiopia
These human beings would then be "Eve's" ancestors.....which would mean life existed before "Eve" would it not? or is this all part of a master plan by the flying spaghetti monster in the sky to trick us into believing that the earth is actually millions of years old?
You fail!
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Very interesting. Neptune like planets lying within the orbit similar to Mars. Mars is basically the outer edge of the Goldilocks zone, so the possibility for one of these planets to be in the habitable zone is there. Too bad their so big and gassy.
Very interesting. Neptune like planets lying within the orbit similar to Mars. Mars is basically the outer edge of the Goldilocks zone, so the possibility for one of these planets to be in the habitable zone is there. Too bad their so big and gassy.
The moons around those big gas planets might be habitable.
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