Astonomy

I've always been interested in the Stars, planets, the moon, the Galaxy etc, but am taking more of an interest lately. Is anyone else into astonomy? If so what would be the best way to start it as a hobby? I have read a couple of pieces that suggest a cheap telescope is a waste of money, but I am reluctant to splash out for the expensive ones in case the whole thing does not retain it's curiosity and is not as interesting once I get into it. Second-hand telescopes are harder to find than gold dust so any ideas would be most welcomed - if it's extremely useful I may dance at your wedding!

uh, its ASTRONOMY

oops I knew that, I just mis-typed a couple of times, but thanks for pointing out my stupidity. As I said I need help.

heres a couple of suggestions for you -

1. Tuck your head between your legs and look up apparently you'll get a good view of Uranus. 😑

2. Keep banging your head against the wall, you'll soon be seeing stars. 😕

Yes very good, I have now seen my anus and I made holes in the wall, it would appear that partition walls do not offer very much resistance.

lmao.

I used to be really interested in Astronomy, but not so anymore. SOrry cant help you out with the telescope. And even if I could help you get one, it would hard for you to dance at my wedding. One i'm in Trinidad( need plane ticket) and 2. I'm hindu so wedding takes place over 3 days, you gonna dance for the 3 days?!!?

telescope works just fine to get a closer look at our moon, a few planets when visible and stars............you can get decent ones these days for around $200.

other than that, watch the Discover Science channel. They always have great shows with hubble pictures and whatnot........

unless ur a multimillionaire with your own observatory, ur never gona get a very good view of any galaxies etc...any telescope that you or i could afford would only show the planets in the solar system...nice, but not exactly gripping stuff. ur best option really is to look at the images in the hubble space telescope archive, on sites such as this. ur not going to get a much better view of the universe than that. i think the site also has explanations of what ur looking at etc...if u still want to look to the stars then just buy a cheap telescope, its the perfect thing for the start of a hobby. then if u feel that ur more interested, buy a bigger more expensive one. but the hubble is where u'll see the best pictures. i study astrophysics and cosmology as a hobby, so its always nice to meet others with similar hobbies. hope ive been of some help

Just love Astronomy...gotta a telescope too, but the nature center next door has some great ones...could see the moons of Jupiter, Saturn and nebula's and all kinds of cool stuff.....know some constellations too like Cassiopeia, orion, but everyone knows orion...the dippers...where Venus is...the north Star....etc...read all the lore about them too...really cool....

Originally posted by fini
lmao.

I used to be really interested in Astronomy, but not so anymore. SOrry cant help you out with the telescope. And even if I could help you get one, it would hard for you to dance at my wedding. One i'm in Trinidad( need plane ticket) and 2. I'm hindu so wedding takes place over 3 days, you gonna dance for the 3 days?!!?

Originally posted by Matrix_man
unless ur a multimillionaire with your own observatory, ur never gona get a very good view of any galaxies etc...any telescope that you or i could afford would only show the planets in the solar system...nice, but not exactly gripping stuff. ur best option really is to look at the images in the hubble space telescope archive, on sites such as this. ur not going to get a much better view of the universe than that. i think the site also has explanations of what ur looking at etc...if u still want to look to the stars then just buy a cheap telescope, its the perfect thing for the start of a hobby. then if u feel that ur more interested, buy a bigger more expensive one. but the hubble is where u'll see the best pictures. i study astrophysics and cosmology as a hobby, so its always nice to meet others with similar hobbies. hope ive been of some help

That link's pretty cool too, thanks.

yeh it feels good to see the stuff for urself too..its just a shame we cant see a galaxy from our own back yard...even the hubble has to stare at a tiny spot of space, the size of a full stop to us, for weeks to produce visible galaxies. the end result is fantastic though!

What would be the composition of a nebula, would it be a differing mix of gases? and what causes a nebula?

well...for example, a planetary nebula is composed of mainly hydrogen, almost 99%. also helium, and some other light elements like lithium, beyrillium etc..and traces of just about all the other elements in the periodic table. the traces of course are what we now discover on our planet as ores. so yes, a nebula is a mixture of superheated gaseous elements. nebulae are formed by supernovae, massive star collapse. every planetary system in the universe was created by supernovae of previous "ancestral" stars born along with the universe. in the beginning there was only hydrogen. through fusion in stars, the hydrogen is fused into other elements, which create planets in solar systems

Why don't the gases dispurse more following a supernova?

well they do...they cover a vast area, far bigger than a solar system. however, over millions of years the gravitational pull at the centre of the gas cloud left over from the supernova very slowly draws the gas back in, packing it closer and raising the pressure. once the pressure is high enough the ball of gas begins to fuse...its now a star. the remaining gas forms much smaller bodies, which do not begin fusion as they are too small and cool. eventually they form a new planetary system. its important to remember that the suns gravitational pull stretches much much further than pluto...the sun has a grasp on bodies which are around 5,000,000,000,000 miles away in the Oort cloud of comets...so after a supernova, although all the gasses are sneezed far away by the star, they are still under the influence of the grvitational pull at the centre where the star once was

a nice example of a massive supernova is the crab nebula, formed by a collosal supernova on the 4th july 1054 AD, seen and recorded by chinese astronomers, visible in daylight for 23 days, and visible at night for around 22 months, with a light so bright u could read and write by it at night. it even outshone the moon at night.

I got a cool pic of "Eye of God" nebula....I think it's cool.

It really is amazing, everything, it's just so interesting.

i like this one,

the hourglass nebula. looks like an eye in the middle