Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey

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Tea_sl

shitlord
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Daly_sl said:
As someone who is really looking forward to this show every week is it worth watching the old cosmos?
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Maybe? It covers mostly the same ground, but from a slightly different perspective. There's a reason that there's so much veneration for Sagan because for a lot of scientists today he was the one that opened the door and showed us how to marvel at the universe.

If Cosmos has done its job and inspired you learn more then old Cosmos isn't going to be of much help. Pick something you're interested in and dig in. There's so much great and easily accessible information out there now. And even a host of great youtube channels that get into some more of the nitty gritty stuff.
 
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Karloff_sl

shitlord
907
1
McQueen_sl said:
I'd like to try astrophotography at some point. I decided to go with the Advanced VX instead of some other similar options to that end. It shouldn't be too hard to add a small webcam and get some nice planet shots with that scope and mount, at least.
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My biggest suggestion to do with astronomy and buying a scope is find a local astronomy club and see if they have any open house nights, they can be a wealth of information and you can usually find any type of scope and get some info from the actual users and they will prolly let you try them out. A few friends of mine spent 1k plus the first time around and either wasted their money or the scopes sat unused.

Astral photography is a lot of fun, I don't do it much anymore but when I lived in Alaska I did it quite a bit.
 
iannis

iannis

Musty Nester
31,351
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Daly_sl said:
As someone who is really looking forward to this show every week is it worth watching the old cosmos?
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Yes.

As critical as I am of the new Cosmos it is ONLY because Sagan's Cosmos is something truly special, and while they can't fill those shoes they are making predictable and avoidable mistakes. The older series, it holds up. In the context of the past 20 years this new series there's nothing wrong with it. It's quality. But when you watch the old series (in full) you'll see how production values went up but basic quality went down.

Get ready for Sagan to be a goofy 70's fuck. Make your body and mind ready for that. But the writing and the flow of the show. It honestly is something special.
 
McQueen

McQueen

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
3,226
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That's all really good advice. I've been a member of the local club sporadically over the last 20 years, and my little old reflector isn't cutting it anymore.
 
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Karloff_sl

shitlord
907
1
I'm enjoying the hell out of this Cosmos, I remember watching Sagan's version back in the day but I was much less likely to act on any information from the show and honestly Sagan's voice was so soothing and melodic it put me to sleep. I've been into astronomy since I was a teenager in the 80's but I'm pretty useless with math and science, watching this show makes me want to learn , which at my age is pretty fantastic.
 
Chanur

Chanur

Shit Posting Professional
<Gold Donor>
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Karloff_sl said:
Without getting into complex telescope jabber, I'd highly recommend this as a starter scope. I first got mine in mid 80's and still use it over my much more expensive ones. You can always upgrade to other ones but this is a great starter scope.

http://www.scientificsonline.com/ast...telescope.html
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I'm moving away from the observatory that's a mile from my house so I've actually been wanting a good starter telescope. I had planned to buy a pretty expensive one but this seems much smarter to start with.
 
Adebisi

Adebisi

Clump of Cells
<Silver Donator>
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I thought the guy on the horse drawn buggy was going to start whipping NDGT.
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AngryGerbil

AngryGerbil

Poet Warrior
<Donor>
17,781
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Gankak_sl said:
Its worth watching the original Cosmos.
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Correct.

Watch it. It's all '80's' and shit, but the hard science behind it is still as true as it was before we figured it out. And Carl has, at least in my opinion, a certain unexplainable charisma to him that is worth seeing in action at least once.
 
Tuco

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
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Cool episode (last week's, just got around to watching it).

When he got to the 'here's one possibility of what's going on inside a black hole':
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Is there enough evidence to throw that theory out there like he did? It seems like the kind of thing we'll laugh at in 50-100 years when we look back and see what those silly people thought in our time period.
 
Lendarios

Lendarios

Trump's Staff
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You have to read between the lines. What he said i took it as, we really don't know what happens inside a black hole. Our laws of physics completely break down inside the singularity, and scientifically there is nothing we can say that will hold true inside a black hole. Hence even wacky theories as "we are already inside a black hole", are as possible as anything. He had made the point over and over of, a good scientist first and foremost knows and admits what he doesn't know, and is hot afraid by it.

Science fact, We don't know what the f is inside a black hole, there might be giants for all we know.
 
cabbitcabbit

cabbitcabbit

NeoGaf Donator
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Tuco_sl said:
Cool episode (last week's, just got around to watching it).

When he got to the 'here's one possibility of what's going on inside a black hole':
lolwut.jpg


Is there enough evidence to throw that theory out there like he did? It seems like the kind of thing we'll laugh at in 50-100 years when we look back and see what those silly people thought in our time period.
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It's the white hole theory if I remember correctly. It's just a theory thrown up in the 60's because no one really knows what goes on in there and it's difficult to study.
 
D

Dabamf_sl

shitlord
1,472
0
Since there's 0 evidence of what's in a black hole, saying it may be another universe is no different than saying god may be in there. Yet they would never sat that (rightfully so). It makes the antireligion part of the show less credible when wild non-religious speculation goes on.
 
iannis

iannis

Musty Nester
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We can conceptualize right up to the horizon where the force of light is still greater (no matter how infintesimally greater) than the force of gravity, but that marks the boundary of what we can devote a serious study to, even in thought. There's no frame of reference, there's no idea, there's just no concept of what that could possibly be like -- because if it exists it exists beyond our understanding. Our understanding is based on the supremacy of light.

He did explain that. That part didn't bother me, he did mention it -- that's something where anything is possible because we have no valid ideas about what is IMpossible. So if you're gonna dream you might as well dream big.

Sometimes a hole is just a hole. Maybe no laws of physics apply. Maybe the stasis is absolute. Maybe it's as close as you can possibly get to the existence of non existence. What if what's on the other sidejust doesn't matter, and cannot possibly ever matter.

You're lookin for the edge of the universe? Found it.



You might as well say that Odin is in there. Could be, for all we know. Sure as fuck don't see any Ice Giants around these parts anymore.
 
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Kedwyn

Silver Squire
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Really enjoyed the last episode on light. Learned quite of few little things that I didn't know before and I thought he did a great job of explaining the significance of being able to understand light's footprint.
 
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