The Astronomy Thread

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Mudcrush Durtfeet

Mudcrush Durtfeet

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They're rolling it back to the VAB tonight at 11pm EST. Might be able to launch in October but more likely no sooner than mid to late November.

At this rate we may see Starship hit orbit first. That would be nice.
 
Mudcrush Durtfeet

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Ukerric said:
Unsurprising. Hydrogen may offer the best performance, but it is finicky.
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That performance boost is moot when you consider the huge expense of making a rocket that uses it. You could use something else and make much cheaper rockets and get more tonnage to orbit per dollar by NOT going with Hydrogen.

If only someone (SpaceX) was doing that!
 
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Edaw

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The DART spacecraft will intentionally crash into asteroid Dimorphos at 7:14 p.m. ET on Monday, September 26, 2022 to see if kinetic force can change its orbit.

Live now.
 
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Prodigal

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I’ve been watching it for about 20 minutes, want to see this big rock up close.
 
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Sanrith Descartes

Sanrith Descartes

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Also, how come everyone in the control place are white? and notice the two mask wearers in the back.

edit: reminded me of playing an online video game back in the days of a 2400 baud modem.
 
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Mudcrush Durtfeet

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Apparently it's going to take a couple of months to see if we noticeably changed the thing's orbit.

As for close ups, it's a boulder covered rock. You don't get to see the impact yet. There's a small satellite craft that will let us see that in a few days or weeks.
 
Borzak

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Jupiter closest it's been in 50 years. Starts in the southeast after dark and by midnight south, high in the sky. No missing it, very very bright. With 10 power binos I was able to pick out 3 moons with them on my tripod. I did not break out one of my telescopes. Brightest thing in the sky should be very easy to pick out with the naked eye. I did it Monday night at midnight, supposed to be bright the next couple nights as well. I'm sure if you had a top end cell phone you could probably get a decent pic of it.
 
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Mudcrush Durtfeet

Mudcrush Durtfeet

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Borzak said:
Jupiter closest it's been in 50 years. Starts in the southeast after dark and by midnight south, high in the sky. No missing it, very very bright. With 10 power binos I was able to pick out 3 moons with them on my tripod. I did not break out one of my telescopes. Brightest thing in the sky should be very easy to pick out with the naked eye. I did it Monday night at midnight, supposed to be bright the next couple nights as well. I'm sure if you had a top end cell phone you could probably get a decent pic of it.
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You'd be able to see the Galilean moons with the naked eye if Jupiter didn't drown them out.
 
Cybsled

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Looks like NASA is exploring a SpaceX partnership to boost Hubble’s orbit
 
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Sanrith Descartes

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Cybsled said:
Looks like NASA is exploring a SpaceX partnership to boost Hubble’s orbit
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They should just outright outsource all NASA to SpaceX. Imagine what SpaxeX could so with Nasa's budget and infrastructure.
 
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Araysar

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Imagine paying $20 billion for this, the best picture is the first one from 1989

1664502577843.png
 
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Araysar

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Are they sure its even working properly?

Maybe its miscalibrated like the Hubble was when it was first launched but they just cant admit they hav a $20B boondoggle
 
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Araysar

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Captain Suave said:
It's almost like all three are using wildly different technologies for different purposes and "sexiest desktop background" was not their primary criteria.
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$20B telescope that boasts it can see "through time to the beginning of the universe" cant even take a decent photo of a planet inside our solar system thats 4x bigger than earth

meanwhile 30 year old hubble (ALSO A TELESCOPE) takes an image thats better than Webb
 
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C

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Araysar said:
$20B telescope that boasts it can see "through time to the beginning of the universe" cant even take a decent photo of a planet inside our solar system thats 4x bigger than earth

meanwhile 30 year old hubble (ALSO A TELESCOPE) takes an image thats better than Webb
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And they operate in totally different frequencies of light, hence the differences in the images - like how Hubble couldn't resolve the rings at all. Frequency directly relates to resolution, which is why the best microscopes use light WAY out of the visible spectrum. Different tools, different purpose.
 
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