Catseye Nebula...

[DJ Lazy]

Have any of you seen in this in the news lately? Absolutely amazing... I wish we had the capabilities to travel in space, like in the movies, be able to see this type of thing up close... CRAZY:nut: :nut:

[Idratherbsidewayz]

Thats some trippy shit, nice find... :thumbsup:

[D'z Nutz]

Astronomy Picture of the Day had a better picture a couple days back:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040910.html

[saiyajin]

^ ya that one does look better hah :thumbsup:

[GTS Jeff]

probably wouldnt wanna be too close to a sun blowing up :)

[Ekliptix]

I'd love to be able to see that in RL.

The upgrades to the Hubble sure kick ass.

[D'z Nutz]

Originally posted by Ekliptix
The upgrades to the Hubble sure kick ass.

And NASA wants to stop doing upgrades to it and wait until it falls apart too. It's kinda a good idea, since the thing's been up there for almost 15 years and technology's changed so much. Might as well send up a whole brand spankin' new telescope there:
http://ngst.gsfc.nasa.gov/

I've always thought the Hourglass Nebula looked more like an eye than the Cat's eye:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020615.html

A couple of my favorite nebulae:
Eskimo - http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031207.html
Horsehead - http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031007.html

Funny thing about the Horsehead nebula, you can take pictures of it through a telescope, but you can't really see it with your eyes. So if you're trying for it, you pretty much have to try and point it into the right direction and hope you get it! Hahaha!

For some really awesome pictures taken by "amateur" backyard astromoners, check out:
http://www.cloudynights.com/photopost//showgallery.php?cat=526&thumb=1
particularly ones taken by Charles and Suk Lee.

[Ben]

thats so awesome!

Damn I gotta get my telescope figured out.

[saiyajin]

^^^ speaking of which anybody know how much a decent telescope costs an where to get them?? doesnt hav to see far jus within our little solar system
sorry for the thread jack haha

[$tillqls]

thats crazy wow:nut:

[Ben]

Originally posted by saiyajin
^^^ speaking of which anybody know how much a decent telescope costs an where to get them?? doesnt hav to see far jus within our little solar system
sorry for the thread jack haha


I know mine was about 3000 new. 2200mm lens, 8" barrel adjustable eyepeice magnification and autotracking.

[Davide]

Has anyone ever seen a Nebula video? Im sure there some out there right? not just the still pics?

[Texas]

Originally posted by saiyajin
^^^ speaking of which anybody know how much a decent telescope costs an where to get them?? doesnt hav to see far jus within our little solar system
sorry for the thread jack haha The one my dad has was $10,000 USD and in my opinion Is pretty good...has all the goodies, will follow a sight path...takes long exposure photos, memory...dont know the magnification spec though...oh yeah has a remote control with a fine and coarse tune as well. Once you see out of a good telescope, you usually dont want ot step down....good luck in your hunt.

[Mckenzie]

Ahhh....good old Astro 205....

I loved that class. Probably one of my favorites at the Uni, besides the history of the rolling stones.

They have some great pictures on their website. And the book has got some really cool stuff too.

Just wait until they get into the black holes and galaxies section. Very cool stuff.

[D'z Nutz]

Originally posted by saiyajin
^^^ speaking of which anybody know how much a decent telescope costs an where to get them?? doesnt hav to see far jus within our little solar system
sorry for the thread jack haha

I would say you can get a decent starter telescope with mount and eyepieces starting as low as $300 and can go up (and pretty quickly at that too). Of course it depends on what you're really using it for, since different scopes are more useful for certain things than others. If you want to look at deep space objects (DSO's) such as star clusters and nebulae, you generally want something with a lower focal ratio (the F/stop number). Planets do much better using scopes with a higher focal ratio. If you want something for photography, you'll need a kick ass mount that can support the added weight of the camera and have tracking as well (decent mounts can start as much as $600).

There's a couple places you can get a decent telescope. You can check out the Science Center's gift shop. They have some okay ones there. Someone in town here also sells them out of his living room, SkyVue Telescopes. I'm actually going to be picking up a new one from him this weekend. Not a super huge one, but slightly better than the one I have now; better for planetary viewing. I'll probably get my big ass one this christmas time (hopefully!) There's also Heavens and Earth over in Lethbridge (http://www.heavensandearth.com/).

<shameless plug>
Or you can buy mine :D (see sig)
</shameless plug>


Originally posted by Davide
Has anyone ever seen a Nebula video? Im sure there some out there right? not just the still pics?

Here's a couple cool time-lapse videos of the Crab Nebula:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/0052/movies.html

[saiyajin]

^ hey thnx well i dont plan on really using it to take photos just somethin to look into space so i guess round the 300 range:thumbsup:

[DJ Lazy]

D'z Nuts.... thanks for that link to that earlier pic... I looked around lastnite, but couldn't find anything really...