Posts Made By: Pete Vanderzwet

I'm picking up my first scope later this month and I still cannot decide between an 8" or 10" dobsonian. Does the extra 2 inches of light gathering ability really make a huge difference?

I'm a 22 year old student, so money is a major factor in my leaning towards an 8" but if a 10" really makes a major difference I guess I can shell out the cash for it.

Any help would be appreciated,

Thanks.

Seeing as how complex this is I'm understandably a little confused and overwhelmed by trying to comprehend this...

I've read in both Sagan and Hawking's work that (to my understanding) space is curved and flat. The way Sagan explains it is that the fabric of space is basically like the inside skin of an inflated ballon, expanding at an enormous speed as the skin of a ballon would do when inflated. The reason everything seems to be in red shift, ie moving away from us, is because the skin or fabric of space itself is expanding. Ok, this makes sense to me - so far I'm following.

Now, my question is, if space is basically a flat, curved "fabric" on which all matter is embedded why do we see galaxies and the like from different perspectives? Using this line of thinking the only way we should be able to see a face-on galaxy is if it is far enough away from us to be facing us on what we precieve to be the elevated or declined portion of this so-called "fabric" of space.

Am I making sense?

For those of you who read or contributed to the "8 or 10 inch Dobsonian" thread, you may be interested to know that I decided to go with a 10" for my first "real" scope (I've had a crappy little department store refractor for a few years which only enabled me to look at a shakey moon).

I don't yet know the sky well enough to star hop, so this is why I went with a dob over a computerized EQ scope like the Meade LDX55. I'll learn via experience - trial and error. I expect that I'm going to be blown away by the views, although I have in no way disillusioned myself with hubble-like expectations or even viewing colour in bright nebula like M42.

Here's the specific scope I bought, but they don't get them in stock for 30 days. It should arrive on my doorstep on November 12th - my birthday! Happy 22nd to me.

Here she (any suggestions for a name? heh) is: http://www.khanscope.com/sky10f5.html

They are also throwing in a Telrad and Laser collimater.

While I do enjoy this forum, I was wondering if there are any more active amateur astronomy forums out there?

Thanks in advance,

Pete

My guess is at around 20" of aperature. M42 has colour on an 8 or 10" dob though...

I was thinking this morning about how scientists discover planets orbiting distant stars by monitoring the wobble of the star from the orbiting planet's gravitational pull.

I was wondering if scientists have measured our own star's wobble to compare it to other stars? If you can find another star with a similar wobble you could reasonably conclude it contained a system like our own. As we are as yet unable to detect smaller planets, perhaps this would be a good way to make an educated guess?

If the Big Bang is what created all matter and the laws matter is subject to, from which laws did the Big Bang produce itself? And if natural laws resulted in the Big Bang, does that not suggest the existance of a set of laws...a universe of sorts... prior to "creation"?

I hate to use the word "creation".

While I'm waiting for my 10" Dob to arrive (it was delated a month..argh), could someone do me a favour?

Would somoene with an aperature of 8-10 inches be able to take a photo of M42 with low exposure times in order to replicate what is visually seen through the eye piece?

I have no idea what to expect.

I'm not sure if this is in the right area or not, so my apologies beforehand.

The universe is 15,000,000,000 years old. The earth is 6,000,000,000 years old. Life on earth is about 2,000,000,000 years old. Dinosaurs were around for about 250,000,000 years (and look at their dramatic evolutionary progress). The earliest hominids show up in the archaeological record about 5,000,000 years ago. Homo Sapien Sapien only 100,000 years ago.

We're nothing. Our evolution as an intelligent species probably hasn't even started. 100,000 years in a 15,000,000,000 year history. We're not even a blimp on the cosmic screen.

Civilizations throughout the universe could have already been highly advanced when the formation of our earth took place. Our level of technological advancement and scientific understanding is likely amebic. We've only been around for 1/10th of a million years and we're trying to communicate in an ocean of space 15 BILLION years older then we? Isn't this like an unevolved Triassic period tipulid fly trying to converse with Einstein?

Is it even possible to interact with a species millions of years further along in evolution then us? Could we have an intelligent conversation with Australopithecus afarensis? They didn't even have the intellect to light a fire and this was us only 4 million years ago. What if unification theory is to them what lighting a fire is to us? Is conversation even possible? There's no way in hell we could teach addition or subtraction, or even basic language to Australopithecus afarensis, nevermind advanced physics and mathematics.

What if our scientific knowledge doesn't even amount to basic language in the universe? Can we ever hope for research like SETI to be successful?

There is no such thing as "6 years" in an astronomical timeline.

Stars don't simply die instantly. They take millions, if not billions, of years to slowly burn up all their hydrogen and follow a very predictable pattern of death.

Our star will be around for another few billion years still.