Quote: Ferocious Aardvark "If you're up and about tomorrow (Wed 19 Jan) before dawn, catch a look at the 5 bright planets in our solar system (Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn) as all will all be visible at once, and aligned very nicely. If as ever the sky is cloudy, you'll still be able to see these planets, if not in such a nice alignment, until Feb 20th. There must be one clear morning between now and then, surely? There will be a similar alignment again in in the evening sky between Aug 13-19'" Oh the weather problem, one of the banes of my life, that & the rare early start. Part of me is hoping for the usual cloud cover so I don't have to drag my sorry carcass out of bed. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science ... -show.html

Quote: Ferocious Aardvark "If you're up and about tomorrow (Wed 19 Jan) before dawn, catch a look at the 5 bright planets in our solar system (Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn) as all will all be visible at once, and aligned very nicely. If as ever the sky is cloudy, you'll still be able to see these planets, if not in such a nice alignment, until Feb 20th. There must be one clear morning between now and then, surely? There will be a similar alignment again in in the evening sky between Aug 13-19'" Oh the weather problem, one of the banes of my life, that & the rare early start. Part of me is hoping for the usual cloud cover so I don't have to drag my sorry carcass out of bed. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science ... -show.html

Fingers crossed the 'My way or no way' brigade will leave this thread alone now they've hijacked a couple of decent threads to call home.

Gobsmacking latest released Mars images

Just looked at the original image. Incredible detail.

Here's a locus map of the Martian surface for context




rlMars Express imagesrl

rlMars Express videos and animationsrl

Here is a fine example of animations created from thousands of individual Mars Express images, and put together into a flyover of a wide expanse of the martian surface.
rlhttp://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/content/view/embedjw/456743rl

Astonishingly, ancient Babylonian tablets reveal that Babylonian astronomers discovered how to calculate Jupiter’s position using a geometrical technique, between 350 and 50 BC - 1,400 years earlier than it was thought such tracking methods had been "invented" by European scholars. It is well-known that the Babylonians were keen astronomers, but before this discovery it seemed they likely just used arithmetic. But this shows that they worked out how to calculate the distance Jupiter travels in the sky over time by calculating the area of a trapezoid, which proves that they understood a concept essential to modern calculus. https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... -europeans www.space.com/31765-ancient-baby ... -math.html

Astonishingly, ancient Babylonian tablets reveal that Babylonian astronomers discovered how to calculate Jupiter’s position using a geometrical technique, between 350 and 50 BC - 1,400 years earlier than it was thought such tracking methods had been "invented" by European scholars. It is well-known that the Babylonians were keen astronomers, but before this discovery it seemed they likely just used arithmetic. But this shows that they worked out how to calculate the distance Jupiter travels in the sky over time by calculating the area of a trapezoid, which proves that they understood a concept essential to modern calculus. https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... -europeans www.space.com/31765-ancient-baby ... -math.html

Please elaborate. You shouldn't have mentioned it if you cannot handle a debate on the matter. I await in suspense.

FFS, here's another thread that is going to go down the pan!
FA, please don't rise to the bait!

Of course I didn't though; that was youThey believed in a Geocentric Universe too.'"

This picture is by ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope in Chile and shows a small galaxy, IC 1613

Discovered in 1906, IC 1613 is our close neighbour, a member of the Local Group of galaxies, and a mere 2.3 million light-years away.

It is an exceptionally useful galaxy to study, both due to its close proximity, and the unusual lack of dust both within it and in line of sight, so even individual stars can be resolved. As such it contributes greatly to science, in particular helping study and calibration of distances to objects in space.

rlESO article hererl

Graphic of the Local grouphttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Local_Group.svg/640px-Local_Group.svg.png" >

A superb animated GIF comprising actual footage of the Moon crossing the face of the Earth. That side of the Moon is of course never visible from Earth, as the Moon is tidally locked to the Earth and we only ever see one face, give or take a few extra degrees with libration.



Text xtracts taken from rlhttps://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/from-a-million-miles-away-nasa-camera-shows-moon-crossing-face-of-earthrl

This animation features actual satellite images of the far side of the moon, illuminated by the sun, as it crosses between the DSCOVR spacecraft's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) and telescope, and the Earth - one million miles away.

EPIC maintains a constant view of the fully illuminated Earth as it rotates, providing scientific observations of ozone, vegetation, cloud height and aerosols in the atmosphere. Once EPIC begins regular observations next month, the camera will provide a series of Earth images allowing study of daily variations over the entire globe. About twice a year the camera will capture the moon and Earth together as the orbit of DSCOVR crosses the orbital plane of the moon.

These images were taken between 3:50 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. EDT on July 16 2015, showing the moon moving over the Pacific Ocean near North America. The North Pole is in the upper left corner of the image, reflecting the orbital tilt of Earth from the vantage point of the spacecraft.

Those pesky Chinese creating CGI pictures of the moon now: www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 46461.html

Those pesky Chinese creating CGI pictures of the moon now: www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 46461.html