Maj3stic~SPARTA~ Posted June 20, 2008 Share Posted June 20, 2008 Ever wounder what the heck you are looking at in the night sky? Apart from recognizing a few constellations I am clueless as to what I am looking at in the night sky. So last night I was having a hard time sleeping and was amazed as to see a huge full moon with some planet next to it. I found this program (free) that tells you what you are looking at in the night sky. Check it out http://www.astroviewer.com/interactive-night-sky-map.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Durka-Durka~SPARTA~ Posted June 20, 2008 Share Posted June 20, 2008 This is awesome. I used to sit on my back porch during highschool just about every night and relax by watching the stars go by, no matter how hot or cold it was. I know only about 5 constellations though, and I know where north is. I also know how a meteor sounds when it's coming through the atmosphere, but that's about it lol. This will be cool to look at so I can learn more. Thanks Maj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoScream~SPARTA~ Posted June 20, 2008 Share Posted June 20, 2008 Nice find Doug, 5 Stars (lol) premium link loved it, will be using it again.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeno~SPARTA~ Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 I bought a discovery channel cdrom years ago called Sky at night. I have used it ever since. I have seen the rings of Saturn (using a friends 500x telescope) and can often see Jupiter. I resist buying a telescope as mostly you can only see 4 planets and the stars (which only look sharper magnified). But when I see something unusual I check my trusty sky at night, put in my position, my field of view and the time, then bobs your uncle I find the celestial body i was looking at. One night I was looking through my binoculars when I spied a blob, the blob was way bigger than a star but seemed dull. It seemed blurry and out of focus, I checked out my Sky at night and it was another galaxy, Andromeda. The thought that I was looking at another galaxy which even Star Trek never went to was quite awe inspiring. The nearest star to us is Proxima Centauri at 4.2 light years or 24,817 billion miles away. That means our fast spaceship would take roughly 118,000 years, give ot take a century. These are big numbers Andromeda is the nearest Galaxy It is 2 million light years away or 18,908,509,914 billion miles away It would take our fastest space ship (which by the way I think was the Saturn 5) 56.2 billion years to get there (give or take a few thousand millenia) All of these numbers are meaningless since they are so huge. More interesting is that when I was looking at Andromeda I was actually looking back 2 million years and seeing what it looked like then. Fascinating Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedicSN6 Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 I brought this up at work and was playing with it. After about ten minutes of looking at stuff I turned around and there was a group of people standing behind me watching. All co-workers: Doctors and Nurses alike. They all asked what site it was and how much it costs. Needless to say, I had to write that URL down and make photocopies for people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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