Astronomy Group

[mrohr]

Hi All: So one of the questions posed here was : "Has any one here seen a ufo while admiring the heavens?" My short answer is yes! And I once saw USO (s= submerged) during an Atlantic crossing where the bottom was a few miles below; no , not a dolphin causing phosphorescence ,seen that many times ,but something extraordinary circular and near the surface glowing brightly in the nite.

I have also seen a few overhead ufos while in the company of friends that will make the night sky even more wondrous. I am very interested in hearing from fellow sailors who have witnessed any of this anomalous (and life changing )
phenomena. BTW : I once taught astronomy, so I know what to expect in the sky,but not so sure about whats flying around under the water. the truth is out there. Peace

[iwsteel]

YouTube - Nict Magnetosphere Simulation Aug 23rd 24th 2010

!

[Ocean Girl]

Originally Posted by mrohr

Hi All: So one of the questions posed here was : "Has any one here seen a ufo while admiring the heavens?" My short answer is yes! And I once saw USO (s= submerged) during an Atlantic crossing where the bottom was a few miles below; no , not a dolphin causing phosphorescence ,seen that many times ,but something extraordinary circular and near the surface glowing brightly in the nite.

I have also seen a few overhead ufos while in the company of friends that will make the night sky even more wondrous. I am very interested in hearing from fellow sailors who have witnessed any of this anomalous (and life changing )
phenomena. BTW : I once taught astronomy, so I know what to expect in the sky,but not so sure about whats flying around under the water. the truth is out there. Peace

I have seen underwater glowing round objects offshore. But the light was not artificial, it was phosphorescence like, way too big to be a jellyfish and way too round to be a whale. As far as little green men, I can't think of anything that I thought was an outter space UFO. Still looking, especially now that the smart guys discovered those new planets in another solar system. grab your tinfoil hats.
Erika

[dacust]

Originally Posted by GordMay

They’re all intelligent, varying only in degree of obsessiveness & social ineptitude.

See the Venn diagram.

OK, that has now been printed (in color) and posted at my office. I think I may label the outer area "Users".

-dan

[iwsteel]

yes i have seen ufo's before.....in 1978....2 glowing orange balls..they maneuvered about in kind of a dance...then shot out of sight like a bat out of hell.

then one time in the early 70's ( i think i was 12 yrs old so that was 1972)there was an extremely loud whistling that awoke everyone in the family but me. they said the dogs were barking both trix my rat terrier who stayed inside and slept with me and the outside dogs were all going bazerk. i only remember them talking about it at the breakfast table. they said it was the loudest thing they ever heard and they set straight up in bed from a dead sleep and got goosebumps....i musta been dog tired that night.


but on the other hand maybe i made my roof open because this is the father docking station that will dock the mothership(insert x-files music here)

[Ocean Girl]

Originally Posted by iwsteel

but on the other hand maybe i made my roof open because this is the father docking station that will dock the mothership(insert x-files music here)

Why I painted a bulls eye on my foredeck

Hey, someone mentioned that stellarium has a moon function. I have pressed all the buttons I can find on my nifty stellarium program and have yet to have the moon pop up. Anyone know how to turn on the "moon function"?

[capt_douglas]

I had Jeannie Kuich onboard as Chef for a couple charters. She did her "Soap Opera of the Skies" many times. I wish I knew 1% of the stories she told. Magical evenings in a magical place. Sail on Jeannie.


I've seen Moon Dogs, Sun Dogs, double rainbows, meteors, the shuttle, skylab, satellites, Nemo's Fire, Cat 5 hurricanes, dead flat seas, and the Green Flash (not though the bottom of a Heineken bottle) but never a UFO.

[hummingway]

I saw a UFO once but it later became identified as ball lightening. I've seen some neat effects from light skipping off the atmosphere as well. I've never seen anything as magnificent or wonderous as the aurora borealis when it's giving its all.

I do believe there's some marvelous things out in the vastness of space, including intelligent life. We can look several billion years into the past of distant galaxies with Hubble. The staggering size of the universe speaks to the diversity that must be out there but given the limitations of the physical world and the vast distances out there where we've looked and not found signs of intelligent life I don't think we've been or are being "visited".

Of course an alien communication may be beaming our way as we speak. If it was sent from the otherside of our galaxy it might take 100,000 years to get here and be lacking relevance by the time it arrives though.

[mintyspilot]

Originally Posted by capt_douglas

I've seen Moon Dogs, Sun Dogs, double rainbows, meteors, the shuttle, skylab, satellites, Nemo's Fire, Cat 5 hurricanes, dead flat seas, and the Green Flash (not though the bottom of a Heineken bottle) but never a UFO.

What about Iridium flashes? They can be very bright, up to mag. -7 and there are predictions for them on Heavens Above. You have to know your current position accurately because moving 30-40 km can make the difference between seeing the flash and missing the flash.

The next one in Ft Lauderdale is at 7am (local) on 30 Aug and is only -1 so it would be daylight by then. However there are some that should be visible in daylight (see link below)

Daytime Iridium Flares

[erict]

Originally Posted by hummingway

The problem with a telescope on the boat is that any motion makes it really hard to see the star your looking at! Has any had any success with a telescope on deck?

Since I'm in the market for marine binoculars I have also been thinking about optics for stargazing from the deck. Has anyone tried a spotting scope? There are relatively low cost models available with 20-60x zoom and objective lens in the range of 60-80mm. Probably would end up using hand held while lying down in the cockpit or a hammock.

[paradix]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

Why I painted a bulls eye on my foredeck

Hey, someone mentioned that stellarium has a moon function. I have pressed all the buttons I can find on my nifty stellarium program and have yet to have the moon pop up. Anyone know how to turn on the "moon function"?

Hi Erika,

I've created a discussion in the astronomy group for people to post stellarium (and other software) questions and answers. I'm just getting to know it myself (old school paper-user here) but I've posted a link to the stellarium user manual for starters.

What do you mean by "moon function"? The moon should show up by default, but you can also scale it to "full" size by using the "view settings" window and checking "Scale Moon"...

Is that what you meant?

Link to the user guide here:

http://voxel.dl.sourceforge.net/proj...e-0.10.2-1.pdf

[paradix]

Originally Posted by hummingway

The problem with a telescope on the boat is that any motion makes it really hard to see the star your looking at! Has any had any success with a telescope on deck?

Stability is THE most critical thing for a decent-size astronomical telescope. Not just stability of motion, but stability of temperature / humidity etc. are things which constantly prey on the minds of astronomical telescope users. I personally set three pads of concrete to a depth of 30cm permanently into my lawn for the tripod legs of my refractor telescope, much to the amusement of my other half!

I would be amazed if anyone has had success with anything other than a small binocular-type optical device (the spotting scopes might work ok too, if you have a very steady hand) on a boat, unless you are in shallow-enough water that you can get the tripod legs resting on the seabed... . Even if you're in a marina, a floating pontoon would be hopeless - you need to get on a solid wharf or land.

Having said that, there are a plenitude of wonderful sky objects and events which are better viewed with the naked eye or a pair of binoculars than with a telescope in any case (comets and meteor showers being two great examples).

Given the huge distances and hence the lack of 3-d resolution, there is no actual optical benefit to binoculars over a similarly-specced spotting scope of course, but the significant advantage is once again stability, with both hands holding the binoculars and both eyepieces against your eyesockets forming a nice stable viewing platform.

[Ocean Girl]

Found the moon, ah how embarassing.

Paradix, thanks for starting the stellarium help thread, I will be a frequent poster thanks to your link I also discovered the telescope plug in, this program is amazing. .
Erika

[mintyspilot]

Originally Posted by erict

Since I'm in the market for marine binoculars I have also been thinking about optics for stargazing from the deck. Has anyone tried a spotting scope? There are relatively low cost models available with 20-60x zoom and objective lens in the range of 60-80mm. Probably would end up using hand held while lying down in the cockpit or a hammock.

"Zoom" in optics is usually bad news unless you are prepared to shell out plenty of cash. For "portable" astronomy I would recommend 10x50 binos or a small refractor that you could set up on a tripod on a beach somewhere. Something like these little catadioptric Meades, but they need a stable base.

meade telescopes - Google Product Search


"Proper" astronomical telescopes show the images upside down because

a) In space the right way up is unimportant
b) To rectify an image means more optics which reduces image quality

To "zoom" with an astronomical telescope you change the eyepiece.

[iwsteel]

eye captain E very nice, i thought it would be where ya made the bad boys stand while they are in time out..lol

Dang the ufo's will prolly pick your deck...curses foiled again!