Quote: AngieBaby @ September 4 2010, 10:50 PM BSTOne thing I've never understood though is why the moon looks so much bigger abroad?
I'd imagine it's something to do with your position on the globe, Angie.
Star Gazing Page 3
There is some effect they talk about.
Where the Sun or moon can seem bigger in different places.
But surely never as big as they show in the movies??
Quote: Ben @ September 4 2010, 11:27 PM BSTI'd imagine it's something to do with your position on the globe, Angie.
Well seeing as the sun shines out of my backside, I never really thought about what the moon was doing.
I think star gazing is a girl thing, and identifying constellations is a boy thing.
It is quite amazing that sailors used those stars to navigate the earth for centuries though.
I would gaze at Colin Farrell all day long. If he got his cock out I would graze at it forever more!
Quote: AngieBaby @ September 4 2010, 10:50 PM BSTOne thing I've never understood though is why the moon looks so much bigger abroad?
I take it you go sunbathing rather than skiing? It only looks bigger in the southern hemisphere I believe, for reasons that are far too complicated for me to comprehend. I just don't get why it should look so massive in Spain compared to here - It's barely a thousand miles down the road!
Quote: Charley @ September 5 2010, 3:18 AM BSTI would gaze at Colin Farrell all day long. If he got his cock out I would graze at it forever more!
Even if he had teeny little button mushroom cock? If he had a big one, I'm sure he'd have done a full frontal scene by now, like that Ewan MaGregor never stops doing, but then you can see he's got one to be proud of. Er, so I'm told. 
I had a decent telescope once ( tell it broke by going from warm house to cold outside)
And yes you can see Saturn like that with rings. You can see the red spot on jupiter and about 4 of its moons all lined up.
I used to be quite into it. Took the kids from my school on a night walk during an outdoor pursuits weekend. They're all city dwellers and for once in their lives they were actually in awe of what they could see. They'd never seen stars horizon to horizon and I was able to point out some basic constellations.
Also as a side point, we go to the Brecon Beacons where the air is very clean which helps. Interestingly no kids with asthma have ever had an attack whilst we've been there.
Deep down, you do actually have a heart, don't you, Roscoff?
Quote: zooo @ September 4 2010, 11:56 AM BSTF**k off!
You can really see that through a telescope???
Easily. I used to do it with my cheap telescope when I was 10.
One of the guys dragged out his telescope last night during our party and we spent some time looking at Jupiter and Mars. I love telescopes and one of these days I'll drop a few grand on a nice one.
Amateur astronomers have taken some remarkable photos of the space station and other satellites. Very cool.
Yes well that looks too much like a little bit pulled off a PCB to me, placed on a black tablecloth.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ September 5 2010, 8:37 AM BSTEven if he had teeny little button mushroom cock? If he had a big one, I'm sure he'd have done a full frontal scene by now, like that Ewan MaGregor never stops doing, but then you can see he's got one to be proud of. Er, so I'm told.
It's huge. I can almost feel it in my bones see.
I have an astronomy GCSE from about 20 years ago, so here goes:
Quote: Ben @ September 4 2010, 11:06 AM BSTHow come when you look at a star it doesn't seem as bright when you look at it out of the corner of your eye? Cosmological phenomena or something to do with my iris?
You have different types of receptor in your eye. Rods and cones. Cones are concentrated in the middle and deal with colour. Rods are nearer the edges and deal with night vision & peripheral vision. Rods work better at night, cones work better during the day. When you look at a star out the corner of your eye, you're using the bit of your eye which is currently most efficient.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ September 4 2010, 11:00 AM BSTlove that orange/coffee coloured moon. Anyone here give me the true explanation of what causes that, please.
That is more likely to happen when the moon is low in the sky. If it happens when the moon is overhead, yes, it is probably pollution causing it. It's to do with light refraction. You know how light gets split into a rainbow going through a prism (like the cover of Dark Side of the Moon)? The atmosphere does that to moonlight. The various colours get scattered/difracted different amounts. Basically the moon looks orange because all the other colours have been scattered away from your eye and you are seeing the orange bit of the light left.
Quote: AngieBaby @ September 4 2010, 10:50 PM BSTOne thing I've never understood though is why the moon looks so much bigger abroad?
The moon is roughly a quarter of a million miles away so your position on the globe doesn't really make much difference. The moon's apparent larger size is purely an optical illusion but nobody really knows for sure how it works. One theory is that nearer the horizon you have more frames of reference and this makes some sort of false perspective thing kick in. When it's high in the sky, there is nothing to mess with your vision. Like one of those optical illusions where two lines look different sizes but are actually the same length.
You can prove to yourself it is an illusion pretty easily. Hold a coin at arm's length next to the moon in the sky to get a comparison of how big it look to the coin (a 5p works well for me). Do the same thing when the moon is low and looking huge and you'll see it appears the same size.
EDIT: It's called a Ponzo Illusion but they're still not sure this is the explanation although they are sure it's an optical illusion of some sort.
Astronomy GCSE! Really?
I would totally have done that if I could have.
Quote: zooo @ September 6 2010, 9:52 AM BSTAstronomy GCSE! Really?
I would totally have done that if I could have.
For some reason we were also made to do another GCSE during the first years of A levels. We had some more interesting ones to choose from too, so I picked Astronomy.
Cooooooool.