Grass Roots Forum Request: Astronomy!

Hi all!

There is a section of forums here at DG called Leisurely Pursuits. Within that section are forums that relate to non-garden topics such as Antiques, Cars, Hiking/Camping, Photography, and so on. I am making a push to get an Astronomy forum added to this section, and would like to find out if you all would help me out to get this thing off the ground (pun intended).

In an Astronomy forum (not astrology) we can discuss things like the International Space Station, Space Shuttle launches/sightings/landings, the upcoming Indian mission to the moon future missions to Mars, comets (there's one out now), meteor showers (there's one this weekend), telescopes (I'm going to start building a 12"), equinox, eclipses, other planetary, lunar and solar events, and other celestial stuff.

This would prevent us from having to OT in other forums with Astronomy related topics.

After all, we all need something to do while we're standing in our gardens in the dark of night, right?

Show an overwhelming bunch of replies and let's get this thing off the ground!

Questions to answer in your reply:

WOULD YOU USE AN ASTRONOMY FORUM?
WHAT WOULD YOU DISCUSS?
SCALE OF 1-10 HOW INTERESTED ARE YOU IN ASTRONOMY? (10 being most interested)
SCALE OF 1-10 HOW KNOWLEDGEABLE ARE YOU IN THE SUBJECT OF ASTRONOMY? (10 being a rocket scientist)

Thanks!
CP

This message was edited Nov 13, 2007 7:07 AM

I would love an astronomy forum! I'm not very knowledgeable (at all, really), but I love a "heads up" when there's something neat going on overhead that I would otherwise miss. Don't know that I would have much to contribute, but I'd sure lurk a lot!

It's got my vote!

Great suggestion! Although I'm completely illiterate about technical aspects, I have always been fascinated about anything that can enlarge our outlook on the word.

I'm kind of a cosmic n00b myself, but learning by giant leaps every day. I'd like to hear from some who have built their own telescopes. Surely there are some out there.

I'm like Jill. I don't know much about the subject but would probably lurk frequently. I keep a scope on my patio to check out interesting things in the night skies. I think it's cool to see Saturn with it's rings and the moons around Jupiter.

Count me in, I also don't know much about astronomy, but I love learning about it and would also love to know when to look exciting sightings!

Brenda

You can see the rings of Saturn and moons of Jupiter? What kind of scope?

It's a 50 power spotting scope. I bought it for elk and deer hunting but found that I use it more for star gazing!

Cool. All I have right now are my nekked eyes, but I have solid plans to built a 12" f/4.9 x 1500mm in the near future. Maybe a Christmas present to myself.

That will be cool! I occasionally look at some of the telescopes are computerized and automatically point in the direction of constellations and planets but I don't think my interest is strong enough to warrant the expense.

I know my way around the night sky, and enjoy it as a hobby that I don't put much effort into, but will bundle in a blanket with my hot cider to watch the Leonids and the Geminids every year that the sky is clear.

One of my things on my 'Top 10 Life Experiences' is to see the Southern Hemisphere night sky.

Yep, I'd show up from time to time, I couldn't be much of a contributor, but would enjoy the discussions.

Some of you have seen this before, but if you haven't, check out www.stellarium.com and download the appropriate program for your operating system. It is real time (you set it up for your location) views of the sky, you can set it to outline constellations, move it North, South, East, West... I've taken my laptop outside to better see the constellations with the help of Stellarium. Pretty fun!

Thanks Brenda!

I'd be interested in this type of forum....we love sitting out and checking out the night sky...love it when someone lets us know whats going on and can actually go out and spot what they're talking about.....

count me in!

audrey

Another free stargazing software I like better than Stellarium is Celestia. Can be found here: http://www.shatters.net/celestia/ . Also, Google Earth now has a sky view feature, and it's free. http://earth.google.com/ . Need to have kind of beefy video capabilities on your computer for either one of the above to run well.

Cool Milkmood... will check them out!

I'd definitely come around... have no knowledge, but I love to learn... I say start the forum, there are more people out there that would find it and love it than I think are posting here...
Brittany

No doubt about that.

Comet Tuttle will be coming into sight in January. In fact, there will be 56 comets coming through the solar system in 2008, 4 of which could be naked-eye or binocular visible. Complete schedule is here: http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds/preds08.pdf .

I've also been spending some time here: http://n2yo.com/passes.php?s=25544 in anticipation of seeing the International Space Station (ZARYA) fly by. It is visible several times a month, and very bright many of those times. Look especially for magnitudes with negative numbers, such as -1.2, but magnitudes over 0 up to 3 are still quite bright and visible.

Sweet! Thanks for the info, Milkmood!

would find it of interest for sure, but not a lot of knowledge here. Use it yes. Interest a 6. Knowledge 1.

My dad tried to show me/teach me to see the constellations and so has my dh to no avail. I even got some books. But I find it all very fascinating and enjoy observing the night sky, the moon phases, the clouds and the simple beauty of it all. I walk the dog at night every night and sometimes it is sooo amazing!

We were able to spot the space station and the shuttle this summer during the meteor shower.

I would love an astronomy forum. I have many fond memories of star gazing with the dog during the summer while growing up.