Moon & Saturn 2011-06-12

Saturn looks cool, wonder what it looks like through NASA's massive telescopes?

OMG COOL!

I love your vids

I so want your gear too!

What do you use exactly? Do you have a link to where you can purchase such cool equipment? I"d LOVE to see the sky like this!

Got any like this of mars? because id like to see theem

Lovely footage there OP, will you be posting some more soon? Could watch that all night!

S&F

Hey Bob! Isn't Saturn directly (or close) to being right behind the earth in-line with the sun right now? Which may be why it appears to be so well lit. You must have a nice sophisticated tracking mechanism on your scope, some people don't realize how fast things are moving when magnified to the degree that you are able to achieve. I enjoy all of your threads, (cool soundtrack too).

What is the movie software you use if I may ask, thanks.

Originally posted by mblahnikluver
OMG COOL!

I love your vids

I so want your gear too!

What do you use exactly? Do you have a link to where you can purchase such cool equipment? I"d LOVE to see the sky like this!

Telescopes.com has plenty of gear. Also, go to ebay and search telescopes. My last 3 scopes have come from ebay, ggod deals there. I scored a Celestron C6R with mount that normaly retails for over $1000 for $350. I had to drive to Florida to pick it up, but it was well worth it.

This is an expensive hobby, you can spend more for one eyepiece than the telescope itself cost. But it's worth it.

reply to post by Bosb33r


I think I tried to download the Stellarium at one time but there were some problems with it, as I recall.

I am such a fanatic about knowing names of things, especially plants, rocks, atmospheric optic (spectral) phenomena, animals, etc. so I don't know why I haven't taken the time to learn all the stars and the proper constellations, especially since I spend so much time outside...although I think that part of it is the idea that someone thinks bears have long tails (Ursus major & minor) it still looks like a big and little pot to me, or turn it upside down and perhaps it looks like a giraffe.

I do remember something funny, though, when I was a kid and used to watch Mars every night. To my horror its path began going backwards and I thought surely we were all doomed. A conspiracy doomer at such a young age! Later I discovered the term 'retrograde' and my fears abated.

reply to post by Bosb33r


Didn't read the whole thread to see if anyone posted this, but to the op have you tried a program called "Rot n Stack" its a freeware prog that lets you stack the best images you have from a video and make a high detailed picture out of it. Check it out if you havent already, looks like you have the skill for video, so high quality photos is right up your alley.

I'd love to see more high res footage like this - I believe humans have lost a sacred connection with the heavens due to light pollution and modern day distractions. I myself stargaze with a 6" reflector and the day I saw my first star cluster ( en.wikipedia.org... ) it changed the way I approach day to day life - it's puts things into perspective when you truly realise how small planet Earth is in the cosmos.

As well as a scientific journey, I personally believe Astronomy to be a spiritual one as well.
Thanks OP for giving me some well needed inspiration.

reply to post by Bosb33r


I was thinking to myself while waching this.. all the youtube videos of buildings and ufo´s on the surface of the moon. and thats even not as sharp as this one..

one should think it would be easy to spot buildings and ufo with this kind of footage.. sadly I did not see any

Nice S+F ...Whats the camera your using?......

Equipment Celestron Nexstar 11" 40 & 26mm Eyepiece. ( Based on the youtube description. )

awesome vid

not seen Saturn like that - soooo want to go and get a scope!

reply to post by BobbyShaftoe


The energy released by a collision at several kilometers per second (such as a large meteorite impact) is beyond any normal experience we may have, such as a rock in sand or a bullet impact.

In the case of a rock or a bullet, the debris flying outward is from the momentum of the projectile getting transfered to the loose material of the target (in some cases, the material of an otherwise solid object is broken loose by the impact). Some of the momentum is also converted into heat. Anyone who's ever caught a fast-ball remembers the burning sensation. In physics terms, the kinetic energy is converted into thermal energy.

(At this point I wrote a 10 paragraph essay that included definitions of heat, vaporization & explosions, plus descriptions of the three types of heat transfer, blah-blah-blah. Screw it. Here's the short version and if you have any questions, ask.)

If you heat a solid, it will melt, and if you heat it more, it boils - i.e. turns to vapor. If you heat a solid very quickly, it flashes straight into vapor and expands very, very rapidly outwards, carrying whatever non-vaporized particles around (including air molecules) with it. The technical term for this is an explosion. When water turns to steam, it expands 1,700 times. Here is the famous "Mythbusters" water heater explosion. Copper, when vaporized, expands up to 67,000 times. Here is a piece of copper wire getting vaporized by over-current. Remember that in both cases, there is no chemical reaction taking place, but the result is pretty much the same as as chemical explosions.

How does this relate to circular meteor craters?

Well, above a certain speed (~1 kilometer per second, more or less, depending on the material), a projectile that hits a solid object will convert its kinetic energy into so much heat so fast that it vaporizes both the projectile and some of the target material. Thus you get an explosion. At ~3 km/sec, the explosive energy is equal to the projectile's weight in conventional high explosive. In other words, a 1 pound object hitting the ground at 3 km/sec would cause an explosion equivalent to detonating one pound of TNT.

As they taught you in Driver's Ed, the energy of a collision increases directly in proportion to the mass, and as the square of the velocity. Thus a 2 lb projectile hitting at 3 km/sec would have the effect of 2 lbs of TNT, and the same projectile at 6 km/sec (twice as fast) would be like 8 lbs of TNT.

Typical collision speeds for meteors hitting the Moon would be in the 12 - 24 km/sec range. with an absolute minimum of ~2 km/sec, so we're looking at explosions ranging from 16 to 64 times the mass of the meteor in TNT. Thus the crater from vaporized rock exploding outwards in all directions will be much larger than the divot caused by the actual object physically displacing dirt on impact (the way a bullet does).

So in all but extremely rare low-speed cases, you won't see an oval crater caused by a glancing hit. The result will be a circular crater.

As a mathematical example, a 100m asteroid massing ~3,000,000 tons hitting the Moon at ~21 km/sec would generate an explosion equivalent to a 150 megaton nuke. With that sort of energy release, who cares what the impact angle was?

The telescopes that are of the norm these day's are powerful enough to see even Neptune and it's moons, mind you it would be a bit blurry but they do sell special lens covers to help sharpen the images. S&F because I S&F anything having to do with the cosmos.

Originally posted by truther2011
very nice video lad the pictures were amazing thanks for sharing pal..

Thanks truther2011

reply to post by BobbyShaftoe


Thanks BobbyShaftoe about the moon craters i have on youtube some Moon documentary's with a lot information i will put the here to watch

reply to post by galactictuan


Thanks galactictuan

I did use 2 pocket camera's casio exilim Z-25 , and a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V hooked it up with a digiscoop adapter.

reply to post by TrueMurphy


Thanks TrueMurphy

That's the reason that i show my video's, and let people see how beautiful everything is

Originally posted by zacdam
Very cool! you usually see very close up shots of Saturn, I guess through more powerful telescopes or Hubble but what you've shared really gives me the sense of this amazing, beautiful body, just floating through the void....

It's very cool, thanks!

You are welcome zacdam, yes we have huge observatory's on earth but we never see some nice moon or planet video's very weird...