Calling all astronomers

Ask Anything
41

Apologies one and all for confusing you. I’ve just downloaded a compass onto my phone and gone out and checked whereabouts in the sky I saw the moon last night. I rather assumed our house faced south, but it faces south east, so everything is just that bit further towards the north.
@hairbear You’re right, it must have been later than I remembered - mid evening - and the moon was at about 60 - ENE. It’s about the same position now and I can see the moon between the clouds but no sign at all of any other bright objects.
I’ll pay more attention in future and if the clouds break try taking some more photos.

Thanks everyone for your comments / suggestions.

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42

You obviously have a compass sensor so have you tried Stellarium app? If you hold your phone up to the sky you will see all the stars on your screen with the real stars in the sky directly behind. It makes identification of any object A piece of cake even for the atrologically challenged like me

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43

I think this discussion is about astronomy :wink:

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44

Did I mention that I was also gramatically challenged Brian :wink:?

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45

Clearly born under a bad sign

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46

Atrology is the study of large open spaces such as atriums in public buildings. :smiley: :smiley:

Allegedly. :slight_smile:

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47

I thought it had something to do with food… and/or cooking … :rofl:

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48

:grinning: … and gramatical is a way of talking about cooking using only one unit of measurement. :grinning: :grinning:

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49

… :joy: :rofl:

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Literally. :smiley:

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51

:Facepalm emoji:

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52

who cares about spellings… an ology is an ology… :+1: :+1:

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Thanks Mik. I feel so “The Little Prince” when I open it. Being the red dot at the bottom of the screen with all the universe above.

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54

This is an example of how a careless typo can ruin an interesting thread (mia culpa - sorry )

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we’ll be back on course, when the weather improves and we can actually see the night skies… :+1:

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… and everyone rushing out, waving their 'phones in the air saying “oh look, there’s Torcularis Septentrionalis”

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:rofl: I hardly think so… and, in any case, not everyone has a smart phone :wink: :wink:

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Ah yes, an interesting if rather insignificant constellation that was added to the roster at the last General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, and known in English as “Torquil the Seven-Headed Hedge Fund Manager”.

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59

I must confess to being a late convert to smart ‘phones. I really could not see the point of replacing a simple phone conversation with a device with a microscopic keyboard on which you could peck out your message character by character in a much longer time … and I already had a camera.

Then, one day, we were in a restaurant and on every single table apart from ours people were tapping on ‘phones and showing the results to friends. We decided to buy one just so that we would not get left behind by modern technology. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Stellarium app linked to a compass sensor is a brilliant example how useful they can be. (see how I steered back from thread drift there?)

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:rofl: :rofl: that’s what I hate about smart phones… they seem addictive.

We love food and enjoy going out to eat.

We go to a restaurant for the delicious food, the atmosphere etc… OH does have a smart phone which he keeps switched to “silent” and leaves in his coat pocket… :wink:

My stone-age phone is for calls and messages… and that’s 'nuff for me (plus it switches to silent when I’m not wanting to be disturbed.)

Back to Astronomy… tucked away somewhere safe (lost) I do have various gizmos (paper/card) which my little bro’ sent me… to help me identify what/where… mine date from the 70’s when they first came onto the market … but I see some of them are still available…