Does this explain what generates gravity?

So my mystery star is a star group of four and not the North star?

Now you're getting the picture! 🙂

1723143267320.png
 
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So my mystery star is a star group of four and not the North star?

Wiki: "A prominent object in the northern winter sky, it is circumpolar to observers north of 44°N. Its name meaning "little goat" in Latin,..."

//

Of course. Capella, the "GOAT" star. Apparently a large spectroscopic double star with smaller companions:

https://www.space.com/capella-goat-star-skywatching-2020.html

You will find in that article that lots of people think it is a UFO or something at this time of year when it is rising low in the North East.

One young boy, around 10 years old, gave a rather vivid description: "It's very bright and flashes different colors ... one moment it's bright yellow, then orange and red — sometimes even blue!"

Have enjoyed this segue into Andromeda Galaxy and Triangulum Galaxy muchly. I've never seen Andromeda, and now know why.

Here's a possibility for another good snap. The Summer Triangle. We talked about the "Weaver Girl" and the "Cowherd" and the "Heavenly River" recently.

Summer Triangle Vega, Deneb and Altair.png


M27 is a largish Planetary Nebula, 1/4 the size of the Moon. I wonder if your clear skies will help.

Dumbbell Nebula M27 8' diameter.jpg


I am not planning an expedition to Southsea Castle until next week for Perseid meteors (11-12th) and Mars/Jupiter (14th) conjunction and maybe Uranus in Taurus.
 
"Journey to the Andromeda Galaxy"

I lasted the full 35 minutes, Steve! 😉 The description of Andromeda as an 'Island Universe' sounds so Sci-Fi! It reminds me of:

1723236883865.png


The video prompted me to find out more about the "Great Debate": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Debate_(astronomy)

I find it amusing that the giant elliptical galaxy which will result from the final fusion of the Milky Way & Andromeda is dubbed "Milkomeda"!

1723236427671.png
 
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The Goat is carrying a 6lb penalty today from its success last time out.

Think running with a bag of spuds and a pint of milk for a mile and a half. Frankly I am worried, and so should you be. 🙁

This Messier hunting is proving harder than I thought, though things were a bit less than ideal last night:

Aquila Delphinus Sagitta.jpg


Best viewed in a dark room. I really couldn't see M71 (Star Cluster within Sagitta) and M27 (Supernova remnant above) even on the original image.

Though Sagitta the arrow and Delphinus the dolphin do actually look like what they are supposed to be, I think you'll agree.

Summer Triangle Vega, Deneb and Altair.jpg


I think I need that f1.8 35mm DX lens. To add to my woes, the EN-EL9 Li-ion camera battery has gone very weak. Probably why the guy sold it. 😡

As you will have gleaned from watching the last video, we and M31 Andromeda and M33 Triangulum and a few other minor blobs are going to merge into a Galaxy called Billy-No-Mates at the end of time.

Local Group.jpg


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Group

Even NGC 50 and NGC 300 on the left, along with distant blue-shifted M86 and M98 are just passing by. So it'll just be us, and everything else disappearing into the distance due to Cosmic expansion.

I find this sad... 😢
 
Batteries are a minefield, IMO.

What I know.

1.2v: Nickel Cadmium. Obsolete due to toxicity, and tricky to charge efficiently.

1.2V: NiMH rechargeable. Problems with smart devices designed for 1.5V Alkalines. Old camera thinks low battery and shuts off! Good high current ability and life.

1.5V: Alkaline, Silver Oxide and Alkaline watch and calculator batteries usually LR44 and SR44, Li-ion rechargeable. Alkalines not great at high current use like flashbulb charging, and my old camera eats them quickly.

3.3V: Computer BIOS battery. Lithium coin type CR2032. Comes in different thicknesses too.

9V: Alkaline PP3 types are obvious for smoke alarms. I use a NiMH rechargeable in my electrical multimeter.

Overcharging apparently shortens battery life beyond the typical 4 hours, and can be when Li-ion types explode!!! 😳

I don't know about chargers, but assume my old NiMH chargers are not ideal for Li-ion rechargeables.

Nikon type EN-EL9 and EN-EL9A? 7.4V and 1100 mAh. Contains micro-controller and A type has 10% more capacity above 470 shots and fixable firmware issues with Nikon D40 and D40X cameras. My D60 apparently not problematic.


I think I shall get 2 to save risking running out! About £10 a pop for generics.

FWIW, The Goat came 5th. Cost me a pound. But it would have been a considerable coup if it had won, I am sure you agree. 🙂


I am slowly working on the strangely unfashionable Dirac Equation. Dirac's Coup was in inventing the 4 element Dirac Spinor. This explained Electron Spin better than the Pauli 2 element Spinor.

I think it can be a column of 4 elements or a 4x4 matrix. Apparently Spin is a relativistic consequence.

Puny visualisation here, because it's not really spin as we know it:


Discussion by Melvin Bragg with learned Professors and authors:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fw0p

Best, Steve.
 
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Puny visualisation here, because it's not really spin as we know it

Indeed!

As I've pointed out before:

Electrons do not orbit.
Electrons do not spin.
We know not where they're going.
We know not where they’ve been.

Dirac's explanation of electron 'spin' showed it to be something entirely new.

It is an intrinsic quantum property with no analogue in the everyday world.
 
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Apparently Spin is a relativistic consequence.

The Schrödinger wave equation used to describe an electron did not incorporate the special theory of relativity.

The equation breaks down in heavy atoms where an electron can be whirled round the nucleus at close to the speed of light.

Dirac realised that what was needed was an equation that was compatible with the special theory of relativity - a relativistic equation - and that is what he set out to find.
 
Batteries are a minefield, IMO.

What I know.

1.2v: Nickel Cadmium. Obsolete due to toxicity, and tricky to charge efficiently.

1.2V: NiMH rechargeable. Problems with smart devices designed for 1.5V Alkalines. Old camera thinks low battery and shuts off! Good high current ability and life.

1.5V: Alkaline, Silver Oxide and Alkaline watch and calculator batteries usually LR44 and SR44, Li-ion rechargeable. Alkalines not great at high current use like flashbulb charging, and my old camera eats them quickly.

3.3V: Computer BIOS battery. Lithium coin type CR2032. Comes in different thicknesses too.

9V: Alkaline PP3 types are obvious for smoke alarms. I use a NiMH rechargeable in my electrical multimeter.

Overcharging apparently shortens battery life beyond the typical 4 hours, and can be when Li-ion types explode!!! 😳

I don't know about chargers, but assume my old NiMH chargers are not ideal for Li-ion rechargeables.

Nikon type EN-EL9 and EN-EL9A? 7.4V and 1100 mAh. Contains micro-controller and A type has 10% more capacity above 470 shots and fixable firmware issues with Nikon D40 and D40X cameras. My D60 apparently not problematic.


I think I shall get 2 to save risking running out! About £10 a pop for generics.

FWIW, The Goat came 5th. Cost me a pound. But it would have been a considerable coup if it had won, I am sure you agree. 🙂


I am slowly working on the strangely unfashionable Dirac Equation. Dirac's Coup was in inventing the 4 element Dirac Spinor. This explained Electron Spin better than the Pauli 2 element Spinor.

I think it can be a column of 4 elements or a 4x4 matrix. Apparently Spin is a relativistic consequence.

Puny visualisation here, because it's not really spin as we know it:


Discussion by Melvin Bragg with learned Professors and authors:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fw0p

Best, Steve.
Excellent video 👍

With regard to the batteries, we've come a long way since NiCads - they were plain awful!
 
With regard to the batteries, we've come a long way since NiCads - they were plain awful!
Nicads had the attractive feature of not catching fire if you soldered in new ones. Overcharging will set LiIon on fire. I have 3 tree saws that take 18 v pack built of flat pack nicads. when the battery would not hold a charge, I used to buy everready cells from newark and rejuvinate the pack for 1/3 the price of a new one. Now they do not make nicads anymore. The max charger voltage works out to interger and a half a LiIon cell, which means to convert I would have to build new chargers. If I were brave enough to weld LiIon cells, which I am not. A new Dewalt or Ryobi saw that takes LiIon batteries is about a week and a half SSI pay. Plus another $300 battery.
 
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Overcharging will set LiIon on fire.

The lithium-ion battery of my lawnmower came with a smart charger that monitors the battery’s charge level and adjusts the charging current accordingly.

When the battery is fully charged, the charger automatically switches to a trickle charge mode, which keeps the battery topped up without overcharging it.

I have a similarly equipped smart battery charger for the lead-acid battery in my car.

You can only overcharge a lithium-ion battery if you use an old charger that continues to charge the battery when it hits full capacity.
 
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You can only overcharge a lithium-ion battery if you use an old charger that continues to charge the battery when it hits full capacity.
I refer the poster to a US aircraft that had an emergency evacuation last month due to a passenger laptop computer on fire.
Some products monitor every cell in a LiIon pack with an individual pin to the chargerr. Dewalt appears to have as many pins as they have cells in series. I had a Dell laptop with 8 pins to the LiIon battery. Some products only monitor a stack of cells to see if it undervoltage compared to the other stacks. Run of mill bicycle batteries work that way. And 99% of these monitoring systems are made in a country known for hit and miss quality. I have had a Samsung television (origin MX) lose remote control due to a loss of continuity on the board between the input pad and the IC. I have had an ebike controller (origin CH) stop functioning after 4 years due to lack of continuity between the PAS pickup pad, and the controller IC. Battery safety would depend on continuity between the cell sensor pin and the control IC. Such products with pcbs fail occasionally, even when wave soldered. People theorize that the rash of scooter battery fires in NYC has something to do with the liberal use of salt and conductive chemicals on NYC streets. Run of mill LIIon batteries are not sealed; in fact many are wrapped in a shrink wrap tube.
The chargers I use on my bicycle battery shut off at the designed maximum voltage. They cost ~$25 and I would not trust one farther than I could throw it. The one I paid $75 for was inoperative out of the box. I charge LiIon batteries outside, and usually use a timer to stop the charge before 100% point is reached. If a LiIon battery catches fire outside, some dirt in my yard is scorched.
 
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If it's any indication of quality, my lawnmower charger costs £90 while the Li-ion battery costs £160.

I believe I have overestimated the capabilities of my lawnmower battery charger. Soon after the charge in progress indicator has stopped blinking the battery should be removed from the charger.

The lead-acid car battery charger is different in that, after a full charge, it goes into maintenance mode. This charger is specifically designed to remain connected to the battery of a car that is in long-term storage.