My interest in astronomy started with a Charles Frank refracting telescope not much more sophisticated than the one shown in the attachment, but powerful enough to study the craters on the Moon and observe the four major satellites of Jupiter. I never invested in a more sophisticated instrument as it's always cold in Scotland!
I've been looking at 'scopes over the last year or so, but have resisted taking the plunge because if I get a decent on, I don't want to end up with it spending most of the time stashed away because I've lost interest. I have to admit I'm more interested in physics/astrophysics than perhaps looking at an object through a lens. May be after I get back from the NZ trip I'll have changed my mind a bit and take the plunge.
Then again, I've been thinking about another pair of speakers . . . 😀
(I did my MBA with the OU and recently looked at their astrophysics course - but its gotten very expensive over the last few years to study with them)
like buying a billiard table. I've been struggling off and on also. A nice 10" dobsonian. You can get one for under a grand.
Hey, you pass it down to the grand children🙂
Hey, you pass it down to the grand children🙂
A little off topic, but I think it's noteworthy that Katherine Johnson passed away this week, 101 years old.
A mathematician in the computing pool at NASA, she plotted the lunar surface ahead of Apollo landings, and amongst other things, analysed orbital and navigational trajectories, and verified that time's somewhat unreliable computer results.
John Glenn said "Get the girl" to verify orbital projections, and he'd be good to go.
I was astounded she was doubly segregated, on one account for being black, and another for being a woman.
She overcame this, and in co authoring an astronomical treatise, became one of the earliest black women so acknowledged for credit
To me, she was a true pioneering spirit.
(Remember when AD ASTRA was a catchy phrase in an Andre Norton novel?)
A mathematician in the computing pool at NASA, she plotted the lunar surface ahead of Apollo landings, and amongst other things, analysed orbital and navigational trajectories, and verified that time's somewhat unreliable computer results.
John Glenn said "Get the girl" to verify orbital projections, and he'd be good to go.
I was astounded she was doubly segregated, on one account for being black, and another for being a woman.
She overcame this, and in co authoring an astronomical treatise, became one of the earliest black women so acknowledged for credit
To me, she was a true pioneering spirit.
(Remember when AD ASTRA was a catchy phrase in an Andre Norton novel?)
I've yet to see the 2016 biographical film 'Hidden Figures' which follows the role of Katherine Johnson and her two fellow mathematicians who played a pivotal role in astronaut John Glenn's launch into orbit. In fact I just missed its showing on UK TV. 🙁
Attachments
Alice Mary Norton inspired several generations of science fiction writers, especially many talented women who have followed in her footsteps.
The starship in one of her minor efforts, 'The Stars Are Ours', is called 'Ad Astra'.
Attachments
Andre Norton.
Starborn was also part of that excellent series.
My intro to sci fi, at @ 11 or 12 years old.
Isaac Asimov is another favourite of mine.
Loved his idea of mathematics applied to human mass behavior . Psychohistory mathematics, I think, was the Foundation Trilogy premise.
Starborn was also part of that excellent series.
My intro to sci fi, at @ 11 or 12 years old.
Isaac Asimov is another favourite of mine.
Loved his idea of mathematics applied to human mass behavior . Psychohistory mathematics, I think, was the Foundation Trilogy premise.
I'm a big fan of Asimov and have his entire Foundation series, which runs to a total of seven novels.
It's amazing how much cigarette smoking went on in the far, far future of the original trilogy - the description of the ritual served to up the word count I guess!
It's amazing how much cigarette smoking went on in the far, far future of the original trilogy - the description of the ritual served to up the word count I guess!
Bonsai,
My evaluation of Newton`s and Einstein`s significance is somewhat deviant.
Newton was not a thinker. He borrowed from others, took everything he could get his hands on, published it and took the credit without even saying thank you. I doubt he came up with anything of importance on his own. To me Robert Hooke was a greater man, just to mention one example.
Einstein`s energy equation contains nothing but the plain old mass times velocity, used by many before him. Misinterpretations like "energy and mass (matter) are the same thing, just in different forms" is, however, not Einstein`s fault.
It`s naive to think that lightwaves represent the fastest radiation. Einstein forgot to explain how can something be both relative and absolute at the same (constant) time. I find the confusion about the notion of light, mass, matter...shocking.
The spacetime model is mathematical acrobatics lacking physical sense. If it was understandable, the theory would lose its natural charm and would be consigned to the scrap heap.
I have not yet read the pdf document.
My evaluation of Newton`s and Einstein`s significance is somewhat deviant.
Newton was not a thinker. He borrowed from others, took everything he could get his hands on, published it and took the credit without even saying thank you. I doubt he came up with anything of importance on his own. To me Robert Hooke was a greater man, just to mention one example.
Einstein`s energy equation contains nothing but the plain old mass times velocity, used by many before him. Misinterpretations like "energy and mass (matter) are the same thing, just in different forms" is, however, not Einstein`s fault.
It`s naive to think that lightwaves represent the fastest radiation. Einstein forgot to explain how can something be both relative and absolute at the same (constant) time. I find the confusion about the notion of light, mass, matter...shocking.
The spacetime model is mathematical acrobatics lacking physical sense. If it was understandable, the theory would lose its natural charm and would be consigned to the scrap heap.
I have not yet read the pdf document.
The quote below is from a letter written by Isaac Newton to fellow scientist, Robert Hooke in February 1675.
Either Newton was admitting that he was working in the light of discoveries made by fellow scientists, of his own time or earlier, or he was being sarcastic since Hooke, who had begun to disagree with some of Newton's theories, was reportedly quite short in height!
Nearly three hundred years since his death, Isaac Newton is as much a myth as a man. True or false? Ten myths about Isaac Newton | OUPblog
I think the best/most qualified intellect in describing matter and it's origin could very well be...Edgar Allen Poe! 🙂
It is humbling to contemplate the minds of historical figures who changed our perspective on reality. For us ordinary sort it's a bit like standing in your Dad's shoes when you were a boy...but their shoes are the size of rowboats. Both Newton and Einstein freely admitted that their discoveries were built on foundations laid by others. But when they finished building an entirely new view of nature was revealed. Newton's view prevailed for centuries and still rules the vast majority of Earthbound science. Einstein's view subtly modified Newton's and, in the realm he codified remains unchallenged 115 years later. Your comments run counter to those of every credible scientist and thinker I have read for over 50 years. Do you have more than broad vacuous statements to support them?
Do you mean something other than a YouTube video of a Lawyer explaining the mystical properties of magnetism?
A perfect parallel is James Burke's 'Connections' series from the 70's. Awesome chronological history of how technology built on previous invention to bring us to where we are. Nobody ever came up with anything from scratch. Not even the wheel.
The wheel was the easy part, just an extension of a rolling cylinder. The problem was fixing a stable platform to that cylinder. It took the invention of the axle to achieve that.
Nope. I came up with cocoa pancakes on my own.
I don't care if anyone else developed them concurrently.
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