Star geeks

[RiderInBlack]

And my .... what the sun shines out of.

That map of the sky is so much easier to grok than calculating azimuths.

Where do I find them?

Now why doesn't it surprise me that Big Dave would be a "Stranger In A Strange Land"

[Big Dave]

how exactly do you tell which way is south using the sthn x??

I park the co-pilot's car underneath it and use the GPS.

[Big Dave]

Now why doesn't it surprise me that Big Dave would be a "Stranger In A Strange Land"

I'm an alien - I'm a legal alien.

[Usarka]

http://www.landyspares.co.za/landyspares/gps/crux.htm



Skyryder

Chur... I said 2 x the length so it sounded like i knew what i was talking about so not too bad for a stab in the dark.

I'm with southern cross and my money goes south..... is that also a way of telling.....

[captain_andrey]

And my .... what the sun shines out of.

That map of the sky is so much easier to grok than calculating azimuths.

Where do I find them?

I use http://www.heavens-above.com/ for all my celestial needs. Its a bit ugly looking but has all the data you need.

And just as a note, the number one question for newbie stargazers is:

Q. Why does the sky chart have east on the left and west on the right?
A. The reason the chart seems to have east and west flipped, is because it is meant to correspond to the sky over your head, and not the ground under your feet like a map of the earth. You have to imagine holding the chart above your head to use it, and then the directions are correct.

[1 Free Man]

Yep It's the spacey guy from work, He said he thinks he left the park lights on.

[Skyryder]

Venus is generally the brightest object in the sky (Obviously apart from the sun, the moon, ISS and some Iridium flares)
Its currently at -3.8 and Jupiter is at -2.3

I have not looked up the difference in magnatude so assume that these are correct. On these magnatudes Venus is the brightest.

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/icq/MagScale.html


The larger the number the dimmer the star. The sun is at -26.


Skyryder

[Virago]

The figures are correct.

At -3.8 (note the negative), Venus is much brighter than Jupiter at -2.3.

[RiderInBlack]

Magnitude.

The units used to describe brightness of astronomical objects. The smaller the numerical value, the brighter the object. The human eye can detect stars to 6th or 7th magnitude on a dark, clear night far from city lights; in suburbs or cities, stars may only be visible to mag 2 or 3 or 4, due to light pollution. The brightest star, Sirius, shines at visual magnitude -1.5. Jupiter can get about as bright as visual magnitude -3 and Venus as bright as -4. The full moon is near magnitude -13, and the sun near mag -26. Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake) reached magnitude about 0 in late March 1996. The magnitude scale is logarithmic, with a difference of one magnitude corresponding to a change of about 2.5 times in brightness; a change of 5 magnitudes is defined as a change of exactly 100 times in brightness.

Sweet. Thanks Dudes.