A Mysterious Light In Keeps Switching On and Off. Now, We Know Why.
A dozen of the world’s best were enlisted to explain the behavior of object that has puzzled scientists for more than a decade.The campaign involving 12 telescopes has revealed that these cosmic switches are flipped by energetic interactions between a jet and a disk shaped by a , a type of pulsing dead . vice.com/en/article/jg5dw8/a-m

#space #telescopes #j1023 #pulsar #star

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Khurram Wadee ✅ · @mkwadee
1532 followers · 14877 posts · Server mastodon.org.uk
steve dustcircle ⍻ · @dustcircle
359 followers · 11640 posts · Server masto.ai
R. Nicole · @appagalcrochet
428 followers · 2814 posts · Server mstdn.social

Saturn looks like a tiny gold flying saucer going across my viewfinder! No pics yet but camera attach is on back order.

Collimation was a cinch!
🤓😁



#telescopes #clearskies #Astronomy

Last updated 1 year ago

Mike Burr · @mburr
10 followers · 168 posts · Server stranger.social

3/3> With regard to the vacuum:
1. maintain the vacuum (actively) until you don't at which case it's "broken" (??)
2. somehow stiffen the unsupported mylar
3. combine: a low vacuum has more forgiving error bars and is easier to maintain

I can see a couple of mists of superglue might adhere the mylar enough. doing that N times might obviate the vacuum.

I imagine the contact points forming a beehive with more hexagons where smaller radius.

#astronomy #physics #telescopes #maker #3dprinting

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Mike Burr · @mburr
10 followers · 166 posts · Server stranger.social

2/3> I cannot exactly gauge how precise you can get shaping the scaffold without going crazy with equipment.
The shape of a mylar drum skin on a cylinder under vacuum surely is not perfect. The scaffold serves two purposes:

Support the mylar in select places +/-Z to hold shape
Correct for the imperfections of a mylar vacuum drum skin

#astronomy #physics #telescopes #maker #3dprinting

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Mike Burr · @mburr
10 followers · 166 posts · Server stranger.social

1/2> I would like to investigate building a usable Newtonian primary mirror using 'novel methods'.

If you haven't seen mylar concave mirrors go look it up.

Plans: 3d print scaffold to support a sheet of mylar, seated (glue?) with careful tolerance. The finished scaffold itself needs to be "optical tolerances". So the "scaffold" needs to form the right shape (parabolic) minus a sheet laying on top of mylar thickness.

Fools' errand?

#astronomy #physics #telescopes #maker #3dprinting

Last updated 1 year ago

shutters major -funded for more than 2 weeks
A mysterious “cyber incident” at center coordinating international astronomy efforts has knocked out of commission major telescopes in and since the beginning of August. Officials have halted all operations at 10 telescopes, and at a few others only in-person observations can be conducted.
science.org/content/article/cy

#cyberattack #NSF #telescopes #nationalsciencefoundation #hawaii #chile

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IT News · @itnewsbot
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Rogue planets may be more numerous than stars in our galaxy - Enlarge / An artist's conception of an ice-encrusted rogue planet. (cre... - arstechnica.com/?p=1959519

#science #astronomy #telescopes #exoplanets #rogueplanets

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Tech news from Canada · @TechNews
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Queer Lit Cats · @QLC
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IT News · @itnewsbot
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Communal stargazing using your phone: The Unistellar eQuinox 2, reviewed - Enlarge / The eQuinox 2 is ready for sundown in central Illinois. No ey... - arstechnica.com/?p=1957544

#tech #space #equinox2 #cosmology #astronomy #unistellar #telescopes

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Tech news from Canada · @TechNews
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Elizabeth Howell PhD (she/her) · @howellspace
1165 followers · 393 posts · Server qoto.org

Celebrate 400 years of maps for anniversary (gallery).

, ship navigation and spurred the first detailed charts of Earth's nearest neighbor.

space.com/nasa-apollo-11-400-y

#moon #apollo11 #telescopes #eclipses

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Hacker News · @ycombinator
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Tech news from Canada · @TechNews
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Tech news from Canada · @TechNews
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CosmicRami · @CosmicRami
1165 followers · 561 posts · Server aus.social

In about a week, an important chapter in and Australian space heritage will come to a close.

The Molongolo Observatory, operating for 58 years and the last Mills Cross in Aust. will cease operations. 😭

The telescope recently had received some upgrades, but after almost 60 years of operations - its time has come.

It's had an incredible run, hosting over 50 PhDs, mapping the southern skies and training a generation of radio astronomers.

The design was pioneered by the work of Bernard Mills, with a prototype, known as the Mills Cross once developed at the Fleurs field station in Badgery's Creek in Sydney - where the new airport is currently being built.

It's also where a memorial and a small container of ashes of the radio astronomer pioneer, Grote Reber, are located (other telescopes also have Reber memorials too).

Over its time, this telescope has made such a significant impact in astronomy.

Besides the historical impact, MOST also was in recent times doing some excellent FRB science, and of course, all these years of knowledge in the radio astro community + instrumentation + survey results will go towards the SKA project.

So, now we say goodbye to a fantastic piece of Australian science infrastructure that holds a special place in the hearts of many who have come to know this gentle giant.

But we celebrate and thank its huge contribution to radio astronomy for nearly 60 years!

spaceaustralia.com/feature/ico

📸 UTMOST / B. Pedersen / TROVE nla.gov.au/nla.obj-137782825/v

#radioastronomy #SpaceAustralia #Astrodon #telescopes #scienec #spaceheritage

Last updated 1 year ago