The Official Astronomy Thread

Europa · 10-16-2009, 06:17 AM

This is one of the greatest movie opening scenes of all time IMO. It is from the 1997 movie Contact. I highly recommend it if you have not seen it. The book was written by Carl Sagan, who sadly died from cancer 6 months before the release of the movie.

I recommend clicking the Youtube link, rather than the play button, so you can see it in HQ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGyq7d62oPQ

Napoleon_PhoneApart · 10-16-2009, 08:23 AM

I haven't watched your video yet, but my favorite scene from "Contact" is the opening pullback from Earth. Now I'll watch it and see if yours is as well.

EDIT: Yep!

Europa · 10-16-2009, 08:28 AM

Did you get to see it at the theater? It's so cool on the big screen!

Napoleon_PhoneApart · 10-16-2009, 09:53 AM

I'm pretty sure I did.

Europa · 10-16-2009, 10:52 AM

Nebula set to The Moonlight Sonata.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x41n9thAU8

Europa · 10-16-2009, 10:04 PM

This is one of my favorites photos of our sister galaxy. The milky way is moving toward it and the two galaxies will eventually merge.

Napoleon_PhoneApart · 10-16-2009, 10:07 PM

About three billion years until they meet.

Europa · 10-16-2009, 10:22 PM

Yep, it will be a while.

This map of the milky way is a compilation of multiple images taken from Earth and rendered to give the illusion that it was taken from a vantage point outside the galaxy. I got it out of Astronomy magazine in the late 90's and it's been framed on my wall in my computer room ever since. I took 5 shots of it with my iPhone and stitched them with the Autostitch app to make a panorama.

Europa · 10-17-2009, 11:58 AM

I made this in Photoshop. It's not very realistic, but I took the time to add in some real constellations.

KrakaJap · 10-18-2009, 07:19 PM

Very cool Photoshop image!!!

I just purchased Contact on BluRay! Woohoo!

Does anyone know off the top of their head who narrates Backyard Astronomer? It's part of The Universe series. The guy sounds a lot like Sagan but I'm fairly certain it's not given the release date of the first episode. Although they do reuse footage sometimes.

BTW I'm working with a company in Texas to develop some sort of iPhone adapter for telescope eyepieces. First time I've ever looked into doing something like this and it seems to be quite expensive. I may end up talking to one of our CAD instructors on campus to see if maybe we could work something out cheaper. We own 2 fabricators, one of which has it's own 360 spherical laser scanner but I'm afraid to stick my iPhone in that thing to get some accurate measurements. LOL

so... if anyone has an old, broken iPhone 2G or 3G they would like to donate let me know

I haven't seen anything like this before so I'm hoping I can be the first on the market!