Your favourite planets/celestial bodies

[mke]

I chose Jupiter, because of its sheer size and its big red dot. Saturn is a close second, with its asteroid ring.

I just realised the moon and a generic "other planets' moon(s)" could have been added.

[Brian Olewnick]

Neptune: the AMM of planets.

[SinginSumo]

Venus: Planet of Love, home of the Mons

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

[john williams]

[Dr Dave]

Asteroids rock!

[Gary Sisco]

I chose Jupiter because I got to look at it very clearly through a telescope once. Awesome. And seeing its several moons (and their shadows) was also a kick. That was some fun stuff. Way out in the Pacific, where there wasn't any ambient light to mess up the view. Looking at the moon under those conditions was also a real treat, as its so close you could really see incredible detail, with only a telescope that a high school geek might own.

This month has been great for planet viewing with the naked eye. There are several in sight on clear nights.

[Monte Smith]

I've been a fan of astronomy since ninth grade. W.T. Woodson High School was fortunate enough to have a planetarium and I took the astronomy course taught by a retired lifeguard who was really into the Moody Blues. So to me, the night sky is something you gaze at while listening to Knights in White Satin. Also this teacher, who was a very cool guy really, had a bug in his brain about subliminal messages in rock albums. He thought it was utter calumny that certain hard rock groups were accused of hiding backwards satanic messages in their albums. So one day in astronomy class he demonstrated the harmlessness of Led Zeppelin IV to us by playing the reel-to-reel backwards. Thanks, Teach. It's a good little piece of knowledge to have, to go along side the ability to recognize Cassiopeia and the Southern Cross.

I'm also a big nut for space exploration, so choosing my favorite celestial body was a little difficult. I've had my eyes trained on many of them, having also taken an astronomy and a cosmology class in college, where we all peered thru the big telescope at the college's proper observatory. In the end it came down to home, though. Existence is a beautiful thing and that is all made possible by the sun. The sun was therefore my second choice, deferring only to the Earth itself.

I root for the home team.

Gooooooo Earth!!

[Vince Kargatis]

My having been trained in astronomy, the "Other" option strikes me as just a tad understated, given it includes the overwhelming bulk of observed "celestial" bodies.

[clinthopson]

Pluto, bedcause it soooo cool.

In my age group, Sohia Loren will always be a heavenly body.

[Enforcer]

I'm still waiting for one of the cynics to comment on how overrated the sun is. No Jazz Corner thread would be complete without a post like that.

Larry

[Chris D]

Saturn. Rings, baby, rings.

[Monte Smith]

Originally posted by Larry Nagel
I'm still waiting for one of the cynics to comment on how overrated the sun is. No Jazz Corner thread would be complete without a post like that.

How can you be cool toward a flaming ball of gas? Plus, it's the yellow color of our star that gives Kal-El his amazing superhuman powers.

[mke]

Originally posted by Vince Kargatis
My having been trained in astronomy, the "Other" option strikes me as just a tad understated, given it includes the overwhelming bulk of observed "celestial" bodies.

Yeah, but you can only put so many options in a poll.

[walto]

Both Mars and The Milky Way have candy bars named after them. That's good enough for me.

[stonemonkts]

Originally posted by Larry Nagel
I'm still waiting for one of the cynics to comment on how overrated the sun is. No Jazz Corner thread would be complete without a post like that.

Larry

I can't believe I'm the only person to vote for the Sun!

The rest of them are pissants compared to the Sun. Try and evolve for 4 billion years without it, see how far you get.

Pluto my ass.

[walto]

If it's so great, where are the Nestle and Hershey folks? Sorry, that pig won't grunt.

Milky Way, baby!

[stonemonkts]

Originally posted by walto
If it's so great, where are the Nestle and Hershey folks? Sorry, that pig won't grunt.

Milky Way, baby!

Make it a frozen, lifeless, and indifferent one, and maybe I'm swayed.

[Rob C]

I've always been a Jupiter man, myself. All those gas giants are cool, man.

Somehow I just knew Monte would vote for Earth.

[graypencil]

Originally posted by Larry Nagel
I'm still waiting for one of the cynics to comment on how overrated the sun is. No Jazz Corner thread would be complete without a post like that.

Larry

I'm just amazed we haven't had any bad Uranus jokes yet ...

I posted "other" because I like the Pleiades ..and Carmen Electra wasn't an option

[Alastair]

Originally posted by bostontricky
Not to mention Jean Seberg and all the rest of Alastair's (and everyone else's) muses...

And the latest is...

[lynn]

The constellation Orion - the perfect companion on a winter's night. I like the 7 Sisters star cluster also - BTW how about that beautiful Venus / Crecent Moon convergence!!!!

[john williams]

Originally posted by Larry Nagel
I'm still waiting for one of the cynics to comment on how overrated the sun is. No Jazz Corner thread would be complete without a post like that.

Larry

The whole universe is totally overrated, I just never dug it at all. What a waste of space.


Lynn: Orion is our summer constellation here in Australia and I spent many a night on my summer holidays gazing through a friend's telescope at the Orion Nebula/Trapezium, Pleiades/Seven Sisters and Saturn, whilst we also counted satellites and drank ales. I live in the country and the skies are fantastic away from the cities.

[Monte Smith]

How about the Southern Cross, Aussies? I used to look at that shit in Paraguay. It's nice.

[GoodSpeak]

I kinda like it right here on Earth, thank you ;-)

[john williams]

Monte: The southern sky is terrific. The Southern Cross region of the sky is cool too with the Coalsack (dark nebula nestled in the bottom left part of the cross in photo), the pointers (Alpha and Beta centuri - left in photo), the stunning Eta Carina Nebula (right in photo) and the amazing galaxy Centaurus A in the most impressive of our southern constellations.




Centaurus A


Centaurus the Centaur
Written by Pam Eastlick of the University of Guam.
Although Crux the Southern Cross is probably more famous in northern latitudes, there is no question that Centaurus the Centaur is the most magnificent of the southern constellations. It's the ninth largest constellation and it contains two of the ten brightest stars. No other constellation can make this claim although Orion the Hunter and Crux the Southern Cross each contain two of the twenty brightest stars. Centaurus also contains the closest star to the sun, the best globular cluster, and has its own meteor shower. It does not contain any Messier objects because the constellation is too far south for Messier to have seen it.

That wasn't the case 2,000 years ago, however, when precession had carried the southern stars of spring into the view of the ancient Greeks. They could see the Southern Cross and all the stars of the Centaur. Although there are conflicting reports from ancient Greek sources, most seem to agree that this centaur whose name was Chiron was a wise and benevolent being as opposed to the war-like Sagittarius. Some sources say he was the tutor for Heracles who accidentally wounded his teacher with a poisoned arrow. He begged Zeus to grant the noble creature immortality in the sky. Centaurus is traditionally depicted as carrying Lupus the Wolf to sacrifice on Ara the Altar.

Centaurus contains Alpha and Beta Centauri, the third and tenth brightest stars in the sky. (Note: Some lists name Betelgeuse in Orion as the tenth brightest star, but Betelgeuse is a variable star making its ranking difficult). Alpha Centauri (proper name Rigel Kentaurius) is bright only because it is close and it is the closest star to the sun at 4.3 light years away. Alpha Centauri is a triple star system.

Beta Centauri (proper name Hadar) is a blue-white super giant and in about 4,000 years, the proper motion of Alpha Centauri will carry it close enough to Beta Centauri that they will appear to be a magnificent double star. Since Beta Centauri is about 300 light years away, they will be an optical double. Now the two stars look like two eyes, the right one (Beta) distinctly blue. They are called the 'pointer stars' since they point to the Southern Cross to the west. Some of the Australian aboriginals call them 'The Two Men that once were Lions'. Other aboriginals call them the twins that created the world.

Centaurus also contains Omega Centauri (NGC 5139), the largest and richest globular cluster in the sky. It looks like a 4th magnitude star to those lucky enough to see it, but through even a small telescope the stars resolve into pinpoints of light. The cluster is larger than the full moon. Centaurus also has its very own meteor shower, the alpha Centaurids that are best on the eighth of February.

Centaurus also contains 20 open clusters and several galaxies including Centaurus A (NGC 5128), one of the brightest radio objects in the sky. It also contains a significant portion of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and the river of stars through Centaurus is an awesome sight on a dark moonless night. Centaurus contains over 100 visible stars (brighter than 5.5 magnitude).

Centaurus is a magnificent sight on a balmy spring night (it reaches culmination on 30 March) or a pleasant fall evening if you live in the Southern hemisphere. Centaurus is truly a jewel of the southern sky.

http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/con...Centaurus.html

[Monte Smith]

Neat, JBW. By the way, your shooting star avatar is the coolest.

[john williams]

Yes this summer convinced me I'm going to save my pennies and buy a telescope similar to my friend's from Sydney. Like the one pictured, A Schmidt-Cassegrain with tracking motor. Its so cool, I've set up standard Newtonians with equatorial mount which is a chore, but it takes about 5 minutes to set up one of these gizmos. It comes with preset objects by name, or Messier/NGC numbers. Look it up hit go and watch it track and follow, easy, and it all runs on a handfull of AAs. Not new technology but its always been out of my reach until recently.

[Monte Smith]

Aw man. I used to have a pretty nice refracting telescope, but it got busted up in a move. Never have handled a good reflecting telescope.

[moneyp]

I'm withholding my answer until our goals of manned flights to Jupiter (to get more stupider), Mars (to get more candy bars) and Venus (to get a big penis) are complete.