# All Questions

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### Enhanced Star-Gazing with Special Glasses

I watched a video yesterday on how telescopes not only magnify images but also increase the amount of light entering into your eye, allowing you to see things not normally visible with naked eye. ...
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### What are the azimuths of the planets' orbits?

I am creating a virtual solar system model and I want it to be as realistic as possible (e.g. orbits are ellipses, not circles, and orbits are oriented correctly, not all coplanar). In order for me ...
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### Given a date obtain latitude and longitude where is the sun zenith

Searching is easy to find terminator line (frontier between day and night) or the position of the sun in the sky given a position on the earth and a time; but I can't find how to obtain where is the ...
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### What decided how the Kepler space telescope was pointed?

I suppose that the Kepler field was well chosen. It is rich in stars and has minimal background light since it is pointing out from the disc. But other things could have been considered. For example, ...
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### How strong does a light source on the Moon have to be to be visible from Earth?

Flashes from some meteoroid impacts on the Moon can be seen with the naked eye. How much light must a future lunar base emit in order to be visible as a dot in the lunar night (like the flag of ...
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### Is there a theory / equation showing whether or not two passing bodies will go into orbit around each other?

I am looking for a theory that shows whether or not two passing celestial bodies will go into orbit. I assume there would have to be a critical point where the gravitational attraction is stronger ...
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### PowerSeeker 114Q

I just purchased a powerseeker 114q by Celestron. This is my very first telescope. I believe I assembled it correctly however I can't see anything out of it. Well I can see a small corner of an image. ...
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### Is the North star going to stay in the North sky?

Considering how the our solar system, and how every other star in the galaxy is traveling through the cosmos, it seems like it's a miracle that the stars and constellations in the sky stay as constant ...
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### Were magnetic monopoles created before, during or after inflation?

In the case that magnetic monopoles exist, when were they created? I thought that all particles were created after inflation, but I've read some comments recently that hint at a pre-inflationary ...
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### How are errors on X-ray photon index propagated to X-ray spectral index?

I have seen that in X-ray astronomy, astronomers often talk in terms of photon index $\Gamma$, which is related to spectral index $\alpha$ by relation $\Gamma$ = $\alpha$ + 1. Are the errors on ...
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### How to tell a nebula from a galaxy?

Not all galaxies are spiral in shape[1][2], some nebulae are huge[3] and nebula are the nursery of stars[4]. How to tell them apart? Note I have already compare the contents for galaxy and a nebula, ...
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### Habitable Planet around Red Dwarf

Is there the possibility for a habitable Planet around a red dwarf? It is not required that the whole surface is habitable, but it shouldn't be a tiny spot. After reading a bit I assume the planet ...
37 views

### Can asteroids contain atmosphere?

Gas is abundance in the universe, can a massive asteroid draws in these gas forming a thin atmosphere?
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### Would a human body float in the dense atmosphere of Venus?

To survive high in the atmosphere of Venus, all you would nead to wear is suit that protects you from the sulfuric acid vapors in the air and a supply of breathable air. Assuming (for simplicity) that ...
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### X-ray flare questions

I search the reference papers about flare, but nobody said something about below clearly. Could anyone give some help? If a single X-ray decay without eclipse or other irrelevant factors is not able ...
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### When the universe expands does it create new space, matter, or something else?

I am wondering what exactly is meant when it is said the universe expands. Does it simply create new space for matter to fill, does it also create new matter/dark matter to fill that space, or am I ...
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### How are boulders formed on asteroids?

For example: Are they soft landed meteorites? Or do they form from melted material during a violent impact? Or are they the result of some kind of erosion process?
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### which or what kind of star has a very stable luminosity?

I mean those kind of stars should be very stable and barely have activity. Their light curves should be very very flat. Our sun, as a G type star, are not so stable. At lest there are lots of ...
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### How can we derive photometric redshift?

Is there any good tool than can derive photometric redshift or good reference paper? We need to assess photometric redshift based on GALEX(Fnu and Nuv), Sloan(ugriz) and 2mass(jhk) magnitudes. Could ...
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### How deep and shaped is the depth of a black hole?

A common representation of a black hole is a black circle which if I'm correct, indicates its breadth. This representation depicts it as a 'plate', so a really small depth compared to its breadth. ...
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### Calculating RA/dec from JPL ephemeris data

I'm using JPL planetary ephemerides to calculate the position of planets. Using DE405 ephemeris (using a parser provided by Project Pluto with all tests passing). I am fetching the position of Mars ...
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### Circular formation around the moon

I have seen a large circular formation of cloud around the full moon sometimes. Have anyone seen the same? What is the reason behind this formation? Due to lunar attraction? Most of the sky is empty ...
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### Is there a general term for epicycles, deferents, and eccentrics in Ptolemaic astronomy?

According to Ptolemy's (c. 150 CE) account of the motions of planets, planets moved in circular paths ("epicycles") around center points that in turn moved around the center of the earth along a path ...
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### Concerning fate of Milky Way Galaxy

Andromeda Galaxy is the largest galaxy in the galaxy cluster[1] called Local Group[2] and our Milky Way Galaxy as well as some satellite/dwarf galaxies are orbiting around each other within Local ...
51 views

### How long for a complete solar system cycle

Considering the solar system as a closed system, how long until all the planets pass twice by the same position relative to each other? I would say that you'd have to get the length of the year in ...
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### What's the difference between grism and grating?

In spectroscopic observations, sometimes you meet grism, sometimes grating. Both of them could cause light dispersion, but what is the difference?
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### SETI and Black Holes [on hold]

Given our current knowledge of the physical universe isn't it reasonable to assume that advanced civilizations would eventually chose to migrate toward the black hole in the center of the galaxy they ...
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### How to calculate magnitude of a star in a triple star system?

I want to find a star's magnitude in a triple star. I already knew the the magnitude of the triple star and the other two star, but I don't quit know how to solve it. Is there a way to find it?
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### Is there a legend for these 88 HST images?

Is there a legend for these 88 Hubble Space Telescope images? I have a 6000px x 4800 px version of this image (reduced & rotated to 480x600 here) that I use for an image slide show. I would ...
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### What is the direction of a comet's dust tail before and after perihelion?

I recently created a visualisation of comet ISON's orbit. However, I received a critique that the dust tail of the comet should be pointing away from the Sun after perihelion. As far as I know, the ...
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### How can I find out which known stars lie within or close to M8

I'm looking for a way to find stars within a certain region of space, the Lagoona Nebula in this case, based on what we currently know. Are there some databases that allow you to make such queries? ...
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### Could there be a closer star to Earth than the Alpha Centauri triple star system, excluding the Sun? [duplicate]

Do we know for certain that the nearest star to Earth, excluding the Sun and the theorized Nemesis, is the Alpha Centauri multiple star system, at +/-4.4 light-years away? Have we been able to ...
156 views

### Are black holes solely responsible for hyper velocity stars?

I read that the stars orbiting around Sagittarius A* (a.k.a the supermassive black hole located at the heart of the Milky Way) move very fast (many times faster than our Sun moves across the galaxy), ...
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### Was the Universe expanding before the beginning of inflation?

My point of view is that first there was the Big Bang singularity, and then the period of inflation which resulted in the observable Universe becoming many times bigger. But was the Universe expanding ...
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### How come, in our lifetime, we will see the first stars which ever formed?

Isn't it an unlikely coincidence that we live in such special times, that we will have observatories (JWST) that see all the way back to the first starlight in the universe? Are we dreaming, and is it ...
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### What are the most popular computer programming languages in observational astronomy?

I would like to work in the field of observational astronomy (not so much theoretical astronomy). I currently know two computer programming languages: C# and MATLAB. I have read that computer ...
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### Why are there no green stars?

There are red stars, and orange stars, and yellow stars, and blue stars, and they are all understandable save the fact that there is a 'gap': There are no green stars. Is this because of hydrogen's ...
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### What is a possible software for simulating binary star systems?

I would like to define both initial velocities and masses of components so that orbits may be either elliptical of hyperbolic. Is there any software to make such simulation? Unfortunately, Binary ...
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### Method to determine the amount of reflected starlight necessary for an exoplanet to be visible from a given distance/angle?

What is the method to determine the amount of reflected starlight necessary for an exoplanet to be visible from a given distance/angle? (Not from occlusion but actually visible on its own.) Further, ...
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### What are quasars? [closed]

What are quasars? Is there any difference between quasars and normal stars like our sun? How long will they live? When a quasar dies, will it be a black hole or a massive explosion? How strong is its ...
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### Magnetar and black hole [on hold]

What would happen if a magnetar and a black hole got close to each other?
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### How to find RA 0

I am standing in an open area and can see the sky for a full 360 degrees. I have the coordinates of an object (RA and DEC). Where do I look to find RA 0?
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### Examples of Equal Mass, Unequal Mass and Double Binary Star Systems

Can anyone give me an example of a star (ideally those with a common name e.g. Rigel, Sirius, etc) of the following multiple star systems. Equal Mass Star System, where two binary stars orbit round a ...
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### How to calculate position of an unknown star knowing positions of some other stars from an image?

Suppose I know the coordinates (right ascension and declination) of the stars marked with red. How should I calculate the coordinates of an unknown star, marked with yellow? Searching over the web, ...
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### Astronomical databases for machine learning?

I was reading this question about open problems in astronomy. The bounty-receiving answer says that I have just left the field where some colleagues are trying to develop some software to use ...
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### Does the Sun belong to a constellation?

Each new star we find is generally considered to be part of the constellation it is nearest to. Our Sun is obviously a star, just much closer. Is our Sun part of any constellation? If so, which ...
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### Precessing of the Earth

It's been known that the Earth's axial tilt varies from 22.5 to 24.5. Does this result in a wobbling while the value of the tilt varies about these two limits? If so, how does it affect the mechanics ...
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### How do I get from Star Atlas to real life?

This question is about finding the elevation and bearing of a given star at a particular time at Latitude 52N. I look up the RA and Declination of my star. How do I calculate its RA and elevation at ...