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Old 11-19-2007, 05:06 PM
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Variable
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Default Official Astronomy and Space Thread

I remember we had an Astronomy thread on the old Islamica... so here it is again for anyone interested in the starry night sky.



Pleides open star cluster - if you know where Orion is, follow the three belt stars in a line, and you'll see what some people think looks like a really little dipper. Check it out in a pair of binoculars and it's pretty cool.



A view towards the center of our own galaxy, it's also towards the constellation of Orion (which by the way is visible for us right now in the Northern Hemisphere). It's the most dense region of stars in the night sky.

(that thing that looks like a comet in this photo is actually the fuel plume from a booster rocket of a satellite launch)



Saturn



Crescent Nebula - They think it's a star in the last stages of it's life, beginning to eject it's gases into space. It's 4700 light-years away in Cygnus.



Here's a cool youtube video... kind of makes you feel small.

Planets and Star sizes
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