Nice pissing contest, guys. ROTFLMAO

What is that bright thing to the left of the crescent tonight? Last night or two it was so freaking bright! I watched it long enough to rule out a plane...

Is that your picture, 2L?

far

I see the moon shining it's path on the ocean and it's silvery and magical and you guys talk about.... sheesh, you talk about...

The moon. It's so beautiful.

Believer...

I need to talk badly... can you email your phone? or call me>
jim

Could it be a star, FAR?
<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Appy effed goofy???

<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

Starkle starkle little twink,
who the he11 you are I think.
I'm not under what you call
the alcofluence of incohol;
I'm just a little slort of sheep,
I'm not drunk like tinkle peep.
I don't know who is me yet,
but the drunker I stand here
the longer I get.
Just give me one more drink
to fill me cup
'cuz I got all day sober
to Sunday up.

Ah, but the details are beautiful, 2!

I'm known for:

Taking tons of telescope, computer, and camera equipment into the mountains on "star parties", setting up and getting everything polar aligned, and still...

...laying back in a lawn chair, leaving even the binoculars in their case, and just looking up...


There is just so much beauty in the night sky. Sadly, many people who live in the Big City don't realize it, because they've never seen more than a handful of bright stars in all that sky glow.

-ol' 2long

Far:

That's Venus! Third brightest na2ral object in the sky.

I used 2 work there, 2.

-ol' 2long

Kimmy, jeesh, how many times do we need to ask you to put that bottle down.

Ok, this one is for Venus... and our moonstruck friends -

Now that she’s back in the atmosphere
With drops of jupiter in her hair, hey, hey
She acts like summer and walks like rain
Reminds me that there’s time to change, hey, hey
Since the return from her stay on the moon
She listens like spring and she talks like june, hey, hey

Tell me did you sail across the sun
Did you make it to the milky way to see the lights all faded
And that heaven is overrated

Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star
One without a permanent scar
And did you miss me while you were looking at yourself out there

Now that she’s back from that soul vacation
Tracing her way through the constellation, hey, hey
She checks out mozart while she does tae-bo
Reminds me that there’s time to grow, hey, hey

Now that she’s back in the atmosphere
I’m afraid that she might think of me as plain ol’ jane
Told a story about a man who is too afraid to fly so he never did land

Tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet
Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day
And head back to the milky way
And tell me, did venus blow your mind
Was it everything you wanted to find
And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there

Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken
Your best friend always sticking up for you even when I know you’re wrong
Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance five-hour phone
Conversation
The best soy latte that you ever had . . . and me

Tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet
Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day
And head back toward the milky way

It's not Pluto. He's twinkling on Dealan-de's lawn.

>Kimmy, jeesh, how many times do we need to ask you to put that bottle down.


Wot's that?

Come again?

One more time?

The Galaxy Song

<spoken>
Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown,
And things seem hard or tough,
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,
<sung>
And you feel that you've had quite eno-o-o-o-o-ough,

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And reolving at nine thousand miles an hour.
It's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
'Round the sun that is the source of all our power.
Now the sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day,
In the outer spiral arm, at fourteen thousand miles an hour,
Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred million stars;
It's a hundred thousand light-years side to side;
It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-years thick,
But out by us it's just three thousand light-years wide.
We're thirty thousand light-years from Galactic Central Point,
We go 'round every two hundred million years;
And our galaxy itself is one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

<waltz>

Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
In all of the directions it can whiz;
As fast as it can go, that's the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth;
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!

I must quote this song again...

"Lament for a Red Planet" - Jonathan Eberhart

"Ten thousand times a hundred thousand dusty years ago,
Where now extends the Plain of Gold did once my river flow.
It stroked the stones and spoke in tongues and splashed against my face
Till ages rolled - the Sun shone cold on this unholy place.

So many stars bedeck my skies, when once there were but few,
But oh, to know again the clouds that hid them from my view.
My ochred cliffs and rusted sands stand regal and serene,
But oh, my wan and wasted world, I miss your blue and green.

But it's just the weight of waiting, not a deathwatch o'er a friend.
Tomorrow has a starting as does yesterday an end.
For the water of my river and the air that was my wind,
Though bound in rocks and wintry wastes, I pray may flow again."

-ol' 2long

To see a cool picture of the moon occulting the Pleiades, complete with earthshine: http://www.spaceweather.com/ .

Pay no attention to those holes in the Sun though.


For an interesting explanation of “the new moon in the old moon’s arms” and “the moon hanging by its horns,” which is supposed to signal the end of the world, BTW, see: http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...STOMERSERVICE02 .

And then there is a Blue Moon.


I think I could make out the phase of Venus with my naked eye last night. Observing conditions were almost perfect.

Kiwi:

Speaking of gorgeous sights in the night sky, you must have had a great view of Comet McNaught, right?

http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/mcnaught/21jan07/Guisard.jpg

This image even has the moon with Earthshine in the lower right.

-ol' 2long

Him and the neighbor kids.

Speaking of moons...

http://skytonight.com/news/Earth_Second__Moon.html

-ol' 2long

This object was noticed in certain radar returns a while ago.

The probability of a natural object interacting with earth-moon is low during the current epoch of the solar system's evolution. But, once one does interact the probability of it doing so again goes way up, even though it may wander off again for a long while.

This was a big controversy back in the 50's and 60's. Took supercomputers in the 80's to work out the gravitational dynamics and quantify it.

I can't remember off the top of my head if it is Glese or Barnard's Star that will get very close to Sol (less than 3 light-years) in about 10K years. But, it will be inside the Oort Cloud (of comets) and probably initiate another long period of bombardment of the inner solar system like what cratered the moon and early earth.

Glad I won't be around, actually.

Interesting, we've gone from a beautiful romantic moon over sparkling water to certain flaming death and destruction.

Curious place, MB.

I'm just reading. My fingerprints and photo aren't anywhere where anyone could identify me.

I did dream that I went to the red planet one night and walked around looking at the equipment. Then I called 2long, and explained what the footprints were, so he could explain them to the rest of the staff. "Sorry" I said, I'll try not to do it again.

Cloudy here, probably no visible moon tonight.

SS