Astronomy and Metal

[Zack]

I'm an avid astronomy nerd. On an astronomy forum I posted in, I conducted a survey and asked what kind of music astronomers listen to. When the results came in, 90% of them said metal. What I want to ask you guys is, what do you think of astronomy? If someone were to give you a book and a telescope, would you take the time to learn about it and use the scope, or would you brush it off? When I talk to some of my friends about it, they are really interested, even though they have no background in it. Can't wait to hear the results for this.
-Zack

 

[Kenneth R.]

i'd say yes, i'm into astronomy and the "bigger picture." it'd be interesting to know if in fact we are the only planet with civilization on it.

 

[dreamcatcher]

Someone did that. I brushed it off.

At least until I get an adapter or something to hook up my camera to it...

 

[Intoxicator]

i'd say yes, i'm into astronomy and the "bigger picture." it'd be interesting to know if in fact we are the only planet with civilization on it.

In fact, we probably aren't the only planet with civilization on it. The odds are against us being the only intelligent life in the universe. Of the 70 sextillion planets (I believe it is) in the universe, I'd be very surprised if there weren't any other advanced civilizations out there.

 

[no country for old wainds]

I find astronomy rather interesting and often beautiful, my dad's an obsessive.

 

[MasterOLightning]

I took a class called Highlights of Astronomy in the fall. It was pretty interesting, and didn't have any dense math. We have a large telescope on campus, and being able to look at Saturn and a nebula was a very cool experience. I plan on going back to observe sometime.

Life elsewhere is likely, and even certain if the universe is infinite.

 

[Zack]

Life elsewhere is likely, and even certain if the universe is infinite.

Life actually hasn't been proven to be infinite, it is possible that there are many universes that have sprouted off of a "mother" one. A good read on it is Parallel universes.
-Zack

 

[cthulufhtagn]

I'm not particularly mathematically inclined, but I find astronomy interesting and plan on taking a class by the time I graduate.

 

[Goreripper]

Astronomy is fucking cool.

 

[Intoxicator]

Life actually hasn't been proven to be infinite, it is possible that there are many universes that have sprouted off of a "mother" one. A good read on it is Parallel universes.
-Zack

I'm reading "Parallel Worlds" by Michio Kaku which talks about just that.

 

[Zack]

Scissors, I wasn't intelligent enough to write down the correct title of the book. "Parallel Worlds" is the one I'm talking about, what do you think so far?
-Zack

 

[ProjectedBlack]

I've always been interested and would most likely use a telescope if I had the chance because things like that are always cool. I took an astronomy class in highschool that was fairly advanced for a HS class and it was really interesting learning about all the things and the various theories behind them. Even if we are the only planet with intelligent life on it, the Universe is still an interesting place.

 

[Arch]

Hehe. Interesting observation (no pun intended). I've noticed that Vintersorg also have taken interests in astronomy as well. And there's a guy on UM that's majoring in astronomy.

 

[Darth Kur]

I'd be eternally grateful if someone bestowed a decent telescope complete with instructions. I have always been fascinated with the mysteries of space. In fact I seriously wanted to be an astronomer. Sadly I never had the drive to excel in college. Now pushing 40 and looking back I greatly lament the fact that I didn't get deeper into it.
I regularly read up on the subject via Space.com. That site is a cornucopia of information. There's not enough time in the day to read it all.
I'm also a firm believer of life elsewhere and other dimensions. I have personally seen UFO's on at least 3 separate occasions. Sadly none of which I had a camera, not that it would've shown anything more than a bright dot. And NO they were not friggen satellites. I can tell the difference. A video camera would've been perfect to have at hand. Although the first occurrence I seen one, vid cameras were not yet available.
All of that aside though it's sheer arrogance to believe that we are the sole source of intelligent life in the universe. The sheer number of other solar systems and other galaxies point to that fact. Even if the odds of evolution of sentient life is a bazillion to one the magnitude of countless numbers of systems in billions of galaxies makes it a given that life is elsewhere.

 

[no country for old wainds]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Varg's beliefs on the topic of aliens yet, har.

 

[-Desecrated-]

And there's a guy on UM that's majoring in astronomy.

Shadowthrone (who used to post on UM) is an Astronomy major. He has his bachelor's and he's doing graduate work/research right now and working on his doctorate.

Astronomy really doesn't interest me much. I don't care about life on other planets either. When we find such life, it'll probably end up being a member of the Archaea domain, feeding on the reduced inorganic molecules that are quite abundant on "lifeless" planets and thriving in extreme environments as they tend to do. And I'm not all that interested in sentient/intelligent life either. I'm interested in what's going on down here. I'm interested in things that I can actually manipulate.

 

[Cythraul]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Varg's beliefs on the topic of aliens yet, har.

what??!!! link plz!

 

[Zack]

I'd be eternally grateful if someone bestowed a decent telescope complete with instructions. I have always been fascinated with the mysteries of space. In fact I seriously wanted to be an astronomer. Sadly I never had the drive to excel in college. Now pushing 40 and looking back I greatly lament the fact that I didn't get deeper into it.

It's never too late. If you were just interested in having your profession be astronomy,then I guess it is. But if you just wanted to get to see some celestial objects, now is actually better than if you were in your youth. Now that you are an adult, you would most likely spend more time on it if you were really interested. Also, if you have a budget that allows, you can buy yourself all the equipment in the world. Even if you didn't, you can buy an extremely good quality scope for under 300 dollars. This doesn't dawn on many people, but binoculars are very good for observing because of their wide fields, and if there are good skies you can see 50% of what shows up in a telescope. It is great to have binoculars, because if you don't have a lot of time, you can get a quick observing session in with them. There's is loads more stuff I haven't told you, but if you are sincerely still interested go here:

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/community/forum/
These guys are experts, they'll help you with anything
-Zack

 

[unknown]

If somebody gave me a pretty nice telescope and some instructions, I would love it. I love the universe and everything. I find it awesome to look at (not too)distant planets and galaxies. Especially since I live in Los Angeles where you basically can't see any stars at night because of all of the light pollution. I would love a decent telescope.

 

[Intoxicator]

Scissors, I wasn't intelligent enough to write down the correct title of the book. "Parallel Worlds" is the one I'm talking about, what do you think so far?
-Zack

I finished it yesterday; it was excellent. Anyone with an interest in the cosmos should read it.