Great to see everyone at AstroFest today. Must admit I do like the location for AstroFest – BUT – it really is far too small for all the exhibitors, and the crush is now getting rather unpleasant. It is way past time to find a new venue for this one.
Got a few clear hours a couple of nights ago and set up the mini-WASP array on the Meissa nebulosity – all 3 cameras/scopes up and running for this one 🙂 Got 8 x 20-minutes of RGB on each camera, so although I only imaged for 160 minutes I actually managed to grab 8 hours worth of data. Now that’s what this project has been all about 🙂 🙂
Time travel into the future has always been possible, Einstein’s equations of Special Relativity have shown us that for well over a hundred years. We have also seen it practically here on Earth where some short-lived cosmic ray particles traveling near the speed of light actually make it down to the Earth’s surface, because they live longer than they “should” as they are traveling so fast. This is Physics fact. Time slows down for a fast moving object, or to put it another way, a fast moving object moves faster through time than a slow moving object. A slow moving object says that fast moving clocks run slow – same difference. An object moving quickly through space also moves more quickly through time compared to a slow moving object, space and time are inextricably linked together in a weird structure called space-time. Einstein told us all this over a century ago. This is Physics fact. So we know that time-travel into the future is possible, we have actually seen it in practice. What about time-travel into the past? Suppose that time travel is possible, but just like (the increase in) entropy, it’s only possible in one direction.This would be very convenient, it removes the well-known time traveler’s paradox of traveling into the past and killing either yourself or your parents before you were born. No such paradox occurs for time travel into the future. Problem solved?
Time travel is possible, but just like entropy, it’s only possible in one direction.
This is also great from an information content point of view. You can’t travel into the future and cause disruption by supplying more information than they already have. You can’t for instance travel into the future any provide any meaningful information on Lottery numbers or Pools wins, again that’s pretty convenient – no paradoxes.
Time travel is possible, but just like entropy, it’s only possible in one direction.
In all modesty I would like this to be known as Greg’s Fundamental Law of Time Travel 🙂
Two very nice open clusters, quite low down in the sky for me, in the constellation Puppis. These are M46 (on the left) and M47 (on the right). There are also two other open clusters as well as two planetary nebulae in this image. Between M46 & M47 towards the lower part of the frame is NGC 2425, and above M47 is NGC 2423. A planetary nebula can be seen in M46, and there is a second planetary to be seen as well. Move upwards from the planetary in M46 to the first brightish white star you can find. Then move away from this star in the 11 O’clock direction – the fuzzy round red blob is not a Carbon star, it is another planetary nebula. Plenty going on in this single frame image from the mini-WASP array, expertly processed by Noel Carboni.
I’ve just noticed that for some reason the new Image of the Month hasn’t automatically popped up. Strange – absolutely no idea what went wrong there. Never mind – here it is – just a little late. The February 2013 Image of the Month is that recent single star image of Sirius I took using the mini-WASP array. This is a 2-framer of the region, and what I find remarkable is the fact that magnitude 17 stars can be found quite close in to magnitude -1.46 Sirius. This is testament to both Noel’s processing skills and to the incredible dynamic range of the Starlight Xpress M26C one-shot colour camera. Also says a great deal for the well-overflow control of the M26C 🙂
Here is a two-frame mini-WASP image of the bright star Vega in the constellation Lyra.
The famous Double Cluster in Perseus.
I just reprocessed this earlier Camera 2 mini-WASP data from 2012 with a heavier crop and a little more careful processing.
Noel Carboni just processed this earlier Hyperstar III data of the globular cluster M56 almost lost in a rich Milky Way background star field.
If you wish to purchase High-Speed Flash, “Little Planet”, Photomicroscopy or Macro images, then please check out what is available on the Scientific Artist web site.
