Hubble takes first image of solar eclipse on Uranus

To: Virginia-American

21 posted on 09/02/2006 5:29:34 AM PDT by PistolPaknMama (Al-Queda can recruit on college campuses but the US military can't! --FReeper airborne)

To: PatrickHenry

Thanks for the info, Patrick.

22 posted on 09/02/2006 5:38:37 AM PDT by bwteim (bwteim: Begin With The End In Mind)

To: snarks_when_bored

A piece of Uranus where the Sun don't shine...

LOL! The IAU should really consider renaming this poor planet!

23 posted on 09/02/2006 5:41:19 AM PDT by Drew68

The difference between simulation and reality?

Let's see - you can have Olive Oil (Popeye's girlfriend) as your prefered simulations ....

.... and I'll have Raquel or Gina Lollobrigida.

THAT is the difference.

24 posted on 09/02/2006 6:14:40 AM PDT by TimesDomain (When a judge declares himself "MASTER", you become his "SLAVE")

To: Virginia-American

"The icy moon Ariel (white) casts a shadow on the cloud tops of Uranus - the moon is named for a mischievous spirit in Shakespeare's The Tempest"

A mischevous spirit around uranus.

Snicker.

25 posted on 09/02/2006 6:16:07 AM PDT by misanthrope (There's only one way Islam will ever become "The Religion of peace", it's up to us to help them out.)

To: Virginia-American

FYI: How Uranus got its name.

Sir William Herschel, [who] formally discovered the planet on March 13, 1781, named it Georgium Sidus (George's Star) in honour of King George III of Great Britain.

When it was pointed out that sidus means star and not planet, he rebaptised it the Georgian Planet.

This name was not acceptable outside of Britain.

-- [French astronomer, Pierre] Lalande proposed in 1784 to name it Herschel, at the same time that he created the planet's symbol ("a globe surmounted by your initial"); his proposal was readily adopted by French astronomers.

-- [Swedish astronomer Erik] Prosperin, of Uppsala, proposed the names Astraea, Cybele, and Neptune (now borne by two asteroids and a planet).

-- [Finnish-Swedish-born Russian astronomer Anders Johann] Lexell, of St. Petersburg, compromised with Great Britain's Neptune.

-- [Swiss mathematician Daniel] Bernoulli, from Berlin, suggested the names Hypercronius and Transaturnis.

-- [German physicist Georg Christoph] Lichtenberg, from from Göttingen, chimed in with Austräa,, a goddess mentioned by Ovid.

The name Minerva was also proposed.

Finally,[German astronomer Johann Elert] Bode, as editor of the Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch, opted for Uranus, after Latinized version of the Greek god of the sky, Ouranos;

[Hungerian astromoter] Maximilian Hell followed suit by using it in the first ephemeris*, published in Vienna.

Examination of earliest issues of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society from 1827 shows that the name Uranus was already the most common name used even by British astronomers by then, and probably earlier.

The name Georgium Sidus or "the Georgian" were still used infrequently (by the British alone) thereafter.

The final holdout was HM Nautical Almanac Office, which did not switch to Uranus until 1850.

In the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese languages, the planet's name is literally translated as the sky king star (天王星).

=================================

* Ephemeris: A table giving the coordinates of a celestial body at a number of specific times during a given period.

26 posted on 09/02/2006 6:22:58 AM PDT by yankeedame ("Oh, I can take it but I'd much rather dish it out.")

Uranus is blue!

Only if I spend too much time sitting.

27 posted on 09/02/2006 6:24:48 AM PDT by Petronski (Living His life abundantly.)

28 posted on 09/02/2006 6:26:24 AM PDT by verity (The MSM is comprised of useless eaters)

To: verity; Petronski

This is what I have to deal with on a daily basis.

29 posted on 09/02/2006 6:27:22 AM PDT by cyborg (No I don't miss the single life at all.)

I mean dealing with his sense of humor, not his blue anus ;-)

30 posted on 09/02/2006 6:28:09 AM PDT by cyborg (No I don't miss the single life at all.)

To: verity; martin_fierro; Tijeras_Slim; TheBigB; cyborg; dighton; Miss Behave

Juvenile-jokes-about-Uranus thread.

31 posted on 09/02/2006 6:29:26 AM PDT by Petronski (Living His life abundantly.)

To: Virginia-American

A thinly veiled attempt by the gay coalition to detract attention from the eviction of pluto!

32 posted on 09/02/2006 6:33:32 AM PDT by 2nd Amendment

To: TimesDomain; Drammach

I'm sure the orbital elements of Uranus' major moons are known with far more than the necessary accuracy to have predicted this. (They recently accurately predicted the occlusion of a star by one of Neptune's moons, iirc, a much, much harder feat.)

I think that the guys studying Neptune's atmosphere just didn't do the calculations and were pleasantly surprised. BTW, moons' shadows on Jupiter are observed and photographed all the time.

33 posted on 09/02/2006 6:35:03 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (NYT Headline: 'Protocols of the Learned Elders of CBS: Fake But Accurate, Experts Say.')

I appreciate the clarification. lol

34 posted on 09/02/2006 6:36:13 AM PDT by verity (The MSM is comprised of useless eaters)

To: Virginia-American

35 posted on 09/02/2006 6:36:52 AM PDT by RadioAstronomer (Senior member of Darwin Central)

To: snarks_when_bored

Excellent comment. A liquid through the nose shooter.

36 posted on 09/02/2006 6:39:29 AM PDT by exit82 (Sorry. You, along with Pluto, have just been voted out of the solar system(from FreeperLasVegasMac).)

To: Luke Skyfreeper

37 posted on 09/02/2006 6:41:14 AM PDT by Awgie (truth is always stranger than fiction)

To: Lonesome in Massachussets

Cassini-Huygens has also transmitted many excellent photos of satellites and their shadows on Saturn.. and other phenomena..

It's just the sheer idiocy of the quotes in the article..
Are these people astronomers or middle-school students?
"Geeze, we thought maybe Hubble was broken or something".. Duh..

These "astronomers" didn't do their homework..

38 posted on 09/02/2006 6:53:30 AM PDT by Drammach (Freedom... Not just a job, it's an adventure..)

These "astronomers" didn't do their homework..

Worse than you think. They called it a transit, when clearly it's an eclipse. Sheesh.

The JPL free ephemeris website http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?sat_ephem claims that they produce ephemerides of Areil 0.02 arcsecond accuracy from 1980 to 2010. The diameter of Uranus is ~3.6 arc seconds viewed from Earth, so they can predict it's location to about one part in 1/180 of the diameter of Uranus. They clearly would have predicted this if they had done the math.

39 posted on 09/02/2006 7:10:06 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (NYT Headline: 'Protocols of the Learned Elders of CBS: Fake But Accurate, Experts Say.')

To: SamAdams76; Petronski

I am really angry with Saturn and Uranus. Neptune and Jupiter are OK though.

Venus and Mars Are Alright Tonight.

40 posted on 09/02/2006 7:19:05 AM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)

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