Sirius Stargazing: Alpha Persei Cluster (Cr 39)

[vava54own]

creationist votebot detected.

[TheGreatDolanmite]

I am a fan of the Sirius Stargazing theme song. Just thought I'd let ya know.

[EveDestiny]

I see a lobster, TK. It's claws are in the SE quadrant of Collinder 39.

[upublic]

would you be so kind to cut the half a minute crap at the begining pleasssseeee

[paulusmagirl]

That's the big 'W' that lies in the north sky early

in the evening in the summer. I just call it the

'big W', lol Now I know what it's called. I spend

hrs stargazing but I'm not any good at it. I

know where the big and little dippers are and

I think I've found 'Orion' and my favorite star

Betelgeuse but I'm never quite sure if I've

found anything else or if it's correct.

[paulusmagirl]

Actually, Cassiopeia is probably more NE in

the sky in the summer, early on in the evening.

[owlcowl]

"I just call it the 'big W', lol"

Paulusmagirl (definitely not plasmagirl):

Have you ever seen the 1963 comedy film "Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"?

"Its a big W, I tell ya! A BIG W!"

[paulusmagirl]

I did see that, but I can't remember that now. I'll have

to watch it again now. I found Cassiopeia, Perseus and

Mirphak right away last night because they are right

outside my front door at 6:00 pm. That's all I could

see though since I don't have binaculars :(

btw, now I wish my screen name was Plasmagirl lol

[owlcowl]

Since you dont have binoculars yet & can only do naked-eye observing (which, after all, is what everyone did until 400 yrs ago), i will recommend a beginners guide to the constellations: "The Stars: A New Way to See Them" by H. A. Rey. Its a classic among skygazers, first published in 1952, but there is a recent revised edition available in paperback. Rey drew the constellations so as to resemble as closely as possible the objects they represent & was largely successful. Great place to start!

[paulusmagirl]

Sounds worth looking into. I try and use Google-Earth-Sky and

then run outside to find stuff but I have to keep running back

and forth a lot when I'm not sure of something. It can be a

little tedious lol

Thanks a lot!

btw, I just noticed I spelled 'binoculars wrong before....

whoops.

[owlcowl]

@paulusmagirl: What you need is a planisphere for using outdoors along with a red-filtered flashlight.

If you can get a laptop computer, then you can use Google Sky for finding your way around without having to rush back indoors, instantly ruining your dark adaptation.

Remember that unlike online sky maps which are continually updated, printed versions wont show the positions of the planets, but there are only five of those ever visible to the eye anyway (plus the one youre standing on). :-)

[paulusmagirl]

Yes, I've never heard of a planisphere until AW

mentioned it, and I thought I had to get me one

of those. Where would you get such a thing?

[owlcowl]

'Where would you get such a thing?'

Many introductory astronomy books include one in a sleeve or cover pocket. The Wikipedia article 'planisphere' includes a link to a guy who offers a downloadable version, if youre willing to settle for cardboard.

Probably the best available is one called 'The Night Sky', part of the 'First Light' astronomy kit manufactured by the David Chandler Company in California. You can purchase it separately or just buy the whole set. davidchandlerDOTcom/kit.htm

[MessagesFromEarth]

I think the big bookstores might sell them like Borders or Barnes and Noble

[StevenTheAmusing]

@paulusmagirl Search Amazon. Get one for your latitude. Great tool.

[Otokogoroshi]

It looks like Michael Jordan flying through the air to dunk a basketball...

I don't even like sports but thats what I saw!!!

[midare]

Hey TK, have you considered close captioning this series? I ask because my mum's speakers are out and that made me wonder if CC would open this stuff up to her and to any hard of hearing folks (like my dad whose hearing is going). Thank you for all your hard work, mate!

[deejayedwards]

Can't even see any stars from this dump (London), shame. Might look for a departure/arrivals guide to major airports in the south west, that'll tell me what im looking at...

[magick205]

Another excellent work. Looks like we know who Jack Horkheimer's heir will be. As far as CR39 being an open cluster, since it's a fairly young group can we identify about which region in our galaxy it formed and about how long till it spreads out like the sun did from it's parent cluster? Still stuck with crappy weather here in the American Midwest. Hoping we get some clear skies soon to search before it gets way too cold.

[anderstc47]

Need more aperture, like two sixteen inch reflectors made into a pair of binoculars!!!

Awesome series TK, thanks for your effort!

[buzzausa]

I love what you're doing here TK.

Awesome awesome video.

[LogicRising]

fantastic series. My only request is to vary the music a bit so that it doesn't get monotonous when you play them back to back.

[joetylerdale]

I am sooo looking forward to your videos. Congrats on your professionalism!!!

[kalamain]

YAY!....First good night of viewing since I got my new bins.

First off....WOW....These 10x50's are much better than my telescope. Amazing!

It allowed a whole patch of sky to almost come alive!

Ok....I managed to see the whole cluster and I could pick out Sigma Persei....But I could not make out a colour at all. It just seemed....White?

[bojk]

This is really interesting and motivates me to get a pair of binoculars and start looking up. Well done so far, and keep up the great work!

[Anonoo]

Thanks for your efforts at bringing the stars closer to all of us!

[SpeciationEverywhere]

dude this is great

[nickharvey7]

Nice video well done! I can never see the colours of the stars that well it most be my eyes.

[OckamsLaser]

Now this is one of the reasons why I hate living in a big city...

[AlanKey86]

Excellent video. A pleasure to watch.

Not sure your star/person age comparison is entirely clear though. (I know what you're saying, but I think it doesn't quite flow)

[Raistlin13Majere]

I wish I could go out and look but we've had cloudy skies for a week!

[HeyDuffy459]

My binoculars arrived this week!!!! Now if I could just get a cloudless night. :)

[MortalTodd]

I have a feeling that I'm going to love this channel like no other channel can be loved.

[BananaHurricane]

Marvelously produced and chock full of information as always. Have you ever considered trying to pitch a show or documentary to a tv studio?

[elizkawalizka3]

Cloudy sky in the Netherlands. I'll have to wait before I can stargaze :(

[rabbitpirate]

You know ever since you have started this series there has been nothing but thick cloud cover where I live. Coincidence? I think not. Stop toying with me man :-)

Another great video, it the clouds ever clear I will be right out there with my binos.

[AndromedasWake]

@rabbitpirate Mwahahaha!

[InSteamWeTrust]

Looks like a bunch of stars to me! :-)

[AndromedasWake]

@InSteamWeTrust You'd be the first person I'd seen to invent the constellation of 'a bunch of stars'! Personally, I'm all in favour of this originality.

[InSteamWeTrust]

Yupp. I'm famous for my lack of imagination. ;-)

But seriously: I've got a Newton telescope on my own and love astronomy since I saw Cosmos on TV in the early 80s. So take it easy, it was supposed to be funny.

I'm all excited about your series. Thumbs up!

Greetings from Munich,

Matthias

[anonymous15432]

looks like a velociraptor!

[lilgrlkissesnhugs]

Thanks alot, look forward to finding this cluster. Cool that you mentioned about making your own constellations out of what you see, I've done that a few times now, and its fun.

[sheepwshotguns]

ok, im going to go off topic on this question but... how did cosmologists figure out that blue stars are typically younger?

as for your question on cr 39, i cant really pick out a perfect image, but if i had to come up with something, i'd say a dude riding a hang-glider ;)

[Spacewar111]

Thank you.

[dannypantsgm]

Looks like coctopus prime to me.

Another awesome vid man! Favd

[vince19811981]

I love it!!!!!!!!!!!

[olasonn]

Wonderful stuff.

The binoculars I ordered will be here in just a few days, and I'll be doing some stargazing for sure.

Living in Northern Norway, I have the advantage of all day star view in the winter, but then again no possibility to see any stars for 2 months in the summer.

[Jeredin13]

This will sound odd, but I don't plan to stargaze, but I love the science. So ty for posting this video and keep on discovering. ^_^

[Blueisalightbulb]

thanks xD

[owlcowl]

This is developing into an excellent series, TK. The gemlike Pleiades are an excellent choice of first subject for novices & this is a nice followup, altho i would have expected the Double Cluster would be the initial target within Perseus. I assume youll cover M13, M31, M42 & M44 (all naked-eye objects) in future installments.

I'm glad you emphasized the importance of visual & binocular viewing before ever attempting to use a telescope, which will just cause frustration for beginners. Cheers!

[paulusmagirl]

I love this stuff! I just eat it up! And the

only thing I worship is the sun. Sometimes

I'll catch myself cursing the sun because he's

blinding me, but I always feel shame right away

and beg him for forgiveness :)

[owlcowl]

"The only thing I worship is the sun"

Then i bet you'll really take a shine to this illuminating video inspired by the 1959 space age classic "Why Does the Sun Shine?"

youtubeDOTcom/watch?v=cds3sIzS­f_I&feature=PlayList&p=2F00C7F­848AF3A6C

"The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas..."

The hot cover version by They Might Be Giants corrects the slight technical inaccuracy of the original lyrics by clarifying that in fact "The Sun is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma."

Blaze on, oh mighty Aten!

[paulusmagirl]

I'm going to watch it now. Suns are more amazing

to me then anything else in the universe.

btw, what is plasma anyway? I think of plasma as

some kind of gooey substance. Is it something like

lava?

[owlcowl]

Plasma is considered the fourth state of matter, along with gas, liquid & solid. It results when a gas is heated to very high temperatures & becomes ionized, meaning its atoms are stripped of electrons, making it highly charged & responsive to electromagnetic fields in ways that a gas is not. Thats a highly simplified description; check out the Wikipedia article 'states of matter', which has a nice little chart showing the relationships among them.

Lava is just molten rock, so its a liquid.

[paulusmagirl]

Thank you for answering and I will look it up

because I do want to understand the Sun.

You've said that plasma is not a liquid and

so now I'm still confused! lol

[owlcowl]

"You've said that plasma is not a liquid

so now I'm still confused"

Oh, no need to be. :-)

Liquids exist at lower temperatures than gases; plasmas are at higher temperatures than gases.

Most of the common substances we are familiar with on Earth can take the form of either solid, liquid or gas (in the case of H2O - ice, water, water vapor) so these are easily recognized. Plasma was only discovered in the late 19th century, yet it turns out that most matter in the universe consists of plasmas!

[paulusmagirl]

I came back to these comments to recheck what

you told me to look up and I found out that YT

hadn't alerted me to this particular comment

from you lol

Anyway, is it not true that ghosts leave behind

plasma whenever they visit our world?

XD

[owlcowl]

Haha - yes, but its called ectoplasm, a rather more ethereal "substance" than plasma. The term was coined in 1923 by paranormalist Charles Richter to describe a gauze-like stuff supposedly emitted by mediums when they were in a trance state, communicating with the souls of the departed. But no observer has ever been able to perceive, much less measure this elusive non-material, except when it turns out to be chiffon or another fabric that the spiritualist 'produced' at an opportune moment. ;)

[paulusmagirl]

oh and btw again, I loved your little play on words....

illuminating video :D

[JRChadwick]

Sacramento is the worst possible place for star gazing I have ever seen! "The city of trees". Lots of light pollution, in the middle of a valley (which traps plenty of air pollution.)

[Samakain]

Thank You, so much. this series is great

[fishbone937]

Thanks again!

[deluxbellorum]

got my binoculars and planisphere this week... now I just need to go on a road trip out the city so I can actually see the stars :(

[frayzerm]

A jumping bunny!!

:3

[HolidayNova]

this is great !!!

[kilorat]

This is kind of a useless comment, but I gotta say, that is a good mic, I can hear you very clearly.

[JmSantos78]

Good job! Gotta get me some binoculars.

[hochdaddy]

Thank you so much for these videos! I cant wait to get my binoculars here in Iraq and take advantage of the clear skies!

[TheEnglishAthiest]

I, still awaiting an answer to my question from your last vid, Will you be addressing the problems of sky watching from a city?? I hope you will

[stinagen]

I dont think there is a answer to that take a trip out of town or get rid of a power station or two i recommend the prior

[Th1sWasATriumph]

Nice work, I think you've hit your stride - look a lot more relaxed and comfortable in this one. More hand movement = more science in the face.

[generaleskimo]

Next time can you teach us how to find Sirius B with 7/21 binoculars?