• Large number craziness

    March 15, 2012 / No Comments

    I love math and numbers. I am also intrigued by how little humans understand large numbers. Most people probably don’t know what comes after Trillion, and really, that’s so large that nobody really needs a number much larger than that. I knew my number system up to decillion. I had to turn to Wikipedia to see what was next. Growing up as a kid without Wikipedia I thought a googolplex was the largest number. I knew a googol was a 1 followed by 100 zeros. I didn’t really know what a googolplex was. Now that I got Wikipedia I know we have numbers way bigger than googol and even bigger than a googolplex. There is such a thing as a googolplexplex. And actually, the googol named numbers are just special named numbers. A googol is really 10 duotrigintillion. A duotrigintillion is 1099, so 10 of them would be 10100, or a googol.

    A googol is so large that there are less atoms in the observable universe. The estimated number of atoms in the observable universe is 1082 (or 10 sesvigintillion if you care), much less that a googol. Now onto a googolplex. A googolplex is 10googol. It has more zeros than there are atoms in the universe making it impossible to even write out long hand, and yeah, a googolplexplex is even larger.

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  • My new 15×70 binoculars

    March 14, 2012 / No Comments

    Yesterday I got a new pair of Binoculars. Amazon has a great deal on a pair of Celestron SkyMaster 15x70s for $62! They are normally over $100. I couldn’t resist.

    These things are huge, and give you a great view. The 70mm objective lenses brings in so much light, it make them hard to use during the day, but great for night viewing. I didn’t spend a ton of time viewing last night, but I had to check out Venus and Jupiter. The pair are a beautiful site in the west, and will be closest together on Thursday.

    With my new Binoculars I was able to make out one moon of Jupiter. I checked out the current location of Jupiter’s moons on Stellarium, and all four Galilean moon were on the same side. My guess is the moon I saw was Ganymede since Stellarium said it was the brightest. It also happens to be the largest moon in the Solar System.

    15×70 binoculars are great, but they are kind of heavy, and hard to hold steady. You really do need a tripod for them. I had to rest my arms on the deck railing to get a steady look. After I knew what I was looking at I took out my 10×50 Celestron Binoculars, probably the perfect size for hand use, and I was able to see Ganymede with them too. I’m pretty sure that was the moon I was seeing through my scope on Saturday night. It just proves that with more experience I will be able to see more things, even with my 10×50 binoculars.

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  • 2012-03-10 Sight Report–First night out

    March 11, 2012 / No Comments

    Last night was our first warm (38ºF) night with clear skies that I have been able to get my telescope out. Our yard is still full of snow, so I was limited to what I could see from the deck. I think I’m going to start an astronomy blog to share my astronomy experiences, but for now I am posting it here.

    Equipment

    • Meade 60mm refractor 25mm and 9mm EPs (Not the best scope, will be upgrading soon)
    • 10×50 Celestron binoculars

    What I saw

    • Jupiter
    • Venus
    • Mars
    • M42 (Orion Nebula)
    • M45 (Pleiades)
    • Mizar and Alcor (double star in the Big Dipper)

    Venus
    The first think I observed was Venus. Venus is small, and has a thick atmosphere, so you can’t see much detail. Because Venus is an interior planet, it goes through phases like the Moon does. I was hoping to make out what phase it’s in, but I couldn’t.

    Jupiter
    I spent most of my night viewing Jupiter. I was able to make out one band and I think one of the Moons. I could only find one Moon, so I couldn’t tell you which one it was. With more experience, and a better telescope, I’m sure I’ll be getting better views of Jupiter in the future.

    Mars
    I was hoping to see it’s icecap, but I was unable to see much detail in Mars. Again, with more experience, and another night, maybe I will be able to see Mars’ icecap.

    M42 (Orion Nebula)
    I’m really not sure what kind of view of the Orion Nebula my telescope will give me. I wasn’t able to reach it with my telescope from my deck. I viewed it through my 10×50 binoculars. It’s just a fussy little blip through binoculars, but still fun to look at.

    M45 (Pleiades)
    Pleiades is probably my favorite binocular object so far. To the naked eye it’s just a faint fussy blip, but through binoculars, you can see the seven or so bright blue stars. I have tried to view it in the past with my telescope, but I couldn’t find it through my crappy finder scope. I didn’t even try last night.

    Mizar and Alcor (double star in the Big Dipper)
    My northern sky is pretty light polluted. About all I could see in that direction was the Big Dipper. Double stars are always fun to look at through binoculars because what looks like one star, becomes two. In actuality, Mizar is a quadruple star system and Alcor is a binary system, but all you see through binoculars is Mizar and Alcor.

    Conclusion
    I spent about an hour outside viewing, and had a great time. I can’t wait until I can get out it my yard to get better views. I was hoping to stay up later and see the Moon and Saturn, but I was just too tired and have a cold. My telescope gets really good views on the Moon. The Moon is pretty close to full now though, which isn’t the best time to view it anyway. I can’t wait until Saturn starts rising earlier. Everybody says that’s the one that gets them hooked on this hobby. I think I’m already hooked.

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  • Will Limbaugh’s advertisers go back?

    March 6, 2012 / No Comments

    So Rush Limbaugh’s advertisers are dropping like flies. I usually don’t comment on scum like Rush. I live by the ignore and they will go away theory. I’ve always tried to avoid companies that support people like him. I never listen to him, so I often don’t know who his advertisers are. Here is a list of some of the companies you might want to avoid using. It’s sad that Netflix is on that list. They are the only company that I use that supports Limbaugh, but sadly don’t have a decent competitor to switch to.

    I am also a little suspect of all these companies that are dropping support for Rush. Part of me hopes they are doing it because it’s the right thing, but honestly I think they are doing it just for the free publicity. They are getting free ads in all the papers, and also separating themselves from the controversy. It’s not like this is the first time Rush said something stupid. Those companies know who he is. I bet a lot of those companies quietly go back to Rush once he is out of the news. For some reason, a large portion of Americans can’t think for themselves, and love the guy. Advertisers will always go where the people are, and this loser has a lot of listeners.

    **Update** I guess Netflix doesn’t support Limbaugh. That makes me feel better.

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