cross-posted from: https://crust.piefed.social/c/bbc_rss@crust.piefed.social/p/137903/five-night-sky-events-to-look-out-for-this-autumn

From meteor showers to a November supermoon, there are a number of impressive sights to behold in the autumn night sky.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/51775441

This is a crazy detailed explanation of how primary mirrors in telescopes create the image and why different types of errors in the mirror surface can create different types of image issues.

I'm starting my journey into astronomy and looking for a beginner telescope to start. I've found a few on telescopescanada.ca that fit my budget between $350 and $400 CAD but noticed a lot have "smartphone app-enabled" as a feature.

Over the last few years I've found that smart connected tech just complicates things and have been reverting my tech back, often to the point of wired over wireless. What's the consensus when it comes to telescopes?

Is app-connection a feature you use? I'm looking at the Celestron StarSense Explorer LT 114AZ but wondering if I'll be paying for smart features that aren't necessary.

Just recently bought the 3rd telescope I've ever had - a 10" dobsonian. And I've just seen the SMC for the first time in my life. What a wonderful experience.

Previous scopes were an old 6" equatorial mounted Tasco reflector, a 125mm Meade Goto, and now this SkyWatcher 250mm. Feels lovely using a fully manual scope. Just me and some levers. But man oh man, the moon is too annoying. I'm in Adelaide suburbs so not particularly dark but still it's just washing out everything tonight.

Stupid moon /dumb rant

See also Wikipedia. Apparently this is the first time a candidate for an object like this was discovered.

The other day, I picked up my first scope, a random brand 700/76mm telescope (like celestron powerseeker 76, just a random German brand) in a charity shop for £19, it needs some tlc and has some screws missing and some screws seem loose and not want to tighten (for example around the grabby things that attach the tube to the tripod).

So I wanted to know where I could get spare parts like screws or pads that hold the tube. Maybe the thread is gone or something. When i tried to search, all i find are eye pieces and things like that, not screws or tube holding pads...

( this is my first telescope so sorry if i don't know correct terms)

Astronomers have discovered the fastest known star in our galaxy, the Milky Way, orbiting the black hole at its centre. The star, named S301, was detected with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (ESO’s VLTI) and reaches speeds of 25 000 km/s as it travels around the four-million-Solar-mass black hole. It comes closer to it than any other observed before, so close that it feels the effects of the black hole’s rotation.

The mission to save NASA’s sinking Swift Observatory was called off Wednesday, dooming the telescope to a fiery reentry later this year.

NASA and Katalyst Space Technologies announced the news more than a month after the startup’s Link spacecraft rocketed away to the telescope’s rescue.

Katalyst said Link will not attempt to capture Swift and boost it to a higher orbit because of problems with controlling the spacecraft. NASA said this means the telescope will plunge through the atmosphere after more than 20 years of tracking some of the biggest explosions in the universe like gamma ray bursts and exploding stars. Its demise is not expected before October.

NASA paid $30 million to Katalyst in an attempt to raise the telescope to a safer, longer-lasting orbit. Intense solar activity caused it to lose altitude faster than expected. The rescue spacecraft went into an uncontrollable spin a few weeks after its liftoff in early July. While flight controllers managed to slow Link’s tumble, issues continued to plague its pointing and positioning in orbit.

“This is not the outcome we were working toward, but it does not change why this mission was worth attempting,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement.

As a consolation prize, Katalyst will continue to operate Link in proximity with the telescope to demonstrate capabilities for future rescue operations.

Katalyst CEO Ghonhee Lee said it was an ambitious mission on an aggressive timeline that was thrown together in under a year .

A telescope has spied the fastest known star in our galaxy, racing around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

The star is zipping around the black hole, reaching speeds of about 15,534 miles per second (25,000 kilometers per second). That’s 100,000 times faster than a commercial plane.

“That star is really, extremely fast,” said astronomer Stefan Gillessen with the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.

The newly discovered star also orbits the black hole at closer range than scientists have ever seen before, taking just 8.7 years to complete a revolution. It harnesses the black hole’s gravity to fly faster without falling in.

Gillessen and colleagues uncovered the star in data collected by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Their findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

There are several hundred stars that closely orbit this giant black hole and are sensitive to its gravity. Scientists have mapped the orbits of around 50 of them. The new star is 10 times closer than the previous record holder, meaning that it also feels the effects of the black hole’s rotation.

There are supermassive black holes lurking in the center of almost every large galaxy. But nothing can escape them — not even light — so it’s notoriously difficult for scientists to figure out what’s going on inside.

Studying stars like this one could help scientists measure those mysterious properties, including how fast the supermassive black hole spins. Advanced telescopes are helping to pinpoint fainter stars that previously eluded detection, so there could be even speedier ones waiting to be found.

Astronomers discover a brand-new type of astrophysical object: A black hole star

https://news.mit.edu/2026/astronomers-discover-brand-new-type-astrophysical-object-black-hole-star-0812

@astronomy

#astronomy #space #science

🇺🇦

Starting soon!

This represented the first supernova of its type observed without a gamma-ray burst and jet of material.

“The finding shows that the most massive stars die in more ways than astronomers previously thought,” Rastinejad said.

a bit of an odd website maybe? article is good though

The impact flash might — might — be visible to telescopes on Earth

The Royal Observatory Greenwich has narrowed the search for the Astronomy Photographer of the Year. The winners will be announced on September 17.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/63323091