The Blazing Bad Proton Band of Brazil.

or is it "The South Atlantic Anomaly"?

__________________
Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

How 'bout something with greater magnitude.

If Rigel were repositioned to Sirius, how much brighter would it appear (in mag. and compared to the moon)?

[Am I allowed to ask the color of the sun? Hate too push the envelope to much. :wink: ]

__________________
Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

__________________
If this writing is blue you're going too fast!

Are the girls yellow-haired, too?

However, it is not likely yellow. I'd bet a Texas T-bone no one can find convincing evidence to support any intrinsic color for the Sun (if viewed from space and at a reduced flux to allow the eye to "see" it] Of course, this is why I felt wrong to ask the question.

__________________
Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

LOL! That's a good band name.

So, this is the question? Sure, I know that off the top of my head. :roll:

Up for grabs:

George:
If Rigel were repositioned to Sirius, how much brighter would it appear (in mag. and compared to the moon)?

__________________
Sunset

Well obviously that would depend on how accurately we can measure the distance to Rigel. Quick Googling results in distances varying from 700 to 1400 lightyears. If you use wikipedia's numbers: 773 ly = 237 parsecs you get an absolute magnitude of -6.7

If Rigel were the same distance as Sirius (2.6 parsecs), then its apparent magnitude would be around -9.6

The full moon is about -12.6 or about 16 times brighter.

Ug. Is it that undetermined?

I remember this question when I was about 9 yrs. old from a book on astronomy facts. The book made me hungry for more. I believe they had it rated at about a full moon back then. Still, Rigel would be over 1700 times brighter than Sirius.

__________________
Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

Clifford A. Pickover's The Stars of Heaven (published in 2001): Earth astronomers have found over 70 elements in the Sun. So that 67 is definitely out of date, even if it is from NASA.

This site says: By comparison of the sun's spectrum with laboratory spectra of incandescent elements, most of the elements known on earth have been identified in the sun's atmosphere.

That Ask the Astrophysicist site is almost ten years out of date.

__________________
- There must be a new moon out, she said. He's always bad then.

Well it appears that wikipedia is using Hipparcos' values as seen here:
http://www.rssd.esa.int/Hipparcos/table364.html

Assuming that's the best data available, and I haven't made a math error, then it would indeed be -9.6

If you used the high end of the distance range (1400 ly) then Rigel would be -10.9 magnitude at Sirius' distance. Still not quite the full moon, but 6300 times brighter than Sirius. Considering it would be a point source, it might actually be harmful to stare at it.

In any case, I suppose I should offer up a question (this might require some research) :

When Pluto was discovered in 1930, what constellation was it in?

Thanks Eroica! I emailed the Astrophysicist, because it says at the bottom that it's been updated between 1997-2005. That's an active site with updates on the home page. Since they wrote it in 1996, it's probably time to do some editing!



Formulaterp's question not answered yet:
When Pluto was discovered in 1930, what constellation was it in?

__________________
Sunset

OK, I'm gonna see if I can guess without looking it up....

Pluto is currently in Serpens Cauda (nearby Ophiuchus and Sagittarius), and it takes 249 years to orbit the sun. It was discovered in 1930, so that was 75 years ago....soooo, about 1/3 of the BACK around the ecliptic, we end up somewhere near Leo.

How far off was I? :P

with regards

__________________
All words, phrases, definitions and theories provided in the above post are, unless otherwise stated, the property of Champion Munch © 2005.

Sign up to sue the Sun

Well you're close, but unfortunately no cigar. Apparently Pluto has a bit of a lead foot and has been scooting along it's orbit a bit quicker than you may have guessed.

Good guess, but remember it's not yet in Sagittarius, and Pluto's highly elliptical orbit means it's moving pretty fast now, near perihelion. So, back up a couple more constellations. Gemini. 'Course, it's in Serpens right now, and was in Ophiuchus--both not even part of the zodiac

__________________
http://cleardarksky.com/c/DrhmNCcs0.gif

Hmmm....when I first read this question the first thing that came to my mind was "Gemini" for some reason. Maybe I heard it somewhere before. :-?

Well, now it's your turn.

with regards

__________________
All words, phrases, definitions and theories provided in the above post are, unless otherwise stated, the property of Champion Munch © 2005.

Sign up to sue the Sun

A golden oldie:

What is the third largest planet in the solar system?

__________________
http://cleardarksky.com/c/DrhmNCcs0.gif

Ummm....Uranus? (pronounced YER-en-us) Or am I missing something really big?

:P

with regards

__________________
All words, phrases, definitions and theories provided in the above post are, unless otherwise stated, the property of Champion Munch © 2005.

Sign up to sue the Sun

The order is....Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus. The Sun is first because "it is like the King of planets!" [Guess where I got that one? About the funniest skit I ever heard]

Ok, ok....Uranus at 51,118 km diameter (Neptune under 50k). Neptune is more massiver, however.


Drat...I got beat as I type too slow.


What was the original name of Uranus (as named by Herschell).

__________________
Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

George. :P

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, George... #-o

with regards

__________________
All words, phrases, definitions and theories provided in the above post are, unless otherwise stated, the property of Champion Munch © 2005.

Sign up to sue the Sun