Hi, I'm new here. My name is Matt. I signed up so that someone could explain to me what the sun is...and all the rest of the things in the universe. I hope to find out what it all is, what it is doing and where it came from. I would love to hear whatever anyone has to say. And hey, if you can't explain it then, no loss!

see ya

Welcome, Zoe. Hope to see you around often.

(psst it wasn't Tolkien, it was Douglas Adams )

Welcome as well, Matt. Looking around some if the threads on here will probably get most of those questions answered for you.

Edit 'casue I posted during the 4am down time and missed a post.

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A Nerd can figure out how long it will take the original Enterprise traveling at warp 6.5 to travel from Regulus to Antares.
A Geek will think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

I think she may have been referring to the "All that is gold does not glitter" tag line.

Welcome, newcomers. Hope you enjoy your reading and posting.

Matt, if you have specific questions you might want to try the Q&A forum. To give you a very short answer, the Sun is a modest-sized star. Stars in general are large balls of (mostly) hydrogen gas that are so massive that their gravity creates tremendous pressures and temperatures in their cores. This in turn produces the conditions necessary to fuse hydrogen atoms into helium, releasing a lot of energy. That's what makes stars (and the Sun) shine.

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Bring back Firefly!

"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

Hi all....another newbie.

I live in Wiltshire, United Kingdom, 41 years old and returning to astronomy after 30 years away from the eyepiece.

My Father, bless him, recently gave me one of his cast-off telescopes, a 1000mm newtonian reflector, (seben) of chinese origin I think. I liked the look of his new celestron....but he likes it more

Anyway, I'm well aware the Seben is down at the budget end of the market, but I'm just looking forward to getting used to using a telescope again...and this time I'll be whacking my camera on it and trying my hand at astrophotography.

Commodore 64's were the home-computer of choice when I last touched a telescope, digital cameras were unheard of !

I'm on a steep curve re-learning what I've forgotten, and trying to catch up with all the new stuff......

.....it's great, as is this forum

Geoff

Hi, thanks.

I guess what I'm asking is what's hydrogen gas? What's helium? Do you see where I'm coming from?

Maybe I should go to a religious forum so they can tell me that it is all god's creation. But I don't know if that would satisfy me.

I think what I want to try to find out...is...what is everything? What the hell is life?

Those kinds of things.

Sometimes I just look up in the sky during the day and think to myself 'geez, there is a gigantic bloody FIRE in the sky. How many people are in sheer awe of this thing?

Are there any scientists or people on the planet (apart from shamans and monks etc) who know what the hell is going on?

Anyway, do you think I'm in the right forum?

heeeyyy....ease up ...ease up

may be an idea to read up on and absorb the forum rules...before proceeding

have a nice day

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clear skies

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. CARL SAGAN

Rules For Posting To This Board

You can ask all sorts of science questions and get excellent answers. Politics and religion are taboo unless they have something to do with astronomy/space. We are a family friendly board which means no cursing! The link will explain the rest of the rules.

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Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein

Heh oops. I though t was the sig. I never seem to notice those tag lines

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A Nerd can figure out how long it will take the original Enterprise traveling at warp 6.5 to travel from Regulus to Antares.
A Geek will think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

Woops.

I have read and absorbed the forum rules. I think they sound fair. Apologies for using the words "h_ll" and "bl__dy".

I see that is where I goofed.

Hydrogen ,Helium,Fusion-as in the process that keeps the Sun burning.

should probably read those links miself.

Aside from the links Frog march mentioned, the "Questions and Answers" forum is a good place to ask technical questions. If your questions are primarily philosophical you could try here in Babbling as long as you stay away from religion. However, there is little agreement about both what are relevant questions and answers in philosophy.

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Exactly. Well, I'll try to ask basic questions

Hi thanks for the welcomes. And hello and welcome to anyone new.

What part of Scotland ye be from?

And welcome to the board.

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I'm not a scientist, but I play one on the internet.
http://www.rrac.org

Considering yourself to be an armature is in general not a good idea You may not be able to breathe well with lots of clay slapped on you.

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"God bless thee, my son; I will give thee the greatest jewel I have ...
"The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible."Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Armature, this is a science board, not an art board.

Still not a good thing to consider yourself to be.

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"God bless thee, my son; I will give thee the greatest jewel I have ...
"The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible."Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

very nice introductions here, but I am not looking any photos of the introducers! yet. is any other button I have to click for their photo? please guide me.

sunil

Hello to all universe enthusiats.

Even though this is a science board an not an art board.... I hope I am still welcome as I am more an artist than scientist.

My name Is Gateson Recko. I live in New Jersey... not the best for night sky viewing, but I realy caught the bug of looking upward while living in Taos, New Mexico. I was so moved by the night sky that I started making Universe Marbles: Glass spheres with unending depictions of outer space trapped inside of them. (Yes, the final scene in the movie Men in Black had a great impact on my artistic career).

As an artist I spend countless hours looking over some of the most minute details of images from space trying to find a way to represent it within a three dimensional format in glass.

Hopefully I can gain a bit more insight into our amazing universe through this forum.

Oh yeah.... I have a LX200 8" scope that doesn't get enough use with all the light pollution.

some images:
http://www.pbase.com/gateson
http://www.universemarbles.com

Have a great day
Gateson