Hi there!

It's only now I've discovered this particular forum, otherwise I would have introduced myself before!

I'd like to be known as "Rigel" as I believe it's an incredibly interesting star from my favourite constellation, Orion.

I'm quite new to astonomy but I believe it's a wonderful hobby - nothing's better than standing out at night, observing the star-filled sky!

I'd like to congratulate Fraser - this is an excellent website and is doing well in my opinion - keep up the good work! I look forward to participating and helping out in the forums!

One more thing - I don't really understand the little icon that comes up everytime I post something - I'm cuurently an "asteroid" - what exactly does this mean? Does it expand everytime I post or does it expand as I become an older member? Sorry to be so ubrupt, but it's really confusing me and I'm brooding over it quite a bit!

Rigel

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Science is wonderfully equipped to answer the question "How?" but it gets terribly confused when you ask the question "Why?"
Erwin Chargaff

It's your "rank", and goes up after a certain number of posts.

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Solar Storm Monitor

The further I get from the things I care about, the less I care about how much further away I get.

Hi all,

I've been enjoying Fraser's news letter for awhile now and look forward to it every day. Very well done site Fraser. I've really enjoyed the forums so I finally decided to join in on all the fun.
I'm originaly from the North Carolina mountains where I first became involved with astronomy in hs. Nice places to go observe up on some of those mountains.
Went on to spend a hitch in the Navy and continued watching the skies.
When I retired from the Navy I moved to Georgia and got aeay from gazing until a few months ago. My wife thought she would suprise me one day and came home with an old telescope she had bought at a garage sale. Well needless to say that got me off and running again. So now I try to spend a few clear nights gazing again. I'm really looking forward to the meteor show tonight. It's finally clear enough to view them.
Hope everyone had a great summer and spent some quality time looking up to the stars.

Until.....
Butch

Glad ya'll are here! Look forward to your reading your posts.

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

Ok! Thanks very much for poining it out that it's your rank, jitte! I understand now!

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Science is wonderfully equipped to answer the question "How?" but it gets terribly confused when you ask the question "Why?"
Erwin Chargaff

[b]Hi, I'm Miss V, a 49 year old single gay woman currently living in Winchester, Virginia, but would prefer moving further north like Ohio. I've always had a fascination with the Universe and I don't think I'll ever tire of it. I watched all the early Star Trek Original Series eps and that fueled me, then skipped the next series until they came out with Voyager. Now that was what I had been waiting for, a woman captain. I had always envisioned myself in that role, but alas, I have virtigo. So the next best thing for me is to write SciFi. Currently writing the first novel of what I hope to be a series, naturally it involves space travel, what else. If you'd like more info about me or to chat sometime;
http://profiles.yahoo.com/twinklemystar47

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Hi everyone...my name is matthew and im a landscape gardener from bristol / uk.
Iv been watching the skys eversince i saw a meteor " i guess thats what it was " skip across the atmoshere and leave streaks of flame...back in the early 80's.

I dont have a telescope at the moment "did have a tal2 " but am getting a LX 90 very soon.

I love to spend as much time as possible watching meteor showers or just looking to see what may fly over at any given time.

The worst temp i stayed out in was -15 h34r: i only lasted 2 hours but the sky was perfect.

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ŠTRÒÑÓMY~ÑÕW

Hi everyone! I'm Kenneth, 16 from Norway. I play chess, and I LOVE watching the skies. Looking forward to get to know you guys!

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The number is... 42.

Welcome to the forum everyone! We're glad to have you all around.

oops ... my bad.. i introduced myself on the wrong part of this board.. sorryz!!

Anyways... ok.. round #2.. lol..
Hello everyone!!!!! My name is Jacki.. I just turned 25..I'm married and we have 2 children. Im an actress and Im currently located in IL. I travel ALOT for work. My interests are astronomy, ufos, the abnormal.. ghosts..etc,.

I love the newsletter i get everyday from universetoday.com.. and finally I've gotten up enough courage to post on the boards. I'm a lil shy when it comes to this..

anyways, im looking forward to meeting you all and having fun conversations/topics to discuss!!

Keep smiling!

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*~Jacki~*
Jacki-Lynn.com

http://www.jacki-lynn.com/images/lilufo.gif

Glad to have you here on the forum, Jacki. We do not have a genetic, generic predisposition for getting on everyone's nerves. This is a nice, serious, pleasant site, where all users are FAMILY.

Astronomy...we'd love you to share your input on that one, definitely. For the rest of what you said, we don't focus all that much on paranormal, abnormal, subnormal, etc.

Anyway, glad to have another member on the forum. Nice to have another virtual UT cousin.

Hmmmm ... Evidently I never properly introduced myself. The long story can be found on my webpage. The short story is that I am an astrophysicist & software mangler at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. I was invited to the board by Fraser, as I recall, specifically to comment on the electric universe thread (which I am still doing). But I figured I would hang around. I like to collect old books, study military history, and I probably think I play chess better than I really do. I'm a long time amateur astronomer; I was on the board of directors of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society (LAAS) for 16 years, and have been on the board of the Mt. Wilson Observatory Association (MWOA) for over 20 years.

Somebody back there said their favorite constellation was Orion. Mine too, I even gave a talk to the LAAS about it. So far as I know, at least for northern hemisphere viewers, the central star in Orion's belt, Alnilam, is the intrinsically brightest star you can see naked eye, about 375,000 times brighter than the sun. For southern hemisphere viewers (I've never seen the southern sky!), it should be Eta Carinae, one of the brightest stars period, about 5,500,000 times brighter than the sun. Cool. As long as you aren't too close.

And about those ranks. I used to be a "gas giant", but somehow, that doesn't sound quite right. I feel much better now that I am a "star". Cheers.

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Don't try this at home - We're what you call "professionals" - MythBusters.

Hey, wait a minute...at my school, Milken Community High School, there is a program called the WISE program...a semester elective in which students research a topic and do a presentation, but with experience in the real world.
Maybe, if I were to consider this program at my school, I'd contact you. I mean, since you are stationed at the JPL, I can take an internship with you maybe. Just a thought. But I could consider it. If you think it is at all possible.

MIssed the bandwagon again! and it's already 25pages! Curiously, this is one of the topics i've been waiting for...to know some details about the people i have conversation with in this forum. Thanks for being sport!

Let me introduce myself. I'm Richard and I'm from the Philippines. I'm currently teaching Chemistry in our state U ( University of the Philippines Diliman) I consider myself still a neophyte in astronomy and Fraser can attest to that! Thanks for the site, Fraser! I'm learning a lot! As for the new comers of UT, welcome and I hope you enjoy being with us and sharing your thoughts with us!

(Mr Tim Thompson, mind if I ask something since you seem to know what the nightskies would look like on the two hemispheres? I've been downloading skymaps from skymaps.com for both northern and southern hemisphere but none describes our skies here accurately. The discrepancy is just too large to ignore. Care to comment? Many thanks in advance)

Richard

I've sent StarLab a more detailed private message. But for the rest of you, I'm always glad to lend a hand where I can. I've done mentoring before, and I go around alot to schools and astronomy clubs to talk (which is what I do best I guess).

I looked at the current sky maps from Skymaps.com, but can't say as I saw any problems. I don't really know what the southern sky looks like, so somebody else in the deep south may have to lend a hand. Remember that the charts are printed for a fixed latitide, 35 degrees south or north as I recall. Since the phillipines is near the equator, it might be far enough off to make a difference.

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Don't try this at home - We're what you call "professionals" - MythBusters.

Hello,

My name is Bob. I live near O'Hare airport NW of Chicago. I am a retired
postal worker of 35 years.

My father was a navigator in the military during WWII. So interest in the stars
was encouraged early on.

I was most inspired by jacks-of-all trades..Their lives had a broader perspective
than others and they seemed to dive into and realize the laws of physics from their experience with machines..I became one and never regretted it..

I'm an amateur astronomer, a poet, a student of languages, particle physics,
mathematics, medicine, and whatever breaks around the house I tackle on my own..I have done experiments with consciousness and am writing 3 book length
poems...I've tinkered with cars and modified a Rupp Centaur to accommodate a
VW 1600...If you wish to see one of the most beautiful 3 wheelers ever made
then go this site and look


I see education as building a bridge betwen myself and all the things that either
bore me, disinterest me, or that I'm indifferent to..Conscioiusness is inertia that
interrupts both itself and entropy..Therefore, I am suspicious of the things I excell
in...It is the things that are most difficult that a mind needs to break down and experiment with .....and have a great many questions that are unanswered..


blueshift

Thanks for the info, Mr. Thompson! I guess we have to make skymaps on our own! There was this plan by people from skymaps.com to make skymaps for the people near the equator but it never materialized.

Hey Blueshift! So long as you have found your place under the sun, I guess there's nothing wrong with either being a jack-of-all-trade or having mastered a craft. But if there's no peace, don't be afraid to plunge yourself into the bottomless ocean called knowledge

alfchemist,

To respond to your post would be off topic..I'll send an e-mail instead..This thread's intention is a self introduction and we should keep it that way.

I would read up on Shannon Entropy and what will happen if our capabilities
ever shrink storage of data to a point where it is equal to thermodynamic entropy.

Knowledge would not be bottomless..

blueshift

I mean that to be rhetorical, blueshift. Anyway, I have not seen more than 2000 "unique" post in this thread so i guess there are still a lot of UT members unable to introduce themselves. Pls do.......

h34r:

Hi,
Am Owino Henry from Kenya and very much interested with SPACE issues.

I do ask my self the same quiz of eliens being like us, i must accept that being in remot parts of africa i have not watched most off these space related movies< why do i say so? in find it that most who watch these movies cannot think something better out of it since it would never be fresh imaginations. Now imagine within this line of thinking;
1. Looking at the scientific facts that we do know within our own planet, further studies by NASA and EPA shows some similarities between earth and other planets with variation only in climatic conditions that dictates presence of Hydrogen, Oxygen and Water. With recent realization that out there exist other planets Earth like why would there be different forms of Lives?! The system holds and thats what i do tent to understand as a Scientist! If any variation then very small as on Earth we have Africans like me, Whites, Asians e.t.c Ever thought of us possibly being introduced to Earth by a comet? Eliens most likely could be like us here and may be just too intelegent than us! Or what do you think friends?

I think that i forgot to introduce myself( maybe not)
My name is Boris Boric, I'm 15 years old and have been interested in astronomy for about 4 years now. I moved to Lawrenceville, Georgia 5 years ago from Yugoslavia. I enjoy it here in USA, but where I used to live had a lot better views of the sky at night, there wasn't a lot of light there, unlike here in Georgia. But it's all good.

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&quot;Try not to become a man of success, but rather, try to become a man of value.&quot; -- Albert Einstein