5. Polaris (aka The North Star) - Located in the constellation Ursa Minor

4. Zubeneschamali & Zubenelgenubi - The pair of stars are located in the constellation Libra. The Arabic meanings of these stars are "Northern Claw" and "Southern Claw", respectively. Some consider it an extension of the Scorpius constellation. Need to find a decent picture...
3. Betelgeuse - One of the biggest, baddest, bestest, largest red giants known. Found in the constellation Orion.

2. Altair - Part of the "Summer Triangle" (Altair, Deneb, & Vega). Altair is part of the constellation Aquila (The Eagle).

and the #1.......
1. Antares - Another bright red giant in the constellation "Scorpius", even bigger than Betelgeuse. Also known as the "Heart of the Scorpion"

I suggested he should try to get Earth from Betelgeuse.

Now I might've done something silly, but we can't select Earth from Betelgeuse - but I selected 'Sol' for him and here's the image in 700x202 size as I see the banner (if size is different you just tell me, wokay?)

Notice, you doubters of the answer, that the apparent magnitude of THE EARTH'S SUN from BETELGEUSE is... ten point forty two. (Well ten point four two to be pedantically honest).

Here is the image for Harish (ask permission if anyone else wants to use - celestia for copyright, me for artistic license and THF for first-claim) 

PS: THF - Here's a better selection of images (mostly Creative commons or free-for-fair-use)

“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.”   (Psalm 33:6)

The speed of light equals 186,000 miles per second.  A light year equals 5.88 trillion miles.  The Whirlpool Galaxy is 31 million light years from Earth (182,000,000,000,000,000 miles).  It is a galaxy that contains 300,000,000,000 stars.  Inside that galaxy there is a black hole in the center which strikingly bears the image of the cross. Consider the following four stars:
1.       The Sun:      It is one million times the size of Earth.  If the earth were the size of a golf ball, the sun would be 15 feet in diameter.2.       Betelegeuse: It is twice the size of the earth’s orbit around the sun.  If the earth were the size of a golf ball, Betelgeuse would be the height of six Empire State Buildings staked on top of one another.  262 trillion earths can fit inside this star.

3.       Mu Cephei:  It is 3,000 light years away.  If the earth were the size of a golf ball, Mu Cephei would be the width of two Golden Gate Bridges from end to end.  2.7 quadrillion earths can fit inside of this star.

How can you define quadrillion? 
1 million seconds ago =   12 days ago
1 billion seconds ago =    1975
1 trillion seconds ago =   29,700 B.C.
1 quadrillion seconds ago =       30,800,000 years ago

4.       Canus Majorus (the Big Dog star):   If the earth were the size of a golf ball, Canus Majorus would be the height of Mount Everest.  SEVEN quadrillion earths can fit inside of this star.  That number would cover the state of Texas 22 inches deep in golf balls. 

Human DNA
It would take 96 years to read one person’s DNA description of 3 billion characters at the rate of one character per second.  75 trillion cells make up one human body which all came from two single cells.  Sight begins when one million optic cells from the nerve center meet with one million cells from the eye. YOU ARE A MIRACLE, UNIQUELY FORMED BY GOD’S HAND FOR A PURPOSE. 

If you really want to see something amazing, Google “laminin” --- it is a protein molecule that holds our body together.  When you take a look at the molecular diagram at laminin and the image it bears, you will say, “WOW!”  

I would highly encourage you to check out the entire presentation by Louie Giglio.  You can go to www.268generation.com.      

Used additional calibration star during setup, goto was very good.

Tonight the Celestron NexImage camera worked, as opposed to last night's useless performance. Only major change that I'm aware of was that this time I ran the camera indoors until the scope was set up. Last time I set everything outside, including the camera. Maybe the temp of the electronics was below spec'ed operating range?

Captured several images of mars, luna (with and without focal reducer), and trapezium. Learning curve has just begun. Atmospheric turbulence easily seen in real-time video of lunar craters. Attempted to image Saturn but it was still low in the sky so I could not get good focus.

Observed double star Almech (gamma andromeda), easily split with 15mm. Similar magnitude, brightest with a touch of yellow, second star deep blue.

Betelgeuse yellow with orange at the fringe. Lots of scattering (as with all tonight's observations) due to humidity.

M34 - dim open cluster in 32mm. Nearly symmetrical pattern of thirteen stars near center like a goose with wings outstretched.

Follow-up Notes

Later reference using SNP reports the dimmest of the four trapezium stars, which it calls Trapezium1B, as mag 7.46. This star is quite dim in the NexImage, although it is easily seen in any of the eyepieces. Also visible in image (but very, very faint) is mag 8.43 star TYC4774-935-1. Transparency was not perfect last night, but even so it appears the NexImage will only be useful for stars of mag 6 or brighter.

Video capture file of Mars was corrupt. Let that be a lesson: next time take multiple images.

CCD has dust on surface and lint that affects image. Needs to be cleaned.

 Alnilam, Alnitak and Mintaka are in the belt, Betelgeuse above, Rigel below. Wonderful names.

I nearly broke/twisted myself last night, out on the circuit, I was engrossed in star gazing, mis-footed off the road, heck! Smud was mad for the scent of hares.

As with most nights the fields are full of ghosts. Seven years of feeding now reduced to one grey mare, lovely as she is. We were so lucky, and so they were too, for seven years of friendship. I never 'knocked' the owners as its due to them we had so much worthwhile activity.

 This second pic gives the relationship to Taurus and the Pleiades. Unseen on the left is Sirius the dog star, Procyon, Auriga, Castor and Pollux. All old friends. Knowing a little abt Orion leads on to the Messier catalogue and the famous M42 below Orions belt.

After the result seen last year I am very aware of December 14th and the expected meteor shower. Fingers crossed for clear skies.

The Old Observatory is on Calton Hill, and being Regius Professor of Astronomy I tend to explain pompously to anybody in earshot that in 1789 that would have been my house. Luckily my partner Debbie is normally on hand to point out that in 1789 a lower class oik like me would never have been a University Professor. Walking down off the hill, as the torches go out and the smoke temporarily parts, I can see Orion, Betelgeuse glaring orange across a distance I can write down but not really grasp.

Back home to bacon butties for eight and Christmas Special Type Telly. Perfect.

Ahí salen en los "telediarios" las güelinas quejándose de que todo está carísimo y por lo que parece, sigue siendo noticia.

Quizás porque estudio economía, antes de escuchar a los políticos tengo la manía de mirar los datos. Lo bueno que tenemos en España es que la mayoría de los datos económicos son de libre acceso a través de la web del Instituto Nacional de Estadística. Y saber cuánto han subido los precios de un año cualquiera a otro es realmente fácil:

http://www.ine.es/cgi-bin/certi

Por ejemplo, los precios desde noviembre del 2000 a noviembre del 2007 se han incrementado en un 25,4% . ¿Cuánto aumentaron en los 7 años anteriores cuando teníamos con nosotros a nuestra querida peseta que tanto bien hacía? Pues de noviembre de 1992 al mismo mes de 1997 aumentaron ¡un 25,3 %! Creedme que una diferencia de 0.1 % en 7 años no es para echarse las manos a la cabeza. De hecho:

http://www.elmundo.es/mundodinero/2002/02/28/Noti20020228160418.html

Y ya no digamos si miramos cuánto aumentaron desde 1990 a 1997 ¡un 33,7%!

Hoy leo un artículo maravilloso y muy divulgativo de uno de mis blogs favoritos sobre el IPC y toda esta historia:

http://www.adn.es/blog/el_ruido_y_las_nueces/dinero/20071218/POS-0007-IPC-Cree-usted.html

Pero incluso pensando sólo en bienes de consumo, muchas veces nos parece que el IPC "está mal". Probablemente, lo que sucede es que en nuestras cabezas hacemos una media con muy pocos datos, en la que damos un peso desproporcionado a las cosas cotidianas (la leche y el pan en el super, el café en el bar, la gasolina), y mucho menos a las cosas que pagamos ocasionalmente (la factura del teléfono, la ropa, los electrodomésticos, los muebles, los equipos informáticos), pero de mayor volumen económico, y que pesan en la media real de nuestro gasto anual bastante más de lo que pesan en nuestra media mental. Casi todos nosotros gastamos mucho más, seguramente, en teléfono que en cafés, pero una factura mensual, que pasa por el banco, no pesa en nuestra cabeza lo mismo que un pequeño gasto cotidiano. Me temo entonces que la cosa tiene difícil arreglo, y que la desconfianza popular en la medida de los precios persistirá indefinidamente.

Funcionários do Departamento de Ciência da Computação da Universidade de Manitoba, em Winnipeg, no Canadá, organizaram um funeral para se despedir de Betelgeuse, um computador de 47 anos!

A curiosa manifestação foi a forma encontrada pela equipa do departamento para homenagear o trabalho incansável do IBM 650, um mainframe instalado em 1960.

A despedida teve direito a cortejo, música e discurso.

Discurso fúnebre completo em homenagem a Betelgeuse:

For forty-seven years you've served us well, you cast us in your
green spell. You processed transactions without complaint, we've asked
the Pope to make you a saint.

The users you were always able to please, with a little training they
could enter with ease, all the data they needed in 2 or 3 screens
instead of the 57 in VIP.

And getting data was easy in IMS, there were six hundred reports in
the RS. And Finance was easy with FRGLA, in the time when the
mainframe held sway.

And the programmers they had all the tools they need, Easytrieve
and COBOL made programming a breeze. And Mantes were there to
manage the files, and to help with debugging if it wouldn't compile.

Now gone are the punch cards and card readers of yore, and
mainframe computers that used up the whole floor. With tape drive
controllers and large stacks of tapes, that kept operators scrambling
all over the place.

Farewell IMS, we'll remember you well. After forty-seven years,
there are many stories to tell. Like when Tel Reg nearly shut down
MTS, and when the Y2K bug put us under duress.

You helped us achieve our academic objectives, and gave our admin
processes a proper perspective. But now we must lay you under the
flora, because we have to go deal with this bloody Aurora.

So we commit your parts to be recycled.
Earth to Earth
Ashes to Ashes
Dust to Dust
To the god of computers, please bless it and keep it
And give it grace and peace
But please do not resurrect it.

New painting alert -- you can see it in person right now at Kolok Gallery in the "Contemporary Berkshires" exhibit.

Ghibert's Maxim as Solar Fusions

10" x 7" oil panels

The top panel shows an image, based on a plein aire sketch, from a humidity-laden sunset near the top of Pine Cobble in Williamstown, MA - a local, specific artistic interpretation of the earth's orbit around the sun, furnace of our survival. The bottom panel's glowing orb was based on a telescope photograph of Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis) taken by the Hubble Space Telescope using the Faint Object Camera on March 3, 1995 or January 15, 2006, photo credit: Andrea Dupree (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), Ronald Gilliland (STScI), NASA and ESA. This may have been the Hubble's first photo of a star other than the sun. Betelgeuse, a red giant, is like what our sun will become - large enough to engulf most of the solar system. Carl Sagan once wrote that we are all star stuff, literally, borne out of matter forged by the fusion reactors within stars. Generations earlier, the artist Ghiberti simply said ‘Without light there is no art.'

Burton har gjort även filmer som faller på min SciFi-läpp som Mars attacs och Planet of the Apes, filmtiteln Beeteljuice kan ha inspirationskällan från stjärnan (en röd jätte) som finns att skåda i bältet i Orions stjänbild. Den heter Betelgeuse och vem kan anklaga honom för det, vem blir inte inspirerad av natthimlen?

Burton skulle säkert kunna göra en bra inspelning av Roald Dahls bok: Häxorna. Det var han som skrev Kalle och Chokladfabriken. Tim Burton är ett rätt självklart val att göra filmateiseringarna då Quentin Blake är den som har gjort illustrationerna i böckerna på ett superbt sätt. Jag älskar hans råa och humoristiska bilder, han lämnar färgskalan till fantasin och det skulle passa Tim Burtons rätt grafiska färgpalett (på liknande sätt som i filmen om Kalle). Båda har ett personligt och raspigt, inte så gulligt sätt att icensätta miljöer och gestalta händelser på ett helt underbart sätt.

Alice i underlandet kan jag redan nu tänka mig visa en rätt skabbig hare med långa smala öron och en svartvitrandig slips om halsen... Alice har spetsiga skor och flätor som vindlar sig i burton-strutar och hon kallar haren för "klock-snubben". Givetvis har hon ringar under ögonen och speakerrösten har en lätt drömsk röst som leder henne till drottningen som har pimplat rödvin hela dagen. Kan man låta bli att längta efter hans nästa flm?

http://javarm.blogalia.com/historias/53150

http://www.maikelnai.es/2007/11/01/adios-punset-carta-a-tve/

Soy sincero, Redes no era mi programa favorito pero sí que veía algún programa de vez en cuando, a pesar del horario infernal. Y si se me pasaba y haciendo zapping aparecía el tipo este de los rizos siempre me quedaba un rato a ver qué cosas contaba.

Era uno de esos pocos momentos donde no me sentía indignado viendo lo que se hace con los impuestos.

Una pena. Aquí os dejo unos cuantos programas de Redes completos:

http://stage6.divx.com/videos/search:redes

Esperemos que Zaplana no haya dejado de leer El Mundo justamente hoy:

The constellation in the spotlight:  Orion. 

I chose Orion because the constellation is one of several winter constellations (the constellations most visible in the winter months) and because of the activity going on in the Orion region this month with the Orionid meteor shower.  Sadly, it was too cloudy for me to see any meteors at the shower's peak on Oct. 21.  Stargazers who missed the meteor shower on Oct. 21 will be relieved to know that the Orionids will continue to grace the night sky until about mid-November, albeit with progressively decreasing frequency.

On Oct. 24 I talked with astronomy graduate student Phil Rosenfield about constellations, particularly the Orion constellation.  He was happy to answer any questions I had about Orion, because, he said, Orion is his favorite constellation.

In light of the Orionid meteor shower, Rosenfield had some advice for stargazers who have never watched a meteor shower:  Don't set your hopes up too high.  "Meteor showers are hard to catch," Rosenfield said.  "They're hit and miss.  Stargazers new to meteor showers can be let down, because they expect to see something amazing but then only see two or three [meteors]."

However, that doesn't mean meteors are impossible to spot.  "We're constantly being bombarded by dust, by meteors," Rosenfield said.  "Sometimes I'll see five in one night in a dark sky just while I'm walking around."  (For more advice on watching meteor showers, check out this article I found at msnbc.com.)

Rosenfield says the Orion constellation is one of the easiest constellations to spot, thanks to the three stars that make up Orion's Belt: Mintaka, Alnilam and Alnitak.  (He says the stars in Orion's Belt in Spanish are called 'Las Tres Marias.')

Other interesting components of the Orion constellation:

• Two supergiant stars of different colors-- Betelgeuse (a red supergiant star in Orion's armit) and Rigel (a blue supergiant star, and one of Orion's feet).  
• Two star nebulas, or active star-forming regions of interstellar gas and dust-- the Horsehead Nebula (which gets its name from it's horsehead shape) and the Orion Nebula (which looks like the middle 'star' of Orion's sword).

I asked Rosenfield why different drawings of the Orion constellation showed Orion holding different things.  (Some variations include a club and a shield, a club and a lion's pelt, a sword and a shield and a bow and arrow.)  He told me the variations in illustrations of Orion are simply modern attempts to reflect the different stories in the constellation, and that the Greeks probably didn't intend him to be holding anything specific. 

"It's not a matter of which [combination] it should be [in Orion's hands]," Rosenfield said.  "It wasn't 'this one represents this.'  It's just a story, folklore.  I mean, Hercules is sprawled out up there and he's not holding anything."

I'm sure I'd only succeed in butchering the story (or stories) behind the Orion constellation in a summary, so I've posted an excerpt.  Here is one version of the legend of Orion the Hunter, courtesy of Pathways to Astronomy: 

"The king of the island Chios had a lovely daughter, Merope.  His island was filled with savage beasts, and to rid his kingdom of these dangerous animals, the king called on Orion to kill the beasts and make his kingdom safe.  When the task was done, Orion met Merope and made unwelcome advances.  In punishment, he was blinded by the king, but after doing penance, he had his sight restored.  After reaching an old age, however, Orion one day stepped on a scorpion, which stung and killed him.  On his death, the gods placed him in the sky with his faithful dogs [Canis Major and Canis Minor] (one of whom chases Lepus, the rabbit), forever attacking the wild bull, Taurus.  Beyond the bull, Merope and her sisters (the Pleiades [a cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus]) run from the hunter, who pursues them each night across the sky.  The scorpion [Scorpius] was also placed in the sky, but on the other side of the heavens so that Orion would never again be threatened by it." 

Check out StarDate Online's seven-day star forecast for the nights Oct. 25 to Oct. 31.  Oh, and definitely look at http://spaceweather.com this week and every week.  Trust me.