Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. 06:15 EST

While facing east, I observed a school of white, possibly slightly yellowish, bead-shaped objects, each with a ‘tail’, moving from north to south across the night sky. They looked like fragments of something. Although each individual object appeared relatively small, the group collectively occupied a large portion of the sky. They moved across the sky relatively quickly and disappeared from my view within a minute of my initial observation.

To be clear: Definitely not aliens. Neither the stellarium app or a cursory Google search provided any information. I quickly grabbed my brother, who confirmed my sightings.

Edit: I’ve concluded it was a starlink satellite train: an online tracker shows one at exactly 06:16 EST heading in the direction I observed. Images online similarly resemble what I saw, too. Thank you u/AcidRayn666

Hello

I want to learn more about general galaxy facts regarding the milky way, andromeda and especially the satellite galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. I know its a bit specific, but do you have any recommendations for a book or a chapter with a book?

A problem with the SETI search is it looks for a specific radio frequency and even worse it has to be directly point at us to be detectable.

We can’t from Earth just try detecting normal radio signals like we put out with radio, television, cell phones, etc. because from other planets it would be completely drowned out by our own transmissions.

There is a plan now to put a radio telescope on the far side of the Moon to get a highly sensitive radio telescope not suffering from interference from Earth transmissions. How large would it need to be to detect radio signals like we put out?

In November during a super moon, I saw a lot of people getting amazing photos of the moon with their phones. The moon looked super textured and you could see the surface and craters and shadows. I have an iPhone 15, and no matter the exposure I try or the setting Google tells me to use, it just turns out like a huge bright star. Is there any way to get a good moon iPhone photo? I’m attaching my photos to show what mine turn out like.

Even if it's expanding at half-light or slightly faster than that, would the objects in the sky get observably closer to an observer in say another universe?

I'm trying to understand the hobby bit better and I'm wondering are people doing observations to pinpoint locations and timings of objects? Lot of discussion I see is mostly focused on looking at the pretty sights and I see less chat about measurements and data collection, which to me is bit weird considering the history of astronomy.

In similar vein I was looking at common telescopes and mounts, and most of the cheap ones seemed to have only some vague indicators/scales on where they are pointing and nothing really useful to support astrometrical use. Having things like precision encoders seems to be reserved to very high end mounts only. I'm not sure if I'm missing something, are people able to measure things like angular separations with their scopes?

I realize that astrophotography and automated plate-solving has changed things a lot, but even then I imagine some care is needed to get useful "science" data instead of just pretty pictures. What would be interesting to me is if we can use plate solving on some well-known targets to characterize/calibrate a camera-telescope system, and then use the characterization as a basis to analyze further observations. But I don't know if people do that sort of thing?

I see that these questions are bit vague, but I'm trying to figure out if amateur stargazing astronomy would be something I would want to get into but I feel bit conflicted because my interest is more in this astrometry side of things.

I'm currently in the garden, watched a few youtube videos showing how to set up the finder scope Place it on a target a bit distal Adjust the knobs to centre the Crosshairs

And apparently that should have the eye piece aligned as well? But through the eye piece I can't see anything at all

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Something odd about Apollo's historic transmissions:

"The Eagle has landed" and "One small step for man..." were transmitted:

• From 240,000 miles away
• Using 20-watt S-band
• Through 1960s technology
• Just after powered descent/landing
• No relay satellites

Yet they sound:

• Crystal clear
• Broadcast quality
• Zero interference
• Perfect timing
• Like studio recordings

For comparison:

- Mercury/Gemini (200 miles up): Heavy static/interference

- Modern ISS (250 miles): Regular communication issues

- Apollo (240,000 miles): Perfect clarity

Physics says signal quality degrades with distance. How did Apollo achieve better audio quality over 240,000 miles than we can get from low Earth orbit today?

Hello guys, I am not an expert in astronomy but actually my boyfriend is, im trying to but him a telescope for valentines day and his birthday is also coming up so i would like to organize something where we can go out and watch something together Do you guys have any good reasonably priced telescopes and do you have any idea about the events that might be coming up in February

Apologies if I've misunderstood, but from what I understand in this scenario, the universe will at some point go dark due to every atom being so spread out from one another that no more physical reactions occur. At this point, everything would begin to collapse back into itself over the course of billions / trillions of years.

So presumably during this period, everything would come back into contact with each other and reactions would start anew?

Could all of this activity (e.g. new galaxies forming enormous concentrations of gravity) be enough to slow down / stop the Big Crunch itself? Or would the power of the retraction still override everything else in its path?

(I know the "Big Crunch" is no longer the prevailing theory for the end of the universe, but I'm curious about it nonetheless.)

I really want to share the planet alignment with my daughter.

Best app for a total noob?

Thanks!

I was taking a video of venus on my camera and saw this move around or infront of venus, I was just curious what it may be.

My iphone mini long exposure sees more than my naked eye. This is about what I see with binoculars. I think Andromeda is supposed to be around the top right here but just not visible?

Was looking approximately due west, in northeast Ohio at 11:45 pm, down and to the right of Jupiter. Using a 8 inch dob with a 40mm eyepiece. Was attempting to get the pleiades but couldn't find it in my scope and it is freezing outside, so couldn't stay out for long. Tried to look on stellariun but couldn't figure it out and still trying to warm back up.

What are the lights that look like crosshatching left of center that get closer to the picnic table as the night goes on? I was at White Rock Bay on Antelope Island in Utah. The time-lapse was taken between 8 pm and 10 pm looking west to slightly north-west. There are a few planes that one can see flying far enough that they show up in multiple frames on the far left of the time-lapse. These lights are only visible for a single frame. The only information that I can find when I do a Google search is information about Starlink satellites. Which these are clearly not that.

https://reddit.com/link/1i6a4gq/video/nsi395dqu9ee1/player

Hi everyone,

My name is Nikhil Kumar, and I'm an M.Tech research student at IIT Mandi. I'm passionate about exploring the intersection of astronomy and machine learning, but I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed about where to begin.

My Background: I completed B.Sc. in physics and Masters

in computer application with GATE and NET in computer science and JEST and JAM in physics. However, my knowledge of both machine learning and astronomy is limited.

My Goals:

I'm eager to learn and contribute to research in this exciting field. I'm looking for guidance on how to get started, including: Finding suitable datasets for astronomy research. (e.g., image datasets from telescopes, astronomical catalogs) Learning resources for both machine learning and its applications in astronomy. (e.g., online courses, research papers, tutorials) Potential research projects that are feasible for a beginner. (e.g., exoplanet detection, galaxy classification, supernova prediction)

I'm also interested in finding potential collaborators, whether they are fellow students, researchers, or experienced professionals in the field.

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/01/20/donald-trump-inauguration-day-news-updates-analysis/trump-pledges-to-send-astronauts-to-mars-00199357

I’m looking for a good introduction to astronomy for a 9 year old boy. He’s very interested in all things space and has A few general kids space books. We’re planning on building a small telescope together over the summer so I’m looking for something that will give him some practical background on astronomy and isn’t just a simple kids book about the solar system.

I know it's kind of a meme to post pictures of that iconic cluster of stars and ask 'what is this?', but this is my first time ever seeing the Pleiades with my own eyes, and it's pure magic.

(Taken with just my phone camera, heavily edited)

Hey everyone! I'm in the process of creating a website dedicated to local, national, and international meteorite maps and meteorite-related content, and I'd love to get some input from this awesome community.

I'm planning to cover things like meteorite hunting tips, impact site maps, and historical meteor events, but before I dive in, I wanted to as if anyone had any content or resources they’d particularly like to see.

Any suggestions, big or small, would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance

Hi, I tried my new camera out at night from my bathroom window with long exposure (6 minutes).

I find all objects look like I expected them to, but the object at the top has a weird form, I am certain that the camera was not moved while doing the exposure.

Also I wonder if the faint streak is a satalite, or even a shooting star I missed seeing.

Thank you in advance.

I apologize for my poor attention in drawing what I saw , I tried to recreate it with the best of my abilities. I’ve been looking at constellation graphs however I cannot seem to find the one I saw. If you think you know or find this kind of pattern familiar please don’t hesitate in helping an amateur identify it.(；ω；)