Venus

[Lalaith_Elf]

Venus and Neptune are my favorites.

[Rían]

I love to see Venus at night! It reminds me of Earendil and the Silmaril

[Jonathan]

Isn't Venus Eärendil and the Silmaril, according to Tolkien?

[Rían]

Yes, IIRC it's in one of the HOME books.

[brownjenkins]

Originally posted by Sister Golden Hair
Well, the life expectancy of the Hubble was 2010, but it has required a great deal of repairs over the years, and NASA says that it is getting to dangerous to send out repair crews to work on it. They (NASA) experienced a great out cry over this, and are now reconsidering the idea of maintaining the Hubble until 2010, but they have yet, as far as I know, to make a decision.

i heard a scientist on npr who mentioned that the cost of maintaning the hubble over the next ten or so years is about equal to that of bringing it down (which would involve sending up a robot ship to bring it down safely)

i hope they let it continue

[Rían]

Me too! What a great idea it was.

[Rían]

OK, at the very, very end of Morgoth's Ring, in the "Index" section, there's a little bit on "Star-Names". Some of the planets are named, but Venus is not mentioned here. I think it's mentioned elsewhere several places, but can't find it offhand ...

edit - yes, it IS in there - Venus' name is Earendil. Here's the best guess at the rest (it was kinda unclear, JRRT wrote initials above some names, and then as he usually did, changed some of them!):

Karnil - Mars
Luinil - possibly Neptune after Nenar changed to Uranus
Nenar - Neptune, then Uranus
Lumbar - Saturn
Alkarinque - Jupiter
Elemmire - Mercury
Earendil - Venus

It seems like a kind of sketchy playing-around with names, and never seemed to be formally decided on, but Mars and Jupiter and Venus were fairly sure.

[Khamûl]

I seem to recall that the inference that Earendil is Venus is near the end of his tale in the Silmarillion too. It doesn't come out and say it, but you can put two and two together.

Those of you interested in Venus will probably find this rare celestial event exciting.

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclips...venus0412.html

[Ruinel]

The Lead Snows of Venus

In this image created from Magellan radar and topographic data, the bright yellow atop the highland of Ovda Regio may be a dusting of lead sulfide snow.

at ...
http://www.discover.com/web-exclusiv...-of-venus0201/

[Jonathan]

Originally posted by Khamûl
Those of you interested in Venus will probably find this rare celestial event exciting.

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclips...venus0412.html

Interesting indeed, I have to make a note of that in my almanac.
*jots down "Transit of Venus, June 8th"*
Transits of Mercury are more common than those of Venus. You get to see "Mercury eclipses" in 2016/2019 and 2032/2039, but after these "Venus eclipses" this year and in 2012, you have to wait until 2117 and 2125 for the next pair of transits.
I read that Captain Cook set out to observe a transit of Venus in the Pacific. Transits were great opportunitites to determine the size of the solar system and to prove the laws of Kepler and the heliocentric planetary theory of Copernicus.

Also read that during the transit of Venus this year, astronomers will study the decrease in the lumonous intensity of the sun. The results can help the astronomers in the search for so-called exo-planets, planets in other solar systems (if the lumonous intensity of a distant star suddenly decreases, a planet has probably passed right in front of it).

Looking forward to June 8th. Be sure not to stare directly at the sun

[Rían]

*starts to read article*

OMGoodness, how exciting!!!


*reads further*

What do you MEAN people in Northwestern US can't see it?!?!?!?!?!?


Oh well, tell me about it, someone.

[Draken]

Originally posted by Beor
Nah, sulfur rain never hurt anyone (of course, I dont think anyone has expierenced it...).

As it happens I've been researching the Great Fire of Gateshead of 1874 (I think, my notes are on another computer), when a warehouse storing sulphur and other nasty stuff exploded.

By all accounts the rain of burning sulphur that ensued did indeed hurt quite a few people!

[Khamûl]

*looks on the bright side* RÃ*an, at least you'll get to see part of the 2012 transit.

[Rían]

*sigh* yes, I suppose so ... *grump grump*

[Beor]

Originally posted by Draken
By all accounts the rain of burning sulphur that ensued did indeed hurt quite a few people!

Well slap me silly and call me Red, I'll be damned.

I also will not see the thing on June 8th, but I would probably forget anyway, because I will just have gotton back from here, and its also my birthday, so I will be...uh...reflecting...

[Lalaith_Elf]

Getting slightly worse for wear you mean

[Earniel]

Pretty pictures... I always thought that the planets of our solar system have such a near-magical beauty. Just like our very own Earth, despite the irony that you have to go into space to witness the real beauty of the planet you're standing on.

I adore space-photographs of planets and nebulae, that's why I'm so sad that they would decommission Hubble.

[Insidious Rex]

...and once again this is why we need to slap that puppy (the newest space telescope) on the moon where we could get images 100 times better then hubble.

[Khamûl]

Originally posted by Khamûl
Those of you interested in Venus will probably find this rare celestial event exciting.

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclips...venus0412.html

Just a little reminder for those of you interested.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ansit_of_venus

[Earniel]

Thanks for reminding.

Hm, doesn't look like it'll be visible with the naked eye... maybe a good time to bring out my sister's old telescope and tape off the lens with photo negatives again...