Astronomy Picture Of The Day (APOD) Discussion

I clicked on the subtle colors link and was treated to some more interesting views of the Moon's varying hues!

[Blue Fire]

[umop ap!sdn] I clicked on the subtle colors link and was treated to some more interesting views of the Moon's varying hues!

Yup, definitely worth the click!

[Dragon Star] I, as usual, made it my new Wallpaper this morning.

I think I finally found one I can keep for a good while...I think it's the best Moon image ever.

Bad news, Dragon Star: if ya haven't already, you have got to check out the link on that APOD to Noel Carboni! He's got some fantastic pics there! My favorites are the false color shots. He's also got a detailed explanation on what his methods were. Geezz, it's like I hit a min-jackpot or mini-motherload of great links sprinkled all about the orginal APOD site and subsequent links that had links!

[Blue Fire]

Clicking on today's APOD (Sept. 11, 2006) [Eclipsed Moon rising over England] takes you to the series of 5 hi res photos of the moon rising taken at this scene.

[Blue Fire]

Today's APOD (Sept. 18, 2006) is a pic from the Keck Observatory of newly named Eris and it's moon Dysnomia. I notice that the text accompanying the pic mentions, of course, that Pluto and Ceres are the only other two dwarf planets. But I'm wondering What about 90377 Sedna? Is Sedna just awaiting the official designation as a dwarf planet, or don't we know enough about it yet?

[Dragon Star]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/90377_Sedna#Classification

[Blue Fire]

Originally Posted by Dragon Star

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/90377_Sedna#Classification

I was aware of this artcile in wiki, and noted this statement:

Sedna may qualify as a dwarf planet pending the detailed definition of that category by the International Astronomical Union.

but this later quote from there

Sedna may be made a candidate for consideration as a dwarf planet. It is not, however, considered to be a planet.

[bold is mine] only serves to reinforce my question. Specifically, do we Know that Sedna is actually under consideration by the IAU as a dwarf planet? As opposed to "May be." Or, again, is the IAU holding off on it deliberately in lieu of further data, including a more specific definition of "Dwarf Planet"? If that is the case, then we may not have a solid classification for Sedna until the IAU meets again. And I might comment that it strikes me as silly to classify other objects (like Pluto and Eris) as dwarf planets if the IAU doesn't even have a good enough definition of what a dwarf planet is to classify Sedna! So,... what, the definition of dwarf planet is good enough for Pluto, Eris, and Ceres, but Not good enough for Sedna?? I'm seeing flashes of "Nonsequitor" here.

[Dragon Star]

As I understand it, there are two factors that are pending classification of Sedna, if it is indeed being considered as implied from Wiki...

1) Not enough data on Sedna
2) They haven't detailed the specifications of dwarf planets, or in other words, it falls in-between classifications of planet and dwarf planet.

But I don't know for sure, that is just my take on it.

[Blue Fire]

Originally Posted by Dragon Star

As I understand it, there are two factors that are pending classification of Sedna, if it is indeed being considered as implied from Wiki...

1) Not enough data on Sedna
2) They haven't detailed the specifications of dwarf planets, or in other words, it falls in-between classifications of planet and dwarf planet.

But I don't know for sure, that is just my take on it.

Yeah, not much else to say on it I guess... Except that I'd say, since they think Sedna is smaller than Eris, it may fall somewhere between dwarf planet and regular Kuiper belt object rather than Planet.

[Blue Fire]

As usual, today's APOD (Sept. 20, 2006) of the ISS, is gorgeous and the hi res version really presents a great deal of detail. But I was a bit mystified at first because the hi res version seemed to be very different from the regular version that you click to get the hi res version. That was, until I realized that the hi res version is inverted, upsidedown, from the smaller one. So, I'm wondering which is the correct view? I'm guessing that the smaller pic is the right one - it just seems more sensible somehow. I'm also wondering, of course, who made the boo boo and how long will it take them to realize it?

[Dragon Star]

That is some really good detail there. Out of curiosity, does anyone know why they went with Brown on the new solar array instead of Black?