michel Posted 14May, 2014 Report Share Posted 14May, 2014 Astronomy. Though it'a very dependant on the weather, and you're up all night, I find it both relaxing and fascinating. that is cool and a welcome departure from all our usual machismo inclinations PS I have liked sewing kites and kids clothing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByronBayChris Posted 14May, 2014 Report Share Posted 14May, 2014 Astronomy. Though it'a very dependant on the weather, and you're up all night, I find it both relaxing and fascinating. I have been busy watching the earth pass Mars over the last few weeks..cool stuff. And to think we are spinning at 1000mph, but can't feel a thing. Amazibg stuff. PFA astronomy night for all those with sunroofs or tent tops? (Ps...much better view from.Broome) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michel Posted 14May, 2014 Report Share Posted 14May, 2014 wasnt there a saturn transit last night Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByronBayChris Posted 14May, 2014 Report Share Posted 14May, 2014 You mean like this? Photo via an iPhone through telescope eyepiece. Taken by Greg Quicke from AstroTours in Broome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew F Posted 15May, 2014 Report Share Posted 15May, 2014 It was an occultation of Saturn and the moon. A transit is when Mercury or Venus passes between us and the Sun. The reason Cook sailed to Australia was, amongst other things, to study the transit of Venus. Anyway, the next Saturn Moon event is August 4th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coastr Posted 16May, 2014 Report Share Posted 16May, 2014 It was an occultation of Saturn and the moon. A transit is when Mercury or Venus passes between us and the Sun. The reason Cook sailed to Australia was, amongst other things, to study the transit of Venus. Anyway, the next Saturn Moon event is August 4th. It's been argued his mission was to find Terra Australis - the great southern land - and the transit was just a cover story. His equipment wasn't in good shape when it happened anyway, so IIRC the observations weren't much help. He did find NZ and Oz, but it wasn't what they expected. Someone should make a mini-series on that voyage - plenty of interesting stuff there I think. Anyway...hobbies... I don't know where you guys all get the time (esp tri training!). After 45-50 hours a week of work...and family...and keeping the house going, there's precious little time left. I used to travel a lot but not anymore due to the same restrictions. Anyway, I'm into surfing, cycling (road and mountain), running, woodwork, cooking, photography and building random websites. Maybe on the snowboard once a year if the stars align. And keeping an increasingly cantankerous german but non-porsche car on the road. But I don't think any of those things get enough time and serious effort to graduate from 'interest' to 'hobby'. Kids get first allocation of spare time, and everything else has to fit around that. I guess there's more than a few fully or semi retired peoples on the forum. One day...retirement will be equipped workshop with project car on rotisserie, fully gassed BBQ for post-workshop eats, and only on days when the surf is no good. Maybe then shipping it OS for a grand tour. Geez I better get back to work to pay for all these daydreams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamWolf Posted 16May, 2014 Report Share Posted 16May, 2014 Hobbies are those things I used to do... Cars have always been a big part of my life. At the moment other than the 911 I am putting a 5.7L VN commodore together for supersprints/circuit racing. Scotch and red wine snobbery has become an occasional hobby. Cycling is something I enjoy and want to become more active about. I need a new bike though, my 1993 Giant Cadex carbon frame bike has a working headlight and a good frame but everything else is cracked or broken. When I had a garage I used to make crazy things like the Babington Burner (from a brass egg cup) and an immersion PC (computer in a fish tank and filled with oil). Crazy things are awesome fun. I used to do Wing Chun years back but when I moved to Newcastle I couldn't find a decent school. The only one up here at the time was run by a guy that believes thongs and stubbies is appropriate training attire, and the teaching methods were similar. I have had a go at art and writing and enjoyed it, but can never seem to find the time. House renos (this is number 3) can sort of be called a hobby but it's always been more of a necessity than for pleasure. Race Magazine (www.racemagazine.com.au) takes up any spare time I have and I don't think of it as a hobby. With luck and lots of energy it should become self supporting. Just need more Porsche content! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevMcRev Posted 16May, 2014 Report Share Posted 16May, 2014 And to think we are spinning at 1000mph, but can't feel a thing. Amazibg stuff. Whilst orbiting at 67,000mph! Makes our P cars seem pretty slow.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustJames Posted 19May, 2014 Report Share Posted 19May, 2014 Whilst orbiting at 67,000mph! Makes our P cars seem pretty slow.... Even 67,000mph is pretty slow...we're also heading away from everything else in the universe fast enough to red-shift light. "Yes, office, that's right...I misinterpreted the brake lights as being tail lights redshifted from moving away from me so fast...and that's why I ran into the back of him. Easy mistake to make, when you think about it." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pocketscience Posted 19May, 2014 Report Share Posted 19May, 2014 If you take a wider view of things we're moving much faster than that... our solar system is moving up and out of the milky way, and we're also orbiting the galactic centre. Depending on your assumptions of choice and your frame of reference the result is somewhere in the vicinity of 800,000km/h for our speed within the milky way. Of course the milky way is also moving through the universe as well, but things start getting pretty murky at that point finding a decent frame of reference... but you can probably at least treble the above mentioned answer... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew F Posted 19May, 2014 Report Share Posted 19May, 2014 If you take a wider view of things we're moving much faster than that... our solar system is moving up and out of the milky way, and we're also orbiting the galactic centre. Depending on your assumptions of choice and your frame of reference the result is somewhere in the vicinity of 800,000km/h for our speed within the milky way. Of course the milky way is also moving through the universe as well, but things start getting pretty murky at that point finding a decent frame of reference... but you can probably at least treble the above mentioned answer... You blokes are spending way to much time thinking about this. Still, ponder the concept of a black hole. Hard to get your head around some of this stuff. That's why I just gaze at the stars and stuff. I'm about to delve into the field of astrophotography. Should be interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pocketscience Posted 19May, 2014 Report Share Posted 19May, 2014 I blame my brain. I find it almost impossible to look at something, like the night sky, and just think "pretty...". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustJames Posted 19May, 2014 Report Share Posted 19May, 2014 The bit that does my head in is the notion that we are not only moving through space, but the space we are moving through is expanding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KGB Posted 19May, 2014 Report Share Posted 19May, 2014 Vodka can fix black hole problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pocketscience Posted 19May, 2014 Report Share Posted 19May, 2014 Fix? Vodka's caused more black holes than it's fixed in my experience...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pocketscience Posted 19May, 2014 Report Share Posted 19May, 2014 The bit that does my head in is the notion that we are not only moving through space, but the space we are moving through is expanding At the other end of the extreme consider that everything we can see and touch is almost entirely empty space! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tit Posted 19May, 2014 Report Share Posted 19May, 2014 I've posted this before but it seems entirely appropriate for this discussion... Tim and Eric - The Universe + Extanded Scenes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
911oclock Posted 20May, 2014 Report Share Posted 20May, 2014 [our solar system is moving up and out of the milky way] Which way is up?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott930 Posted 20May, 2014 Report Share Posted 20May, 2014 I think this sums it all up? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQPlFLtWDwM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pocketscience Posted 20May, 2014 Report Share Posted 20May, 2014 [our solar system is moving up and out of the milky way] Which way is up?? That's a great question, and one I glossed over in my earlier reply. Astronomers use the right hand rule for determining "up" within our solar system, and even if you're outside our solar system looking in you'd apply the same rule. If you're looking for a galactic "up" - i.e. our solar system within the Milky Way I believe the left hand rule is used as that generally reflects our orientation within the Milky Way, but when I said "up" I was implying "away from the galactic plane. Clear? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JV911 Posted 20May, 2014 Report Share Posted 20May, 2014 Cycling (race in the Sydney club scene) Restoring old BMX bikes (SuperMax and Pk Rippers mainly) Hiking (going to Mt Blanc in Aug) Travelling Photography & collecting old cameras Cooking...and eating! Reading geeky science stuff (usually physics and astronomy) by authors such as Sagan, Paul Davies & Hawking et al Researching family history i collect vintage firearms, australian made when i can find them (back when we used to make stuff..) Just found my late dad's national service rifle while going through his stuff. (.22 circa 1954) ping pong and like to disco dance. And his ping pong trophies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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