/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.2358924]

Astronomy is Awesome

[Anonymous No.2358947]

Space exploration in general is awesome OP.

If anything, physics and engineering will get us to the planets that astronomy only allows us to look at.

[Anonymous No.2358958]

Engineers are still fags, though.

[Anonymous No.2358968]

awe is a subjective emotion. It has no rational meaning.

[Anonymous No.2358977]

>>2358968
>He doesn't know about dictionaries

[Anonymous No.2358980]

>>2358968

But the almighty Sagan as taught me the wonders of science! Let me ask you...

Have you found Sagan yet?

[Xlore !!oIaXoksOFZm No.2359007]

>>2358924
Yes, Astronomy is awesome.

I spent about 3 hours last night outside, just using my telescope and looking at how clear the sky was.

It's not normally so clear here, and for some reason a lot of lights weren't on either so i got a good view of the sky.

Love looking at space, it never ceases to amaze me.

[Anonymous No.2359008]

>>2358980

Yes. He smoked loads of weed and let it the increased emotionality weed seems to give everything go to his head. One could just as easily paint an ugly picture of the universe and promote the message of how it's all shit.

If you want to spend your time smoking weed and feeling awe at everything then go ahead.

Just don't pretend you have some sort of meaningful message.

[Xlore !!oIaXoksOFZm No.2359022]

>>2359008
Thinks people have to be on drugs to appreciate space.

Bro you have no imagination.

[Anonymous No.2359027]

astronomy is shitty.
People have a romantic view on it, supported by the media.
Its all about data reduction.The amount of work you have to extract some information from images is absurd.
And images as ugly as fuck.Theyre not like pics people love from space.Thyre monochromatic(you use one color filter each time and study them separately) and have very low resolution..just a bunch of black and white pixels.
Ive worked with ttauri stars images on IRAF, and that was one of the things that made me quit drop from physics.

[Anonymous No.2359044]

>>2359008

>He smoked loads of weed and let it the increased emotionality weed seems to give everything go to his head

....Right, sure he did.

Anyways, I'm failing to see why you're getting so upset. Just because OP is feeling Awe at something you find trivial doesn't really justify your jerkassing. So OP loves balls of superheated matter lightyears away from earth. So what?

Don't get so mad, bro.

[Anonymous No.2359049]

>>2358968
>I have lost my sense of curiosity about the Universe, and am a sad shell of a human being

[Anonymous No.2359056]

>>2359027

>Its all about data reduction

Isn't this all of science? I mean, considering the amount of data in any experiment, data reduction is a constant no matter what field you enter?

[Anonymous No.2359064]

It is indeed. I really want to study astronomy or astrophysics, but theres not much work offers, is there?

[Xlore !!oIaXoksOFZm No.2359076]

>>2359064
It is very hard, Depends on how well you do in college, and what you've done in college.

I don't see myself doing anything else but Astronomy so the work available has never bothered me.

[Anonymous No.2359085]

>>2359064

Finding work is not the problem, being good at it is. It's a lot more than simply taking pictures of stars through telescopes. And when I say a lot more, I mean, MATH OUT THE ASS.

But, then again, you wouldn't be taking science if you didn't like math, right?

[Anonymous No.2359124]

>>2359056
Not exactly.The thinking/data reduction ratio varies..but usually who tries physics is far more interested in thinking(as I was).And in astronomy all we have is a weird light that we dont know where its coming from.And we cant "make" experiments, we only observe.The guys are REALLY smart for having discovered all those stuff.

[Anonymous No.2359152]

Man, I love astrology!

[Anonymous No.2359148]

I'm not mad. I'm just trying to point out the flaw in the OP saing "astronomy is awesome" as if it was an objective statement.

[Xlore !!oIaXoksOFZm No.2359163]

>>2359124
Yea i see what you are saying.

I know a lot of people that are into Astronomy because i am always around it, but a lot stop when they find out what you really do.

I always knew when working with Astronomy it wouldn't be big colorful pictures everytime i looked deep out into space. Most people just watch documentaries or something that always show big colorful 3d videos, or colored photos. They don't look around to find out about what really goes on and get disappointed.

I for one love looking at the raw data you get from viewing space. Figuring out what something really is is fun for me and a challenge.

[Anonymous No.2359247]

>>2359076
>>2359085
>>2359163

Okay, thanks for the replies. The thing is that I love space, and the mysteries around it, the vastness, the greatness etc. And I find math interesting and sometimes fun (not always though), but I'm not really good at it, I do much better in physics though. I have to work quite a bit to stand in "calculus" (I'm not sure what math I'm in from your perspectives since Norwegian school system is lame, but I have the hardest math and I'm in year 13, last year in high shool over here). Should I still go for astronomy/astrophysics?

And what exactly do astronomers do, except "looking at stars"?

[Anonymous No.2359254]

>>2359163
Add how long you take to figure it out,the fear/uncertainty you have of not actually figuring it out, how that probably wont affect in any way the history of science or our daily life (to me that already means no personal satisfacton) and that in the end the most you will get is a pat on the back(no material satisfaction) => my feeling

I feel that I shouldnt like nothing other than physics to be a good physicist(or at least be twice as smart).Anyway I would like to be a theoretical physicist if I had the pre-requisites..but once Ive learn what an astronomer does, I would never be one

[Xlore !!oIaXoksOFZm No.2359277]

>>2359247
You are doing fine so far, more math always helps. As the other guy said it is a lot of physics/math.
There's so many things to work out (different wavelengths that telescopes take pictures in, how far away things are, then taking into account how big they are being that far, etc)

It also helps if you are good at critical thinking; which normally comes with math, but there has to be a certain thinking outside the box too.


>And what exactly do astronomers do, except "looking at stars"?

Well thats the best part. But there are things outside of it, which largely consists of looking at the pictures taken to identify things, and checking data. It also depends on if you choose Astronomy or Astrophysics and which area you are working on within it.

[Xlore !!oIaXoksOFZm No.2359318]

>>2359254
For me with Astronomy its not about discovering something to feel good. I feel good everyday just being able to look out into space, and see things that are there light years away. It makes me feel awesome knowing how big the universe i am in is.

As for getting satisfaction for discovering something. It depends on what you work on and how good you are at it.
If you work on looking for supernovas, you could search forever and you may not find one, and just a few weeks ago a 10 year old girl found one.

But a lot of people i talk to; bar a few, aren't in it just to find something new. Yes its up there on being awesome to discover something new because that's one of the points of Astronomy and looking out into space and finding nothing would be a disappointment.

But most Astronomers just love the feeling of looking out into space.

[Anonymous No.2359381]

>>2359318
>But most Astronomers just love the feeling of looking out into space.
Sure, but no need for enrolling physics/astronomy for that.

[Anonymous No.2359422]

>>2359277
Ah, okay. Thanks for the answer.
>>2359318
>But most Astronomers just love the feeling of looking out into space.
Ah, thats kinda what I do when I look at the sky at night.

[Anonymous No.2359428]

>>2358968

Everything is subjective, including rationality.

[Xlore !!oIaXoksOFZm No.2359437]

>>2359381
True, but most average people can't look through X ray telescopes or gamma ray telescopes. Or any large telescope.

Plus its not just looking through a telescope, its examining the data from telescopes to. I love looking at new data and photo's of places not seen or identified yet.

[Anonymous No.2359444]

Why does everyone treat Astronomy and Astrophysics like they're the same thing? One is basically stargazing, unless you get into serious data collection, while the other is a sub-branch of Physics, and can draw from almost any discipline.

[Xlore !!oIaXoksOFZm No.2359449]

>>2359422
>But most Astronomers just love the feeling of looking out into space.

I think i confused this a little. I mean actually zooming into things outside of our galaxy and examining the photos that come in of it.

You aren't getting the same experience as you do when just looking up at night.

[Xlore !!oIaXoksOFZm No.2359463]

>>2359449
>Galaxy

I meant solar system, Galaxy wouldn't be entirely wrong, but It's more often solar system.

[Anonymous No.2359637]

>>2359449
I know what you meant. What I meant is that I get the omfgbbq everything is so huge/great/vast and amazing feeling, I can just stare into the sky for hours and think about space. I'm not talking about the experience, but the feeling.

[Xlore !!oIaXoksOFZm No.2359679]

>>2359637
Ah, ok. i thought i confused it because of this post. >>2359381

So when you replied to it too. i misinterpreted it as being the same way.

But yes it's very good that you get that same feeling. A lot of people claim they do, but hardly ever look at space. To most people the sky is just there and then every once in awhile they look up and are like "oo stars"

I look up every time its night and can see the stars. Just trying to comprehend everything going on up there.

[Anonymous No.2359721]

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/
The press releases from this year already are amazing. Pic related

[Anonymous No.2359728]

derp

>>The bizarre object, dubbed Hanny's Voorwerp (Hanny's Object in Dutch), is the only visible part of a 300,000-light-year-long streamer of gas stretching around the galaxy, called IC 2497. The greenish Voorwerp is visible because a searchlight beam of light from the galaxy's core illuminated it. This beam came from a quasar, a bright, energetic object that is powered by a black hole. The quasar may have turned off about 200,000 years ago.

[Xlore !!oIaXoksOFZm No.2359840]

>>2359728
>>2359721
that's another thing i love about space, you are basically looking into the past.