h a l f b a k e r yThis ain't rocket surgery.
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Starwatching glasses
To aid the "No, it's about an inch below *that* star, no, the other one, above that tree" torment | |
My experience of looking at stars is that generally one person knows what they're looking at, or knows what a particular star is called, and the others have no idea what the first person is talking about.
So, these glasses would be sold in sets of two. They are identical. The right-hand lens has
a blue filter, except for a circle or clear glass at the centre of the lens (so as to direct the user's attention at the centre of the lens). The left-hand lens has a small compass on a gimbal mounted in it with a lens and a mirror such that the compass reading and angle of the lens to the ground is apparantly focussed at infinity and the angle and inclination can easily be read by the left eye. With both eyes open the user should see the stars and the compass/inclination readings simultaneously
So, the operation of these glasses betwween two stargazers, who we shall call Maud and Derek would be like this:
Maud: "Ooh look, there's Andromeda"
Derek: "Hm? Where?"
Maud: "Put these glasses on"
(M & D put their starwatching glasses on)
Maud: "Erm, just go to 65º West and 41º inclination and you'll see it"
Derek: "Ummmm - ooh yes" (takes glasses off) "yes, very nice"
Maud: "Just think, the farthest thing it's possible to see with the naked eye - and we saw it together, thanks to our Starwatching Glasses..."
Derek: "Heh, you said 'naked'..."
The Joy of Sextants
http://www.tecepe.c...DSextantProject.htm
Build your own! [Amos Kito, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
(?) What's on tonight.
http://www.heavens-....388&Alt=305&TZ=EST
In Amos's backyard. [Amos Kito, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]
(?) Star Map
http://blogs.chron.com/appaday/
For the G1 phone [DenholmRicshaw, Jan 04 2009]
[link]
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Howsabout a _really_ big laser pointer? |
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Maud:"Ooh, look, there's Mars"
Derek: "Hm? Where?"
Maud:"There." (points giant laser pointer skywards)
(planet sizzles, melts polar ice caps, kills bacteria living in rocks just below surface, etc. )
Derek:"Ummmmm - ooh yes"
Maud:"It seems a little more red than I remember it." |
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Maud: "Ooh look, there's Halle Berry"
Derek: "Hm? Where?"
Maud: "Put these glasses on"
(M & D put their starwatching glasses on)
Maud: "Erm, just go to 65º West and 41º inclination and you'll see her"
Derek: "Ummmm - ooh yes" (takes glasses off) "yes, very nice" |
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One should also be able to load constellation outlines to be superimposed over a group of stars. |
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Derek: "Maude, where's the butter?"
Maude: "In the fridge."
Derek: "I'm LOOKING in the fridge and it's NOT HERE!"
Maud: "Put these glasses on"
(M & D put their starwatching glasses on)
Maud: "Erm, just go to 65º West and 7º inclination and you'll see it"
Derek: "Ummmm - ooh yes" (takes glasses off, prepares buttered croissant) |
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Derek: "Maud, where did you put the Starwatching glasses?" |
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Andromeda Strain? No more! |
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I NEED the digital upgrade, too. It would have directional arrows, and an aiming dot. Program satellites (Iridium, ISS, and other objects) into the Starwatching Glasses CPU. Then get a visual notification when the satellite will appear, and track its movement. People can link their glasses, so they can all see the event.
Here's the cool part: Spy something travelling across the sky, and you can save the track into memory. Download it to your PC, and get an identification of the satellite. |
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[Amos] Nice links. My first conception of this idea was the digital version. When posting it though I thought that would be too easy, just saying "lots of electronic gubbins - glasses linked by some kind of radio fequency communication..." - I wanted to think about how the mechanical/optical version would work. That's not to say that the electronic version wouldn't be cool though... |
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You can use your hand extended at arm's length with palm pointed away from you to measure the sky. |
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The width of the raised pinky finger is 1º. The width of the other three fingers raised is 5º. The The back of the fist, across the knuckles, is 10º. The distance between the tips of the raised and spread pinky and index fingers is 15º. The distance between the tips of the pinky and thumb is 25º. |
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25º is also approximately the width of the Big Dipper. The bowl is about 10º wide by 5º deep. |
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Having said all this - have to vote against it, phipo. The tried and true established ways are much simpler and easy to learn. |
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Yeah, but the novelty of the glasses might actually make the endeavor slightly interesting. |
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Ran across one of my favorites here, and I get to croissant it a second time! Woohoo! + |
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As [cedar park] suggested tongue-in-cheek, a strong laser
pointer actually works really well. I don't know why it does
(you'd expect parallax etc to make it as lousy as just pointing
with your finger), but it does. I've been talked through the
night sky by an astronomer, and you can follow things really
easily. Try it. |
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I've tried Star Map (link). Not quite glasses, but cool anyway. |
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I'd completely forgotten about this idea. [+] |
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/?Maud:"Ooh, look, there's Mars"
Derek: "Hm? Where?"
Maud:"There." (points giant laser pointer skywards)
(planet sizzles, melts polar ice caps, kills bacteria living in rocks just below surface, etc. )
//
...and turbo-charges mission-weary solar-powered rovers |
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