Stargazing - How does it make you feel?

[rodsky]

---

You know why you feel one with the universe, when you gaze at the stars?

Look at your hand right now...it's composed of billions of atoms, and complex elements...

...funny that...the most abundant substance in the entire universe, is.... hydrogen...and everything else in it, is actually just a tiny sliver...

...now you're gonna say...wait a minute...don't tell me tanang elements in the periodic table dili diay katupong sa kadaghan sa Hydrogen? Yes...amazing but true...

So the next question to ask is...asa man diay gikan ang ubang stuff in the periodic table of elements?

...well folks, there's only one place where you can "cook" hydrogen, to produce these elements...

...inside the heart of a star. The core of a star is a caserola, and it churns hydrogen into helium, and from helium into more and more complex elements in this nuclear furnace--and eventually, when it gets old, or a better word, RIPE...a star has the ability to explode into a beautiful flower, a supernova...it SEEDS the universe with complex stuff...to sprinkle the vast Hydrogen nothingness with a dash of hope, a sliver of care, and a pinch of love...

...so look at your hand again...isn't that something? Everything in your hand, everything in your body, everything in your house, everything in Cebu City, everything on Earth...comes from the inside of a star...


...so the next time you gaze at the stars and you feel a strange longing...don't be bothered...it's merely you, wanting to go home

Damn...

[img width=500 height=375]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/rodsky/6thstarparty/DSCN0197-1.jpg[/img]

...I miss giving lectures

-RODION

[b|tcH_g0dd3sS]

awwww, that's awfully familiar. me and the stars and wanting to go home. rodsky, im rendered speechless..

yes, even when I'm with friends, but somehow lonely, when I look at the sky, the big big sky, with all those sparkling shimmering tiny little things, that longing to be loved is there and the more you look at the stars, the feeling gets magnified and you realize you are loved and this is home and the feeling just ovewhelms you.

[pac]

are you finding answers to questions under the stars?

[rodsky]

are you finding answers to questions under the stars?

Nope. You find answers to questions by taking up nuclear/particle physics, astrophysics, astronomy, and cosmology, and/or asking people who are involved in this discipline, or are into amateur astronomy.

The stars are simply there to be observed, enjoyed, and loved.

-RODION

[pac]

linya ni sa kanta nga where are you going by dave matthews band

[maia21]

u can stargaze tonight and wish that i'd give u half of my winnings :P *kidding*

lol. i'll do that! don't forget to inform me if you win, okay?

...so the next time you gaze at the stars and you feel a strange longing...don't be bothered...it's merely you, wanting to go home

nice. very nice. i guess i know now how stargazing makes me fee. i feel comforted. hehe. homesick!

...I miss giving lectures

wow.. you give lectures? about what? are you an astronomy teacher?

[rodsky]

lol. i'll do that! don't forget to inform me if you win, okay?
nice. very nice. i guess i know now how stargazing makes me fee. i feel comforted. hehe. homesick!
wow.. you give lectures? about what? are you an astronomy teacher?

No, but I headed the MSU-IIT astronomical society. We managed to build our own 4.5" Dobsonian Reflecting Telescope using an old 4.5" mirror from a old Meade 114, and junk parts, total cost less that 4k including some new parts like bracing and so forth. I designed and built a custom EQ mount using metal tubing, we had it welded up in CDO for less than 1000 pesos. Then eventually we also built a pier mount also less than 1k in total cost.

Here are images I took using that telescope we built...

Moon, three days after 1st quarter...terminator...
[img width=500 height=375]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/rodsky/moonwatch/DSCN1530.jpg[/img]

Moon, 1 day after new moon.
[img width=500 height=375]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/rodsky/moonwatch/Dscn2476_small.jpg[/img]

Images taken with a Nikon Coolpix 3100 digital camera, afocal the Dob's eyepiece...

We also photographed the Mercury transit event, a partial lunar eclipse (Oct 2005), and managed to photograph both Saturn and Venus in "halfphase" Our old website is down at the moment and thus I can't show the images, but I'm planning to get the DVD we used to backup stuff from the server and I will post a separate thread about it (re, starting an astronomical society in Cebu City soon) so just view them there when I get to post them up.

So yeah, I can build you a telescope

-RODION

[maia21]

^galing naman.

[godsaint]

maybe it's time to send more space expedition..hahaha

[b|tcH_g0dd3sS]

@ rodsky: definitely count me in.

Let's all get closer to home. hehehe