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Author Topic:   The Most Wacky Pseudo-science on the Net
cavediver
Member (Idle past 3643 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 8 of 27 (492209)
12-29-2008 9:12 AM
Reply to: Message 7 by Percy
12-29-2008 8:37 AM


The irony that the credulous will miss is that every simple planet/sun combination (one sun, planets in mild elliptical orbits) everywhere in the universe is in conjunction with the Milky Way's black hole twice an orbit.
For a conjunction/alignment, you will need the plane of the star/planet orbit to include the Milky Way SMBH. In our case, the SMBH lies in Sagittarius (Sag A*), which is close to the ecliptic, so our solar plane does indeed include the SMBH, and we get twice yearly alignments, and annual Sol SMBH conjunctions.

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 Message 7 by Percy, posted 12-29-2008 8:37 AM Percy has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 9 by Percy, posted 12-29-2008 10:23 AM cavediver has replied

  
cavediver
Member (Idle past 3643 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 10 of 27 (492219)
12-29-2008 10:43 AM
Reply to: Message 9 by Percy
12-29-2008 10:23 AM


Not to endorse any of the nonsense, but if the SMBH is indeed in the plane of our ecliptic, then since this should be true of well less than a percent of planetary systems
Sag A* lies about 5.5 degrees off the ecliptic, so that's 11 degrees out of 180, or about 1 in 16. So nothing exceptionally remarkable, unless you want to use a 10% confidence interval
Edited by cavediver, : No reason given.

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cavediver
Member (Idle past 3643 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 11 of 27 (492221)
12-29-2008 10:52 AM
Reply to: Message 9 by Percy
12-29-2008 10:23 AM


Just to add some perspective, the moon and sun are both about 30 arcminutes across, so the closest conjuction makes Sag A* and the SMBH about 11 solar diameters from the Sun. Not that impressive, especially if you saw the recent Lunar, Jovian, Venusian conjunction, which was simply breath-taking.

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cavediver
Member (Idle past 3643 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 12 of 27 (492342)
12-30-2008 11:58 AM
Reply to: Message 11 by cavediver
12-29-2008 10:52 AM


Look to the heavens... Now!!!
I writes:
Not that impressive, especially if you saw the recent Lunar, Jovian, Venusian conjunction, which was simply breath-taking.
Any UK guys and gals should pop outside now and take a glimpse at Venus and the Moon looking fantastic - not exactly a conjunction, but a beautiful display none-the-less.
Edited by cavediver, : No reason given.

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 Message 18 by Larni, posted 12-31-2008 12:55 PM cavediver has replied

  
cavediver
Member (Idle past 3643 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 14 of 27 (492361)
12-30-2008 3:14 PM
Reply to: Message 13 by New Cat's Eye
12-30-2008 12:50 PM


Re: Look to the heavens... Now!!!
Go take a picture!
Sadly, pictures never do this kind of display any justice. The angular size of the Moon is tiny, compared with the present separation of the Moon and Venus. Pictures simply accentuate this disparity. The great thing about seeing this for real is that we can "simultaneously" appreciate the long shot of the two objects sharing the same area of sky, while zooming in on each object to appreciate it in isolation.
Sorry, this is certainly not wacky enough for this thread...
Err, the human visual system is, err, obvious evidence of design, or something like that... is that ok?

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cavediver
Member (Idle past 3643 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 19 of 27 (492449)
12-31-2008 1:44 PM
Reply to: Message 18 by Larni
12-31-2008 12:55 PM


Re: Look to the heavens... Now!!!
Garbled contents removed, originally intended message reposted immediately below. --Admin
Edited by Admin, : Remove contents, post note.

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cavediver
Member (Idle past 3643 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 20 of 27 (492454)
12-31-2008 2:11 PM
Reply to: Message 18 by Larni
12-31-2008 12:55 PM


Re: Look to the heavens... Now!!!
That's the conjunction I was refering to in message 11 - it was Jupiter, not Mars. It was a very major conjunction, and I was completely oblivious to it until I saw it myself! It made waves all over the world, and interestingly coinicided with the death of the guru, Adi Da Samraj There's some pictures on Wiki

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cavediver
Member (Idle past 3643 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 22 of 27 (492477)
12-31-2008 5:35 PM
Reply to: Message 21 by New Cat's Eye
12-31-2008 4:11 PM


Re: Look to the heavens... Now!!!
In case anyone was concerned, I should point out that
nice big bright-as-fuck star
is the globally accepted astrophysical term for what laymen call "Venus".
about an inch or two away from the moon
And we do indeed now use inches as the fundemental units of angular separation.
It was really cool!
Told ya

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