I'm an amateur astronomer, ask me anything if you want.

[nord]

"See ye not how Allah has created the seven heavens one above another,"

I assume it's literal, have no clue on seven earth's, maybe the seven other planets? I don't really like commenting on religious issues I know nothing about

[QuantumSatis]

Hi Nord,


To explain briefly how the magnetic poles of the earth can switch, one needs to know few things:

A- Earth has liquid metal in its core that swirl due to its rotation
B- These rotations and the liquid metal in its core produce Magnetic fields(convection of molten iron generate electric currents that give birth to magnetic field)
C- These magnetic fields converge/diverge on Earth's two opposite tips(poles) North/South respectively

After A PERIOD of time,

The convergence and divergence points switch sides, so Magnetic North, becomes Magnetic south etc. This is not to say the Earth's North direction will change, just the unseen magnetic fields that are called Magnetic north(in case some readers would be confused about this whole business of poles switching).


The reason of why this happens overtime is not clearly known even though there are hypothesis like external impact on earth or the plates of the earth moving into each other hard. Nothing concrete as reason is known though, just that it happens. How people found out about it is the magnetic fields frozen in time in volcanic materials of the long past. These magnetic fields were arranged opposite of our current magnetic fields.

The event is called geomagnetic reversal.

Anyways, hope this motivates you to read a little about Earth. You are an amateur astronomer, you are as much into stars as you might be or ought to be into relations of these stars to earth.

Good interest you have bro. Keep it up.

[CaliQase]

Noo baro cilmul falag sxb waan u baahan doonaaye.

[nord]

Thanks you quantum. I remember reading it will happen soon. But then again, in astronomical terms whenever you see soon they mean in the next one million years .

[QuantumSatis]

Nord, And by then we are dead long before. For the curious, life is too damn short. Do you have small telescope? can't be an amateur astronomer without one nin yohow.

And have you got a date because of your interests? Kinda cute to tell your classmate you stargaze at night on your balcony.

[nord]

Yes, I have a small medium one. Enough to show me the rings of Saturn and cloud bands on Jupiter (with the four galilean moons) and ice caps on Mars (theoretically, I haven't seen it yet).

Would you tell someone your hobbies include standing outside at night in the garden in the cold

[QuantumSatis]

Yes, I have a small medium one. Enough to show me the rings of Saturn and cloud bands on Jupiter (with the four galilean moons) and ice caps on Mars (theoretically, I haven't seen it yet).

Would you tell someone your hobbies include standing outside at night in the garden in the cold

Damn! You are so cool for this I don't have a telescope but want to buy one in the future. What brand do you have or recommend? Something small as a start that will give me access to all those cute celestial bodies you mentioned would be awesome.

Since you are into the cosmic, you may already have read the book "A Brief Time In History" written by Stephen Hawking? If not, it will be great asset to you. It is short book too. In this book is where I learned one of the methods of calculating how far a star is. The Method of color/luminosity measurement. It is cool book.

LOL, yea, I would talk about my interests to a woman any time. She feels the full impact of me, the mental and physical, otherwise, there is always next guy she may find more suited for her. I would be quite happy if she moves on because I garden-sit at night for star gazing. I am one of those guys whose world doesn't revolve around a woman. I prefer women who are into knowing about things. But if the one I favor doesn't meet the criteria, other aspects of her as a female are always enough as long as she isn't interested in changing my passions for knowledge.

I have several centers for my universe, if she wants to be one of those, cool waaye saxib, If she wants to be the only Center for my universe, tough luck.

You are the first Somali I meet with some solid interest in the Stars. And back home is so perfect for star gazing. So the future for you holds great fun in the African Nights.

[nord]

Mine is brandless. When buying one, don't look at the magnification advertised. No matter how small the 'scope, you can always achieve high magnifications just by switching the eye pieces (in reality, most people won't go over x200 because the atmosphere is not stable and the thing you're observing will come in and out of focus). Aperture (the diameter of the primary mirror/lens) is king. This determines collecting power, how faint an object you can see. (The two main types of telescopes are Refrators and Newtonians, I personally have a newt.)

If you're into planets, you've got to remember that they wont always be positioned nicely to observe. So there are other things called DSO's (deep sky objects). These are pretty faint, so you'd need to have your eyes dark adapted (and preferably a nice big 'scope). Because they are so faint, the often look like grey smudges (some can look better) and people are often disappointed because the expected Hubble-like views (my profile picture is an image of a DSO, you do not see it like this however. Our eyes just aren't sensitive enough to detect these colours). Other things to do include resolving stars, what appears to be one to naked eyes could actually be 2,3,4 stars that are close together (e.g Lyra's double double). You may even want to get into imaging, a very expensive hobby that can run into the thousands of pounds (if you want the best quality images).

Yes, I visited back home and the skies were so clear. I live in a average town (with an airport) so the light pollution is high, and this is perhaps the biggest limiting factor in what amateur can see in their small scopes. A 5-inch telescope is much better in dark skies than a 10-inch will ever be in a light polluted sky.

[QuantumSatis]

Hi Nord, Thanks for the info. I did some reading after your reply to me above and compared the two major telescope brands, The Newtonian Vs Galilean. It came down to pricing and affordability. Both are good but Newtonian is cheaper to produce and more affordable according to the sources I read. There are some minor drawbacks mentioned but it is not big deal for would be starter like me.

I saw from $50 to over a $1000 dollar range pricing. I will go for something in the middle when I buy one in the future. There are computerized ones with some thousands of data pre-stored. That way, you can select which star/heavenly body you want to find in the sky and it will find it for you, plus tracking that object etc. Beats the purpose of learning on your own(Americans and their obsession with simplicity).

Anyways, cool info, thanks.

PS: I Know a little bit about optics, lenses and lighting. We have some instruments at work that use Mirrors, condenser and fly's eye lenses to step down(miniaturize), and focus High beam Ultra Violet light sources onto objects and materials in order to transfer subatomic scale structures from one medium to another. We use the visible light spectrum for processes starting from 500nm to 365nm wave lengths and filter the rest out etc.


Thanks bro.