Listening to the radio early this morning, I heard the presenter announce that Betelgeuse (the second brightest star in Orion) was going to 'go supernova.'...."We'll talk about this, shortly," said he.

"Wow...that'll be interesting !", thought I . Something to look out for, before all these new communications** satellites b%gger up the night sky.

I was somewhat disappointed, when the astronomer they had on, said......."Well....it could happen tomorrow *...or any time in the next hundred thousand years."  

Cheers - Patrick Moore.

* Or rather we might see it tomorrow, as it's somewhere between 400 & 600 light years away...so it could have already happened !
**.....Does that need an apostrophe, before the 's'.....after the 's'... or not all ? :-

Confused of Wales.

It does fluctuate anyway over a hundreds of year cycle, but not this dimly.
You must remember the last time Phil...

You mean you can use a magic looking tube Phil ? 

Quote from: Techno on 02 February 2020, 08:21:25 AM


I was somewhat disappointed, when the astronomer they had on said......."Well....it could happen tomorrow *...or any time in the next hundred thousand years." 

Rather like the completion of my chariot army!

Quote from: ianrs54 on 02 February 2020, 09:31:35 AM
You mean you can use a magic looking tube Phil ? 

Oh....Come on, Ian  .....We didn't even have magic tubes, back then.

Quote from: mad lemmey on 02 February 2020, 09:25:17 AM
You must remember the last time Phil...

Nah.....seen too many. They all sort of blur, now, Will.
(What annoys me, is that awfully nice Mr Halley has a comet named after him.....I told him when to expect it....And HE took all the credit !....It should be called Techno's comet !  )

Cheers - Phil

Quote from: Norm on 02 February 2020, 09:35:19 AM
Rather like the completion of my chariot army!

To be fair, I think most of us could put any one of half a dozen words there instead of 'chariot'.

Neither the communications or the satellites are possessive, so no.

Each satellite handles multiple communications, so the s is pluralising, thus no ' before, and the communications do not own the satellites it is a descriptor of what they handle, so no need to indicate possession after the S. The "satellites communications" would need one before the final s (one satellite) or after (multiple satellites).

The best bit will be Harry Belafonte doing the soundtrack.

Quote from: Norm on 02 February 2020, 09:35:19 AM
Rather like the completion of my chariot army!

Quote from: Raider4 on 02 February 2020, 10:58:52 AM
To be fair, I think most of us could put any one of half a dozen words there instead of 'chariot'.

Only half a dozen !!!!!! 

I could put half a dozen there only in 10mm, let alone other scales 

I remember working out the scaling of Betelgeuse when I was reading an astronomy book.  If I remember right, if Earth was a 10p piece, the Sun would be a football, and Betelgeuse was roughly our 100ft long garden at the time.  I still simply can't fathom the size of something so ridiculously massive.

Quote from: Leon on 02 February 2020, 10:09:27 PM
I remember working out the scaling of Betelgeuse when I was reading an astronomy book.  If I remember right, if Earth was a 10p piece, the Sun would be a football, and Betelgeuse was roughly our 100ft long garden at the time.  I still simply can't fathom the size of something so ridiculously massive.

Yes, space is big . . .

What really stuns me are the extra-solar planets they've found. Planets the size of Jupiter or greater that orbit their stars in 4 days??? What??? How close are they to the star? How can they survive at those distances? Mind-blowing!

Quote from: Raider4 on 02 February 2020, 10:18:30 PM
Yes, space is big . . . Mind-blowing!

It certainly is !.......Just like the HHGG says !!

Cheers - Phil

But there is nothing in it - same book !

 

Yes....Well you might think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's.......

(I've listened to that FAR too many times.  )

Cheers - Phil

Quote from: Leon on 02 February 2020, 10:09:27 PM
I remember working out the scaling of Betelgeuse when I was reading an astronomy book.  If I remember right, if Earth was a 10p piece, the Sun would be a football, and Betelgeuse was roughly our 100ft long garden at the time.  I still simply can't fathom the size of something so ridiculously massive.

Humans are notoriously poor at visualising really big (and really small) dimensions.
Brian Cox enjoys doing his "scale model solar system" schtick, with the sun being something like a big grinning spacehopper, and all the planets being other roughly round objects.
For extra effect, always put Pluto on the offshore Island where they build the lighthouse or quarantine facility.

Examples of people failing to appreciate size ratios are plentiful.

"We're spending another 5 million on tehdefence budget" - saying that as through it's a major uplift.
Expecting the mash in a paper mask to actually trap viruses (as opposed to the water droplets that carry the viruses).
Stating that 10mm is "too small to paint properly".

Safe to say a 10mm model of Betelgeuse  won't be gracing the Pendraken or Minibits terrain pages any time soon.
You can safely ignore such requests.