Hey guys, was wondering if someone could clarify the experience me and my brother had as kids.

One night some 15 years ago, my family were traveling by car through the countryside, the sky was so clear and so pretty I could see so many stars…

At some point I noticed two stars seemed to be moving, when paying more attention, they seemed to be “orbiting each other” at an elliptical pattern, they were far from each other moving away, than stopped, than started accelerating towards each other, came very close, than moving away and so on.

I asked my brother if could see it, and after some minutes he could actually see it too, we kept watching them for about an hour or so until we got bored, they seemed to remain in the same spot throughout the whole time, the movement was slow but not slow enought that we wouldn't notice it .

Note: We live on the southern hemisphere latitude ~27° and both stars were at a ~45° angle in the sky, not too vertical and not too close to the horizon and the event occurred close to 22:00h (10pm).

I hope this isn’t a dumb question.

I haven’t come across a gas moon in my research thus far. I’m a creative writer and I want an opinion from you guys. I want to be more knowledgeable on the subject. Last thing I’d want to write about is something dumb that exists outside of the realm of reality. So your feedback is very much appreciated!

1. Could gas moons reasonably exist? If not, why?

2. How would a gas moon be affected by its host planet? Vice versa, might a gas moon affect a planet differently as well?

3. Would it have to be a rouge moon first before it could captured by a planet, either terrestrial or gaseous, in order for the host star to not strip its atmosphere?

TL;DR -Would love any tips for using heavens above.

-What do you think the streak of light could be.

-What other tools could I use to determine what the streak could be. -Note that. I've used stellarium and heavens above.

https://imgur.com/a/zIKO1uY

Using heavens above and stellarium, I've conducted the following. What else could I do to try and determine the source of this light streak in my photo. Any insight/ criticism on the following is welcomed.

On October 31 at 11:45 pm, roughly 46 -64

A streak appeared in one photo i had taken on s24u, using raw mode and the astro feature. I can't remember for sure, but I would say approximately 15-30 seconds before I stopped the photo. I'm not sure how many pictures it would have taken and compiled.

I will show both a unedited and edited version of the photos. Useing lightroom for editing. I've not used Lightroom a whole lot, so I just did some stuff, not quite sure.

In the second photo, you can see Andromeda, with only a slight deviation in phone placement from the first pic. Stellarium stating at the time of this photo it would have been at 85° above horizon.

I can't find any satellites on heavens above with more than about 57° near the time of the photo. Does heavens above show all satellites?

This is my first time using heavens above, and I'm not quite familiar with it, so I may have missed important info.

Side note. I can't remember exactly, as it's been quite some time and other reasons, but there was indeed a bright meteor observed by my eyes around this time and location

I'm not sure if I can post this here, but...

It's part of a short cartoon about a subject related to planetary science, especially the ocean world's underground ocean

https://preview.redd.it/q81xmccwcgzd1.jpg?width=5197&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3adc8bbe59f0b8047fa9068f074b597dd0e4852d

https://preview.redd.it/fekncecwcgzd1.jpg?width=5197&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=31f6120f705e8907a725069fcd50df50f486e57a

No strange new worlds surrounding Vega, but an abnormality that would be worth the trip.

“The nearby bright star Vega is surrounded by a surprisingly smooth, 100 billion-mile-wide disk of cosmic dust, confirming that it is not surrounded by any exoplanets, JWST images reveal. And scientists cannot explain its lack of alien worlds.”

https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/ridiculously-smooth-james-webb-telescope-spies-unusual-pancake-like-disk-around-nearby-star-vega-and-scientists-cant-explain-it

Please please please, does anyone have any super beginner friendly/simple ways to stack my photos (or any super helpful tutorials), I have Siril but it’s so confusing and I just want to ease into the process.

Also I have a MacBook so I can’t use deepskystacker or windows stuff, I’m also looking for preferably free softwares

Ive have the pillars of creation as the wallpaper for my laptop for ages now and EVERY TIME I open it i see a chicken head, but ive never seen anyone else mention this. Do yall see it too? I love the silly space chicken

It may be a "glitch", but we are also overdue. AAVSO light curve is showing a possible beginning of a spike!

It may be starting to "pop"!

https://www.aavso.org/LCGv2/

I select "T CRB", then plot 10 days.

https://preview.redd.it/17xkvnpqpazd1.jpg?width=1741&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ffdc9e29753a560c99b11ba0a4fbfaef1030c640

Hey everyone, I'm looking for advice on which star tracker to buy!

(I also posted this in an dedicated astrophotography subreddit but I wanted to try my luck here to, I hope you guys don't mind..)

I currently use a Canon 90D paired with a Tamron 150-600 G2 lens, which has a combined weight of about 2.9 kg (6.4 lbs). I’m considering either the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer or the iOptron SkyGuider Pro. My budget is tight, but I found a deal where I could get the iOptron SkyGuider Pro with an iOptron tripod mount for under $400, which seems pretty good. So I am leaning more towards the iOptron now.

My main concern with both trackers is the weight capacity. They’re each rated for around 5 kg (11 lbs), but I've heard some say that you shouldn’t load them past half their rated capacity, which seems odd to me. Is there truth to that? Should I be cautious with the weight I’m adding?

If anyone has experience with either of these trackers or knows of other reliable options I should consider, I'd love to hear your recommendations! One reason I'm drawn to these two is the wealth of tutorials available online, which I know will be super helpful.

Lastly, if you've used either of these, what gear did you use with them, and how well did they hold up?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Hey friends I need help refitting my telescope, can someone help with this ?

I don't have my own telescope yet, it's still printing out, but I do have a set of binoculars

I've never been to one of these so I'm not sure about the culture, how do I make sure I'm not being rude or obstructive?

Is there anything else I should bring to make the experience more enjoyable?

Hi, looking for anyone with cam footage pointing straight up around Toronto. There was a fast moving object, I believe a bright shooting star, that passed high in the sky over Toronto from East to West right around 5:35pm EST. It was so visible, any camera pointed up could likely see it despite all the light pollution.

Just curious if anyone managed to capture an image/video.

This was over the past year or so. Excited for Venus elongation and Mars/Jupirer oppositions coming up. Scaled it by hand so I think the Galilean moons are a bit too big, but happy with the result.

Just that time spent stargazing has some of the best moments in my life...

I just hoped I could do it more. Often enough, just look at the night sky passing by, noticing it as a mere observer.

I love space. It's intrigue and mystery is bigger than the topics that are earthy, but I feel it's a privilege and I would be bestowed upon with the honor if I can make a living studying space. I hope to someday become a cosmologist. 🤞😌

Just a quick question as everytime i see something on Ton 618 or black holes it is still considered "The largest black hole" when the black hole Pheonix A is considerably larger?