I'm sorry if this kind of question isn't welcome here, but I figured I would potentially get better answers than posting it to somewhere like r/worldbuilding. No shame on the r/worldbuilding community, just figured I'd come ask the experts. For simplicity it is safe to assume that this fantasy world would have a similar size, axial tilt, rotational velocity, and orbital velocity as Earth. It has one sun like us and one moon like us. Let's call this god Navi for short. I'm a complete novice at this, so please correct me if I've made any incorrect assumptions below. Thanks!

So I know that Polaris, the north star, is obviously used heavily when navigating by the stars in the Northern hemisphere. I understand that this is due to it's location above the north pole of the planet, so when Earth rotates Polaris stays uniquely fixed. I understand also that one can measure the angle between the horizon and Polaris to determine one's latitude. Polaris is actually the inspiration for my idea when it struck me just how damn convenient it is. So let's say Navi introduces a perfectly southern star as well, situated above the south pole. Actually let's make it a southern twin/cluster of stars, so that if a teleportation spell went wrong and teleported you across hemispheres you'd still know where you are.

Now determining longitude is a bit trickier, right? Because any stars we might put East/West will just move over time as the planet rotates. So to determine longitude you need a sufficently accurate way to keep time (which took awhile before Harrison invented the Chronometer). But due to the limited technology I want to have in my fantasy world I want to be able to solve this problem without clocks. I could say that Navi with their divine powers could just "affix" east/west stars, but that only works for a single frame of reference. So what can we do?

I first thought of introducing a sky-spanning cluster of 24 evenly spaced constellations placed directly upon the celestial equator. One for each time zone, each constellation a number 1-24, like a giant measuring tape made to band around the equator. But this still doesn't really help us without the ability to measure time, right? Placing another band north-to-south could work and then measuring the angle to the intersection point, but as we travel in orbit the constellations in that north-south band will only line up perfectly once a year.

Does anyone have any ideas?

So I think I am confusing terminology a bit. So the gravity well refers to the region around the black hole? Or the concealed singularity? Where gravitational interactions are significant and dominant. I always see it expressed in terms of Schwartzchild radii but if that is the event horizon and interior. What is the term for the part of the gravitational field that exists outside a black hole? And how would I calculate the size of the exterior gravitational field? I have a story idea and I want to see if I can make it work.

We’re seeing some stars like things moving at very rapid speed Definitely not planes or star-link And they keep moving in same area, been observing for an hour or so. They just appear randomly, sometimes multiple together and just disappear after moving a good few seconds. As much as I’d like to believe it could be UFO, the skeptic in me thinks there’s gotta be an explanation for it. Any experts know about this ? Ps- I’m in Auckland, New Zealand

I’m a 16 year old high school student and I absolutely adore astronomy (and metaphysics…👀) but I am from the middle of midwestern USA and I cannot find any astronomy-based camps/classes, it’s very “ledsome”. I want to be an astronomer when I’m older and doing anything with astronomy at this age in Missouri seems very unlikely.

Please help. I am starved to meet people who share my passions of the universe. It’s awful out here and my friend who liked the universe like I do moved away.

Every diagram I see of the solar system depicts it as a flat disc shape with all the planets on the same plane orbiting the sun. Is this how it is? If so, why? Why couldn't they all be on different planes like how Pluto is?

Seemed like the place to ask.

Hey community. I have a wild question. My son is about to go to college for Astronomy and wants desperately to go to grad school for it someday. He fell in love with astronomy/ astrophysics at a young age primarily because we have taken him to the Hayden Planetarium about 5 or 6 times and he wants to maybe work there someday. We are going again in January. My question is, does anyone in this community know if there is any way at all to meet Dr Tyson? I know it’s a long shot. But I can only imagine meeting a hero would be the best possible motivation for a kid to keep his dream alive and establish a plan for his future career. Does anyone know how he could be contacted? Any help would be amazing. Totally understand if this is not possible but I have to try. Thanks all!

I want to be able to look at the night sky and point out some constellations, and when there's a meteor shower "right around gemini" I would know where to look. What's a good starting point to learn at least the basic constellations? I know there are apps that tell you exactly what you're looking at, but it's kinda hard to learn from these alone.

sorry, i have no images

Hi everyone! I’m interested in publishing my thoughts and research on the historical development of astronomy. Does anyone know any popular science magazines in astronomy that accept such materials from amateurs? I’d appreciate any recommendations or insights from those who have tried publishing in this field!

Hi all, I recently learned that the meteor that killed the dinosaurs landed in an area of relatively deep water.

I am wondering if this “softened” the impact in some way? Would it have been more catastrophic if it had hit land? Causing more dust and debris

As we learn more about our own Oort Cloud, it seems like it’s way bigger and has way more objects than we thought, extending possibly light-years from our Sun.

If that’s the case, shouldn’t we be able to see the Oort clouds of other stars? Even if they aren’t very dense, there’s likely so much material there that extends beyond the area where the star is too bright, couldn’t we see something?

Could we even possibly see interactions between the clouds of binary star systems or when stars pass close by each other?

Has the cloud of another star ever been observed?

Of course, I, like almost all of humanity have only seen Earth, the Moon, or any other planet from orbit only via cameras and photos. How bright are they to the naked eye behind clear glass?

1. Do astronauts on the ISS need filters or sunglasses to look at the day side of Earth from orbit?
2. Same question about the astronauts that orbited the Moon. I saw on the surface they had to use helmet sunshades when facing the sun, but could lift them when faced away. Is the Moon blindingly bright from orbit without filtering?
3. The inner planets - Would Mercury and/or Venus be blinding bright to the naked eye behind clear glass from near orbit?
4. The near outer planets and dwarf planets - How bright are Mars, Ceres, Vesta, etc. from nearby? How much are pictures for space probes brighter than how they would seem to an astronaut the same place as the probes?
5. How much dimmer are the Gas Giants, Ice Giants, and the Kuiper Belt objects? Would the planets and dwarf planets appear as bright to an astronaut there as they appear in photos from probes?

I realize that the human eye does adjust to ambient conditions, but it can only adjust so far. Has anyone made a graphic that show relative brightness of all the planets and other solar system objects from an arbitrary distance away? I couldn't find anything with a quick Google.

EDIT: I realize I am a little unclear that I mean in orbit of the planets in question, not all the planets from Earth's orbit. But both answers are interesting!

Shot in the dark but this is killing me and I thought maybe someone here might remember the same website as I do. About ten years ago there was a website where you could create a solar system and then let it run to see how it evolved. I believe the goal was to get your solar system to be stable for a certain length of time—which was very difficult to do! You could pick the size of your star (roughly: think “white dwarf” “red giant” and “sun-like” rather than inputting specific mass). Then you could pick up to a certain number of exoplanets to add (again with rough size categories: brown dwarf, Jupiter, Neptune, super earth, mercury, etc). I remember they could be positioned at various distances around the star but the maximum distance was relatively small. Part of the fun was watching the orbital evolution, which usually resulted in a planet hurled off into the darkness at great speed. I vaguely remember that there was a leader board of people who had actually managed to make a stable system and the only people on it were astrophysics phDs, lol.

I went looking for this website recently and couldn’t find it. Anything I Googled would bring me to Universe Sandbox or Gravity Simulator, which are very cool, but not what I’m looking for! Does anyone remember this website? Does it still exist?

"If I climb on a stool, am I getting closer to the Moon?"

I came across this question and I thought it was trivial at first, but the more I think about it the more complex it seems. Before you downvote, I can already guess the "if I am seeing the Moon when I get on the stool, the answer is definitely yes" part.

I know there are many factors to be taken into account, such as where on the Earth surface I am located respective to the equator, respective to the orbital plane of the Moon, the relative orbital position of Earth and Moon when I get on the stool, my spot's velocity vector respective to the Moon as a result of the Earth's rotation, and probably many others I can't think of. I'd prefer to not take the time it takes to climb the stool into account to simplify the calculations.

It would be great if you could list the factors that could influence this "yes/no" question and, if possible, provide a probability for having a 'yes' answer if I get on a stool at an arbitrary time, maybe with conditionals if you want. I guess if I am seeing the moon when I get on the stool, the answer is definitely yes. But are there other, more scientific factors to take into account?