... Bad Astronomy . ... Bitesize Astronomy . ... Last week's Snack talked about how black holes can affect the environment around them in such a way as to be very bright . ... It's a common misconception that black holes always have matter swirling into them. ... As this matter gets closer and closer to the black hole it piles up and a large, fairly flat disk forms. This is called the accretion disk , because matter from this disk accretes (that is, falls in) on the black hole. ... 2008 Phil Plait. ...

The following are some standard questions that observers have about their fixed target confirmation charts. ... Why doesn't my target appear to be centered on the cross hairs? ... How is proper motion handled? ... Target well centered . If your target is not perfectly centered in the cross hairs, see the questions below for why it may not be centered and how well centered it must be . ... So, targets to be acquired by STIS should appear well centered in the cross hairs on the confirmation chart. ...

... File view and tree view . ... Show (expand) directory tree starting from that point (the sign appears near directory name). ... Alternative way is to click on a [+] sign which appears near directory names throughout the archive (it will bring the tree into view from that directory). ... E.g., searching for "nftp" will find "nftp103.zip", "nftp/readme" and so on. ... nftp*" will find all files (NOT directories) which have the characters "nftp" in their names, including "nftp103.zip" and "about.nftp";...

... Data Reduction FAQ > The reduced science spectrum displayed in the Reflex window appears good but when I try to plot it, it is quite different. How can I get it? ... Observing with ESO Telescopes . ... ESO-MIDAS . ... Reflex . ... ESO Data . ... ESO HST Image Galleries . ... ESO Data Access Policy . ... ESO Science Newsletter . ... ESO Annual Reports . ... Seminars at ESO Santiago . ... Seminars at ESO Garching . ... ESO Telescope Bibliography . ... Last Update: 01.04.14 ESO . ...

SAOtng supports multiple frame buffers, so that more than one image can be loaded simultaneously. ... Users of the old SAOimage program are used to having the frame size adjust itself as each new image is loaded. ... To specify autoconfigure of frame #1, use the -autoconfig switch or the SAOTNG_AUTOCONFIG environment variable. ... When a frame size is specified manually, auto-configuration is turned off so that new images also use the specified frame size. ... Disable/Enable Autoconfig of Frame #1 . ...

Astronomy Discussion Forums . Forums: . ... Discussion Forums . ... To Answer Your Questions (and About That NUKE) . Forum List | ... Post Message | ... Aurino, who went to high school in South America, . ... You and your anonymous pals do not go . ... www.astronomy.net . About Astronomy Net | Advertise on Astronomy Net | ... Forum posts are Copyright their authors as specified in the heading above the post. "dbHTML," "AstroGuide," "ASTRONOMY.NET" & "VA.NET" . ...

Chapter 11. Specifying OpenGL Environment Variable Settings . ... Several antialiasing methods are available and you can select between them by setting the __GL_FSAA_MODE environment variable appropriately. ... To see the available values for __GL_FSAA_MODE along with their descriptions, run: nvidia-settings --query=fsaa --verbose . The __GL_FSAA_MODE environment variable uses the same integer values that are used to configure FSAA through nvidia-settings and the NV-CONTROL X extension. ...

Mercury magazine is now digital only, with all of the same articles and features that appeared in the print version. The magazine will be formatted to download and include space for advertising. Our readers are directly involved in the mainstream of astronomy research and education. ... 86% are involved in astronomy education at some level . ... 1/4 page . ... Additional work includes resizing of ad material, reformatting or correcting electronic files and correction of advertiser errors. ...

... Questions relevant to "The Great Magnet, the Earth" will be answered, to the extent time allows. If a question seems to be worthy of broader interest, it and its answer (suitably edited) may be added to the list appearing in "The Great Magnet." ... Please do observe the following: . ... Asking about matters which are far beyond the scope of "The Great Magnet." ... Posing a question without first checking if it was answered in the main files of "The Great Magnet" or in the question-and-answer list. ...

... A deceit template comprises zero or more dataset specifications. The dataset specifications are placed into a file, and cannot appear in the body of any other specification. There is no limit to the number of dataset specifications which may appear in a template, but within a template each dataset name must be unique. ... dataset dataset-name optional-expresion < ... dataset item specifications ... > . ... There must be no other dataset specifications with the same name in the template. ...

Questions relevant to "Exploration of the Earth's Magnetosphere" will be answered, to the extent time allows. If a question seems to be worthy of broader interest, it and its answer (suitably edited) may be added to the list appearing in "Exploration." ... Please do observe the following: . ... Asking about matters which are far beyond the scope of "Exploration." ... Posing a question without first checking if it was answered in the main files of "Exploration" or in the question-and-answer list. ...

... We have measured this "redshift" for the pink black holes, and allowed for it in our calculations. ... We see this effect in the emission from gas around these pink black holes, but it is far too small an effect to account for the pinkness. Thus the swirling motions of gas around or into the black holes cannot produc the colour. ... At first we thought that these things were normal blue black holes hidden behind clouds of interstellar dust, that absorbed the blue light and made them appear pink. ...

To construct frequency distribution (histogram) of minor planets according to value of some element/ parameter/ function user should first select Elements item in menu bar and then Histogram in drop-down menu. ... User has possibility to save histogram or to print it using standard means. To save the file select File item in menu bar and then Save As... in drop-down menu. ... To print histogram select File item in menu bar and then take advantage of options Print Preview , Print Setup , Print . ...

... Therefore, the menu location # "Blur/Blur" specifies an item name of "Blur" in a submenu entitled # "Blur". ... It is convention to only use the `alt' and `shift' key modifiers for # plug-ins. ... The main application will not use the ` alt ' # or ` shift ' key modifiers. plug-in blur Blur / Blur Alt Key B Alt +B plug-in gauss Blur /Gaussian Blur Shift Alt Key B Shft+ Alt +B plug-in gauss_rle Blur /Gaussian Blur RLE plug-in gauss_recurse Blur /Gaussian ...

User catalogs allow you enter positions for your objects into a file, to save time during an observing run. ... Before diving into the details, here is an example: # default coordinate system and object # (these are the standard defaults, so if you like them you can omit this line) CSys=FK5; Date =2000; RotType= Object ; RotAng=0 # some random objects # Name Pos1 (e.g. RA) Pos2 (e.g. Dec) Options in keyword-value format NGC6543 rot 90 ... Object Data . Defaults . Catalog Options . ...

... Earth During a Total Eclipse of the Sun . ... What does the Earth look like during a total solar eclipse? It appears dark in the region where people see the eclipse, because that's where the shadow of the Moon falls. ... Do you see it? ... The Clouds of Orion the Hunter . ... Would you go to the end of the world to see a total eclipse of the Sun? ... In 2003, the Sun, the Moon, Antarctica, and two photographers all lined up in Antarctica during an unusual total solar eclipse. ...

ERR=<exit specifier>,... and/or .. END=<exit specifier>,.. The following I/O statements are recognized: READ, WRITE, OPEN, CLOSE, REWIND, BACKSPACE, INQUIRE, ENDFILE. < exit specifier > can be any one of the following: XWHILE, XREPEAT, XFOR, STOP, RETURN or < procedure name > . The exit specification must appear on the first line of the I/O statement. ... READ(1,FMT='(A)',END=XWHILE,ERR=ERRPRC) LINE WRITE(2,FMT='(1X,A)',ERR=ERRPRC) LINE CWHILE . PROC ERRPRC REWIND 1 REWIND 2 CPROC . ...

OptInt PmWiki : Pm Wiki / Wiki Style Examples . Wiki styles | ... PmWiki uses WikiStyles for styling text with color and other attributes. PmWiki 2.0 introduced the ability to control the styling further and to even place styles on blocks. ... In addition, an author can define a style "shortcut" by using the define= property. For example, to define a style of %red% , one can use: . define=mystyle color=red% Here is some %mystyle% red text created using a style shortcut. ...

Next: Selection criteria Up: Planning your observing Previous: Preparing to use . The planning program asks a series of questions; you provide the answers. ... The less typing you do, the less chance you have to make a mistake. ... If you mistakenly say there is another star file, and the program finds your last filename does not exist, you can enter `` NONE '' when it asks for another name, and it will go on to the next question. ...