Occasionally, I get a letter from someone who is in 'contact' with aliens. I am invited to ask them anything. And over the year's I've prepared a little list of questions. The aliens are very advanced remember. So I ask things like, 'Please provide a short proof of Fermat's Last Theorem'. I write out the simple theorem equation with the exponents. It's a simulating exercise to think of questions to which no human today knows the answers, but where a correct answer would be recognised as such. It's even more challenging to formulate such questions in fields other than mathematics. Perhaps we should hold a contest and collect the best responses in '10 Questions to Ask an Alien'.

/ Carl Sagan /

Need advice? Want to discuss an observation? Feel free to contact me at flovro gmail*com.

ÚJ! Amennyiben elérhető, a ikonra kattintva magyarul is olvashatod az észlelést.

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open clusters [67]

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[25]

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NGC 2371 + NGC 2372 (Planetary nebula) Also known as: Gemini nebula Right ascension: 7h 26m Declination: 29° 29' Constellation: Gemini Date/time: 2014.01.03 23:30 UT Equipment: 12" f/5 Newtonian FoV: ' Magnification and filter(s): 250x + UHC + O-III filter(s) Seeing: 5/10 Transparency: 3/5 SQM: 20.97 m/as2 Temperature: -7°C Humidity: low Wind: none Sight: 3 - definite details, interesting look Difficulty: 4 - hardly visible, dark adaptation and very dark skies needed, averted vision is required to see details Position: 2 - easy, bright star nearby Location: Nádasdladány, Hungary Observer: Ferenc Lovró Description: A tiny, faint planetary nebula in the constellation Gemini, a relatively easy find. Its double lobed shape can be recognized even with very small magnifications (at 71x its shape was very obvious), but shows much more details with high powers. In the two parts two star-like false cores can be seen. Its Northern half looks a bit triangular, while its Southern half appears to grow significantly to SE when using averted vision. UHC filter helps a little but is not necessary and ruins the looks of the stellar neighborhood while an O-III makes it even fainter so is not recommended. Hi-resolution image: [ reversed sketch | original sketch ]

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