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  1. steph

    It's good to be back

    Hey there. I'm an ' old' Orbiter user, as in I've been playing it on and off since 2006. I'd been pretty much using it as my relax game when I had time. But a few years ago, I switched to console gaming and Orbiter sort of took a back seat. Now, having made a few changes, I got into PC gaming...
  2. steph

    The Starlink Satellites

    Has anyone seen this? Apparently they're quite visible. The 'train' should gradually disperse, but should be visible after every launch. This is the first batch of 60 satellites. They hope to have 1200 up and running. www.Heavens-Above.com already has a section on this Edit. Now i see...
  3. steph

    Hello again :)

    Well, I'm not new to orbiter, as I've been a member of the old m6 forums since late 2006 (basically a kid back then, Orbitertaught me orbital physics before the physics class at high school did :p )and have played the 2010 version on and off (especially loved the World of 2001 addons)...
  4. steph

    News Hawaii false nuclear alert

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42680070 I was out in town with some buddies when the news feed on my smartphone fills up with stuff like "incoming ballistic missile threat to Hawaii". Thinking it was the real deal, I didn't want to get even more freaked out by reading the articles, got...
  5. steph

    Topol missile launch sighted from several European Countries

    Apparently this was before the Zenit launch, so it wasn't that. Sightings have been confirmed as far as Poland, Austria, Bulgaria and Hungary. Apparently it was visible in an eastern direction from Romania too. I couldn't find an article about it yet, so I'm linking to the Severe Weather Europe...
  6. steph

    what is this?

    ignore the spooky music and the subtitles and look at the phenomenon in itself. Clearly optical, but what is it, and how does it form? I didn't want to pollute the video thread with this, so I made a separate post instead. Fenomen misterios in Bucegi !! de SOLSTITIU de iarna - YouTube
  7. steph

    Applying for Air Traffic Control

    So, it looks like there are a few positions available for ATC personnel in my area and I'm considering applying. It's not exactly my domain, my background is in meteorology, severe thunderstorms, but apparently I'm eligible . (you take a course and exam if they accept your initial application )...
  8. steph

    Achievable technologies within the near future

    Let's hypothetically assume that science and development gets a major funding raise, and many of the cancelled/mothballed projects like the X-30 get revived. What would be technically achievable in the near future, from a space and aerospace perspective? Maybe an SSTO? Edit: I'm assuming a...
  9. steph

    RC aircraft mishaps

    Just had a motor failure while hovering a new Pathfinder 2 hexacopter ( those of you who've been feeling the urge to get one, you've been warned :lol: ) . While a big fan of RC planes, I hadn't experimented with multirotors before, so I figured a hexa would be safer since it would be able to...
  10. steph

    Going cold turkey

    Just decided on Saturday evening that I'm quitting alcohol. Not sure if completely, or for how long. I don't mind having a drink or two with my buddies from time to time, but they will stay a drink or two. Had some chest pains a while ago, which started like mild discomfort then progressed into...
  11. steph

    KIC 8462852 (Tabby's Star) Faded Throughout the Kepler Mission

    Well, didin't know exactly how to name it. By now, the news is pretty much doing the rounds around most science-oriented sites. Some star 1,500 light-years away is having these really weird light fluctuations, which don't really fit neatly into any scenario, so the idea of some sort of...
  12. steph

    Severe geomagnetic storm underway, 17.03.2015

    According to spaceweather.com, the Kp index is around 8. SevereWeatherEurope's facebook page posted some screenshots from a webcam in northern Germany showing some faint aurora curtains. Nothing in north-west France so far. Not that I know what to look for, as I've never seen it.. There is some...
  13. steph

    "Strange" lights on Ceres

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/02/26/ceres_shiny_spot_is_actually_twins.html Well, of course all the others the news sites jumped on it and only mention the natural sources later in the article. Now... who comes up with the aliens guy? Edit: to be honest, they do look very...
  14. steph

    Insanely high gas plumes on Mars

    Perhaps it's been discussed here before. Giant plumes of gas, observed over Mars. As in , 250 km high. Might be some form of CO2 outgassing? It looks hardcore, almost like a full-atmosphere splash motion. So...WTF? Volcanic eruptions maybe? This reminds me of the terraforming scene in Total...
  15. steph

    Question Lens fogging

    So the camera lens fogs up when I bring it back inside from the cold . Nothing unusual so far. Normally, if I keep it indoors, it would take 10-20 minutes for the water droplets to evaporate and for it to be clear again. BUT if I take it outside in the cold again, within a minute or two, all the...
  16. steph

    What did I see?

    Maybe this belongs in Brighton Lounge, I don't know. I'm trying to get a clearer idea of what I saw this night. It was about 19:40 UTC, give or take a few minutes, when I saw something that looked like a rather faint pass of the ISS (I'd eyeball the magnitude at about 0 or -1 at most), but...
  17. steph

    Northern lights from plane over Central Europe?

    Hello there, fellow orbinauts. I'm curious about my chances of witnessing the aurora borealis from a plane flying over east-central europe. I'm scheduled to fly Paris Beauvais - Targu Mures, Romania on friday night with WizzAir (third flight :thumbup:) and spaceweather.com expects auroras pretty...
  18. steph

    Centrifugal propulsion

    I was thinking the other day about how viable would be form of propulsion that throws the propellant centrifugally. Maybe in combination with some form of chemical, (centrifugal pulse jet?). Given that technology such as car injectors routinely work at millisecond intervals, I believe that a...
  19. steph

    Humor Exams...

    http://www.masalatime.com/?p=419 :rofl:
  20. steph

    Erepublik

    I found a few months ago a freeware browser-based MMO called Erepublik. It's sort of a society simulator. You can be a citizen of whatever country you want (most of the world's countries are listed) and you're able to do all sorts of things, including politics. The world map initially started...
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