The Astronomical Numbers game

[jfribrg]

Ok folks, here is yet another game for everyone. The rules are simple. Each post states the next natural number in sequence, along with an astronomy/space flight connection. I will start off with the first 3 so that the idea is clear, and thereafter each post will be a single number. It should be easy in the beginning. As the numbers get larger, it should become rather difficult (and more fun) :)

1 - the Earth is 1 AU from the Sun ( I know that's almost cheating since an AU is defined that way)

2 - The number of stars in a binary system, and the number of moons of Mars

3 - The number of astronauts on an apollo moon mission.

your turn.

[Hamlet]

Ok folks, here is yet another game for everyone. The rules are simple. Each post states the next natural number in sequence, along with an astronomy/space flight connection. I will start off with the first 3 so that the idea is clear, and thereafter each post will be a single number. It should be easy in the beginning. As the numbers get larger, it should become rather difficult (and more fun) :)

1 - the Earth is 1 AU from the Sun ( I know that's almost cheating since an AU is defined that way)

2 - The number of stars in a binary system, and the number of moons of Mars

3 - The number of astronauts on an apollo moon mission.

your turn.

4 - The Galilean moons of Jupiter.

[Maksutov]

Ok folks, here is yet another game for everyone. The rules are simple. Each post states the next natural number in sequence, along with an astronomy/space flight connection. I will start off with the first 3 so that the idea is clear, and thereafter each post will be a single number. It should be easy in the beginning. As the numbers get larger, it should become rather difficult (and more fun) :)

1 - the Earth is 1 AU from the Sun ( I know that's almost cheating since an AU is defined that way)

2 - The number of stars in a binary system, and the number of moons of Mars

3 - The number of astronauts on an apollo moon mission.

your turn.

4 - The Galilean moons of Jupiter.
5 - The number of Solar system planets inside Saturn's orbit.

Next...

[Moose]

6 - The number of Apollo LM descent stages currently resting on the moon.

[ToSeek]

7- Number of moons in the solar system larger than Pluto.

[banquo's_bumble_puppy]

8- the number of planets in our solar system until Pluto was discovered in 1930

[The Supreme Canuck]

9 - The number of times I cursed to the heavens that banquo beat me to that answer.

[Roy Batty]

10 - inch telescope & 10 foot observatory (http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/observatory/10-inch/10history.htm) 8)

[Arneb]

11 - the number of manned Apollo flights.

[jfribrg]

12 - number of days scheduled for the upcoming shuttle mission

[ToSeek]

13 - number of non-spiral galaxies in Messier's list

14 - the number of orbital Mercury and Gemini flights

[Moose]

15 - Apollo flight that first used the rover and brought back the "Genesis" rock. My favorite mission for this and other reasons.

[ToSeek]

16 - Number of stars (other than the Sun) known to have multiple planets

[W.F. Tomba]

17: the final Apollo mission.

[Fram]

18: the number of named moons of Saturn until 2000. (Yeah, well, it's the best I could find for the moment).

[Eroica]

19: Rigel's Flamsteed designation.

[Moose]

20 - The designated number of what should have been the final Apollo moon mission.

[mickal555]

21. The number of stars brighter than 2nd mag

[ToSeek]

22. According to this page (http://www.cosmobrain.com/cosmobrain/res/brightstar.html), the number of stars of magnitude 1.5 or brighter.

[A Thousand Pardons]

23. Number of whole hours the earth takes to turn on its axis

PS: I think mickal555 was lumping in Adhara (mag. 1.5) and below with the mag. 2 stars--so you're both using the same list

[Moose]

24- The number of rounded hours we measure in a day.

[ToSeek]

25 - The number of stars within 12 light years of the Sun.




PS: I think mickal555 was lumping in Adhara (mag. 1.5) and below with the mag. 2 stars--so you're both using the same list

I'm afraid I don't follow you. That list has 46 stars of magnitude 2 or brighter.

[Frog march]

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/06/26/nasa_zoom.jpg

first image you get if you image search on google wth "26 nasa"

[ToSeek]

27 - The total number of American manned space missions through Apollo 17 in 1972.

[Eroica]

28: distance (to nearest lightyear) to 61 Virginis



I'm afraid I don't follow you. That list has 46 stars of magnitude 2 or brighter.Confusion between cardinals and ordinals.

Magnitude 2 => magnitude = 2.00
Second Magnitude => magnitude = 1.50 - 2.49

[ToSeek]

29: Number of different astronauts who flew on Apollo missions.

[jfribrg]

30 - approximate number of galaxies in the Local Group.

[Tobin Dax]

31 - Decapi to the nearest integer. :D

[ToSeek]

32: Size (in meters) of the largest radio telescope in Poland. (http://www.astro.uni.torun.pl/)

[Frog march]

33- approximate speed in revs/min of a record playing the 2001 space oddessy theme.

[jfribrg]

34- Richter scale equivalent of a GRB.

[Enzp]

35. Minimum age someone must be to be president of the USA and sign new NASA funding bills.

[mickal555]

36. The number of space shuttle flights that were predicted to be needed to complete the ISS.

[Fram]

37. The X-37 (http://www.space.com/news/050621_x37_update.html)is Burt Rutan's unpiloted, reusable spaceplane.

[azazul]

38.Temperature in K of Triton (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Triton), the coldest surface known anywhere in the Solar System

[Fram]

38.Temperature in K of Triton (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Triton), the coldest surface known anywhere in the Solar System

Sorry for the interruption, but according to this site (http://www.nineplanets.org/data2.html), the surface temperature of Pluto is only 37K.

[azazul]

Also on that site.

Note: This data has been compiled from somewhat less reliable sources; do not use for life-critical applications!

Triton has the coldest surface known anywhere in the Solar System (38 K, about -391° Farenheit); (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Triton)
I could be wrong, I was just posting what that site said.

[Fram]

Also on that site.

Note: This data has been compiled from somewhat less reliable sources; do not use for life-critical applications!

Triton has the coldest surface known anywhere in the Solar System (38 K, about -391° Farenheit); (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Triton)
I could be wrong, I was just posting what that site said.

Well, if you believe what Nasa says [-( :wink:
They give 40 to 50K for Pluto. I guess a good measurement will have to wait a bit longer, until then your solution for 38 is perfect.

So, who has an astronomical fact about the number 39?

[Enzp]

The age of the universe... if you ask it personally.



Or maybe not...never mind.




Y'see, that was supposed to be a joke, y'see....

[Eroica]

39: atomic number of yttrium, a rare-earth element which is relatively common in lunar rocks recovered by the Apollo program

[jfribrg]

40 - Diameter, in kilometers, of Hale-Bopp's nucleus.

[Frog march]

'41 - the plans for Von Braun's V2 were developed.

[Roy Batty]

42 - The Answer to the Great Question of Life, The Universe and Everything!

(I didn't say you were going to like it 8))

[jfribrg]

43 - Approximate number of light years distance where sol ceases to be a naked-eye star.

[ToSeek]

44 - number of digits of pi you need to memorize to be able to calculate the circumference of the universe to the width of an atomic nucleus.

(EDIT: came up with one I like better.)

[Frog march]

45- the number of degrees all good cartoon telesopes are pointing at the night's sky at.

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/4112/telescopeemo7qo.png (http://www.imageshack.us)

[Fram]

46: the Julian calendar is introduced in 46 BC (it was based on astronomical observations, like most calendars).

[JohnW]

47: approximate latitude of my backyard observatory

[Frog march]

48-number of replies that this thread had before this post.

[Arneb]

STS 48: Another cover-up of unmistakable evidence for extraterrestrial spacecraft by NASA (http://www.ufoevidence.org/topics/sts-48.htm) :roll: :roll: :roll:

[ngc3314]

49 - sequence number in the Explorer program of the Radio Astronomy Explorer (http://www.astronautix.com/craft/rae.htm), launched into lunar orbit in 1973. It used 36-meter dipole antennae to measure very low-frequency radio emission, with the moon as an occulting mass to block Earth's radio noise (much of which is from aurorae).

[ngc3314]

Oh, while I'm at it:

50 - number in the W (Westerhout) radio catalog of the supernova remnant (http://www.nrao.edu/imagegallery/php/level3.php?id=266) associated with SS433, showing "ears" punched outward by its jets.

and just waiting to get to

51 - Messier number of the spiral galaxy whose arms are generally figured visually easiest to pick out (thank you, interaction-induced density waves), and in which a brightish supernova is currently visible (albeit apparently not from my back deck...)

[jfribrg]

52- approximate number of weeks until the first anniversary of the shuttle STS-114 return-to-flight.

Edit: updated to reflect recent developments

[A Thousand Pardons]

Oops, belay that. :)

52 - number of weeks in a solar year

PS:
44 - number of digits of pi you need to memorize to be able to calculate the circumference of the universe to the width of an atomic nucleus.
Not according to Dr. Neal Basescu. Can you find his error? :)

[ToSeek]

53 - Angular size of the Sun as seen from the Earth, as measured in hundredths of a degree.

And I was using 156 billion light years (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_040524.html) as the diameter of the universe. Plus his figure for the diameter as 2 x 10^34 angstroms is off by a factor of 100 - 20 billion light years is 2 x 10^36 angstroms.

[publiusr]

54--The wingspan (in meters) of the L-1011 used to launch the Pegasus XL (from astronautix.com).

[ToSeek]

55 - 55 Cancri is the only star known to have four (or more) planets.

[Swift]

56 - Most common natural isotope of iron (webelements.com (http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Fe/isot.html)), whether or not the sun is made of it. :wink:

[Arneb]

57 - (1957, that is) mankind's first artificial satellite in orbit.

[Arneb]

58 - Ah, so the Americans can do it, too :D

[SeanF]

59 - Number of years in Oenopides' (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Oenopides.html) Great Year.


55 - 55 Cancri is the only star known to have four (or more) planets.
You left out the word "other," I think. ;)

[pghnative]

60 -- degrees in front of or behind for Lagrange points in an orbit.

[ngc3314]

61 - STS mission number of the first Hubble servicing mission in late 1993.

[Enzp]

62

September 12, 1962 - President John F Kennedy "Moon Speech" where he promised we would send a man to the moon by the end of that decade.

[Fram]

63: current number of moons of Jupiter (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Jupiter&Display=Moons).

[pghnative]

64 - Mass of Mars (in kg * 10^22)

Also: Mass of Mars (in kg*10^23) in bizarro-variable-G-world

[jfribrg]

65- Inclination, in degrees, of Sputnik 1

[ToSeek]

66 - Year* of the 13th most recent visit of Halley's Comet, heralding the conquest of England and recorded in the Bayeaux Tapestry.

*1066, that is.

[Arneb]

A Pentax 67 middle format camera shot this (http://www.airglow.de/html/nebulae/eta_1.html)wonderful photo of the Eta Carina nebula.

[ToSeek]

68 - Size of the constellation Crux (the Southern Cross) in square degrees.

[Arneb]

69 - the obvious one: First man on the Moon

[ToSeek]

70 - x 10^21, number of stars in the universe (http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/07/22/stars.survey/)

[jfribrg]

71 - number of hours that the Apollo 16 lunar module spent on the surface of the moon.

[banquo's_bumble_puppy]

72- the year the Apollo program ended

[jfribrg]

73 - Duration, in seconds, of the final Challenger flight :cry:

[ToSeek]

Moving quickly to a happier subject...

74 - Episode number of "Best of Both Worlds, Part I", one of the best episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

[pumpkinpie]

75 - Years since Pluto was discovered!

[Arneb]

75 - number of years since Pluto was discovered

[pumpkinpie]

Ok, I'll give it to you. I was waiting for 76 anyway, and if I waited a minute longer, I would have had it! (great minds think alike!)

76 - Period of Comet Halley's orbit, in years.

[Arneb]

75 - Years since Pluto was discovered!

Now that wasclose!

All right then,

76 - Year of the Viking landing - first successful landing on another planet

[jfribrg]

76 - period of Halley's comet in years

[jfribrg]

these entries are coming too fast. I'm glad to see my game is popular. :)

77 - John Glenn's age when he flew on Discovery.

[Arneb]

Ok, I'll give it to you. I was waiting for 76 anyway, and if I waited a minute longer, I would have had it! (great minds think alike!)

76 - Period of Comet Halley's orbit, in years.


76 - period of Halley's comet in years

Close call again :D , and very nice idea.

77 - Radius, in kilometers, of Uranus' moon Puck

[Arneb]

these entries are coming too fast. I'm glad to see my game is popular. :)

77 - John Glenn's age when he flew on Discovery.

Sheesh, this is a tough race.

Just to get past it:
78 - Diameter, in kilometers, of Dickens crater on Mercury,

so we can get to

79: Year of the epic Jupiter flybys of the two Voyager spacecraft

[ToSeek]

80: mm, a standard size for a small refracting telescope

[Tensor]

Current number of officially recognized planets, squared.

[ngc3314]

82 - Shuttle STS designation of the second HST servicing mission, my photos of the launch of which may be viewed here (http://www.astr.ua.edu/keel/fam/sts82.html). (So much for all those waiting for me to pop up wth another Messier designation!) This was the crew who installed STIS (hi, Phil!) and NICMOS, both of which I managed to get nice results from...

[Arneb]

83 - (out of 88 ) Rank, by area, of the constellation Triangulum australe (http://www.heavens-above.com/constellation.asp?Session=kebgcdekabbbknnbmmnblhlp &con=TrA) (southern triangle)

[jfribrg]

84 - orbital period, in Earth years, of Uranus.

[Fram]

85: Radius (in kilometres) of Tycho crater (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/timeline/gallery/slide_61.html).

[Arneb]

86 - 1986, that is, year of the Challenger disaster.
On a happier note, year of Voyager 2's Uranus flyby.

[ToSeek]

CE 87 - Year Claudius Ptolemy, developer of the definitive geocentric universe theory, was born

[Arneb]

88 - current number of recognized star constellations in the sky

[ngc3314]

89 - years since Einstein published the paper presenting General Relativity (Annalen der Physik 49, 50). Among lots of other things, pointed to black holes and gravitational lensing.

(This makes up for my being a little to slow to get the "88 constellations" entry).

[jfribrg]

90- Approximate inclination, in degrees, of the rings of Uranus with respect to the orbital plane.

[jfribrg]

91 - approximate orbital period, in minutes, of the ISS

[pghnative]

92 -- distance (in million kilometers) of closest approach to Earth by Mercury.

note: per corrections below, 92 is the distance (in million kilometers) on average between the orbits

[A Thousand Pardons]

93 -- average distance (in million miles) of earth from sun


92 -- distance (in million kilometers) of closest approach to Earth by Mercury.
SkyMap shows next time it is only 89 million km, in a couple weeks? And only 82 in 2015

[Arneb]

94 - (.6, that is) trillion km: 10 light years!

[pghnative]

92 -- distance (in million kilometers) of closest approach to Earth by Mercury.
SkyMap shows next time it is only 89 million km, in a couple weeks? And only 82 in 2015Sheesh ---that's the last time a consult the attached website (http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/planets.html). I think I'll go rant about it on my blog...

In looking at The Nine Planets (http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/nineplanets.html), it looks like 92 million kilometers is the average distance. (Between the orbits, that is).

[ngc3314]

95 - orbital period in hours of the planet (http://exoplanets.org/esp/hd76700/hd76700.shtml) detected around HD 76700. Not so much a hot Jupiter as a hot Saturn (although you'd hardly have icy rings in that location), at about 1/5 of a Jupiter mass.

[Arneb]

96 - distance between Voyager 1 and the sun, in astronomical units.
Hats off to the most distant man-made object out there!

[Fram]

97: 1597 (http://www.answers.com/1597), that is.

In correspondence with Kepler, Galileo admits that he has come to accept the Copernican scheme of the solar system.

[Fram]

98: The number of the asteroid that shares its name with my daughter 8)

[jfribrg]

99 - my age when Halley's comet returns in 2061

[Tensor]

100 Years ago when Einstein publish Special Relativty, an explanation of the photoelectric effect, and explained Brownian Motion. Not a bad year for someone, eh?

[Roy Batty]

98: The number of the asteroid that shares its name with my daughter 8)
Violet flower.. nice name 8)

101- How to Become an Astronaut 101 (http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast19apr_1m.htm)

[Arneb]

102 - The last "uncertain" (http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m102.html) Messier catalogue object

[jfribrg]

103- original number of Messier objects, and diameter, in thousands of light years, of M65

Edit: for clarification and correction

[ngc3314]

103- number of Messier objects, and diameter, in light years, of M65

How's that? The Sombrero galaxy begs to be included as M104. I can see excluding M40, and M102 was a phantom, but you must also be excluding the additional "late" entries that have become pretty enshrined. (I may have just opened a can of historical worms...)

And M65 (http://www.astr.ua.edu/gifimages/m65.html) really must be bigger than a star cluster!

[Eroica]

104: Sombrero Galaxy

105: Artemis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/105_Artemis)

[Fram]

106: The Apollo CSM 106 (Charlie Brown) is better known as the command module of Apollo 10. I guess the two men in the LM (Young and Cernan) are the two people to come the closest to the moon without actually landing on it (hey, that would have been a good question for the ultimate astronomy quiz).

[Arneb]

Waaaaay too easy :D .
107 - years ago that Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity in naturally occurring uranium ore.

[Laguna]

108 thousand kilometers is saturns polar diameter.

[mickal555]

109- The sun's dimaiter is 109 times larger than the earths

[Fram]

110: Saturn V had a height of 110 metres (and then some).

[ToSeek]

111: By comparison, the rocket that launched the first space satellite, the Soviet R-7, was 111 feet tall.

[jfribrg]

111 - The course (http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~lwill/ast111/) you take at Mesa Community college to learn more about astronomy.

[Frog march]

111- seven in binary.

[Eroica]

112: (http://www.messier45.com/cgi-bin/dsdb/dsb.pl?ss=112190372853491&str=NGC+772) H I 112 (also known as NGC 772), a spiral galaxy in Aries and one of the Herschel-400 objects.

[ToSeek]

113: Total number of space shuttle missions so far

[pghnative]

114 -- STS Designation of next shuttle mission

[jfribrg]

115 - West longitude of Las Vegas, where some bookmaker is probably taking bets on whether the shuttle will ever fly again.

[ToSeek]

116: Number of elements created or known to exist.

[Charlie in Dayton]

117 -- the number of a solar eclipse Saros cycle that runs from June 24, 792 to August 3, 2054, and the number of a lunar eclipse Saros cycle that runs from April 3, 1094 to May 26, 2374.

[ngc3314]

113: Total number of space shuttle missions so far

And it has been such a rare occurrence for the STS-xxx designation to match the sequence number of flights that I had to look it up to check...

[ngc3314]

118 - period, in minutes, of the mapping orbit of Lunar Prospector (http://www.solarviews.com/span/lunpros.htm).

(This follows a futile attempt to find a known comet or minor planet in a 118-year orbit - however, the distant minor planet or snowball 2000 CO104 has a period of 119 years and a bit).

[ToSeek]

119: Orbital longitude of the Dish Network's primary communications satellite.

[jfribrg]

120 - approximate duration, in seconds, of the shuttle SRB burn.

[Arneb]

121 - first Apollo mission to land on the Moon (squared :D )

[jfribrg]

122 - number of years between the last 2 transits of Venus

[ToSeek]

123 - (negative degrees Celsius) Average temperature on Jupiter

[ToSeek]

124 - Wolf-Rayet star WR124 (http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/1998/38/), with its own nebula

[ToSeek]

125 - Number of molecules found (so far) in interstellar space (http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/allmols.html)

[ngc3314]

126 separate images going into a gorgeous Cassini mosaic (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1398) of Saturn.

[Tensor]

127- Year AD in which Ptolemy started his observations from Alexandria which led to the "Almagest" and his mathematical treatment of the motions of astronomical objects.

[Eroica]

128: (http://www.messier45.com/cgi-bin/dsdb/dsb.pl?ss=112216357072883&str=NGC+128) NGC 128, a lenticular galaxy in Pisces; the brightest member of a group of five galaxies

[Arneb]

129 - the year (BC) of the publication of Hipparchus' star catalog

[ngc3314]

130 - aperture in centimeters of each of the two dedicated telescopes used for the 2-Micron Astronomical Sky Survey (http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/) (2MASS).

[ToSeek]

131 - Number of galaxies in the Coma cluster (http://www.sp-astronomia.pt/jenam2002/ws-ge/posters/gutierrez_c.pdf)

[jfribrg]

132 - diameter, in feet, of asteroid 1998 DK36 (http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/070498/tec_124-5141.shtml)

[Tensor]

133- Index Catalogue number of the water vapor maser (http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:iYLaWXiT3ssJ:xxx.lanl.gov/pdf/astro-ph/0109419+IC133+M33&hl=en) in M-33.

[Arneb]

134 - NGC 134 (http://www.heavenlyview.com/ngc134sxvh9c.htm), that is: Another beautiful galaxy that can be resolved using amateur equipment.

[Eroica]

135: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/135_%28number%29) 135° - angular separation of two planets when they are in the astrological aspect known as a sesquiquadrate, first discussed by Kepler. :-?

[ToSeek]

136: John Glenn's systolic blood pressure reading on his first orbit aboard Friendship 7.

[Tensor]

137 (rounded) The denominator of the fine structure constant. (http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/FineStructureConstant.html)

[jfribrg]

138 - radius, in picometers, of Uranium, which was named after the planet Uranus.

[Eroica]

139 - highest Flamsteed designation in Taurus (perhaps the highest of all?)

[ToSeek]

140 - size, in pages, of the BABB's General Astronomy forum.

[ngc3314]

C-141 - aircraft carrying a 0.9-meter telescope as the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (http://www.astr.ua.edu/keel/telescopes/kuiper.html) (now being replaced by SOFIA).

[jfribrg]

142 - most distant object in the visible universe, in septillions of kilometers.

[ngc3314]

Arp 143 (NGC 2444/2445) - a strongly interacting galaxy pair with knotty ring (http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Arp36.html).

And while I'm signed in,

VV 144 (also known as Arp 151) - Seyfert galaxy with interacting companion and enormous tidal tail (http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Arp38.html). If we could see it "sideways", it might look something like this (http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/AJ.../0090//0999999P111.html). This is a case where we may see gas dumped between galaxies during a strong interaction.

[publiusr]

145 Number of actual Thor rockets flown--check wikipedia entry for THOR (number flown).

[ToSeek]

(and 145 - Total number of crewed NASA missions (including the current one!))

146 - BC, Hipparchus determines the equinoctial point

[jfribrg]

147 - closest distance, in miles, that the stardust probe came to comet Wild 2.

[Arneb]

148 - Years ago that Heinrich Hertz, Konstantin Tsiolkowsky, Edward Barnard, and Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming were all born - a verya good vintage.

Also 148 years ago, we have the first description of the spokes in Saturn's rings.

[banquo's_bumble_puppy]

149- the number in feet- measuring the height of the space shuttle srb's

[Arneb]

150 - (well, almost) the Astronomical unit, in Mkm

[ToSeek]

151 - Number of people who will have walked in space (or on the Moon), following STS-114/Discovery.

[ngc3314]

I've been waiting for one of these, and the thread has been quiet, so here comes a chunk:

Arp 152, another name for M87 (http://heritage.stsci.edu/2000/20/index.html). This galaxy hosts the optically brightest jet, discovered in 1918 on plates taken with the Crossley telescope at Lick Observatory (http://www.astr.ua.edu/keel/telescopes/lick.html) before it was rebuilt in its "new", more convenient mounting.

C153 is the designation of the galaxy (http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2004/02/image/a) in the cluster Abell 2125 which was found to be seen as its gas is stripped away by passage through the host intracluster gas. I'm embarrassed to note that I have not been able to work out where that "C" designation came from.

154 planets around main-sequence stars currently listed in the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia (http://obswww.unige.ch/~naef/who_discovered_that_planet.html).

[ToSeek]

155 - in Mbps, the data rate at which the 8-meter Gemini North telescope can supply data to the Internet.

[Eroica]

155 (again): (http://cometography.com/pcomets/035p.html) The period (in years) of Comet 35P/Herschel-Rigollet, the longest short-period comet.

[Arneb]

156 - Current diameter of the Universe (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_040524.html), in billions of light years.

[ToSeek]

157 - Number of known moons in the solar system.

(I for one have no problem with people repeating numbers so long as they have something interesting for it.)

[Swift]

158 microns - the infrared wavelength of singly ionized carbon (C+)
sky map at 158 microns on this page (http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/ir_tutorial/irspec_ourgal.html)

[ToSeek]

159, in dollars, the cost of a Meade Series 5000 2x TeleXtender 1.25 inch Eyepiece Power Doubler (http://focuscamera.com/sc/froogle-lead-1.asp?id=964599483&rf=froogle&dfdate=07_22_2005&si d=35473225)

[Tensor]

160 Frequency (in MHz) of Grote Reber's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grote_Reber) first succesful reception of radio signals from space.

[jfribrg]

161 - Perigee, in kilometers, of Gemini 3

[Donnie B.]

Just as an aside, I must say I'm quite impressed that this thread has gone so far with no signs of tapering off.

It's a reinforcement for the theorem that states: there is no such thing as an uninteresting number. That theorem has a nifty little logical proof that assumes the contrary and shows that would lead to an infinite regress (I don't remember who came up with it, though).

We now return to regularly-scheduled programming... :D

[ToSeek]

162 - in pounds, the amount of liquid hydrogen fuel a shuttle engine burns in one second.

[Donnie B.]

AC-163: designation of the Atlas-Centaur launch that placed the Japanese Superbird 6 telecommunications satellite into orbit, in April 2004.

[Eroica]

164 - STF 164 = F G W Struve's designation for the double star HIP 8468 in Triangulum.

[ToSeek]

164 (again) - the number of hours of extravehicular activity during the Apollo missions.

165 - in feet, the estimated minimum size of the object responsible for the Tunguska event.

[Arneb]

166 - perigee, in kilometers, of Vostok 3, the first manned space mission that had colour video footage of the Earth.

O.K., a bit generic, but this ones's nice:

167 - maximum possible diamater, in miles, (http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/gem-projects/hm/0304-1-08-eclipse/compare%20n%20contrast.htm) of the Lunar umbra on the Earth during a total Solar eclipse.

168 (-170 GHz) This frequency band is used for both spectral line and continuum observations. Among the important spectral lines in this band the line of Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) with rest frequency of 168.760 GHz should be noted.

[Eoanthropus Dawsoni]

SaU 169 (http://www.earthsci.unibe.ch/sau169/)

[ToSeek]

Aerobee 170 (http://www.wsmr-history.org/Aerobee170.htm) - Popular suborbital launch vehicle used successfully over 130 times between 1968 and 1983, mostly with astronomy experiments as payloads.

[Swift]

RD-171 (http://www.astronautix.com/engines/rd171.htm)
Russian rocket motor

[ngc3314]

VV 172, also known as Hickson 55 and UGC 6514, located in Ursa Major. VV172 has a redshift outlier (about 20,000 km/s out in velocity units) right in the middle of the group as we see it, and has accordingly been much discussed. VV stands for Vorontsov-Velyaminov's Atlas and Catalog of Interacting Galaxies, produced from Palomar survey prints; the first part of it beat Arp's atlas into print but was produced only in a small photographic edition by Moscow State University, so it remained less well-known.

[ToSeek]

173 AU = 1 light-day

[Eroica]

174 Light-Years - distance to Acubens (Alpha Cancri)

[Laser Jock]

175 years -- How often a "Grand Tour of the Solar System" is possible (ie. Voyager 1 & 2)

[jfribrg]

176 - Diurnal period, in Earth Days, of Mercury

[jfribrg]

177- orbital inclination, in degrees, of Venus

[ToSeek]

178 - The number of stars, constellations, and nebulae whose locations a Kiribati/Gilbertese (Pacific Ocean islander) navigation student had to memorize at the start of training. ( http://www.janeresture.com/kiribati_migration/ )

[Arneb]

179 - the number of Galaxies in the "Local Volume", our extended cosmic neighbourhood, according to a first census in 1979 (mentionend here (http://www.edpsciences.org/articles/aas/pdf/1998/03/ds6146.pdf))

[Eoanthropus Dawsoni]

The Spirit of Columbus, a Cessna 180 (http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/cessna180.htm) on display at the National Air and Space Museum is the first aircraft to be flown around the world by a woman, Geraldine Mock, in 1964.

((OK, so a 180 is not a spacecraft, but it sure is a nice airplane to fly!))

[ToSeek]

180 (again) - the span, in degrees, from horizon to horizon.

181 - The radius of Amalthea's orbit around Jupiter, in megameters.

[Arneb]

182 - diameter, in kilometera of asteroid (130) Elektra (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/130_Elektra)

(182) Elsa, one of the asteroids with a companion

And while we are at it:

183 - Distance, in miles, of Saturn's moon Teleto, from its parent body.

[Zamzara]

184, the length of the space shuttle in feet.

[ToSeek]

185 - CE, the Chinese record a "guest star" in the heavens, the earliest mention of a supernova in human history.


183 - Distance, in miles, of Saturn's moon Teleto, from its parent body.

It's Telesto (http://www.factspider.com/te/telesto.html), and I assume you mean thousands of miles.

[jfribrg]

186 - Approximate speed of light, in thousands of miles per second.

[ToSeek]

187 - If you climb Mount Palomar and murder an astronomer, the section of the California penal code under which you would be prosecuted.

or maybe

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-187, MGS views Martian solar eclipses (http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/11_1_99_phobos/)

[Eroica]

188: NGC 188, (http://www.messier45.com/cgi-bin/dsdb/dsb.pl?ss=112310363926515&str=NGC+188) one of the oldest open clusters in our Galaxy

[ToSeek]

189 - days, the time between the spring equinox and the autumnal equinox, also the number of consecutive days the Sun is above the horizon at the north pole.

[publiusr]

RD-190 Yet another liquid fueled engine by Glushko
RD-191 Latest big liquid engine to power Angara and South Korea's rockets.

[Eroica]

BU 192 (http://www.alcyone.de/SIT/bsc/HR1995.html) = Tau Aurigae (double star Burnham 192)

[Swift]

187 - If you climb Mount Palomar and murder an astronomer, the section of the California penal code under which you would be prosecuted.
:lol:
Of course that answer won't work if this was a board about woodworkers or shoe salesmen.

[Swift]

Since I derailed the train, I'll put it back on the tracks...

Astronomy 193 (http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/hco/astro/academics/classpages/astro193/) a course at Harvard

Noise and Data Analysis in Astrophysics
Good course for this group. :wink:

[Arneb]

194 - the speed of light according to the first terrrestrial measurement, by Fizeau, in thousands of miles per second.

[ToSeek]

195 - minutes, the amount of time it takes the Hubble Space Telescope to download the complete contents of its onboard (solid state) recorder.

[Eroica]

196: (http://www.alcyone.de/SIT/bsc/HR0577.html) STF 196, a quadruple star in Aries.

[Arneb]

197 - years ago, one Thomas Jefferson said this: `I can more easily believe that two Yankee professors lie than accept the notion stones can fall from heaven.'

[ToSeek]

LkH-alpha 198 (http://currents.ucsc.edu/03-04/03-01/images.html), a young, massive star with a dust envelope, eventually to become a supernova.

[publiusr]

199 km--altitude of Zenit spysat--which gave the EELV class Energiya strap-on booster its name when used as a booster in its own right before being adapted for Sea Launch:

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/zenit2.htm

Note that the Zenit spysat is an unmanned Vostok.

Zenit gave the RD-170 equipped booster its own name--
Much in the same way the Soyuz spacecraft became a name for the R-7 booster that carries it, even though it flew Vostok and Sputnik first:

http://www.marscenter.it/eng/veicolicapsulesoyuz.htm

[Arneb]

200 - my Newtonian's aperture, in Millimeters :D

[ToSeek]

SPARTAN 201: NASA's mission to explore the Sun's corona (http://umbra.gsfc.nasa.gov/spartan/spartan.html)

[ngc3314]

Sanduleak -69 202 - the former star whose finale was seen as Supernova 1987A.

[ToSeek]

203 - Area code you'd use to call the Yale University astronomy department
204 - AS-204, the identifier for the Apollo mission that Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were preparing for when they were killed.
205 - The number of times the American Astronomical Society has met.

[ngc3314]

NGC 206 - the largest and brightest association of young stars in the Andromeda Galaxy. It may be seen in this raw image (http://www.astr.ua.edu/keel/ngc206r.jpg) from a very recent Palomar observing run.

[ToSeek]

Gallery 207 - the section of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum devoted to Exploring the Planets (http://www.nasm.si.edu/etp/).

[publiusr]

SA-208 Number of the Saturn IBarticle that allowed the Skylab 4 mission:
http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/flights/skylab4.htm

Altitude of a sat launched by an Atlas--like the family of rockets below:
http://www.astronautix.com/lvfam/atlas.htm

208 is also the perigee of one of the R-7 launched Zenit-sats
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/zent4mkt.htm

08 September 1982 Cosmos 1406 Program: Resurs. Launch Site: Plesetsk . Launch Vehicle: Soyuz 11A511U. Mass: 6,300 kg. Perigee: 208 km. Apogee: 227 km. Inclination: 82.3 deg. Duration: 13.00 days.

[Arneb]

209 - mean density of the Moon, in pounds per cubic foot

Duh :o

[Eroica]

210: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/210_Isabella) the asteroid Isabella

[Arneb]

211- diameter of Neptunes moon NEreid, in miles.

Thank Gawd not everyone's using metric.

[jfribrg]

212 - the temperature of the water in the pot at NASA headquarters just before the teabag is added

Arp 213 Galaxy with irregularity, not classifiable as S or E

[ngc3314]

214 - age, in millions of years, of a proposed group of 5 large terrestrial impact craters, suggested (http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/cc/kiziah.html) to account for the large turnover in species at the end of theTriassic. These are the large Manicouagan crater in Quebec (big enough, with part of its floor flooded for hydroelectric power, to show up on atlases, and spectacular enough with Google Earth); Rochechouart in France; St. Martin back in Canada; Obolon', Ukraine; and smallest of the bunch, Red Wing, North Dakota. (There are hints that, running tectonics backward, these line up, suggesting that they were very nearly simultaneous.

[Eoanthropus Dawsoni]

and smallest of the bunch, Red Wing, North Dakota.

That one made for a nice little oil field.

[Eroica]

215: (http://www.messier45.com/cgi-bin/dsdb/dsb.pl?ss=112420010679539&str=Cr+215) Collinder 215 (= NGC 3114), a prominent open cluster in Carina

[Arneb]

216 - years ago that the French revolution took place; more the point, years ago (http://www.answers.com/topic/1789)that Wilhelm Herschel completed his 49 in. f/10 mirror telescope that led to so many discoveries; among them, Enceladus (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/moons/moonDetails.cfm?pageID=5).

[Fram]

216: asteroid 216, Kleopatra, has a largest diameter of approximately 217 km 8)

[ngc3314]

3C 218, a powerful radio galaxy also known as Hydra A. This one has something for a wide constituency - an optically obscured active nucleus, twin radio lobes with a sort of helical symmetry (http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~gtaylor/hydrabw.gif)which become extremely large when viewed at low frequencies, and bubbles (http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/0087/) blown in the hot X-ray gas of the surrounding cluster.

(This thread was in danger of dropping off page 1 - bump!)

[Eroica]

BU 219: (http://www.alcyone.de/SIT/bsc/HR4073.html) a double star in Hydra (= HD 89828 = HIP 50739)

[ngc3314]

Arp 220 (http://www.astr.ua.edu/gifimages/arp220.html), one of the prototype infrared-bright galaxies which came to prominence with the IRAS far-IR survey. These are deeply dust-enshrouded, and many seem to harbor extremely powerful and brief bursts of star formation. This has given them an interesting status as possibe analogs to galaxies in the early Universe. Among the most luminous galaxies in the far-IR, strong interactions and mergers are almost universal, indicating that these events (among other things) can trigger these titanic starbursts.

[ngc3314]

Don't tell me this thread is starting to taper off!

NGC 221 - an alias of M32 (http://www.astr.ua.edu/gifimages/m32.html), compact elliptical companion of the Andromeda Galaxy and host of the brightest telescopic concentration of stars in the Local Group. It also has a weak, compact X-ray source and possible a not-quite-so-supermassive black hole.

[ToSeek]

222 light years - distance of Alpha Lyncis, the only star in the constellation Lynx with a Bayer designation.

[ToSeek]

223 years - how long it would take you to drive from the Sun to Mars at highway speeds.

[Tensor]

NGC 224, (http://www.seds.org/~spider/ngc/ngc.cgi?m31) better known as M31 or the Andromeda Galaxy.

[Eroica]

225 light-years - the distance to Nunki, Sigma Sagittarii (http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/sim-id.pl?protocol=html&Ident=Sigma+Sgr&NbIdent=1&Radi us=10&Radius.unit=arcmin&CooFrame=FK5&CooEpoch=200 0&CooEqui=2000&output.max=all&o.catall=on&output.m esdisp=N&Bibyear1=1983&Bibyear2=2005&Frame1=FK5&Fr ame2=FK4&Frame3=G&Equi1=2000.0&Equi2=1950.0&Equi3= 2000.0&Epoch1=2000.0&Epoch2=1950.0&Epoch3=2000.0)

[ToSeek]

226 GHz - beginning of a radio band set aside for passive radioastronomy.

[Eroica]

STF 227 - discoverer code for the double-star Iota Trianguli (http://www.alcyone.de/SIT/bsc/HR0642.html)

[ToSeek]

508-228-9198: Phone number of the Maria Mitchell Association (http://www.mmo.org/index.php)

[ToSeek]

New Suspected Variable star Gliese 229 (http://www.solstation.com/stars/gl229.htm)

[ngc3314]

230 - number of main-belt asteroids with estimated diameters greater than 100 km. This is also, more or less, the number of asteroids so far studied with radar.

231 square degrees - (truncated) area of Leo Minor, home to the interacting-galaxy pairs NGC 3395/6 and NGC 3424/30, plus the barred starburst galaxy NGC 3504. And as a bonus, if we wait about 1960 years, also the home of the nearby star Lalande 21185, as its proper motion carries it southward in our view off the edge of Ursa Major.

3C 232 - quasar seen near the line of sight to the starburst galaxy NGC 3067, a pairing whose properties have figured in the redshift controversy, studies of galaxies' gaseous haloes, and attempts to probe dynamics far from the centers of galaxies.

[ToSeek]

-233 degrees C - Operating temperature of the Spitzer Space Telescope
+233 degrees C - Temperature at which your astronomy textbook will burn (= 451 degrees F)

[Charlie in Dayton]

234 -- the definitive Google Search. (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=7&url=http%3A//www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/search.php%3Fsearch_author%3Djoema&ei=98wOQ4mgIaLg igHUh5yfCg)

(Blame this one on Google -- I have no idea what the search category on the BA website was...)

[SeanF]

(Blame this one on Google -- I have no idea what the search category on the BA website was...)
It was a search for all posts by the poster named "joema."

If ol' Joe ever comes back and makes more posts (or the BA prunes again), the number on your link'll change . . . ;)

[ToSeek]

Uranium-235 - Radioactive element formed in stars and the source for the oldest radiometric dating method.

[ngc3314]

3C 236 (http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/atlas/object/3C236.html) - one of the radio galaxies with the largest double radio lobes, spaning over 15 million light-years. This is the sort of radio galaxy that we must certainly be seeing "sideways", which made it a surprise to find superluminal motion from a tiny area near its nucleus, suggesting that there are radial motions that don't all blast along the jet axis.

[ToSeek]

Meteorite Hammadah al Hamra 237 (http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/9278/protected_HAH237.HTM) is believed to hold some of the solar system's earliest materials.

[Eroica]

Asteroid 238, Hypatia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/238_Hypatia) - named after Hypatia of Alexandria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia_of_Alexandria)

[Arneb]

239 - The approximate mean Earth-Moon distance(=length of semimajor axis) , in thousands of miles.

[jfribrg]

240 B.C., the earliest recorded sighting of Halley's Comet

[ToSeek]

241 - Number of stars within 20 parsecs of the Sun.

[Eroica]

242: (http://www.alcyone.de/SIT/bsc/HR5607.html) HDO 242, discoverer code for HD 133340, a fifth-magnitude triple star in Lupus.

[ToSeek]

243 Ida: One of only four asteroids that have been observed close up.

[ToSeek]

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-244 (http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/june2000/age/), evidence for recent liquid water on Mars

[jfribrg]

245 - Radial velocity, in km/s, of Kapteyn's star.