Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Astronomy

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Astronomy in New Chronology (Fomenko)

We have an article on an eccentric historical theory New Chronology (Fomenko) which includes a section on relevant astronomical considerations. This section would benefit from knowledgeable attention -- criticism of claims and linking of astronomical terms. (It might possibly even be justified to apply the WikiProject Astronomy template to this article???) -- Writtenonsand (talk) 12:13, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

The theory seems to exhibit racism, and euro-centrist supremacist bent... (only Europe from the Middle Ages onwards is "real" everything else is "fake") 132.205.44.5 (talk) 23:14, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Should Cosmic infrared background be redirected?

Hey. This topic is totally out of my league, so that's why I'm asking here. Yesterday, an article called Cosmic infrared background was created. I redirected it to Cosmic microwave background radiation since that seemed to be the same topic, but the author reverted my edits and added more information. The infrared page is totally OR and unsourced, and I'm wondering if I was right in doing the redirect, or if it really is a separate topic. Can someone take a glance at that page and figure out where it has to go? Thanks! — HelloAnnyong ^{(say whaaat?!)} 19:03, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

They appear to be different topics, so I'd keep them separate. It's not surprising to me that a new page would be unsourced, but it looks like some have been added.—RJH (talk) 20:06, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Request for input - three articles

I'd like to request input for three articles: Natural satellite, Sub-brown dwarf, and Dwarf planet. The editor Yisraelasper has added some text regarding sub-brown dwarf objects, but I'm not convinced that the references support the assertions. Could someone please take a look at these pages and offer some expert input? Thanks. --Ckatz^chat_spy 20:08, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

I'd like more than expert input. I want detail. I can't be too wrong here. I want a response by tomorrow.Yisraelasper —Preceding comment was added at 21:44, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Wait a minute. Do they know you deleted what I put in?.[[User:Yisraelasper|Yisraelasper] —Preceding comment was added at 23:41, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

If I don't get a response tomorrow I want exact details from you then.[[User:Yisraelasper|Yisraelasper] —Preceding comment was added at 23:45, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

I have tried to compromise. I deserve to be told in detail what I supposedly haven't demonstrated. I deserve alternate suggestions for compromise. Maybe these aren't Wikipedia rules but they should help reduce deletions and edit wars and encourage people to contribute rather than scare them off.Yisraelasper —Preceding comment was added at 01:34, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

I put all the rest of my stuff in but commented them out pending discussion.Yisraelasper

Forget the whole thing.Yisraelasper —Preceding comment was added at 19:32, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Limb

Hello. I put some comments under Talk:Limb darkening - the dab page Limb mentions astronomy but didn't link to a page. I tried to make it informative, but I couldn't find information to help me. Thanks! 「ѕʀʟ·✎」 18:11, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

systemic bias

I recently came across this, which is from Wikipedia:WikiProject_Countering_systemic_bias#The_bias

Similarly, articles frequently take the perspective of a resident of the Northern Hemisphere and ignore the Southern Hemisphere perspective. Some articles on astronomy discuss the night sky as seen from the Northern Hemisphere without covering the Southern Hemisphere to a similar extent, and sometimes "not visible from the Northern Hemisphere" is used as a synonym of "not visible at all". Generally, Northern Hemisphere astronomical topics are covered in greater depth than Southern Hemisphere astronomy. Obscure constellations in the Northern sky such as Scutum and Camelopardalis are covered in more depth than prominent Southern constellations such as Grus and Carina.

Something to keep in mind while editing. --mikeu (talk) 03:27, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Ahaaaa...one for Sirius then.....which I am working up to FAC cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 23:08, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Blue blobs

Can someone take a look at the newly-created Blue blobs article? I know enough to know that the concept doesn't quite fit into the Star cluster article - or any of the other cluster articles comfortably, so if y'all can take a look? FlowerpotmaN·(t) 00:38, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

You know, they appear brilliantly blue in ultraviolet light doesn't make sense. Blue is not a UV colour. 132.205.44.5 (talk) 22:59, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm not clear why this material can't be included on the star cluster page, down in the "Astronomical significance" section.—RJH (talk) 23:00, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Peer Review for Sirius

Hi all, I am working up the Dog Star for FAC sometime soon and feel reasonably happy with content. Don't mind too much about modern pop cult refs at bottom, what I can't ref will go. The rest of the article I'd be happy to see what folks thought of it. cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 23:10, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Roche limit

Anyone here know what the Roche limit is? Roche limit has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here.

Reminder of the Philip Greenspun Illustration project

Hi. You may be familiar with the Philip Greenspun Illustration Project. $20,000 has been donated to pay for the creation of high quality diagrams for Wikipedia and its sister projects.

Requests are currently being taken at m:Philip Greenspun illustration project/Requests and input from members of this project would be very welcome. If you can think of any diagrams (not photos or maps) that would be useful then I encourage you to suggest them at this page. If there is any free content material that would assist in drawing the diagram then it would be great if you could list that, too.

If there are any related (or unrelated) WikiProjects you think might have some suggestions then please pass this request over. Thanks. --Cherry blossom tree 16:49, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

VLT Survey Telescope

Anyone keen to cleanup and impove this article? I know littel about it. cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 19:55, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Astronomy versus Astrophysics

This issue original discussed here has been raised again on on the Astrophysics talk page here. Presently, the astrophysics article is back again and not a redirect anymore to Astronomy. I think we should have an engaged discussion to bring this to a consensus one way or another. As I understand it, there are two positions:

• That today, Astronomy and Astrophysics are used interchangeably and thus should be one article. Support for this includes the fact that there are overlaps between the two articles and back in June 2007, Dr. Submillimeter moved "most of the useful non-duplicative material" into Astronomy.
• That historically, it is only a recent development that the two became interchangeable with Astronomy being a much older term. Therefore, a short separate article historically specific to astrophysics and distinguished from astronomy as a whole would be better than a redirect.

WilliamKF (talk) 16:47, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Well, I know quite a few physicists (myself included) who have published on dark matter, cosmic rays, cosmic background, gravitational waves etc. who would barely pass or even fail most first year astronomy exams. Surely you can't call someone who studies the detection of gravitational waves using the future LISA detector but who doesn't know (anymore) what exactly a Hertzsprung Russell diagram is an "astronomer"?  :) Count Iblis (talk) 23:23, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

I support the second position, as astronomy should be a generalized article, while astrophysics should cover the development of astrophysics. Afterall, astronomy is a wide field, and not all of it is in astrophysics, nor is all of it professional, and some of it is astrology related. 132.205.44.5 (talk) 01:14, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

• Comment - Coverage of early astronomy looks badly out of place in the current astrophysics article. As a naive reader, I would expect that article to cover the history of astrophysics, starting perhaps with Newton. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sdsds (talk • contribs) 16:40, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

• Comment. I must admit I was shocked when I first discovered that Astrophysics was a redirect to Astronomy. I realise that from the perspective of professional astronomers, astrophysics and astronomy may be synonymous, but that is not at all the impression that one has from outside the field. To an outsider it feels a bit like making Theoretical physics a redirect to Experimental physics. Astronomy, to my mind, is strongly associated with observation and inference from observation, whereas astrophysics is associated with theoretical models (how do stars work? and so on). I realise this is an oversimplification, and probably historically inaccurate, but I think the distinction is enough to justify having two separate articles, not one redirecting to the other. Geometry guy 23:17, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

• Comment. Wow. I just read what you guys are talking about and it doesn't seem right at all that Astrophysics should redirct. I am not an expert but within the next few days I am going to gather some sources and begin the face-lift on Astrophysics. Ziros (talk) 02:15, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

• Comment - Thanks for the Astrophysics article revival. I was quite irritated about the relink, though Astronomie and Astrophysics are often used as synonyms, some cleary separation can be made. While Astronmie covers optical observations, planetary motions and so on, the main topics of Astrophysics are obeservation beyond the optical band, starting from the discovering of the CMB, Infrared, Radio and X-Ray observation and more earlier the theoretical works of Chandraskhar. So please let Astrophysics alive ! (Sheliak (talk) 19:14, 13 February 2008 (UTC))

• Comment—Is the difference intended to be theoretical (Astrophysics) versus observational (Astronomy)? It is comparable to theoretical versus experimental physics. If that is not the case, then what exactly is the difference? My experience was that astronomy and physics are so intertwined as to be virtually inseparable, from an astronomy perspective. I definitely disagree that Astrophysics is Astronomy outside the optical band. Astronomy covers the entire EM band, as well as neutrinos, cosmic rays and direct samples. How can it not? I thought astrophysics was the theoretical underpinnings that explained physics behind the observations.—RJH (talk) 23:18, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

• Comment—To put in my two cents, in the modern, professional sense, there really isn't any significant difference between Astronomy and Astrophysics. There are those who tend towards one end or the other, in particular there are probably many astrophysicists who have never really used a telescope directly. Of course, it's possible the same thing could be said of some people who might go under the category of astronomers. But no modern professional astronomer can not know a good deal of physics, and astrophysicists can't remove themselves that far from observation (if they ever want to test their models, at least :) ). That being said, there are amateur astronomers who are not also amateur astrophysicists (not leastwise because it's hard to be an "amateur" physicist of any kind... :) ). And, moreover, historically the difference was important, when astronomers were observers who were not really physicists of any kind (Brahe comes to mind) and astrophysicists were pretty much physicists or mathematicians who never really touched the observational side (Kepler, who used Brahe's data). So probably there should be two articles, reflecting these differences yet stressing that in the modern, professional sense the difference is more or less moot. DAG (talk) 02:12, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

• Comment—The two fields have distinct histories and one hundred years ago the distinction between the two fields was much clearer. The work of classifying stellar spectra around one hundred years ago, even though using visible light, was clearly recognized at the time as part of the new field of astrophysics and not traditional astronomy as it was regarded at that time. Even today, it's reasonable to expect that an astrophysicist is even more likely than an astronomer to work with computer simulations, and somewhat less likely to be familiar with the maintenance and manipulation of expensive telescopes and other data-collection devices. As someone else pointed out, it's rather like the (traditionally very strong) distinction between theoretical physics and experimental physics. Even though nearly all contemporary astronomers are also astrophysicists and vice versa, I was relieved to see the restoration of an independent astrophysics article. --arkuat (talk) 21:27, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

• Comment: My view, as stated at Talk:Astrophysics (where I think this debate should be), is that since 50 other languages still having separate articles for Astrophysics, and over 500 articles linking there, it looks as if there is not really a consensus for the redirect and that a large number of people see a distinction. Moreover, the merge has contaminated the Astronomy article, which now contains a POV description of why they could (implying should) be considered equivalent, even though there is plenty of Astronomy which not usually called Astrophysics. The loss of a separate article on Astrophysics is a little like deciding to redirect Physics to Science as all science is really physics (chemistry is really about electrons, which is physics, and biology is about interactions of physical entities). Astronomy should be a general accessible article, and Astrophysics should be more detailed and specific.--Rumping (talk) 00:41, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

• Comment there is such a thing as archeoastronomy, which is not astrophysics. Astronomy is larger than astrophysics, isn't cosmology a subfield of astronomy? Yet it has a separate article. What about off-Earth geology & geography? (selenology & selenography, areology & areography, etc) 70.55.84.253 (talk) 11:29, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Partial lunar eclipses

People here may be interested i the discussion at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/16 August 2008 lunar eclipse. I've said there what i think needs saying. DGG (talk) 02:28, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Ganymede's FA

The article is now FA candidate. Please, participate. Ruslik (talk) 14:15, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Stub, Start, and B articles

What is the process for reviewing articles of these lower ratings?

In particular, I've been looking into 2007 WD5, a former DYK topic. The article is still rated stub. It might not be ready for GA, but I think it has outgrowth its stub rating. Dspark76 (talk) 11:56, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Astronomy category renames

user:Sardanaphalus has suggested at WP:CFD to rename Category:Astronomical templates to Category:Astronomy templates, Category:Astronomical infobox templates to Category:Astronomy infobox templates, Category:Astronomical navigation templates to Category:Astronomy infobox templates. 132.205.44.5 (talk) 20:02, 29 February 2008 (UTC)