All Questions
367
questions
3
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1
answer
40
views
Create a wiki entry for future Starlink launches?
With the recent 2020-03-18 delayed-from-Sunday launch of the latest SpaceX mission for the build-out of the Starlink constellation, I am expecting another round of the "what is this set of bright ...
- 8,313
3
votes
3
answers
187
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Pile-on down voting without a single comment explaining why or how to edit, is this how a site should work? How close was my guess?
The question Why isn't Eris considered a planet despite being the body of dominant mass? received three down votes in its first three hours, but with none of the down voters leaving any clues as to ...
- 31.4k
-1
votes
1
answer
207
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Are there any IAU members on the astronomy stack exchange?
Are there any members of the International Astronomical Union that are active on the Astronomy Stack Exchange?
- 1,200
2
votes
1
answer
40
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Is there a consensus on the capitalization of Sun, Moon, Earth and the planets on this site?
The English Language and Usage SE has this question "What is the correct capitalization of the words earth and moon?" but I do not see this issue dealt with on this here.
Is there any guidance ...
- 1,447
3
votes
2
answers
29
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Should questions about specific geographic features on rocky planets in our solar system be on-topic here?
Planetary science questions are generally on-topic both here and in Space Exploration SE.
The recent and rapidly answered question How can I find the depth of a portion of the Valles Marineris? ...
- 31.4k
0
votes
1
answer
38
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Should I have asked this Space Telescope question here instead?
I posted Will the James Webb Space Telescope be able to see the Spitzer Space Telescope (assuming…)? in Space Exploration SE because the observer and observed are both spacecraft, but now I'm ...
- 31.4k
8
votes
0
answers
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Community Policy Repository
This is the official repository for general community policy decisions.
On Posts
How do we handle questions with answers on other sites?
Is the use of ChatGPT or other chatbot software forbidden?
On ...
- 6,254
5
votes
1
answer
95
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How do we handle questions with answers on other sites?
I asked a question about black holes that already had an answer on the Physics Stack Exchange. This has raised quite some discussion in the comments, as to how questions that are on-topic for several ...
- 17.4k
16
votes
1
answer
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Returning to moderation
I've been giving a lot of thought to the question of resignation over the weekend, and one thing that kept going through my head was Jon Ericson's blog post. Despite what he had to say about ...
- 6,254
3
votes
1
answer
96
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Too many questions about Starlink
As of 12:30 UCT on the 15th of January 2020, four of the fifteen newest questions are about Starlink satellites. Should we consider having one, definitive answer and closing any new questions as ...
- 1,051
3
votes
1
answer
57
views
Is "what star did I see?" on topic?
What do we do with questions that can be answered easily by opening Stellarium or other similar software, such as
Several stars in line
Which Planet/Star is it?
What's that very bright star (south-...
- 17.4k
24
votes
0
answers
417
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I'm taking a leave of absence from moderating
Update 1/20/2020: called2voyage has resumed moderation, more info here.
I’ve wrestled for some time with how to approach this issue, but I’ve finally come to a decision. The bottom-line is that it ...
- 6,254
3
votes
0
answers
71
views
2019: a year in moderation
It's New Year's Day in Stack Exchange land...
A distinguishing characteristic of these sites is how they are moderated:
We designed the Stack Exchange network engine to be mostly self-regulating, ...
- 101
4
votes
1
answer
54
views
"MathJax help" link is broken
When the user is asking or editing a question, a "MathJax help" link is present on the right-hand side of the screen. The link is to http://www.math.harvard.edu/texman/
Currently, this only leads to ...
- 495
3
votes
1
answer
50
views
Duplicate Sagittarius A* tags
We have tags for both sgr-a and sagittarius-a, which should presumably be merged. The actual usage of both of these tags shows they are both actually being applied to questions about Sagittarius A* ...
user24157
8
votes
1
answer
237
views
Do we need a notice about billionaire space ventures?
It seems that every time a certain billionaire launches a bunch of satellites in his quest to inflict the internet on every last corner of the Earth we get a whole bunch of "what are these objects ...
user24157
10
votes
0
answers
347
views
Regarding moderating the new Code of Conduct
To hopefully alleviate concerns regarding the new Code of Conduct, I want to explain how I intend to moderate regarding pronoun use.
When speaking generically, posts should use gender neutral ...
- 6,254
2
votes
1
answer
43
views
Should I change the title of my question to make the results more searchable?
My question Who is Sifter, and what is “the so-called Sifter flare” exists only because the linked BBC news item wrote "Sifter flare" where it should have written Seyfert flare.
The BBC News article ...
- 31.4k
4
votes
3
answers
156
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Can we consider Indian Astrology as astronomy?
Indian Astrology has mentioned about the basics of modern astrology. Apart from Varaha Samhita any other texts available on Indian Astrology/ Jyotish?
3
votes
1
answer
123
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Why was this question voted down?
This question asks how to obtain peridicities from a signal. It seems on-topic if very specific to me, dealing with one of the main activities of astronomy (signal processing). However, it was voted ...
- 750
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votes
1
answer
56
views
Is TESS a sky-survey? Is the tag sufficiently broad for all kinds of surveys?
The sky-survey tag currently has 21 questions after I added it to Any plans for TESS after it finishes northern sky survey?
For background, Wikipedia's Astronomical survey says
An astronomical ...
- 31.4k
3
votes
1
answer
32
views
Spectroscopy Spectrometry Spectra and Spectrum tags; is there room for some consolidation?
Here are four related tags and their current question count:
spectroscopy (100) (101)
spectra (60)
spectrum (13)
spectrometry (10)
Here are three related questions about them:
As terms and as ...
- 31.4k
4
votes
1
answer
89
views
Why was my comment deleted, and this this replacement comment okay?
I'd left a "lead by example" comment addressed to the user who wrote an extended comment about why they'd chosen to immediately close What would happen if a Sun-like star were to consume a Jupiter-...
- 31.4k
7
votes
1
answer
75
views
Can I nominate someone for an award for answering an extremely tough question?
Is there a way of asking for someone to receive a medal or badge such as "badge for answering an extremely tough question that many other people struggled to answer?"
In this particular case I am ...
2
votes
1
answer
60
views
Should this question about touching event horizons really be closed as duplicate?
The question If two black hole event horizons overlap (touch) can they ever separate again? is well received with +32 upvotes currently and has two well received answers with +32 and +24 votes as well....
- 31.4k
6
votes
1
answer
77
views
Strange problem creating sunspots tag & should we have a sunspots tag?
As was noted in comments below the question Is the longitude assigned to sunspots spherical or projected? it is impossible to create a sunspots tag.
Trying to do so results in the error message:
...
- 31.4k
3
votes
2
answers
55
views
How long, under current policy (as of 6/18/2019), do closed questions remain visible?
I've asked a question for which I feel a zero score to be appropriate, and I have no objections to any of the comments posted about it, but it has content, and has received comments, which I feel may ...
- 261
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votes
1
answer
314
views
Can we 🐻 to have emoji in posts?
The well-received and hot network question If a massive object like Jupiter flew past the Earth how close would it need to come to pull people off of the surface? includes the phrase
I understand ...
- 31.4k
3
votes
0
answers
77
views
Are questions asking for help with calculations and results on or off topic?
As the title states, are questions that ask for help with calculations, or help with the results of the said calculations, on-topic? or are they off-topic, and would have a better home on a site like ...
- 101
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1
answer
99
views
Is the [ufo] tag on-topic for this site?
Is the [ufo] tag actually on-topic for this site? The help page discourages questions about satellites and notes we are not a UFO-reporting site. Most of the questions tagged with this are of the "...
user24157
1
vote
1
answer
66
views
Is there any way to tell which questions a deleted user effected?
Recently a user got deleted and I would like to see which questions that has effected. When I delete my account does this also happen to other users?
- 1
1
vote
2
answers
69
views
Are all questions asking for simple explanations really off-topic? Or should we rethink the site's "purpose" statement?
A comment on the question How moon is visible during sun is still shining, simple explanation please! says in part:
I appreciate your attempt to meet the OP's request for a simple explanation, but ...
- 31.4k
0
votes
0
answers
48
views
What gives with all these comments about "too many images" in some of my posts?
This comment:
...the rest (the "fluff" actually makes it harder to read your post. This is definitely one of those times when adding pictures really detracts from the answer.
in regards to ...
- 31.4k
3
votes
1
answer
73
views
What is the difference between the "chemistry" and "astrochemistry" tags?
Both the chemistry and astrochemistry tags have over a dozen questions.
However there are only four questions that have both tags, and three of those are mine, probably in anticipation that they ...
- 31.4k
2
votes
1
answer
40
views
Reputation transfer
I note that there was a merge between astronomy and physics SE some time ago, before another astronomy SE was made. My question is, that if there is even a similar transfer, would badges and ...
- 1,862
8
votes
1
answer
145
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Are questions about phenomenon only observed in certain YouTube channels on-topic?
The question What phenomenon causes “lunar waves”? links to YouTube videos posted by individual contributors, one laments being ignored by the scientific community.
The comment exchange is extensive ...
- 31.4k
3
votes
0
answers
49
views
Nuclear physics, relativity theory and quantum mechanic on Astronomy SE
Are questions about nuclear physics, relativity theory and quantum mechanics on topic?
I'm asking this because I'm trying to send a question about relativity theory on SE. But I don't know where can I ...
- 2,879
10
votes
0
answers
105
views
What stellar content do we want to share with Twitter?
As of late yesterday, Stack Exchange has revived its official Twitter account, @StackExchange. It had been used intermittently/actually-not-at-all for several years,...
HDE 226868Mod
- 36k
4
votes
1
answer
62
views
When can a "beta" site become an official one?
I wondered for a long time what is the difference between a "beta" site and an official one. I have a major problem at school when the lightspeed systems blocks the beta sites but not the official ...
- 1,862
9
votes
0
answers
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This month's focus tag: white-dwarf
Sorry for the delay in the focus tag this month! Last month we took a close look at the topic of tidal forces. This month's focus tag is white-dwarf.
Featured Question: Is there a possibility that a ...
- 6,254
4
votes
1
answer
69
views
Is there really a use to having separate [time] and [date-time] tags?
I question the need for having separate time and date-time tags. I think those concepts will rarely be distinct in terms of the questions we have here. What do you think? My inclination would be to ...
- 6,254
2
votes
1
answer
72
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Why was this answer deleted? Is it possible to re-open and this link added to it?
This answer (viewable to those with rep > 10k on "alpha sites", 2k on beta) to the question Which star did Uranus occult in 1977 when the planet's rings were discovered? seems useful. The author never ...
- 31.4k
8
votes
1
answer
102
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Destroy the [science] tag
I think the science tag should be removed, and maybe even blacklisted from the site. The way it is currently used it does not really mean anything, and I don't really see it being that fruitful of a ...
- 6,254
4
votes
1
answer
65
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Should [observation] and [observational-astronomy] be merged?
observation and observational-astronomy seem to more or less mean the same thing. Should these tags be merged? Which name should be favored?
- 6,254
4
votes
1
answer
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Am I a sea lion?
I've been told that I am sealioning.
From my perspective this answer is general screen shots and a bit of block quoted text tangentially related to the topic, but in no way addresses the question. ...
- 31.4k
10
votes
2
answers
288
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Interest in looking into adding the YouTube viewer?
Adding a feature to a site requires some investigation into community interest and to use cases. Here's a successful example. In that case the feature was MathJax and the issue was load time and ...
- 31.4k
6
votes
0
answers
116
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Blog Status Update #1
You might have heard that we're trying to rustle up support for a site blog. It seems like we have a critical mass of potential writers such that it should be able to support itself with content for ...
HDE 226868Mod
- 36k
3
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0
answers
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This month's focus tag: tidal-forces
Happy New Year! Last month we took a close look at the topic of dust. This month's focus tag is tidal-forces.
Featured Question: How did Mars come to have a 24 hour 39 minute day?
This question ...
- 6,254
7
votes
0
answers
38
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2018: a year in moderation
It's New Year's Day in Stack Exchange land...
A distinguishing characteristic of these sites is how they are moderated:
We designed the Stack Exchange network engine to be mostly self-regulating, in ...
- 101
1
vote
1
answer
101
views
I can't find this site's "homework policy" or find out how "suspected homework question askers" should be treated
Similar to what I described in another meta post I've just seen a first time user become a "suspect" and discussed in the third person like they'd broken some rule, rather than have someone ...
- 31.4k