30
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Accepted
20
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19
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Astronomy Jokes
Three astronomers go out for dinner at a conference - an optical astronomer, an X-ray astronomer and a neutrino astrophysicist.
Incredibly, when the soup arrives, they all have a fly swimming about ...
- 115k
16
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Astronomy Jokes
I dare an "answer". God's finger is a natural joke from the heavens. (Don't take it personally, it is meant to all of us)
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15
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Post your pictures of the Great Conjunction here!
Here's one from earlier today.
Mobile phone camera, held above 4.5mm eyepiece, connected to 80mm aperture 560mm focal length refractor:
Will try again tomorrow with a different camera.
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14
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Post your pictures of the Great Conjunction here!
So, I've been going outside for the past couple days to get what photos I can, in case it's cloudy the day of the actual conjunction. Turns out that the two already look great, and after a couple of ...
- 1,423
13
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Accepted
How are we doing compared to the previous Astronomy site?
I didn't participate on the previous Astronomy site, but you can read about the reason it was shut down in When a Site Grows Quiet. The key point is:
But when a site struggles to maintain any ...
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12
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Accepted
A potential sign that Astronomy is about to graduate?
No, this is a network-wide change to all beta sites.
- 6,084
11
votes
Accepted
Are there any IAU members on the astronomy stack exchange?
I am an IAU Member but a lot of professional astronomers, particularly junior scientists, aren't. The membership rules are slightly weird/archaic. You can only apply to join every three years when ...
- 7,170
11
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Accepted
Can we make arguments that Pluto should be considered a planet off-topic?
I also added this to the topic guidelines in the Help Center:
My question about Pluto got removed. How is that off topic?
Was it really a question, or was it a rant about why you think the IAU ...
- 6,084
11
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Why do we care if Pluto is classified as a planet?
Is it that Pluto scientists worried about reduced funding or status?
I did some searching to see if and how the classification as a planet would matter.
According to a piece by the Atlantic:
A ...
- 143
11
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Accepted
New to Stack exchange. What is Meta and Beta in Astronomy SE?
The meta site is for asking questions or commenting on Astronomy SE's policies and procedures - actually, just like the question you have asked, congratulations!
The "beta" site is the main ...
- 115k
11
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Accepted
Should we close an unclear question with acceped answer?
I would say generally no. Instead, someone should take the time to edit the question to make it more clear, now that the accepted answer makes it apparent what was being asked.
There are exceptions ...
- 6,084
11
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Accepted
Do we want accepted answers to be pinned to the top?
Remove the "pin to top" behaviour.
I want this behaviour to be removed. An accepted answer should be sorted in the same way as all answers.
10
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Astronomy Jokes
Quantum mechanics = best mechanics
And this one is on my schools maths classroom
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10
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Astronomy Jokes
What kind of songs do the planets like to sing?
Nep-tunes
What does an astronomer blow with gum?
Hubbles
A neutrino walks into a bar...and keeps right on going...
Yeah, these were awful but great......
- 7,690
10
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Are questions about phenomenon only observed in certain YouTube channels on-topic?
I'm glad this has been asked on Meta, as it's a much more appropriate place to discuss how to approach such issues - comments or chat are limited in their usefulness.
My view is that this is shouldn'...
10
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Can we consider Indian Astrology as astronomy?
The point of astrology is making predictions about human affairs from the positions of celestial bodies. This is pseudoscience: there is no empirically observed pattern (if we leave out the weather ...
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10
votes
Accepted
999 questions with no answers and counting (downwards)
I would love to see a histogram of how many questions have 0, 1, 2, 3, ... answers
A while ago I wrote a query for this for this MathOverflow answer, to demonstrate that it seems to follow Zipf's Law....
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10
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Accepted
Why do so few users suggest edits?
When I see a typo on Wikipedia, I fix it.
When I see a typo here, I don't.
Why? Because "tiny, trivial edits are discouraged" (from the help center: https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/help/...
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10
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Accepted
What to do when engaged in a never ending discussion
There is no rule that we all have to agree on answers. A great thing about SE is that the community can vote answers up or down, and the OP can choose the answer they think is the best.
It is ...
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9
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9
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Accepted
Is [space-travel] on topic here?
You're right, just about every one of those is off topic (ok, some may be borderline), and many of them are already closed. I don't really see much of an on-topic use for this tag anyway, so it really ...
- 6,084
9
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Accepted
When is the next Moderator Election?
Beta sites don't have regular elections like graduated sites. Basically, elections only occur on an as needed basis. I've requested to have an election to bring on another mod, and the CM team says it'...
- 6,084
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Should we link to the PDF or to the abstract or source page for scholarly references? Does it matter which?
I'm usually in favor of linking to the abstract rather than the pdf. On Stack Exchange, chances are good that unless someone is looking for a figure (which should arguably just be in the answer), they'...
HDE 226868Mod
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9
votes
Accepted
How old is our Astronomy SE?
How old is our Astronomy SE ?
From the site list:
At the end of the entry it indicates that the site is seven years and eleven months old.
Unlike other sites, why there is poor patronage despite ...
- 6,084
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Graduation of the Astronomy Stack Exchange
Three thousand days later, it has finally come.
CONGRATULATIONS!
- 5,993
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Accepted
Status of Astronomy Stack Exchange Site
Astronomy is still in public beta. We launch sites only when they've demonstrated the ability to sustain growth. For a rough idea of what we look for, see the Area 51 statistics. Like many sites in ...
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible