Me again, I read some comments and thought i try and clear up a few wrong impressions ok.

Im not offended by anything anyone wrote so that isnt an issue at all. I totally understand and appriciate your opinions. I know many people think this is all a waste of time, but for many others it is not so I hope you can understand and appriciate that.

I came here for "facts" and expert guidance. All I wanted to know were the questions that were answered and/or anything else that could be relevent. I did not provide other details because I have yet to find them, or be able to prove them as "factual".

Some here I notice seem to think that I refuse to look at anything other than what i want to see, not true at all, which is how I ended up here in the first place. If I didnt want to debunk it I wouldnt be trying now.

So I was merely on a fact finding journey, not a friend making journey. Im sorry if that sounds harsh, but the only way to the bottom of any puzzle is to work with the "facts". I learned some facts here which I do appriciate.

I hope that explains it adequately.

Also, I do have a couple more questions though if someone wouldnt mind answering? Could it be possible, for the planet Eris' orbit, to pass through the Oort cloud? If so, could those asteroids come near Earth?

If you dont think my questions are relevent to this site, could you please point me in the right direction, I dont wish to cause problems and it does seem this is a touchy subject for some.

Thanks again, your time is appriciated.

CuriousAquarian:

Also, I do have a couple more questions though if someone wouldnt mind answering? Could it be possible, for the planet Eris' orbit, to pass through the Oort cloud? If so, could those asteroids come near Earth?

I don't think Eris' orbit goes that far out, but that doesn't mean that at its extremities it wouldn't have some effect on near-in Oort-cloud objects. I will take a looksee at Eris' orbit parameters and post again once I've done that.

As I recall, Eris is a KBO or TNO -- Kuiper Belt Object or Trans-Neptunian Object -- and the Kuiper Belt is much nearer in than the Oort Cloud.

BRB

Edit:============================================================

OK, there is some debate about this. It's a TNO and ranges from about 97AU to just under 40AU from the Sun in its orbit. This places it within what is normally called the scattered disc -- an area between the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. But some astronomers, notably the planet-hunter Michael Brown, maintain that (especially because Eris' orbit is highly inclined to the plane of the Solar System -- about 44 degrees) it should be considered as having had its origin in the inner Oort Cloud.

There is a region of the solar system lying between the scattered disc and the inner Oort Cloud that is called the detached disc. Hence, objects found within this region, or thought to have originated in this region, are sometimes called detached objects. Many long-period comets are thought to have originated in these two outlying discs.

So, you could certainly make the supposition that at the furthest point in its orbit Eris might gravitationally perturb any massive object in the inner reaches of the Oort cloud ... and that, once perturbed, such an object might make its way inward (toward the Sun and inner planets).

Excellent thanks ...

Fantstic explanation thanks.

Is the current position of Eris known at this time?

Also, would the orbit of Eris somehow affect the other planets (heat,orbit,axis) as it orbits around?

Also, (sorry to be a pain) can anyone also explain whats happening with 876d? Its new and I cant find much on it so far. I have been looking for myself by the way with all the questions ive asked and havent been able to find any detail (which is why im asking).

CuriousAquarian:

... whats happening with 876d? Its new and I cant find much on it so far ...

If you mean an exoplanet by that name, you'd be looking for Gliese 876d, which is the fourth planet found orbiting the dwarf star Gliese 876.

CuriousAquarian:

... Is the current position of Eris known at this time?

Yes, quite accurately. The Minor Planet Center maintains ephemerides of known objects for which orbits have been calculated. Here is the page for Eris. You'll notice there are links to other pages, one of which will allow you to download the orbital elements in a form suitable for loading into such planetarium software as The Sky and Starry Night so you can plot the object's position on a star chart for any date and time you select.

Also, would the orbit of Eris somehow affect the other planets (heat,orbit,axis) as it orbits around?

Not likely, at least not anytime soon. These objects tend to be in orbits that are stable over periods of thousands of years, if not longer. Eris' orbit is something like 559 years. Due to orbital resonances with the outer planets, it isn't likely to hit anything -- or to make too-close flybys of other planets -- in the near future.

I don't know what you mean by heat, but if you mean that it might somehow affect another planet's temperature that is very unlikely. None of the outer planets radiates strongly enough to affect Eris unless it were so near that their mutual gravity would disrupt the system. And Eris itself is extremely cold and thus not very radiant.

Eventually, these objects might be influenced by orbital resonances to the point where they would be forced into unstable orbits. At that point, they'll either fall inward toward the Sun or be flung outward and perhaps lost to the Solar System. 

Ok excellent thanks. So these 2 objects will have no detrimental effects upon Earth within the near future then? Thats a relief!

Also if you dont mind briefly explaining whether or not other planets in our solar system have been experiencing any recent climate changes? Ive heard climate change is not all man made, do people here agree with that?

Im not skilled at using a telescope but all this is so interesting Im going to have to go buy one and learn more lol!

And so yes your explanation makes perfect sense, considering if Eris orbit is about 559 yrs then its been orbiting around us all this time with no ill effects. Im just wondering why its taken so long to discover then unless it just doesnt come close enough to be observed without our current technology? <- thinking out loud ...

Just wondering if telescopes available from stores would be strong enough to detect Eris? What would I need to see it for myself?

CuriousAquarian:

... Im just wondering why its taken so long to discover then unless it just doesnt come close enough to be observed without our current technology? <- thinking out loud ...

Just wondering if telescopes available from stores would be strong enough to detect Eris? What would I need to see it for myself?

It is extremely dim. Like Pluto, it is difficult to know you've seen something like this unless you photograph it twice, then compare the two photos by what is called blink comparison: you rapidly switch between the two images and look for anything that moves. This is much easier to do today (with computers and digital imaging) than it was during Clyde Tombaugh's day when he discovered Pluto.

This is the same technique that's used today in automated searches for Earth-crossing asteroids.

Here is a page that shows two animations made by Australian amateur Steve Quirk using a 12.5-inch newtonian reflector telescope and a video imager. Each of the two images in each animation is made by stacking and accumulating the light from about 400 frames.

While many amateurs have such instruments, and even larger ones, the difficulty in using such equipment to photograph such objects is that you either must know in advance exactly where and when to look (which means someone's already discovered it and calculated its orbit) or you must systematically search large areas of the sky during each session and have a convenient (this usually means automated) way to process the huge volumes of images these searches produce.

The videos at the above link illustrate how easily such an object can be mistaken for a dim star -- or entirely overlooked! -- unless the blink comparison technique is employed.

CuriousAquarian:

... Also if you dont mind briefly explaining whether or not other planets in our solar system have been experiencing any recent climate changes? Ive heard climate change is not all man made, do people here agree with that?

...

To my knowledge, no one is monitoring this, at least not closely and precisely. Monitoring climate change on Earth involves measuring meteorological parameters at thousands of different places around the globe over periods spanning many decades. We are not remotely close to the technology to do this on other planets (pardon the pun ...).

Using photographs (many of them from amateur astronomers), astronomer Richard Schmude has conducted two long-running surveys of the cloud belts of Jupiter and Saturn, and to a lesser extent the North Polar Hood in the atmosphere of Mars. He measures the changes in color and width of the belts and clouds over time and correlates those with the seasons of these planets to determine such things as how the changes relate to insolation and temperature. This could be considered a form of climate monitoring.

Data from the Viking missions of the 1970s can be compared to current data from robotic spacecraft on Mars but, of course, this represents only a small sample of data points in time and is not sufficient to deduce climate change.

Remote sensing of cloud tops of Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn can be conducted using Earth-based radar and radio telescopes. I know this has been done, but I don't know of any long-term climatological monitoring using such means.

VEXAG is a program for determining the evolution of Venus, including its atmosphere. One means of doing such studies remotely is by spectroscopically determining the percentages of radioactive isotope ratios and then extrapolating backward in time using their known decay rates.

The European Space Agency has received many proposals in response to its call for programs to execute as part of its Cosmic Vision for 2015 to 2025, including such ideas as long-term climatological monitoring of the Martian atmosphere, studies of ice formation and depletion among the outer planets and their satellites, and using space-based telescopes operating at ultraviolet wavelengths to monitor planetary atmospheres for changes.

But I think you see a trend here: what we know about other planets' climates generally depends on studying their atmospheres from a distance over short periods, then extrapolating what we measure to determine atmospheric changes since earlier epochs ... which is hardly precise climatological study.

Fascinating stuff, im glad I looked into this. 

Thanks for that indepth information. Again, very much appriciated.  I dont necesarily understand some of the terminology so ill have to work on and look into that aspect of it. Some of the 2012 videos were saying the other planets were also experiencing climate changes, but if we cant accurately check that then their information must not be correct. Its really annoying when people try and scare others with these things. Thats why I started looking into it, a friend (who is quite concerned) told me about it. It was for her sake I was trying to get some facts to ease her mind. Although my mind is open I see no reason causing panic in others with misinformation. 

Also sorry ive taken awhile to reply. Ive ordered a telescope (120mm GoTo ED Refractor - PROED120-SKY ), it should be delivered tomorrow and the place I bought it from is going to help me use it properly. I wanted one I could copy images to my pc and the man at the shop said this one was good. Ive 2 weeks to change to another unit so If anyone has any tips on using this or recomend another unit I would appriciate it.

CuriousAquarian:

... Ive ordered a telescope (120mm GoTo ED Refractor - PROED120-SKY ), it should be delivered tomorrow and the place I bought it from is going to help me use it properly. I wanted one I could copy images to my pc and the man at the shop said this one was good.

A Google search turned up the info that this is a 5-inch refractor of 900mm focal length with a pretty good equatorial mount and SkyScan GoTo controller.

Unless you ordered a camera with it, you will not be able to "copy images" to your PC, but if you get a program like Starry Night Pro or The Sky and the appropriate cable for your mount, you will be able to drive the telescope from your PC.

The GoTo system in the mount and hand controller will allow you to select an object from a menu and then "go to" that object automatically. This requires that you first polar align your mount and then do a GoTo alignment (this is normally done by centering each of two different stars you can identify and then pressing Enter on the keypad). But once the mount is aligned it will put the object you seek in the field of view of a low-power eyepiece if it's currently above your horizon.

To make images, you'll need a camera. You can use a telescope like this to make good images of the Moon and brighter planets. I use a 6-inch refractor of 1,200 mm focal length so you should be able to reach most of the same targets that you see in my albums. How much detail you see, and how bright the images are, will depend on the method you use. This is definitely NOT an "automatic" thing and the learning curve can be long and/or steep. You can do deep-space objects like star clusters rather handily with a 900mm 5-inch aperture, but galaxies will be a bit of a challenge. I think the mount on this scope is up to the challenge if you can guide it accurately for the time required to make the images. The Moon and planets are very forgiving of tracking and guiding errors because they're large and bright, with plenty of detail for focusing. But for many DSOs, you'll barely see them at all in the eyepiece and almost certainly not at all in short exposures with the camera. A camera like the Meade DSI or the Orion StarShoot would be a good starting point after you've become familiar with the GoTo system.

But before you go after really dim objects you're going to need a guiding setup. All this will become clearer once you get started. I can highly recommend Robert Reeves' books on digital astrophotography, as well as Michael Covington's. They're widely available and will save you a lot of money if you get one of them prior to deciding on a camera and software for imaging.

Best of luck with your new gear!

No, I didnt choose a camera yet, he said to wait and see how I go before I decide. He seems to think I should wait and that once I start to get the hang of the actual telescope then i should be ready to decide on which camera I want.

I dont mind investing money in this equipment, afterall, without the rest of the universe we wouldnt be here and so much out there has an effect on us here. So I do think its wise to be informed on this topic and think Its great so many are interested. I wish I had of taken more notice sooner, I find all this quite facsinating to say the least.