Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterM
Hi Robert,
Thank you indeed for going to the trouble of presenting such very useful information in your last 2 posts in the science forum. We are indeed fortunate to have someone with your knowledge and ability to present in such an manner that I am sure many here appreciate. I sure do!
Peter.
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Thanks, Pete!
Further galaxy distances can be found in Tully's "Extragalactic Distance Database":
http://edd.ifa.hawaii.edu
It should be noted that a good fraction of the individual distance determinations in this database are of low accuracy, and therefore mainly suitable for the averaging of multiple distances in order to find the distance of a galaxy cluster, or for statistical and cosmological work. However, the EDD (Extragalactic Distance Database) is also a very major source of all kinds of data, not just distances, about galaxies.
I am glad you found my posts about galaxy distances useful and understandable. It takes some work to get them right. As you have noticed, I am good at presenting technical information.
A lot of what I know about extragalactic astronomy is just from:
- reading scientific papers, and putting up with the fact that I won't understand everything in them.
- having very numerous reference books in my personal library (I have most everything about galaxies up to the upper undergraduate level)
- having learnt background information: such as the jargon, the conventions, the mathematical symbols, and the arcane language of professional astronomy. This gets you into the "world and mindset" of professional astronomy.
- knowing where to look for specific needed information about some aspect of astronomy
- understanding the detailed concepts about galaxies in a "physical" or "structural" sense of knowing the intricate details; but this need not involve really heavy maths!
- working on problems that do not necessarily need an extensive knowledge of physics, e.g. the extragalactic distance scale and the morphology of galaxies.
Best regards,
Robert