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I personally plan to get all my news from Rooke's upcoming live streaming of his morning news reading sessions. I can't imagine a better way of doing it.

The simplest spectroscope you could imagine, and indeed what was used by astronomers a century or two ago, is a prism. A prism deviates each wavelength of light by a different angle and thus allows to view what we call the "spectrum" of the light, i.e. what wavelength we can find in it. Spectroscopy in general is very broad, though.
The explanation iamnoob gave is actually only partial: if you observed the light of the sun through a prism, as you know, you'd see a continuous spectrum (i.e. all the wavelength would be there). That's because the light emitted by stars does not come from the transitions of the atoms in it, but from what is called "black-body radiation", which is purely due to temperature. A physical body without particular other optical properties (hence the black-body term) will emit light according to its temperature, in the form of a continuous spectrum. The peak of this spectrum depends on temperature: on the surface of the sun, around 6000K, the center is around visible light. Cooler stars will look red, hotter stars blue. For bodies at ~300K (30°C) it would be pretty far in the infrared. Yes, we do radiate too.
What happens then is that a part of that black-body radiation is absorbed by the molecules within the stars (the absorption spectrum of a molecule is simply the complementary of its emission spectra), creating small gaps in the otherwise continuous spectrum (not really visible with the naked eye and a simple prism). We can compare those gaps with the known emission spectras of various molecules we test on earth and match them onto the star's spectra.
Emission spectras are more useful when we want information on other stuff like gas clouds in the interstellar medium. Molecules in those regions can get into excited states because of all the shit going around (cosmic rays etc) and then emit light at specific wavelengths which allows us to identify them.
Of course that's only the basics of it: in reality it's more complicated. Stars are mostly made of hydrogen, so it's very easy to see the marks of hydrogen in a spectrum. There's also a bunch of Helium, but the rest is only there as tiny fractions, which means you won't see clear gaps in the spectrum but only slight deviations to the anticipated black-body radiation... There is a whole range of techniques available to astronomers though.

AMA about astronomy, I work in laboratory astrophysics. Which contrary to what the name implies means I know a lot about lasers and ultra-vacuum and spectroscopy and shit but nothing about astrophysics and astronomy.

I personally plan to get all my news from Rooke's upcoming live streaming of his morning news reading sessions. I can't imagine a better way of doing it.

I personally plan to get all my news from Rooke's upcoming live streaming of his morning news reading sessions. I can't imagine a better way of doing it.

If people could only read this sentence right here, maybe we would get less people complaining because announcement X or  kickstarter Y wasn't updated every single week or something got delayed for a mere month.

Finished the first season of Chihayafuru.
Hmm... To start with what I loved, the character diversity. Many of the characters in their group seemed like the sort of character and designs that would make them antagonists or secondary/almost extra characters. Not almost primary like they all were.
Additionally, there was a surprising variety of characters and play-styles.
I could tell the "desk-guy" is especially strong in the "let me play against him 5 times and I can explain his play-style and flaws in detail" department -- he just needs to become better at exploiting the information itself. The Queen has a profound love for the cards, not the syllables, and wastes no movement, hitting the cards only where she needs so they fly off. The traditional clothing girl also doesn't focus on the syllables, but associates meaning to them. This creates a strong defensive play and makes her karuta unpredictable to the opponent. Chihaya is not strategically minded at all, and her karuta is heavily based on her emotions and state. She's able to distinguish first syllables which would normally sound the same when she gets used to the reader and she's fast. When she gets into a "groove", she'll keep on charging on. However, it's easy to break her concentration and spirit. She also at some point learnt to time her movements so as to avoid faults. The Pork guy got overshadowed. We hardly saw any of his games and we only know that he's good, but only up till the lower levels of Class-A. Taichi is a master of concentration and memorisation, and he also has some strategic ability. He just lacks speed willpower for the most part. The master seems like a better version of Chihaya. We also don't know much about Arita (is that his name?); he is fast and can tell what the best plays should be in any given situation. Can't really say much about him. Chihaya's teacher specialises in destroying the oponent's mental state. Chihaya unwittingly manages this with her speed and good sense. Considering this is a game where "speed" is one of the most important aspects, they managed a lot of variety.
 
I didn't like it when we get to the point of "this person is the fastest there is" and then an "even faster person" is introduced, and then a third "fastest person" shows up and that kind of thing. It's kind of unavoidable, but this is mostly a nitpick exclusive to me.
 
I'll actually continue on to the second season. I'm hoping for two things: A conclusion, and new members for the club.
I actually hope they either throw the romance aspects out of the window or get them over with. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'd much rather this show had no romance. It somehow feels jarring to me.

Heh. Sheer coincidence, I discovered yesterday this site  (because of the massive twitter leak) and learned that 1) I have a hongfire account (I think, maybe that's someone else with the same username) 2) it was hacked last year

I've had panic attacks a few times over the last year too. It usually comes with physical pains, slight vertigos and headaches that last days or even weeks afterwards. Not very pleasant, although it's been getting better lately. It took me a while (several months) to realize I was actually getting panic attacks and that it wasn't "normal" to freak out over what I had so I never went to see a psychiatrist though. Only pointless medical exams to check if there wasn't something wrong.
You probably know that already but be wary of what you can read on the internet. Sometimes reading other people with symptoms similar to yours help easing the anxiety, but sometimes it just makes it worse as you become persuaded you have some horrible illness and are going to die soon.

Heh. Sheer coincidence, I discovered yesterday this site  (because of the massive twitter leak) and learned that 1) I have a hongfire account (I think, maybe that's someone else with the same username) 2) it was hacked last year

Heh. Sheer coincidence, I discovered yesterday this site  (because of the massive twitter leak) and learned that 1) I have a hongfire account (I think, maybe that's someone else with the same username) 2) it was hacked last year

Sounds rad. Don't close the door behind you Rooke, I'm coming too.

Sounds rad. Don't close the door behind you Rooke, I'm coming too.

Sounds rad. Don't close the door behind you Rooke, I'm coming too.

RIP.
Let's not forget that behind the legendary boxer was a great political figure that stood for black people's rights in the US and against imperialism.
 

RIP.
Let's not forget that behind the legendary boxer was a great political figure that stood for black people's rights in the US and against imperialism.
 

RIP.
Let's not forget that behind the legendary boxer was a great political figure that stood for black people's rights in the US and against imperialism.
 

The second season of Chihayafuru does not disappoint. The continued hype this show has constantly managed to provide is straight up sugoi. So sugoi in fact that I managed to get two of my friends hooked on it as well, one of them even finished both seasons before me while I was on the first season. Feels good. 

RIP.
Let's not forget that behind the legendary boxer was a great political figure that stood for black people's rights in the US and against imperialism.
 

Dies Irae confirmed!!!!
Or maybe not.

(I'm pretty sure I had taken your 1000th or 2000th like too, not sure which one it was)
(sorry I don't have dancing skeletons gifs or w/e I'm not Fiddle)
(please excuse me for the shitposting)

Ah, the usual mistake that makes you smash your head very hard on a wall when you realize it.
羽多野 is... just her name.

Happy birthday, Fred!

I expressed my hype in a very intelligible way on twitter and didn't think it would be that interesting for fuwa fellows, but apparently it is. Which is cool.
Sakura is one of the best magical girl anime out there, nobody should hesitate on (re)watching it.

I expressed my hype in a very intelligible way on twitter and didn't think it would be that interesting for fuwa fellows, but apparently it is. Which is cool.
Sakura is one of the best magical girl anime out there, nobody should hesitate on (re)watching it.