Time Lapse Cosmos

Check out http://www.cosmotions.com/ for some really cool time-lapse movies of the cosmos. I’ve always wanted to try this but this person has really done a good job with it.

Get A Second Life

These will be different than your standard scientific talks. We are doing them in the Cafe Scientifique style, meaning the guest will begin with only a few words on their subject. Then the discussion will be open for everyone to throw in questions, give their own ideas, etc. The idea is for a more fun, informal style chat as opposed to a formal lecture.

First Talk: Saturday, Feb. 3, 2007 @ 20UT (3pm EST)
At the Slacker Astronomy Planetarium (Carmine 122, 6, 180 - a PG area, safe for kids)

Dr. Stuart Lowe of Jodrell Bank Observatory in England. He is also the author of the AstronomyBlog and a producer of the JodCast podcast. He received a PhD in astronomy in 2005 and is currently a Research Associate working on ESA’s Planck spacecraft. He’ll be there to answer any and all questions you have on radio astronomy.

Second Talk: Monday, Feb. 5, 2007 @ 02UT (9pm EST)
At the International Spaceflight Museum (Spaceport Alpha - also a PG area)
Dr. Doug Welch is well known to SG listeners. Read his profile here at the Slackerpedia Galactica wiki.

What is Second Life?
SL is an online virtual community. It’s like Everquest and World of Warcraft, except that it isn’t a “game”, has no fighting and the users create the world. It runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Being a user is free. You only need to pay if you want to buy land or other bells and whistles. Visit www.secondlife.com for more info and to sign up.

A group of us have starting to build a planetarium there. I bought some land and donated it to the Slacker Astronomy “group”. If you have an SL account, join our group to hang out or to help build on the land. It is located at: Carmine 122, 7,180
At the planetarium you can listen to our latest audio show or watch the latest video show. It is a gathering place for SA producers/listeners/viewers to hang out. For example, we’ll try to congregate here during important mission launches/landings, etc. One day we’ll try to host a live SG recording here.
The planetarium is owned by all. So feel free to make your own contributions to it. Once it is done, we’ll begin work on the Cathedral of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which we’ll try to build next door.

Two screen shots of the SA home:

For Current Second Life Members
Aaron’s name is: Slacker Speedwell
Michael’s name is: Slacker Cleanslate
Feel free to add us as “friends” when you login and then join the Slacker Astronomy group.

If you build any object on the land please be sure to make it group modifiable so that others can move it if needed. You can do this in the “built/edit” tool.

Click here to participate in our Second Life thread in the forums.

Hot Astronomers [OF]

In search of hot astronomers at the AAS meeting…(direct link or via YouTube)

Hosts: Michael and Tanya
Camera and editing: Travis

Special shout out to special correspondent Tanya for helping us with this serious and important mission.

This was recorded at the 209th meeting of the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, WA. Michael, Tanya and Travis wandered the main poster hall looking for hot astronomers asking the question of the day: do looks hurt or hinder a career in a geek field?

Meanwhile, Aaron and Doug were stuck wondering: how did we miss out on this sweet gig?!?

Discuss in the forums here.

AAS Closing Thoughts

You’ve probably heard enough about AAS for now, but besides all of the interesting astronomy and science that goes on, the real point of meetings like AAS are for making connections with people. You see people all over the place at the meeting — huddled in pairs over plots of data, making jokes over lunch, grabbing old friends as they walk by. The fun stuff is not tacked to the poster boards or delivered orally at special sessions, its in the hall ways, the hotel lobbies and the pubs.

The sheer volume of science is overwhelming, like a huge buffet with much more than you could ever eat. You have to fill your plate carefully. But the people stuff, the conversations and connections with the varied personalities in astronomy, there you can eat your fill.

It was a hell of a lot of fun to cover the AAS meeting with my fellow slackers, Aaron, Travis and Doug. Special thanks, too, to our guests, Ryan, Tanya and many others who graced our microphones and video cameras.

Still more to come from our vast archives of material from the meeting. Thanks for tuning in.

-Michael

Blogging From the 209th American Astronomical Society Meeting

For the first time in history, the full crew will be at the same spot at the same time. Is that like joining matter and antimatter and will they mutually annihilate? Does 5 slacker astronomers = 1 regular astronomer? If an astronomer falls in the forest, when will their calculator’s batteries run out?

For answers to all of life’s conundrums and more, check out the blog which all members will be updating each day, throughout the day, January 6-12 for the latest in astro news, discoveries and gossip.

In addition, we expect to be posting both video and audio shows to the main feeds. So stay tuned to your podcast client too. Discuss and ask questions via this thread in the forums. We’ll do our best to keep up.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

As posted over on our AAS blog, we did a quick interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson at the meeting (click here). He is a very smart and very funny guy and he was very kind to give us a few minutes of his time. I wouldn’t say he was mobbed at the meeting, per se, but I didn’t see him alone the whole time.

Neil deGrasse Tyson interview (MP4, 25.3M, 4:18)

YouTube version. 

Optical SETI @ Oak Ridge Observatory

We have a brief tour of the Optical SETI telescope at Oak Ridge Observatory. Get it on the feed or via this YouTube link.

Discuss via this thread in the forums.