http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress If you aren't going to care about something, may as well not care about astronomy Fri, 16 May 2008 22:41:32 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Hey, all. Please forgive me for this non-astronomy interlude. Our old friend (and Slacker Astronomy cofounder) Travis Searle has some exciting news and needs your help. His band is going to be on a local Boston reality/talent show and he needs your vote. Travis is the vocalist/keyboardist. Even if you ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/support-an-old-friend/ Special Correspondent Julie Wilbert brings us a podcast report on light pollution with members of the Minnesota Astronomical Society. Light Pollution (MP3, 17.2MB, 18:40) Subscribe! http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/podcast-light-pollution/ Stuart over at Astronomy Blog tackles and tackles again the reasons why you should not pay to "name a star" for yourself or a loved one. While it can be heartfelt to want to memorialize someone by naming a star, you can do that without sending a check to shady ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/astronomy-blog-reminds-us-dont-name-a-star/ Here is a nice video from the KQED QUEST Science Video Podcast called Amateur Astronomers. It features John Dobson, Timothy Ferris and many others. Looks like a pretty cool podcast in general. http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/amateur-astronomers-from-kqed/ I posted this to the feed a while ago. It's a short-ish podcast which discusses the history of Slacker Astronomy with Aaron Price, the founder of Slacker Astronomy, and includes random musings by yours truly about the future of the podcast/blog. I marked this explicit in iTunes because I use ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/whatever-the-hell-is-slacker-astronomy/ Our own Doug Welch wrote a very nice article in the latest issue of Sky and Telescope called "How to Hunt for Supernova Fossils in the Milky Way". I can't find a link to the article itself but S&T has a post about the article. It's really cool stuff -- an ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/doug-shows-us-the-light/ I'm taking a class on Differential Equations. These are hard to explain but I'm going to give it a try. To do so I am going to try to explain differential calculus in a nutshell. Your driving down the road in an automobile. You have an odometer in the car which ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/differential-equations/ We've had a report that our comments weren't working on this blog. I tested it and it worked OK for me. Can you please try to comment and/or email us at info@slackerastronomy.org if you have problems? Thank you! We have a new show in the works. Michael http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/please-comment/ It pains me deep in my heart that I am not on my way to the joint AAVSO/BAA meeting in Cambridge, England. I believe our good friends Doug and Pamela are both there. I have been a loyal AAVSO member for quite a few years now and I have been ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/not-in-cambridge/ We have a new show! Doug and I had a great chat with Brant Robertson, who is a Spitzer Fellow doing research at The Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics. Brant is a theoretical astrophysicist involved with computer simulations of the evolution of galaxies. Check this sh!t out: Credit: Brant Robertson, Spitzer ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/podcast-interview-with-brant-robertson/ Phil "The Bad Astronomer" Plait has a nice article on new results from Cassini. Coupled together, these two items indicate that if there is an ocean beneath the frozen crust of the moon, then it’s reasonably warm, and rich in organic compounds. We don’t know how life started on Earth, ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/enceladus-has-gas/ The folks at the Pi in the Sky project imaged a recent gamma-ray burst and it looks like it got bright enough to be seen by the unaided eye. It looks like it would have been visible for only 10-20 seconds and it would have been about as bright as ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/naked-eye-gamma-ray-burst/ This is really cool: The North Polar Region of Enceladus http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/high-rez-enceladus/ Every year, the Globe at Night project asks people around the world to get outside and observe the constellation Orion. Report your location and which of the charts best matches what you saw. This is a great slacker project. It doesn't take much time or any tools. You can do it ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/avoid-the-light-do-globe-at-night/ I've always wanted to take a shot of the moon during a total eclipse because it is the only time you can get stars in the background. Usually the moon is so bright that it drowns out all the stars. So I snapped a few photos tonight with my wife's digital ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/lunar-eclipse-2008/ I loved Merit-bound Alley's post title so much that I just stole it entirely. So you owe it to Joe over there to go read his post: Angry gods to eat moon tomorrow. And then get out and experience the eclipse tomorrow! http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/angry-gods-to-eat-moon-tomorrow/ Thomas F. Droege, founder of The Amateur Sky Survey (TASS), died on Monday, February 4th, 2008. He had been battling cancer. Tom was a unique character and TASS was a project I got involved in early in my amateur astronomy days. He was recently awarded an honorary lifetime membership to the ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/amateur-sky-survey-founder-dies/ Check out CASSIE (Cassini at Saturn Interactive Explorer). It uses some weird plugin but once installed you can zoom around the Cassini timeline and watch the view from the spacecraft. (Thanks Ben!) http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/cassini-eye-view-of-saturn/ Via Cosmic Log: Ten years after supernovae provided the first evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, a survey of more than 10,000 galaxies has provided independent confirmation that the cosmic speed-up factor known as dark energy is for real. Cosmic Log provides a very nice analysis of this press ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/the-acceleration-of-the-expansion-of-the-universe-confirmed/ The Keck Interferometer combines light very carefully from the two 10m Keck telescope to do super high resolution imaging. They can run the interferometer in "nulling" mode to remove the effects of bright stars and study the much dimmer surrounding areas. It's complicated stuff but it looks like the technique ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/keck-images-dust-around-nova-rs-oph/ NASA's Messenger spacecraft flew close by Mercury on 14 January 2008. Of course, it was taking pictures and managed to give scientists views of areas of the planet not imaged when Mariner 10 flew by in 1974 and 1975. Check out this detailed image of a pockmarked Mercury. This page ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/viewing-more-of-mercury/ The American Astronomical Society (AAS) has released the audio and video of the invited and prize lectures from their recent meeting in Austin. Furthermore, they are also making it available (eventually) via iTunes. Kevin B. Marvel, Executive Officer The AAS is now making the invited and prize lectures at each AAS ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/astronomy-talks-from-aas-online/ The BBC is reporting on an announcement from last week's AAS meeting: A giant cloud of hydrogen gas is racing towards a collision with the Milky Way, astronomers have announced. Smith's Cloud, as it is known, may set off spectacular fireworks when it smacks into our galaxy in 20-40 million years. 30 million ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/duck-huge-gas-cloud-will-hit-milky-way/ Our friends Pamela Gay and Fraser Cain from Astronomy Cast, along with astronomer/sex symbol/author Phil "The Bad Astronomer" Plait have all the latest from this week's meeting of the American Astronomical Society. My personal favorite of their reports: Hubble Sees a Double Einstein Ring http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/aas-at-astronomy-cast/ We just posted a new podcast to the feed: Slackerpedia Galactica 8.0: A Brief History of the Universe. So if you subscribe to the feed, the audio is probably already on your box. Or you can check out the show notes or download the MP3 file directly: Slackerpedia Galactica 8.0: ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/new-podcast-slackerpedia-galactica-80/ Are you on facebook? If so, you can add a new, highly-useless application which lets you view a random Slackerpedia Galactica article in facebook. I wrote this just to test out facebook's developer API, and it has been a fun little project. There is some really funny stuff in Slackerpedia Galactica ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/sg-on-facebook/ Scientists on neighboring Earth have not issued an asteroid advisory for Mars on 30 January 2008. An asteroid advisory would mean that an asteroid impact is possible within the next 100 sols. It is issued planet-wide because an impact may have planetary effects. However, the Torino Impact Hazard Scale seems ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/asteroid-advisory-not-issued-for-mars/ In the beginning t equaled zero seconds (t=0). A Big Bang-like thing happened and the universe began expanding. It was very hot and very dense cold and empty[1]. The universe expanded exponentially in a period known as inflation. Inflation ended around t=0.000000000000000000000000000000001 seconds.The universe was so hot that everything was ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/a-brief-history-of-the-universe/ The Podfather Adam Curry mentioned us and a few other science podcasts in PodFinder Episode 32 :She Blinded Me With Science Podcasts. Thanks Adam! http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/podfinder-she-blinded-me-with-science-podcasts-2/ Well, we pulled our heads out of our slacker haze and managed to post a new podcast on the feed! It's a First Principles® episode about stars. First Principles 4.0 - Inside Stars (MP3 file, 26.7MB, 28:24) http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/first-principles-40-inside-stars/ The BBC is reporting that Science is reporting that scientists are reporting that:Black holes are the most likely source of the mysterious ultra high-energy cosmic rays that bombard the planet... Observations at the world's largest cosmic ray detector suggest the particles are emitted by huge black holes in the middle ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/black-holes-rays/ A nice time series of Comet Holmes from a fellow member of the Minnesota Astronomical Society. http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/the-comet-is-growing/ Where's the comet? Right here. http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/orbit/ The folks over at space.com are reporting on a comet that has brightened ridiculously and is now visible to the unaided eye. Comet Holmes...was no brighter than magnitude 17 in mid-October...But the comet's brightness has suddenly rocketed all the way up to 3rd-magnitude, brightening nearly 400,000-times in less than 24-hours! ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/naked-eye-comet/ Education and public outreach (EPO) is very important. If it interests you, you may want to check out the new issue of Astronomy Education Review, which describes itself as "a lively electronic compendium of research, news, resources and opinion". One article that looks interesting is entitled Teaching Scientific Logic: Theories ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/speaking-of-epo/ I've had a paper accepted for publication in the December, 2007 issue of PASP, a top tier astronomy journal. You can read it here. (Notice a fellow slackerpede in the coauthor list.) This is only my second primary authored paper in a major astronomy journal. My others have all been in ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/publishing/ I am taking a cosmology course, which explains my recent (and probably upcoming) posts on cosmology. One thing people ask often is whether cosmology is metaphysics or philosophy more so than a science. It is hard for people to comprehend that we can test our theories in cosmology even though ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/physical-cosmology/ Until I saw the movie "October Sky," I hadn't realized that people went out and saw Sputnik fly overhead 50 years ago. Now, we can watch the International Space Station (ISS) and a wide variety of artificial satellites fly by. I've taken pictures of the ISS and Space Shuttle flying side-by-side. ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/spotting-the-space-station/ "Dark energy" is the phrase we use to describe an observed phenomena. That phenomena is the acceleration of the expansion of the universe. Wikipedia explains: In 1998 observations of Type Ia supernovae suggested that the expansion of the universe is speeding up. In the past few years, these observations have been ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/dark-energy/ Check out these amazing photos of the recent space shuttle mission. http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/wow/ We recently passed the 50 year anniversary of Sputnik. The fact that we (the human race) were able to get an artificial satellite orbiting the planet represented a major leap forward. You need to understand physics and harness a lot of energy in just the right way to get out ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/a-question-of-design/ Continuing the where is theme... I am not gone, but graduate school has taken over my life. I had a ton of nice SA goals for the summer but almost none were accomplished thanks to the unexpected demand of graduate research during the summer (I foolishly thought I'd have summer ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/where-is-aaron/ The forums haven't gone anywhere -- they are right here, from which I quote: We are going to decommission this discussion area. We are doing it for a few reasons. One, there just isn't that much activity here and we don't really use it for much on an official basis. Two, ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/where-are-the-forums/ We've gotten some emails from over the pond due to a Slacker Astronomy mention over at the BBC. Webscape author Kate Russell writes: What makes this site such a good watch, or listen, or read, is that as well as being jokey and enthusiastic, there is a real depth of knowledge. Thanks, ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/welcome-brits/ A while back I wrote a post about energy. Here's another example of energy that I think is interesting. When you take an automobile which is initially at rest and get it going 55 miles per hour, it gains kinetic energy. KE = (1/2)mv^2. So a car that weighs 2000 lbs. ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/energy-part-2/ The BBC reports: Dark matter clues in oldest stars: "In cold dark matter the particles move very slowly; in warm dark matter they move very quickly," he explained. "We found that if the dark matter consists of these fast moving particles, then the first stars form in very long, thin filaments...Some of ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/strings-of-stars/ Finally, another exciting podcast installment from the slackers! This episode features chit-chat with Travis, Doug and Michael and an interview with Timothy Ferris. Listen now (MP3, 48:06, 33.2 MB) The show notes are on the Slackerpedia Galactica. http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/interview-timothy-ferris/ I've been playing with the look and organization of the blog a bit. Please let me know what you think! It's a bit of a work in progress but some attention has been long overdue. And really, in all seriousness, we truly do have a new show almost all set to ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/new-look/ Don't forget to watch Seeing in the Dark on PBS on September 19th, 2007. If you missed it, get it on DVD, hopefully in HD. I was lucky enough to be part of this, so I am biased, but I think it is very well done. The photography is beautiful, the ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/set-your-tivo-seeing-in-the-dark/ I posted this on the feed but for you outsiders who don't subscribe to the RSS, here is a little video I made while out at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (mp4, 2:51, 18.9MB). I was getting spectra of a mysterious star we are studying and also managed to grab some ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/dao-visit-video/ Hey, astro-dorks. Sorry for the slow pace lately. We are working on some new shows, I promise! In the meantime, I'm out at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory doing some observing. If you are a famous astronomer like Dr. Doug Welch, this kind of observing run is pretty unexciting. I mean, ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/observatory-blogging/ We moved the Slacker site to a new server. Please let us know about any problems by email or posts in the forums. http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/site-move/ I'll be blogging from the bioastronomy 2007 conference in Puerto Rico this week. Update #2 here Update #1 here Greetings from Puerto Rico! I'll try to keep a daily blog of activities and news from Bioastronomy 2007, one of two (usually) semi-annual meetings in the world of astrobiology. It officially runs from July 15 ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/bioastronomy-2007-2/ I never would have thought it possible. A funny comic and physics, pi, and e. http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/306/ Ben always finds cool stuff and I'm on some email list that he is on and as a result I get emails of interesting stuff! Here is a little roundup of interesting stuff from Ben: Launch date for Hubble repair set Astronomy software index Tvashtar in Motion ISS through an amateur telescope Winter 2007 issue ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/tidbits-from-ben/ Apple has launched a new program iTunes University. Right now there are slim pickins among the schools and courses offered. But among those available are the first and second semester astronomy courses at Berkeley. I haven't listened to them yet so can't vouch for them. But you can find them ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/itunes-u/ It's been on the feed and now it's on the tubes: check out Slackerpedia Galactica 6.0. Astronomy, without the boring stuff. http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/slackerpedia-galactica-v60/ I spent last week at the Kavli Insititute For Cosmological Physics in Chicago. I recorded nine interviews with experts in cosmology, including Dr. Michael Turner and nobel laureate Dr. Jim Cronin. We also held a Second Life talk, blogged and recorded video for two upcoming video podcasts. Click here for details, ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/cosmo-101010101010101/ http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/300/ It's online. Show notes here http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/sg-50/ As if Phil Plait didn't have enough to do, he's kick-starting AstronomyBuzz, a social networking site for astronomy. It allows you to share, comment on and vote on videos, photos, stories and links. Like a mini-Digg but for astronomy. Kind of cool, check it out! http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/whats-the-buzz/ If you are even moderately interested in astronomy you've heard about the latest discovery of a near-Earth-sized planet. Our buddy The Bad Astronomer lays it out very nicely for us. The image at right shows the gravitational effect of each of the 3 planets on the star of this system. The ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/a-star-wiggles-thrice/ Nothing more here. :) http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/bad-transcripts/ ESA's Venus Express is orbiting Venus as we speak and getting some cool data and taking some cool pictures. Venus Express was launched on 9 November 2005 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on board a Starsem Soyuz-Fregat rocket. It reached Venus about five months later, on 11 April 2006, when ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/venus-express/ We have two new Second Life chats lined up for April! Join us for very informal cafe scientifique-style chit-chats. These are not formal talks, so anything goes! Saturday, April 21 at 7pm EST (23UT/16SLT) NASA CoLab Dr. Phil Plait, as if he needs an introduction. Pshaw. Dr. Plait will bring his skeptical mind and ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/new-series-of-second-life-chats/ We have a new first principles and two new skits about McNaughty and Titan. Show Notes are here. Discuss in the forums here. http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/first-principles-2-mass-stuff/ This is a way cool movie showing a solar eclipse from a unique vantage point. From the press release: The purpose of the experiment was to measure the 'dark current' of STEREO-B's CCD detectors. The idea is familiar to amateur astronomers: Point your telescope at something black and see how much ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/a-solar-eclipse-in-stereo/ (Mea culpa: Sorry we've been so quiet lately. Travis and Rebekah were put in charge of the process of moving the AAVSO HQ - where they work, over the last month. A tough and thankless task. And over Christmas break, I was telling ppl that I loved my first semester ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/keeping-the-pr-machine-happy/ Here is a Slackerpedia Galactica special episode in which we introduce a new little segment dealie called First Principles. It will be a semi-regular segment in the podcasts and we will discuss the basics of topics from stars to statistics and cosmology to F=ma. In this segment we discuss astronomers: who ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/first-principles-10-astronomers/ My favorite quote: "...diapers, which Nowak told police she used so she wouldn't have to stop on the drive." Discuss here in our forums. http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/astronauts-gone-wild/ Fun with the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal... (link, YouTube, Discuss) Thanks to Lunarover for bringing it to our attention in the Apollo entry for Slackerpedia Galactica. http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/the-moon-is-a-trip/ 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. http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/time-lapse-cosmos/ 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 ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/get-a-second-life/ 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. ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/hot-astronomers-of/ 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 ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/aas-closing-thoughts/ 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 ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/blogging-from-the-209th-american-astronomical-society-meeting/ 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 ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/neil-degrasse-tyson/ 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.  http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/optical-seti-oak-ridge-observatory/ You can watch Ribert and Robert's Wonderland episode about Space via this link to Google Video. http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/ribert-roberts-wonderland/ Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team and NASA/JPL/CICLOPS The dorks over at CICLOPS (Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations) have released a bunch of cool pictures of Saturn. There's been a lot of talk about Pluto lately but let's face it: Saturn is the coolest planet. http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/saturn-up-close-and-personal/ Someone on the LiveJournal Astronomy Community noticed that the McDonald's Happy Meal has a space theme to it this week. There just happens to be a McDonalds within eye sight of where I wait to pick up my wife from work. So instead of spending those 15 minutes in a ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/micky-ds-2nd-law-of-gravity/ Today is the 10th anniversary of Carl Sagan's death. As ordered by the Carl Sagan Memorial Blogathon, we should be writing something about his death. Unfortunately, a very bad cold virus has me in a Benadryl Haze, so it's hard to write coherently. I should say, harder to write coherently, ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/carl-sagan-blogathon/ Greetings from the Kitt Peak 4m where my grad student and I are using the Mosaic CCD imager to try to locate historical supernova light echoes in our own galaxy! They have a great visitor center here and one of the things I have learned about is their "Advanced Observing ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/the-gift-of-infinity/ If you tried to register for the forum over the last couple of months and never received e-mail confirmation, please register again. We found and fixed the bug that caused the confirmation to not be sent to some people. Click here to register. Hope to see you in the forums! ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/forum-registration-fixed/ Here is the 2nd part of a 3-part series where we ask people questions. The first question was: should Pluto be a planet? This question is: are there extra-terrestrials? The answer seems to be an overwhelming "yes". Watch it now! (6meg MP4 video file) Most of the people interviewed were attending ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/3-questions-question-2-are-there-extra-terrestrials/ Our friend, Phil Plait, is running a close second in the Weblog Awards for best science blog. Take a moment, vote and help put him over the top! A forum discussion here. http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/vote-for-the-bad-astronomer/ Join us in Second Life for tonight's shuttle launch! http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/shuttle-launch/ Apparently researchers are inferring that there is water on Mars from recent photographs. The news seems to be just coming out now. It looks to me like NASA is trying to be sensational again. http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/water-on-mars/ In this show we cover stories of astronomical predictions: the good, bad and why it's easier to be the former than the latter. We also have an interview with Ryan Wyatt, a science visualizer at the American Museum of Natural History who talks about what goes on behind the scenes ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/sg-40-fairy-tales-of-predictions/ All astronomers - professional, amateur, armchair or otherwise, have a point in their life where they "got it". It's kinda like the eureka moment of the inventor, minus the dollar signs over the eyeballs and the cash register KA-CHING! in the background. (In fact, that "got it", usually portends a ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/keep-looking-up/ In this video, Rebekah and Travis tell the story of one of the strangest and newest stars in the sky: V838 Mon. Download the video via the podcast feed or view it view the Show Notes. Thanks to Stuart Lowe at the Astronomy Blog for the V838 Mon animation. Show notes and ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/the-story-of-v838-mon/ Here is the 1st part of a 3-part series where we ask people questions. The first question is: should Pluto be a planet? The answer, according to these 11 people, is yes. 6 out of 11 said yes (with one abstention). It shows how contentious this issue is. Watch it now! ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/3-questions-question-1-should-pluto-be-a-planet/ http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/stellar-worlds-6/ The recent shift in the U.S. electoral landscape is likely to have many effects on astronomy. This is mainly due to the fact that the vast majority of astronomical projects are funded either directly or indirectly by public money. Directly this is mostly through NASA and the National Science Foundation ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/the-tea-leaves/ Hey, all. The Slackerpedia Galatica is coming along great. In fact, it's far better than I could have hoped. We owe a lot of thanks to a ton of people. This is turning into a really fun guide. A few updates: 1. Thanks to Luke Hayes for the new logos. And ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/state-of-the-wiki/ I've been an amateur astronomer for a long time but I had never heard the word "polytrope" before. It turns out it is an important concept in stellar astrophysics. It also, in a round about way, brings me back to my first job at a recording studio. In 1988 I graduated ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/polytropes-and-recording-studios/ Things are starting to gel with the new show. Rebekah is back so we have two old-school skits on V838 Mon's light echo and whether it was caused by a planet engulfing event. And we have another skit about a cool meteorite discovered in Kansas using a novel approach that ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/sg-30-planet-eating-light-echos-and-unicorns/ Begin forwarded message: From: Dr. Albert Holm (Space Telescope Science Institute) Date: October 31, 2006 10:08:46 AM CST To: AAVSO Discussion group Subject: [AAVSO-DIS] Hubble Space Telescope servicing decision I am happy to say that NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has just announced that a Shuttle will be used to service the Hubble. The plan is ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/yay-hubble-to-be-fixed/ This three half-hour collector's set of MP3s allows you to vicariously live out your dream of being present at a Cafe Scientifique. Ralph Pudritz and Doug Welch of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada were the presenters. This informal, discussed-oriented ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/cafe-scientifique-on-planetary-systems-and-extraterrestrial-life/ I posted a little video on my observatory blog showing some "behind the scenes" stuff of the making of a little segment for an upcoming PBS documentary called "Seeing In The Dark". The documentary, which probably won't be out for another year, features a bunch of amateur astronomers, including visual observers, ... http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/archive/behind-the-scenes/