Hello, my March lions! How are you? March is the month of mud. As the snow melts, the dirty puddles appear everywhere. Be sure to wear your muck lucks.Here's a new way to see a shuttle launch...from a plane. One of the advantages of having lots of compact recording devices, when something really cool happens, someone can record and share it.
The is a pretty wide no fly zone around shuttle launches, so this plane was pretty far away. The very end of the video look like the SRBs just burnt out. Most of the smoke and flame you see on launch come from the SRBs as the shuttles main engines emit much less smoke and flame.
Oh, and watch it in 720p, full screen mode!
Hello, my winter warriors! How are you? Snow, freeze, ice, thaw, snow, freeze, ice thaw. That’s the pattern that we’re locked into. How do we open the lock? Persevere, my dear Irregulars, persevere winter’s wrath. Though this winter fights tenaciously to keep its icy grip on our land, we know that the calendar, the sun, and the planet are on our side. Mr. Hale-bopp could explain it: it is inevitable. We’re going to warm up and nature is set to burst forth from the soil and trees once more. To paraphrase, “Damn the icicles, full speed ahead!”
I have blogged for several years now about the annual citizen science light pollution measurement campaign GLOBE at Night. The 2011 campaign takes place in two parts. The first one starts tomorrow (February 21st) and runs though Mach 6th. After March 6th the Moon interferes too much for a couple of weeks. The second campaign is from March 22nd to April 4th for the northern hemisphere (March 24th to April 6th for the southern hemisphere...investigate the positions and elevations of the Moon north and south of the equator in late March/early April to find out why the dates vary a couple of days).Okay, first, the idea is simple. Go outside after it's dark and find the constellation Orion. Find the latitude and longitude of where you are with a GPS unit or a website like Google Earth. The light pollution data consists of matching what you see in the sky to one of seven magnitude charts. Pick the one that matches what you see best and enter it into our database online. Multiple observations are encouraged from different points around town. I take bike rides at night after sunset to record data. Each night I ride a different direction and take lots of data around my area of the city AND get exercise at the same time!
For the late March campaign, you might notice Orion is getting a little low in the sky. This year we are using Leo (northern hemisphere) and Crux (southern hemisphere) for the late march campaign. Other than that, everything else is the same.
An added feature this year is the reporting page functions on mobile phones. If you use a web enabled cell phone, it will take the date, time and GPS coordinates from your cell phone to make your life even easier (the first time you use the site, you might get a message asking permission to access your phone's GPS. You will have to say yes for this feature to work).
Once you submit your data, you can go back and look at it on the map viewer. You can zoom in all the way down to street level to see your observations.
Data from GLOBE at Night can be used to raise awareness of light pollution issues. The more data you have, the more research you can do. In Tucson, GLOBE at Night data is being combined with Arizona Game and Fish Department data to look at the effects of light pollution on bats. Tucson had over 1000 points of data last year, so you need a lot of data to do this type of work, but it can be done.
We had 16,000 measurements last year, so that's a big hill to climb. The first we we did this, there was hardly any data from Racine. Last year, there were a few handfuls of data from around the area. I would love to see the number of observations keep increasing.
Just a quick note that I should have posted yesterday. The National Optical Astronomy Observatory is producing a podcast each month for the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast. Our podcasts will air on the 17th of each month. One part of my job is tracking down NOAO scientists to interview them for this project (the January episode was on the Galileoscope). The February episode was posted yesterday and features an interview with NOAO astronomer Letezia Stanghellini about her research on Buckyballs in planetary nebula, titled Buckyballs in Space. Buckyballs are unique molecules made out of pure carbon that would look like a soccer ball if you magnified them. They are very strong with a lot of unique properties and potential applications in medicine.
I am working on the March edition today...stay tuned for more!The Mercury Messenger spacecraft is just about to go into orbit in March. It's has taken years to get to this point. Messenger has already done a couple of flybys of Mercury, but it has a lot of time to kill while getting line up for its orbital insertion.
In November, Messenger turned its cameras outward to look at the other planets in the solar system. They just released the image today. Here it is.
You can see all the planets except Uranus and Neptune. The positions of where they would be are marked (sorry Pluto, you don't count in this one). Messenger is not exactly in the plane of the solar system (the ecliptic) so it had to point its camera slightly up or down to see all the planets resulting in that curved shape. If you look closely between Neptune and Mars, you can see the Milky Way!
Every time we see our solar system from a new perspective, it gives us a little better idea of our place in the universe. I just love when NASA takes the time to let their craft capture these unique images!I have been busy but want to get back into the habit of more frequent blogs again. I will kick that off by posting something I have meant to for a long time: the science and tech podcasts I listen to on a regular basis. Some of these are tech, some science, some specifically astronomy. I know there are a lot of great shows out there and I can't listen to them all so feel free to add your favorites in the comments. All of these are free subscriptions so there is no excuse not to try them if you think they look interesting!
I am putting these in alphabetical order since that's the way they display on iTunes!
Are We Alone : AWA as it is known is a weekly podcast from the SETI Institute. Seth Shostak, Molly Bentley and the gang tackle a different topic each week in a lighthearted, humorous manner, interviewing a wide variety of scientists in the process.
Astronomy Cast : Pamela Gay and Fraser Cain take you on a weekly facts based journey through the cosmos in the form of an informal conversation. If I ever go back to teaching, I would love to use this series instead of a textbook for an introductory astronomy course. Yes, it's that good.
Buzz Out Loud : BOL is a daily podcast "of indeterminate length" about developments in the tech world. Quirky, funny and informative. You will be hooked after you hear your first "Molly rant".
Geologic Podcast : Not quite a hard science/tech podcast but I think it belongs here anyway. Skeptic/musician George Hrab, well how to describe it. He can talk passionately about music, science, skepticism and any other weird thing that happens to him that week. Careful if you listen to it in the gym...I don't want anyone dropping weights on themselves from laughter!
IT Conversations : IT Convserations is a channel dedicated to information technology. I found them carrying the series Tech Nation with Dr. Moria Gunn. There is much more here as they carry talks from TED and many annual meetings including the O'Reilly Emerging Media Conference, Web 2.0, Where 2.0, Emerging Telephony and many others. I don't listen to every show in this feed because there are so many and lots of them are very technical in areas outside my areas of interest (although I imagine others would love them). Still there are a lot of gems in this feed.
Lab Out Loud : The National Science Teacher's Association podcast. Targeted at science teachers but frequently has interviews that would interest a general audience as well.
Naked Astronomy : Monthly podcast on astronomy news with typical British humor.
The Naked Scientists : Weekly science podcast with British wit (this week: What makes mucas green?)
Nature Podcast : Weekly podcast from the journal Nature, one of the big names in science journals.
Science Friday : NPR's weekly podcast with Ira Flatow that covers current science stories.
Skepticality : The official podcast of Skeptic magazine features interviews with noted skeptics and scientists.
The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe : "Your Escape to Reality" starts each show. SGU takes on pseudoscience, medical quackery, and doomsday nonsense every week. They will feel like old friends after a few weeks.
Skeptoid : Brian Dunning's short (~10 minutes) weekly podcast takes on a different topic each week. Well researched and entertaining.
This Week in Science : "The Kick Ass Science Podcast" is the tag line. They do their best to live up to it with fun and interesting conversations on the latest science news.
This Week in Tech : A long and leisurely review of the week's tech news with Leo Laporte and friends.
WNYCs Radio Lab : Radio Lab is a very well produces series that explores different topics in science. My big complaint is that they don't air episodes more frequently, but they put a lot of time and effort into each show.
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast : Originally conceived for the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, it just keeps going. Each day features about a 10 minute podcast on a different topic produced by professional and amateur astronomers from around the world. I am producing one a month for the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (we have the 17th of each month), work on the Dark Skies podcasts we produce and do some on topics of personal interest as well.
As you can tell, I listen to a lot of podcasts while running, at the gym, commuting and at home. With all the free content out there presented in different styles, there is no excuse not to be well informed (oh, and I listen to things OTHER than science podcasts as well, but that is another blog!)
Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.
Hello, my warming trendsetters! How are you? Hasn’t it been lovely to watch so much snow melt? And ugly, too, when it reveals all the dirt and debris beneath. Those huge piles of snow by the lake in Pershing Park are incredible. I drove by and almost expected to see a St. Bernard dog with a keg of brandy on patrol up there. Never in my life have I seen such accumulations of snow in Racine. We really are getting a break with the warm up to melt it, as long as flooding doesn’t occur.
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