logo.jpg
  spacewriter.com logo

The SpaceWriter's Ramblings

  logo.jpg
icon1.gif icon2.gif icon3.gif icon4.gif icon5.gif icon6.gif icon1.gif icon2.gif icon3.gif icon4.gif icon5.gif icon6.gif icon1.gif icon2.gif icon3.gif icon4.gif icon5.gif icon6.gif

Anything and everything about science, especially astronomy and the cosmos.

NOTE: This blog has migrated to a new address. Please update your favorites link accordingly.



Visit my web site at
TheSpaceWriter.com
for astronomy info, stargazing thoughts, and reviews and recommendations for astronomy-related goodies!




Posting times are
US Eastern Standard Time.
All postings Copyright 2003-2008
C.C. Petersen

Powered by
Blogger

Archives


Feeds



Subscribe in a reader

icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif

ABOUT ME

I'm a science writer and editor. I work with clients in the observatory and planetarium community, as well as my own book, web, planetarium, and other projects.

Need a writer/editor? Visit my services page for my projects and availability.


icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif

Fulldomers!

Seasonal stargazing shows in digital fulldomevideo!
Now available from Loch Ness Productions.


icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif

Shopping
Support This Site

Looking for a great gift for someone special?

Visit
THE SPACEWRITER'S GIFT SHOP
(at Amazon.com).


icon1.gif icon1.gif

Cool astronomy-themed t-shirts created by TheSpacewriter at TheSpacewriter's Cafepress Shop.

Support This Site


icon1.gif icon1.gif

Like space music?

Check out the latest Geodesium album:


icon1.gif icon1.gif


In Association with Amazon.com

A great place to shop online


icon1.gif icon1.gif

MY LAST BOOK



Info about Visions of the Cosmos



Note: The ads you see below and at the bottom of this page are screened for content and many fine companies do appear here. Occasionally ads I don't want DO slip through, particularly for pseudo-science, st*r-naming, ID, and other questionable sites. Please understand that I cannot be held responsible for their content. Do visit them if you wish, but as with all advertising, be logical and use common sense.






Credits

Graphics and design by Ann Stretton © 2001 at
Ann-S-Thesia
Dingbat Fonts:The Dingbatcave
Fine Art:Eyebalm



About the ads here


6.30.2005


Hot Off The Press:
Live Feed of Deep Impact Event



I was browsing through the many press releases I get each day and found this one to share. Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona will be offering a live feed of the Deep Impact on the internet. Read on for details.

June 30, 2005

KITT PEAK VISITOR CENTER TO PROVIDE LIVE IMAGES OF COMET IMPACT

How can you watch the planned first-of-its-kind collision between a comet and a spacecraft from Earth this weekend, even if your night skies do not allow a direct view?

The Visitor Center at Kitt Peak National Observatory plans to offer a live feed of the encounter between NASA's Deep Impact mission and Comet Tempel 1 starting this Sunday night (local time), running about an hour before the planned 10:52 p.m. PDT impact though about 45 minutes afterward. The feed will consist of still images of the distant comet, and a frequently updated movie assembled from the individual frames. Each frame will consist of a 30-second exposure taken with an electronic CCD imager attached to the 20-inch Ritchey-Chretien telescope in the Kitt Peak Visitor Center observatory.

The comet feed from Kitt Peak will be available on the Internet here.

"Weather and technical gremlins permitting, we intend to post an image about every 45 seconds, and to update the digital movie every few minutes," said Douglas Isbell, assistant director for public affairs and educational outreach for the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson, AZ, the parent organization of Kitt Peak National Observatory. "This rate of imagery should match up well with the predicted gradual change in the brightness of the comet's surrounding cloud of dust and gas."

The live feed will be generated by synchronized computer teamwork between Kitt Peak Public Outreach Lead Observer Adam Block and NOAO Web Designer Mark Newhouse.

The main Deep Impact spacecraft will witness the effects of the collision between the comet and a copper-laden impactor probe released earlier from the spacecraft from as close as 310 miles, but ground-based telescopes are considerably farther away. "Unfortunately, with the comet being 83 million miles from Earth, its nucleus is essentially a bright single point in the image, so we won't have the ability to see the fresh crater that Deep Impact is expected to gouge out of the comet."

As with most major ground-based astronomical observatories, including NOAO's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, all of the major National Science Foundation research telescopes on Kitt Peak are observing comet Tempel 1 for several nights before and after the planned Deep Impact event. By the night of July 8, Kitt Peak National Observatory telescopes will have been used for 43 nights in 2005 in support of scientific analysis of the planned comet impact.

This work is described in a previous NOAO press release.

These research observations will be augmented by a special public program on Kitt Peak for 50 people during the night of the event, which is sold out.

For more information about Deep Impact, visit the mission's Web sites at: Deep Impact at University of Maryland and NASA's Deep Impact site.

posted by CCP on 6/30/2005 10:55:00 AM | * |

icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif


6.24.2005


More Whackery



Speaking of exercisin' the ol' B.S. detector, I have a question. Why is it that space missions seem to draw the whack jobs out of the woodwork? There's a guy suing NASA over the upcoming Deep Impact mission because he claims that he owns it and NASA didn't ask permission to ram a spacecraft into it. A woman in Russia (an astrologer) claims that the impact will mess up her cosmic emanations or vibes or some such rubbish.

I often wonder just exactly who failed these people? Their teachers? Their parents? The system? That would be a convenient excuse to explain why some people just cannot figure out that science is science and rubbish is rubbish, and that no matter how lovely the rubbish looks, how nice it smells, how delicious it is, it's still rubbish. A friend of mine calls it Intellectual P*rnography and explains its appeal this way:"you know it's naughty, you know it really doesn't reflect real life, yet you read it anyway."

Still, there ARE always people ascribing ownership of comets, or rewriting the laws of physics to suit their favorite religious belief, or coming up with new laws of physics based on alien invasions. They sincerely believe (or more likely are motivated by the prospects of reaping vast sums of money for idiocy) that what they believe about comets and asteroids and NASA missions is "science" or "scientific thought" when it's really just ignorance, hucksterism, and chutzpah. Yet, their ideas are all part of the "crossroads of ideas" we live in. They serve as fine examples of illogic and unscientific methods. It's up to us to learn which ideas merit serious consideration and which ones are best left to idiots who show us how silly they are when they are ignorant.

posted by CCP on 6/24/2005 09:53:00 AM | * |

icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif


6.19.2005


Communication



I'm sitting here in Munich's airport waiting for my flight back to the U.S. and thinking about the wonderful time I've had this past week at the European Southern Observatory's sponsored meeting "Communicating Astronomy With the Public." It brought together 120 or so scientists, writers, animators, and others to discuss how science communication in our discipline of astronomy is going, how it can be improved, and what some future trends are going to be.

Rather than try to summarize all the really great stuff, I'm going to send you to the website for the meeting, which has video captures of all our presentations (I talked about planetariums and their role in communicating astronomy), plus copies of most of the powerpoint presentations given in the meeting. You can see the program with links to the talks, video sessions, and powerpoints at the CAP programme page.

I found the meeting to be really helpful, had a chance to get together with many old friends, and some of my clients; as well, it was fun to meet some new folks and swap ideas!

posted by CCP on 6/19/2005 07:09:00 AM | * |

icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif


6.11.2005


What's In A Name? Caveat Emptor.



I just got the Nth spam message this week telling me how it exciting it is that I can now "officially" name a star for my dad for Father's Day. Not only am I NOT excited about it, I'm pretty tired of watching these companies preying on people's gullibility about how stars are named. There are several who advertise, using all kinds of careful language that implies you can name a star for a loved one, without actually coming right out and saying that the star names they're charging you for will NOT EVER be used by astronomers. You have to ask yourself, "If it's so easy to name a star that some company can convince people to pay THEM for the privilege of doing so, then why can't I just go out and name a star myself without paying them?"

The truth is — you can. Here's how: go out some night and pick out a star and name it for your loved one. Then, go over to an office supply star and find one of those fancy certificates and fill it in with your loved one's name and some great language that says you love them more than the moon and stars and to prove it, you've reserved a star in the sky that only you and they will know about. While you're at it, go over to the bookstore and get a star chart book like those I've reviewed here—like NightWatch or Exploring the Night Sky With Binoculars or The Stars: A New Way to See Them. Armed with your star book and your certificate, take your loved one out on a clear night, and show them the star you selected for them, and together learn about it. You'll be way ahead of the game, you will have spent less money, and you'll still have the same love and gratitude you would have had if you'd bought something from one of the many star-naming companies that have built a thriving cottage industry on selling you something you can do for yourself without their "help."

I should point out that some museums and planetariums will sell you a star off their domes for purposes of fund-raising. It's a clever fundraising technique and they are generally very honest about the fact that you're essentially getting a star on the dome as a kind of unique "donor plaque." Those ARE NOT the kinds of "star naming" sales I'm talking about here.

For the real lowdown on official star-naming, go to the International Astronomical Union, the organization of astronomers who keep track of celestial names.

Here are a few other links that talk about naming stars:

Jim Kaler's Star of the Week website; the Space.com website; the Buying a Star FAQ from the sci.astro.amateur newsgroup; Cecil Adams's Straight Dope" column about star-naming; and finally from the International Planetarium Society, IPS Official Statement on Star Naming.

Read all this, and if you still want to go ahead and buy a star name from some company, at least you'll be informed that what you're buying is a novelty, with no official standing in the world of astronomy.

Or, try it my way, and give the gift of a star from your heart, without the middleman.

posted by CCP on 6/11/2005 12:00:00 PM | * |

icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif


6.05.2005


A Hypernova Sponsor



We go to a number of planetarium conferences every year, and like most folks who work in the planetarium business selling things to other colleagues, we get hit up for "donations" to help support the costs of conferences. Frequently we're given a choice of ways to donate money, and they're given cute names like "Nova" sponsors or "supernova" sponsors. Recently we've been seeing the term "Hypernova" for a sponsor who gives some huge amount of money (like around $5,000 or $10,000). I guess these are perceived as hierarchies, much as silver, gold, and platinum are used commonly to describe credit cards with higher and higher amounts.

It's not quite the same kind of hierarchy as stellar explosions though. While a nova might be perceived as the "weakest" of the mighty outbursts that flow from stars, and a supernova is a strong one, with a hypernova being a really strong one, these terms really refer to distinctly different types of stellar explosions.

According to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory online dictionary of astronomy terms, a nova is a star that abruptly increases in brightness by a factor of a million. A nova is caused in a binary star system where hydrogen-rich material is transferred to the surface of a white dwarf until sufficient material and temperatures exist to kindle explosive nuclear fusion.

Skip down to supernova, and you get this: an extremely violent explosion of a star many times more massive than our Sun. During this explosion, the star may become as bright as all the other stars in a galaxy combined, and in which a great deal of matter is thrown off into space at high velocity and high energy. The remnant of these massive stars collapse into either a neutron star or a black hole.

There isn't a definition for hypernova yet, because astronomers are still trying to figure out the precise conditions that would lead us to call a super-supernova explosion a "hypernova."

Which brings me to a very cool announcement this week from a consortium of researchers in Europe, the U.S. and Japan, linking hypernovas to gamma-ray bursts. Here's the scoop, as told by the National Observatory of Japan's Subaru Telescope:

    An international research team, led by astronomers from the University of Tokyo, Hiroshima University, and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, used the Subaru telescope to obtain the spectrum of SN2003jd, a hypernova unaccompanied by a gamma-ray burst, and found the first evidence that it is a jet-like explosion viewed off-axis. Hypernovae are hyper-energetic Supernovae that are often associated with gamma-ray bursts. This result provides clear and firm evidence that all Hypernovae may be associated with gamma-ray bursts, but that gamma-ray bursts are observable only when jets produced by the hypernova explosion point towards Earth.


There's more information at their web site, explaining the rationale behind the research.

All that being said, I find it amusing that a donor giving massive amounts of money is named after a stellar phenomenon that is so energetic, but yet is also can be so destructive and mysterious.

posted by CCP on 6/05/2005 01:16:00 PM | * |

icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif


6.01.2005


Critical Thinking



I spent much of yesterday on a flight from New York to Los Angeles. As usual, on a crowded flight, it's impossible NOT to hear conversations when people are trying to yell over aircraft noise. Before I put on my noise-cancelling headphones and tried to catch a quick catnap, I heard the following from the seats behind me:

Person 1: "I was reading about this Intelligent Design stuff in the New Yorker. It seems like a pretty solid theory but they won't let it be taught in the classrooms and that's not right."

Person 2: "It's not science though."

Person 1: "Why not?"

Person 2: "There's no scientific evidence to back it up. I was reading this article in the paper. Even the people who are pushing it don't agree on some of the things they want the public to know."

The conversation went on for a while, morphing into a discussion of current politics in the United States. I put my headphones on and went to sleep. But the whole thing got me to thinking that perhaps what we really need in our science classrooms is more emphasis on critical thinking, of helping students (and maybe society in general) develop better B.S. detectors.

There's a difference between theory and hypothesis, but to hear proponents of such ideas as Intelligent Design and Creationists tell it, the two words mean the same. This is because both camps have put forth hypotheses about the origin of everything in the universe. Fine. In science, when we have a hypothesis, we then devise tests that provide data to either prove or disprove the hypothesis. Now let's do some tests to prove or disprove those hypotheses. Otherwise, conflating "hypothesis" with "theory" is NOT critical thinking, nor is it intellectually honest.

Some food for thought:

Here's the Dictionary.com definition for "hypothesis."

Here's the Dictionary.com definition for "theory."

Of the two, the word "hypothesis" fits the ideas that the IDers and Creationists want to teach. But they are NOT theories, specifically because there is no data to support the central tenet of each set of hypotheses: i.e., that there's some creator out there flinging universes together on some timeline known only to itself.

I'm of two minds about whether this stuff should be taught in schools. Perhaps it should. But I don't think it has a place in the science classroom for two reasons: there's not enough time to teach honest, true science, let alone wasting time on hypotheses that have more to do with religion and culture; and two, we don't teach science in comparative religion and other such classes.

On the other hand, a good, honest, dispassionate application of the scientific method to these hypotheses is exactly what science does best. So, therein lies the central dilemma.

No matter where this stuff is taught, it should all be subjected to the same rigid tests that true science and critical thought require. To do otherwise is to admit intellectual laziness. And such an admission in the name of a religion or belief system does little FOR such beliefs and systems, other than to set their adherents up as less than intellectually honest in their intentions, something that I (brought up in a religious family I was) was taught would be a waste of the intelligence and reasoning faculties we were born with.

posted by CCP on 6/01/2005 11:34:00 AM | * |

icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif icon1.gif









icon1.gif icon1.gif

Earth Hour!

Do it for the Planet!

icon1.gif icon1.gif

Blog Roll

Planetarium-related

Loch Ness Productions
Purveyors of fine planetarium shows, music, and services.

INTENSELY Good Space Music
from a master in the genre!

My cool astronomy cause:
The Friends of the Griffith Observatory.
Join up today!

Science

The sites below belong to space and astronomy enthusiasts. I make every effort to check them and make sure they are still appropriate. However, I am not responsible for their content, nor do I endorse any of it by simply linking to them. As with all Web surfing, please exercise caution.


Adot's Notblog
A fellow traveler blogger and astronomy enthusiast!

Astronomy Blog
An astronomy blog pondering the big questions

Astronomy Cast
Astronomy Podcasting from Pamela Gay

BadAstronomy.com
Bad astronomy discussed and debunked along with fun stuff about really good astronomy!

Chris Lintott's Universe
Musings from an Oxford Astronomer.

Cosmic Variance
Random Samplings from a Universe of Ideas.

Dave P's Astronomy blog
Observational Astronomy and other TidBits

European Southern Observatory
Fine Ground-based astronomy images.

Gemini Observatory
Fine astronomy in infrared and visible wavelengths.

Griffith Observatory's page.
I wrote their exhibits!

Observing The Sky
Nightly Observation Reports from dedicated skygazers.

The Official String Theory Web Site. Time to feed your mind!

Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal. Cast off your blinders and come on in!

Science Made Cool
A compendium of discoveries, inventions and commentary.

Slacker Astronomy
Astronomy with a Slacker Twist.

Space Telescope Science Institute
The best from Hubble Space Telescope

The Eternal Golden Braid
Astronomy, Space Science, and Science Fiction Commentary.

The Inoculated Mind
Bills Itself as a weekly science mindcast. Thought-provoking, honest.


Truth.

Unique

The Hairy Museum of Natural History
Defies description. Just go there (yes, it's safe for work).

Olduvai George
Absolutely fantastic natural history illustrations from a master.



News

The Agonist
News and Commentary

EurekAlert
Breaking Science News

National Public Radio
The Original Fair and Balanced

Slashdot.org
Like it says: News for Nerds


Shopping, Internet Stuff, and Web Guides

The Blog Search Engine Searching out the Blogoverse.

Blogwise.com
A blogger's listing service

Google
Best search engine

A blogger's listing service

Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com

The Truth Laid Bare Listings in the Blogosphere.


Links to My Site
Alternate Reality
An awful waste of space
Asa Dotzler - Firefox and more
A Song of November
Astroprof's Page
Astronomy Blog
Space/Astronomy
Bad Astronomy blog
BEEP! BEEP! IT'S ME
Bohemian Mama
boyruageek
Centauri Dreams
Colony Worlds
Cosmic Views
DaveP's astronomy
Dick's Rocket Dungeon
Electron Blue
Fly me to the Moon
From The Earth To The Moon
NYC Nova Hunter
Perspective and Soda
Robot guy
Salty Snack
Skymania's blogcast
Space Pragmatism
Solar Empire
Space Feeds
Space Law Probe
StarBaseOC
Sue Denham
Technology Integration
The Rabid Librarian's Ravings in the Wind
The Sublime Will
The Q80 Girl
TexasBestGrok
The Astronomy Blog
True Anomaly