Announcing a new feature on the Bad Astronomy Blog!
I’m starting a new feature on this blog: video answers to reader questions! Do you have a burning question about astronomy you want answered by a real live™ professional astronomer? Or by me instead?
Now’s your chance. Send them to me (instructions are below), and I’ll pick one question per week and answer it via the webcam. I’ll then post the video here on the BA Blog.
I call it…
Q & BA.
Get it? Yeah, I know. But it’s the best I could do for now.
Here’s a video intro to what this is all about:
All the info you need is below. I will post the first video answer on Monday, February 5. So read the instructions below and start sending in those head-scratchers today!
How does this work?
All you have to do, my BABloggees, is to send me questions about astronomy — whatever you want to know. What’s the largest telescope in the world? How do we know how hot stars are? Why are so many astronomers so gosh-darn smart, funny, and wonderfully good-looking?
Maybe you have a bad astronomy question. Is the Moon hollow? I saw a movie where there was a lunar eclipse the day after the Moon was new; is that possible? Why won’t Hoagland simply admit that he’s totally 100% incontrovertibly wrong?
Any and all astronomy questions are fair game. A caveat, though: please search the main BA site and see if I’ve answered the question before. Original questions will get more weight. Also, remember that I will answer these via webcam, so try to ask something that I can answer in 2 minutes or so. Things like "Explain the history of the Universe" may very well get skipped, unless I can come up with something funny (like, "Google search ‘Great Green Arkleseizure’").
My limited capabilities include editing video and using still images, crappy models, hand-drawn pictures I can hold up to the webcam, and so on. Don’t expect some slick NASA production. It’s just me and my webcam. And your questions!
I’ll post a new answer every Monday morning (actually, probably more like Sunday night). Remember, the first one goes up on Monday February 5, from questions I receive this week.
How to submit a question:
There are two methods to submit a question. You can email me at thebadastronomer "at" gmail "dot" com (replace the "at" and the "dot" with their symbols), or, if you’re more of an exhibitionist, you can post the question to the Bad Astronomy/Universe Today Bulletin Board. I have created a thread in the Questions and Answers section, and it’s a sticky, meaning it will always be near the top of the page.
I will read your question on the webcam and answer it as best I can. If you don’t want your name to be used, I suggest you email me and state that specifically. Otherwise I’ll use your name together with your city and state (or whatever the local equivalent is). Like, "Neil Tyson from New York New York asks…". You get the picture.
Why am I doing this?
Lots of reasons, actually. One is that I really just like answering questions. I get zillions of emails, and I can’t answer them all, so why not increase that load?
Wait. Nuts. Oh well, too late now.
Also, I enjoy working in front of a camera. Answering email is fun, but being able to set up a repository of answered questions seems like even more fun.
Also, I plan on ruling the world, or at the least the online astronomy aspect of it, and this seems like a good way to start.
That’s it!
I’ve added an image on the right hand sidebar that says "Q & BA". Clicking on it will take you back to this post.
So send me those questions, and I’ll see you on the webcam! Well, I guess you’ll see me on the webcam and not the other way around. But you get the point. Just send me those questions!
January 28th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
Can you please, PLEASE offer a transcript of the videos? Or subtitles?
English is my second language, and I have huge problems understanding it when it’s spoken. I don’t think I’m the only reader with that kind of problem.
For example I’d love to listen to those podcasts you’re often linked her, but since they combine fast talkers with a scientific vocabular and an accent that goes over my head, I don’t understand anything in them – which is kind of sad.
January 28th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
Hi Phil, hi folks,
I think this is a really great idea! I’m from Germany where we have a weekly show called “Alpha Centauri” (http://www.br-online.de/alpha/centauri/lesch.shtml) which is broadcasted by br-alpha, a bavarian equivalent to cspan.
This show is hosted by wonderful Dr Harald Lesch which teaches theoretical astrophysics at the university in Munich. For german-speaking folks, check out his show about “Radosophie” and where he debunks the superstition of numerology. Search YouTube for “radosophie” or “alpha centauri mondlandung” tags, it’s really hilarious. (Sadly, the Alpha Centauri archive site use the real-video spyXXXsoftware. Oh well.)
The first time I saw a photo of Phil Plait, I thought: unbelievable, they HAVE to be TWINS! Both made astronomy their mission and communicate it with such great sense of humor; and if you compare their images side by side, I find an eerie resemblance. (-:
Thank you both, Phil Plait and Harald Lesch (I believe Dr Lesch once mentioned the Bad Astronomy website so there’s a chance he reads this), you are a source of inspiration to all of us. I’d also like to mention Ann Druyan (partner of late Carl Sagan) and Neil deGrasse Tyson which did magnificent lectures at the Beyond Belief 2006 meeting. Go check it out!
And now for TheBadAstronomer on YouTube — hey, Eggs, Randi, Savage and asteroids and McNaught. Good start, Phil!
January 28th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Can you explain, without using your hands, why the nearly-full moon rises 20 minutes later each night in the Autumn, but over an hour later each night in the Spring?
Just kidding.
January 29th, 2007 at 12:38 am
In that still frame of the YouTube Video, it looks like you’re giving someone the finger.
January 29th, 2007 at 12:46 am
Are you implying that you’re not a real astronomer? Or just not a real … l … l … live ast-ron-o … mer? Oh my …
(GULP)
Eh, whatever. I’ve got no problem with the learned undead, as long as they can answer the questions. Looking forward to this feature.
January 29th, 2007 at 2:51 am
Alas, I do not have the bandwidth to watch video online. Where are the good old days of text-only internet?
January 29th, 2007 at 4:16 am
Great idea Phil, looking forward to it! (furiously scrambling….dig…dig…dig…gotta find a real poser for the Q & BA next week)
January 29th, 2007 at 5:10 am
What you mean there’s an asteroid going to hit us in 2026
So this is it, we’re going to die – Arthur Dent
January 29th, 2007 at 6:54 am
I have given Phil a nice easy one, so he can ease into this gently
January 29th, 2007 at 7:24 am
A fine idea. I just wanted to stick up for the folks at JPL’s IPAC, who have done a few video “Ask an Astronomer” videos over the years:
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/ask_astronomer/video/questions.shtml
January 29th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Oh that’s gonna be great! I gotta try to think up a question…
January 29th, 2007 at 8:38 am
Great to hear about the Q&As, but…
Sorry, Phil, I can only hope that your recent infatuation with video and YouTube wears off soon. It’s great to hear your voice and catch your enthusiasm from time to time, but as means of information delivery, text is far preferable to speech. Please save video for those illustrations or animations where the picture really does tell a thousand words.
January 29th, 2007 at 9:07 am
“Why are so many astronomers so gosh-darn smart, funny, and wonderfully good-looking?”
But then why are so many of us sitting in our basements watching old reruns of Firefly every night it’s not clear?
January 29th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Foggy, don’t count on me losing interest any time soon! I’m enjoying this, which is why I started it up. I think there’s a lot of value in it. Remember too that sites like YouTube, Google Video, and iTunes are huge, with millions of viewers. That’s a fantastic potential audience that could be getting fired up about science and astronomy.
I just counted– today is January 29, and I have posted 60 times this month. That’s close enough to three times per day. Of these, 5 were video blogs, including one where I was able to capture Comet McNaught through my binoculars. So that’s 1/12 posts being a video, or less than 10%. With the advent of Q&BA I’ll probably use video less often, only 4 times per month, so you’re still getting 50+ text posts a month.
essentialsaltes, yeah, I know of that– several of the “Cool Cosmos” astronomers at IPAC on those videos are old friends of mine. I think they did a great job (they have excellent resources, too) but I want to see a regular feature like this.
I’m sorry about those of you with low bandwidth. Transcripts are an interesting idea, but very time consuming (more even than making the video). I’ll look into what I can do after I get this whole thing up and running.
January 29th, 2007 at 11:34 am
At least it’s not “Q and BS”.
January 29th, 2007 at 11:37 am
“Google search ‘Great Green Arkleseizure’”
But, Phil, you must know that the Great Green Arkelseizure Theory has never been widely accepted outside Viltvodel VI…
January 29th, 2007 at 11:38 am
The BA said:
“I just counted– today is January 29, and I have posted 60 times this month. That’s close enough to three times per day.”
Er, Phil, 60 divided by 29 is a bit closer to 2 per day, I think…
January 29th, 2007 at 11:38 am
Unless you’re using some strange non-Euclidian arithmetic that defies my understanding?
January 29th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Phil,
Practicing to step into Carl Sagan’s shoes? How do you say billions?
January 29th, 2007 at 11:48 am
Can I just second Carina’s request for subtitles or a transcript? I’m fine at english, I have scientific training, I read this blog daily and am passionate about astronomy, but I’m also deaf and with the best will in the world I can’t make out the speech on youtube videos.
January 29th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Heh. Right, I meant two. Duh, I’m a little dopey today with allergies.
January 29th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
I’m sure you could find volunteers to do transcripts. I can’t promise to do the first one because I’m moving and starting a new job that week, but I can probably do one from time to time.
For *this* video, the text is pretty much a transcript of the video already. There is no more new info there.
January 29th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Very great idea! I will think about all the questions a student of physics/astronomy can have after one and a half year
. I can’t wait till the week is over to see the first Q-video!
P.S.: Good to see that there are more fans here from Germany!!
PPS: I will see Harald Lesch live in the “Planetarium Bochum” on Februrary 21st!
January 29th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Can you top Carl Sagan’s take on astrology?
As for making transcripts. . . the way to get anything done on Web 3.1 is to make somebody else want to do it for you, for free. In other words, each time you do a video post, ask your faithful readers, “Would one of you take a break from writing Wikipedia articles on Firefly? I’ll re-post your transcript at the top level and make you famous if you transcribe this video.”
January 29th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Carina, Brian & Mori: this transcript of the above video is for you.
I can type reasonably quickly, but this took much longer than I thought it would. Don’t expect any more transcripts from me again for a while. Sorry.
January 29th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Tim G, yeah, that’s what I meant! Unless you’re really good at it, transcribing a video takes a while, and that’s not includin gchecking to make sure you did it correctly.
BTW I made a small edit to your transcript, changing the email address to avoid email-spamming robot scanners.
January 29th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Hmm, methinks the squid’s chances of winning the best science blog award next year just took a hit
January 29th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
I’m impressed. I used your search to look up the how they estimate the mass for the Universe (the question I was going to ask) and came across this:
http://www.badastronomy.com/mad/1996/olbers.html
Fourth paragraph down, part way through, you begin to answer my problem . . . nearly 10 years ago. Thanks!
January 29th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
Tim G – that’s much appreciated! I know it can be pretty time consuming.
I sometimes get worried about the rise of voice chat, video blogging and the increased reliance on speech and sound in games and suchlike, because the text-based internet has been such a godsend for me and, I’m sure, many other deaf people.
It’s reassuring to know what we’re not the only subset of the population who find communication via text essential. When Doom 3 was released with vital spoken plot cues and not a subtitle in sight, the makers got many more complaints from those for whom English was not a first language than from those who simply have a hearing loss.. not that THEY paid the slightest attention to the complaints anyway
January 29th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Hey Phil, AA here. Would you be terribly opposed to me picking up a few of the questions that you decide not to answer? Looking at the submission thread, there’s a lot there that are good questions and deserve answers.
I’ve got a webcam around here somewhere as well and can probably help out.
January 30th, 2007 at 7:09 am
>>Also, I plan on ruling the world, or at the least the online astronomy aspect of it, and this seems like a good way to start.
NARF!
January 30th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
(Testing, because it usually posts with one URL link)
I like this idea! Posting them on Sunday night would be great since I can’t watch YouTube videos at work. Then I can start my morning off at home with a BAD video and coffee. I hope you choose this question soon. It would probably make the kid’s day hearing their name and all.
January 31st, 2007 at 8:45 am
I don’t understand why it’s not posting my URL. I see other posters posting them just fine. Let me try a different one:
http://spaceweather.com/
January 31st, 2007 at 11:08 am
Well, I was trying to post the URL to the BAUT forum – it’s not liking it. Mr. Maxwell’s question re his 4th grade class. Sorry for the multiple posts in trying to get this to work.
February 1st, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Okay here is my question: Could you please sum up some upcoming projects NASA/ESA, JAXA that are mighty interesting and have been in the pipline for quite some time only to be unleashed before 2010. Yep that is a question, sorta.
February 3rd, 2007 at 4:39 am
“…Neil Tyson from New York New York asks…”……that’s funny…
February 4th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Mr. Plait, I have read a little about the trips to the moon being hoaxes. I would like to know the exact latitude and longitude locations of the lunar landings and what power of magnification of telescope to view the nasa equipment left behind. What I wish to accomplish is a live video of the lunar surface where the quality of the newest state of the art technology can not be denied in any way AT ALL! This is the only way to prove or disprove both sides of this world event. Thank You…
February 10th, 2007 at 8:13 am
I cant wait for the new one. Its Saturday, and I’ve been waiting for the new Q & BA for the whole week. (well not obsessively, but you get the idea) Phil has the best speaking voice for these types of videos. I hope to see this idea go FAR.
February 21st, 2007 at 12:58 pm
My God, it’s full of stars Â……
Phil Plait, der Bad-Astronomy-Blogger, hat eine Aktion gestartet, bei der er per Video Fragen zum Thema Astronomie beantwortet. Der Mann ist echt gut im mitreissenden Erklären, verzichtet auf Fachchinesisch und spricht ein recht verständliches Englis…