Comments on: Star Party… OF DOOM!

By: Carnival of Space #57 - This One’s for the Ladies! - Out of the Cradle

Carnival of Space #57 - This One’s for the Ladies! - Out of the Cradle — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 04:19:42 +0000

[...] In other media news, Bad Astronomy is asking if any one has seen a movie entitled ‘Star Party’, in Star Party… OF DOOM! [...]

By: Mechanic

Mechanic — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:19:53 +0000

I guess it would be a ‘real’ sci fi movie if the ’schnozz’ got the girl in the pink shirt. We can only hope.

By: Ade

Ade — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:42:49 +0000

I’ve gotta agree with Doc. Night of the Comet rocks, bad astronomy or not. It’s worth a watch for the ’scary noises’ game, oh, and some serious cheerleader uzi action. Meh, easily pleased me.

By: DenverAstro

DenverAstro — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 03:40:37 +0000

Well, I can say one thing. In that first photo, the girl is using a Meade ETX 125. It’s a piece of junk telescope and Ive never seen one of those used at a star party. At least not for serious observing or astrophotography. I doubt you would see a PHD in astrophysics using one of those in the field.
The reason I can say that scope is junk is because I had one. I had a shyster sales guy talk me into buying one of those as my first telescope. I have learned much since then. One of the most important lessons I have learned is that you get what you pay for. I now use a 10″ Dob for visual stuff and a Televue NP127 on a Losmandy mount for photography. Now Im a happy camper )

By: jess tauber

jess tauber — Sat, 31 May 2008 22:23:25 +0000

And for the Harvey Korman tie-in, it was HEDY, NOT HEDLEY!

By: jess tauber

jess tauber — Sat, 31 May 2008 22:19:31 +0000

Have any of you seen the classic film ‘The Heavenly Body’? (see http://www.classicfilmguide.com/index.php?s=pageA&item=169).

No horror, just mild comedy. The only part where I smirked was when the comet hits the moon, and the tail is facing away from the impact direction, yet is still attached to the nucleus- wouldn’t having the moon in between the comet and the sun cause emissions to radically decrease in the moments before impact, detaching the visual tail? I don’t remember whether the dark side from the sun was hit- would be weird though if they got that wrong too.

If Hedy Lamarr can be in love with an astronomer, then anything is possible- she was one smart lady, helped come up with a concept for spreading signals over many frequencies just in time for WWII, for which she got recognition only many decades later.

By: Ronn Blankenship

Ronn Blankenship — Sat, 31 May 2008 19:07:43 +0000

starman91 said:

“The rest must be the undergrads taking astronomy for their science requirements, because they heard it “was easy”.”

I’m not sure what they had heard, but pretty much every semester on the first night of class when I got there I would find a number of students waiting for me to sign add cards so they could get into the class because it had filled up usually on the first day of pre-registration . . .