Can I make a podcast about Halton Arp?

Who are you asking Mike?

Those who manage this outreach/programme/whatever aren’t reading this blog are they?

And a podcast about Halton Arp’s contributions to astronomy could be a very interesting one indeed … after all, there’s an excellent reference work that bears his name (“The Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies”, I think that’s its name), even if it’s now of little more than historical interest, if only because anyone taking part in the Galaxy Zoo’s Merger Hunter project could bag more such objects in an hour or so’s classifying than in the entirety of Arp’s catalogue.

Most interesting of all might be a clear exposition of how astronomy, as a science, works … ideas such as quasar intrinsic redshift are subject to objective, independently verifiable (and verified) tests, and if found wanting are discarded. I suspect, however, that even a summary of the ways in which observations since the early 1970s clearly show Arp’s ideas are wanting would greatly exceed the length allowed for a podcast …

To celebrate IYoA, Industry Canada is letting Canadian radio amateurs use special callsigns for Jan/Feb 2009. I will be doing this as CG3OIJ. I’m currently trying to think up an appropriate, astronomy-related QSL (acknowlegement) card design.

Well, even though I don’t have any kit to operate on HF….

A great big Hello from G0TSR.

I reckon there must be plenty of Hubble images that would make good QSL-card fodder.

Ooh! Or, how about the Cassini image taken in the shadow of Saturn? You could put a little arrow pointing at the Earth with a sign that says “you are here”!

Hey, Richard Drumm, February 4th is my birthday, too!

Hey, wow!! What are the chances of that???? Oh, about 1 in 365 I guess.

Next year marks the International Year of Astronomy, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Galileo turning his telescope to the sky and revolutionizing the way we think of the Universe, and our place in it.

The IYA also celebrates the 400th anniversary of the publication of Kepler’s Astronomia Nova!

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The Hoagland thing reminds me of the time we were doing a Case for Mars meeting in Boulder (back in the late 80s) and Hoagland and his gang submitted a paper WELL AFTER the deadline for submissions. It was the usual load of speculative fiction, but the organizers told him that he’d submitted too late. They, in fact, rejected a few other papers that had arrived much too late, too. Hoagland insisted it was because he was being censored (and wa a complete WATB about it)… and made such an ugly fuss that eventually they let him come and put up a poster. As I recall, he didn’t get much traction there…

But he got his day in the Sun.

But, yeah, this sound very interesting – and even though I prefer listening to speaking (different story with regard to typing).

John B. Sandlin

Science celebration overload!