Comments on: Space station approaching! Red alert!

By: Liam

Liam — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:44:54 +0000

Hey….”nerdawesome” guy says he’ll build one for us all for $85 each or send you the parts for $40… just enough of us need to back his project on Kickstarter. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/natronics/iss-notify (I am a backer… and a nerdawesome sort of a guy too)

By: DennyMo

DennyMo — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:57:10 +0000

“But I’d wind up soldering my hand to the desk.”

Sounds like a line from a Crystal/Guest dialogue on mid-80′s SNL. (I hate it when that happens…)

By: Christopher Darrin Horn

Christopher Darrin Horn — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 17:44:58 +0000

SWEEEEET!! You know an article is gonna be good, when it has the word “nerdawesome” within it, LOL!!!

By: JupiterIsBig

JupiterIsBig — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 21:49:31 +0000

Soldering iron, ha ! In my day we had to hold the circuit under a rock in a fire and wait for the lead to drip onto it !
You try telling that to the kids these days … they won’t believe you …

Seriously, I’m very close to buying myself some of this Arduino hardware !

By: SonOfSLJ

SonOfSLJ — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:06:41 +0000

Didn’t that same lamp attack Agnes Moorehead in a Twilight Zone episode?

By: PsyberDave

PsyberDave — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:30:26 +0000

Cooooool.

By: Thomas Siefert

Thomas Siefert — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:35:01 +0000

I’m the Zorro of soldering irons.
When I first got interested in electronics as wee lad, my parents gave me a soldering iron for Christmas.
They didn’t know much about the delicate workings of circuit soldering, so they gave me something that was better suited for cattle branding.
I didn’t really know much better either, so I adapted and got used to the big fat lead that had to be factored in when positioning the object to be soldered on my desk.
A solid full fisted grip was required to steer the smallest tip I had filed down to a small point. Because the coating was all filed away from the tip, it had a tendency to accumulate big blobs of solder. A trained flick of the wrist sent the melted solder flying to land at part of the desk that already had a burn mark from an earlier experiment with the heating element from a coffee percolator.
I still got a scar on my forearm from one of my early flicks that saw a blob of solder land there.
Anyone who have tried to solder a five pin DIN hifi connector will know that you have to work fast so that the plastic doesn’t melt and you end up with the pins pointing every which way but the right one.
I used to do that with the soldering iron of a size that would frighten even a plumber.

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 14:32:31 +0000

@ stjobe (8) -
Hey, if it can get me a visit to Bad Astronomy Central!

By: stjobe

stjobe — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 12:00:55 +0000

@7 Nigel Depledge:
Have Soldering Iron – Will Travel?

By: Mircea

Mircea — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:45:28 +0000

By: Michel

Michel — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 09:35:35 +0000

“But I’d wind up soldering my hand to the desk”

Why not use a lot of these? Also makes your project much bigger and easier to handle…
http://www.klusidee.nl/Forum/userpix/32541_kroonsteentje_1.jpg

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 09:11:27 +0000

Dear BA,

I would be more than happy to come to your home and do any soldering you wish. For free*. I have my own solder and soldering iron.

* I’d need expenses paid, mind.

By: BigLee

BigLee — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 09:08:15 +0000

Very cool indeed.

By: Monkey

Monkey — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 05:12:52 +0000

@ IVAN3MAN_AT_LARGE

um….I dont think he ‘built’ good ol’ Hubble

This would totally be cool for a classroom….combine it (ISS perhaps a blue light) with a radio meteor detector (that makes a crackly ‘zip’ sound when they are detected), plantary horizon monitors (blips for a planet that comes above the horizon, bwaaacks for a planet dipping below the local horizon), …etc

As somebody who has tried to teach astronomy and talk about a night sky that many have never witnessed, being able to listen to the symphony of the cosmos while it happens would be totally eye opening. all class long there are blips and blops and zips and lights going off in a muted symphony at the front, and when the kids get used to all the sounds, they will intuitively know what is going on ….as it is going on. Teachable moments.

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 03:27:32 +0000

Or you could just download the app:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iss-visibility/id314583174?mt=8

By: Blizno

Blizno — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:50:34 +0000

Holy nerdspasm, Batman!

By: WJM

WJM — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:25:55 +0000

WANTS!

By: IVAN3MAN_AT_LARGE

IVAN3MAN_AT_LARGE — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 23:14:25 +0000

Dr. Phil Plait:

… and I want one too. But I’d wind up soldering my hand to the desk. Sigh.

Dude, for someone who had worked on the Hubble Space Telescope, it should be a doddle for you!