Comments on: 7000

By: Jon Hanford

Jon Hanford — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 19:03:54 +0000

I see where Phil mentions that Deneb may be the illuminating star for the North American Nebula. However, other stars have been proposed to illuminate this nebula. In 2005, a pair of astronomers proposed that a heavily obscured O5V star, 2MASS J205551.25+435224.6, was responsible for illuminating both the North American and Pelican nebulae:

http://www.caha.es/newsletter/news05b/Comeron/ngc7000.html

http://adsabs.harvard.edu//abs/2005A%26A…430..541C

I haven’t seen any followup to this paper, but they make a reasonable argument for their candidate star.

By: Todd

Todd — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 07:00:57 +0000

Hey Phil, Congrats on the 7k!

I’ve loved the blog for ages and my wife loves the pics and time-lapseseseseses!

Cheers friend.

By: colin

colin — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 06:52:36 +0000

Without doubt my favourite bit is the cows head

By: Diederick

Diederick — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 05:57:45 +0000

Thank you, and congratulations.

By: Scottynuke

Scottynuke — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 18:36:54 +0000

Keep it up, Phil, and we’ll soon need the Webb to see all the way back to the beginning of the blog! Well done, and my sincere thanks for all you do!

By: Jess Tauber

Jess Tauber — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 16:48:20 +0000

62 is not arbitrary. Nickel-62 (with 28 protons and 34 neutrons) is the most densely packed nucleus in the entire periodic system. It is also related as the closest whole number 100x the lower value of the Golden Mean. All sorts of things like this show up in the periodic system, and they don’t seem to be arbitrarily or randomly sorted or mapped either. The highest naturally occurring element, plutonium, is atomic number 94, which is twice 47, a Lucas number (just as 34 above is Fibonacci). Now one COULD argue that 47, as in Romney’s 47 percent bums and moochers, is arbitrary, but coming from someone who flips on every issue except salivating over the presidency, would that really be fair? For HIM, this might constitute the closest the quantum-indeterminacy candidate comes to dropping out of state superposition.

By: PhilippeC

PhilippeC — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 13:13:55 +0000

Oh my! I think I read most of these 7000 posts….
This means I’ve spent a lot of time absorbing your knowledge of the universe…

But didn’t you start debunking bad science in movies even before that, on your own blog (before discover magazine) ?

By: Astroblue

Astroblue — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 09:38:39 +0000

“That’s a lot of words. It’s also a lot of astronomy, geekery, science, antiscience, web comics, puns, embiggenates, and “Holy Haleakala!”s”

And a lot of love, too.

I learned a lot from your blog and love it.

Thank you, Dr. Bad Astronomer!

By: Oale

Oale — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 03:15:55 +0000

Hah, I’ve got somewhat more views on my blog (including my own)! Thank You and Congratulations, BA & Phil!

By: Zathras

Zathras — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 02:50:30 +0000

@14 “You’re gonna get famous if you keep this up”

Hey, I already refer to the Bad Astronomer as “Dr. Phil” when I talk about the sky and astronomy with my family….What’s worse is that they aren’t confused about who I’m referring to anymore, either

Just finished watching “Bad Universe” on DVD about a week ago…great show, but I thought Phil was having WAY too much fun trying to blow things up! He made me think of Rico the penguin from the movie Madagascar: “Kaboom boss? Kaboom???”
Yes, Dr. Phil….KABOOM!