Bad Astronomy » Humor

When the Moon hits your apse in a way-cool time lapse

Phil Plait — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:10 +0000

Photographer Maik Thomas posted this time lapse video on Google+, and it made me chuckle. The bright object is the Moon, and as it sets it turns red, looking like a missile from space curving right into a church.

I love the star trails effect. It’s just a way of adding the individual frames together to show motion, but it does give the video an oddly other-world feel to it. And in this case it really makes the Moon look like some sort of re-entering rocket!

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- Star Light, People Bright
- Alps lapse
- The stars above, the luminescence below
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Space caturday

Phil Plait — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:00:54 +0000

This is cute and all, but I was debating whether to run it on the blog or not when I got to the 1:05 mark or so, and decided to go ahead. Why? Watch:

Did you get the joke?

It’s a Chandra X-ray Observatory image in the background if that helps. Note the cat.

Also, the next shot shown of a cat batting at Io was also pretty funny.

They did miss a sure bet, though: Cat’s Eye, and the Cat’s Paw nebula. Neither of which, I’ll note, is in Leo.

This is a galaxy

Phil Plait — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:23:16 +0000

I have nothing to add to this, except to say it’s great, and I saw it because Brian Cox mentioned it on Twitter.

Oh yeah: one more thing; watch it in HD and full screen. Coooool.

Caturday phase change

Phil Plait — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:00:59 +0000

As a scientist, I can guarantee that the closest a solid object can be to a liquid state is a cat snoozing on a staircase in the sunshine.

Nerdist + Boulder + … me!

Phil Plait — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:15:04 +0000

If you read my blog (and you’d better accept that as an axiom) then you have probably heard of Chris Hardwick. His podcast, Nerdist, is a monstrous juggernaut of podcasty geekiness, for one thing. And he’s been on Craig Ferguson’s show, and Conan, and Chelsea Lately, and a bunch of others. He wrote a book on how being a nerd can make your life better. Chris is something of a Doctor Who fan — proof, you want? — and so he and I have significant overlap in our lives. We met at Comic Con a couple of years ago, but we haven’t managed to get together since then.

But all that will change on Friday, March 2, when Chris will be bringing the Nerdist podcast here to Boulder, live at the Boulder Theater!

Chris and his co-hosts Jonah Ray and Matt Mira will be on stage making the nerdery in my fair town, and — wait for it, waaaiiittt for ittttt — Chris has invited me to be his guest.

I don’t know what we’ll be talking about, but I’m ...

Another orbit? Why, you don’t look a rotation older than 4.56 billion years!

Phil Plait — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 12:59:38 +0000

In what is becoming an annual January tradition celebrating my laziness, I’m reposting this article about why astronomers are no fun at New Year’s parties. Well, they can be, but only until you actually say "Happy New Year!" to them, whereupon they’ll corner and lecture you about how to measure orbital periods. It’s amazing any astronomers reproduce. Anyway, here’s the article, which was a lot of fun to originally write, and even more fun to cut and paste here.]

Yay! It’s a new year!

But what does that mean, exactly?

The year, of course, is the time it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun, right? Well, not exactly. It depends on what you mean by "year", and how you measure it. This takes a wee bit of explaining, so while the antacid is dissolving in your stomach to remedy last night’s excesses, sit back and let me tell you the tale of the year.

First, I will ignore a few things. For example, time zones. These were invented by a sadistic watchmaker, who only wanted to keep people in thrall of his devious plans. So for now, let’s just ignore them, and assume that for these purposes you spend a whole year ...

Moral and philosophical ponderings upon year’s end

Phil Plait — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:00:14 +0000

… are something you won’t be getting from me with this post.

Instead, here’s a video of George Hrab and me watching a shark balloon at Dragon*Con earlier this year.

Because why not?

CUSTOMER DOESN’T CHEESE

Phil Plait — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:59:07 +0000

Nothing to do

Phil Plait — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:30:00 +0000

Sometimes, over the holidays, it’s easy to think there’s nothing to do. If you feel that way, Sci-ence! wants to have a word with you.

[Click to exnihiloenate.]

And why, yes, that comic does describe me as a child.

… and maybe as an adult, too.

Repost: Happy pareidolidays!

Phil Plait — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:45:26 +0000

[I don't repost very often, but this one from last year still works. -- The BA]

I know some people have Christmas on their mind today, but this is a bit too literal: a brain scan taken at Newcastle University turned up a familiar face nose:

I always pictured him as somewhat bigger.

The part of the brain they were imaging? The hippocampus. Eh, close enough.

Happy holidays to all, and to all a clear night!

Tip o’ the stirring creature to BABloggee Michael Lonergan

The Moon sleighs me

Phil Plait — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 00:16:49 +0000

One of my favorite astrophotographers, Alan Friedman, spied something odd on the Moon.

Flying reindeer I’ll buy. But an inertialess propulsion system? C’mon.

Happy holidays everyone!

Credit: Alan Friedman

Blastr: Invasion Earth!

Phil Plait — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:00:53 +0000

I watched "Battle: Los Angeles" recently, a movie about aliens invading the Earth. It wasn’t terrible, and it wasn’t great. It was watchable, and worked sufficiently well in lowering our supply of popcorn at Chez BA.

But like every alien invasion movie I see, there’s one small, really eensy-weensy problem: the reason they give for the invasion itself was dumb. [SPOILER] They came to steal our water? And use it for fuel? Say WHA?

Ignoring the silly idea of using water for fuel — that’s got physics exactly backwards, since you get energy out of combining oxygen and hydrogen to make water, and it takes energy to crack them apart — there’s an even bigger problem…

… which I won’t tell you here, because I go into all sorts of detail in my latest Blastr article, 6 Reasons Why Aliens Would NEVER Invade Earth. Mind you, I’m not talking about aliens just coming here to shoot the breeze, but aliens coming here to shoot us. It’s hard to think of a good reason they’d do so, and certainly the reasons given in pretty much every movie don’t make ...

Naked I astronomy

Phil Plait — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 19:30:01 +0000

I have a billion things to do this weekend, but since today is conspiring to just be silly, I’ll just leave this here for you. Click it, and don’t forget to hover over the red button at the bottom.

P.S. That’s not my real tattoo, though Zach got the location correct.

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Schrödinger’s Caturday

Phil Plait — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 14:00:03 +0000

You see, this is why I didn’t do very well in my graduate quantum mechanics class.

I couldn’t think outside the box.

Alternate captions:

"On the other hand we really don’t know her momentum at all."

"Placebo control groups really aren’t appropriate for quantum experiments."

"How science will be done under a Rick Perry Presidency."

"This is what happens when you let Schrödinger’s dog run the experiment."

"My quantum trap finally succeeded for capturing a mewon."

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- It’s Caturday? NONONONO.
- Caturday: the demon on the couch
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One guy fooling around with the Moon

Phil Plait — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:00:52 +0000

There’s a series of pictures going around the web right now showing the rising Moon in the background, and people whimsically doing things to it in the foreground. It’s hard to explain, so here is a picture literally worth 28 words:

I love this series of photos, and I’ve seen people plug it on Twitter, Google+, and I’ve gotten an email or two about it as well. The thing is, the photographer who took these pictures isn’t getting any attribution in the copies I’ve seen (like, for example, on

Dr. Sith’s The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

Phil Plait — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 14:00:26 +0000

In retrospect, the story similarities seem obvious.

Via Neatorama on G+

Thanksgiving wish

Phil Plait — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 20:49:37 +0000

I put this up on Google+ and Twitter, so what the heck.

My Thanksgiving wish to everyone:

Courtesy of Hyperbole and a Half and my own superior and fearsome Photoshop skillz.

Sunsets are Quite Interesting

Phil Plait — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 14:14:55 +0000

There’s a wonderful comedic quiz show in the UK called "QI" — for "Quite Interesting" — which is hosted by none other than Stephen Fry. The participants are comedians, and they’re asked questions ranging over just about every topic you can imagine. The BBC recently uploaded a clip about which alert BA Bloggee Brett Warburton informed me. In it, Fry shows the contestants a video of the Sun setting, and asks them to ring in when they think the Sun has completely set. Here’s the clip:

This is, in fact, correct! The Earth’s air bends the image of the Sun upward, so we can still see the Sun even though it is physically below the horizon. If we didn’t have air, daytime would be shorter. In fact, this effect works for sunrise as well, so we see the Sun rise before it’s physically cleared the horizon.

And Stephen was correct in the amount too; the light is bent upward by just about the same size as the Sun, so when the lower limb of the Sun just kisses the horizon it’s actually already set.

But it’s a bit more complicated, of ...

In which I disagree with cartoon Neil Tyson

Phil Plait — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:59:39 +0000

Last week, I was checking my feed reader, catching up on all my favorite web comics. One of them is sci-ence, a comic you really should be reading. It’s drawn (in part) by artist and science afficianado Maki Naro, and (like xkcd and Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) it’s both funny and scilicious.

I got a snicker out of the comic he had just posted, dealing with my pal Neil Tyson and the Moon. Go read it!

Back yet? OK.

Now, I know that just last night I was praising Neil, and today I have no cause to bury him. But I will nitpick a wee bit…

First, of course, who hasn’t wanted to chase Neil Tyson down the street while yelling incoherently at him? But that aside, I must point out that this explanation of the Moon Illusion, while very common, is not actually correct.

The Moon Illusion is when the rising (or setting) Moon looks huge and fat, squatting on the horizon, but appears far smaller when up high in the sky. But it’s not because you’re comparing it with foreground objects! I’ve seen this illusion ...

A new SMBC book! Plus, bonus me.

Phil Plait — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:57:02 +0000

Perhaps the single greatest feeling in the world — better than winning the lottery, better than seeing your baby being born, better than having fresh batteries in the TV remote — is waking up to find out you’re in the latest Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comic. Click the panel here to read the whole thing.

Even better? There’s a new SMBC book! I haven’t read it yet, because Zach hasn’t sent me a free copy in exchange for relentlessly shilling his stuff here on the blog, but I assume it’s at least mildly diverting. Look, SMBC is the funniest science-based web comic done by a geeky ginger who also draws himself shirtless all the time, which, let’s face it, is a niche that’s nearly saturated (assuming Rupert Grint doesn’t start one as well).

His first book, "Save Yourself, Mammal!" is really funny, and this new one is a collection of comics hand-picked by Zach, so it’ll be the best thing you’ve ever read, or Zach will send you a dozen long-stem ...

Grow a paireidolia

Phil Plait — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:00:51 +0000

I believe without reservation that this may be the greatest instance of pareidolia of all time: an ultrasound of a man experiencing epididymo-orchitis, or pain and swelling of a testicle:

Having suffered through a similar (if less traumatic) version of this, may I add that the expression on the man’s, um, "face" is exquisitely accurate.

Tip o’ the codpiece to my Hive Overmind co-blogger Ed Yong on Google+. Original image: Elsevier, Inc.

You could use facts to prove anything that’s even remotely true

Phil Plait — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:00:49 +0000

Here at BA Central, I have my hands full trying to battle the Forces of Darkness: those who would spin, fold, and mutilate reality for their own gain. They may be motivated by greed, or power, or ignorance, or ideology, but the thing they all have in common is, they’re wrong. They come in many flavors: homeopaths, psychics, creationists, antivaxxers… and yes, sadly, far too many politicians.

And I can rail against them time and again, my arsenal filled with the facts from an entire Universe at my disposal, yet make hardly a dent in their armor.

Sometimes, though, a small dose of satire penetrates right through that shielding and pierces the very heart of antiscience. Thank you, The Daily Show, for fighting this good fight:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Weathering Fights – Science: What’s It Up To? www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Related posts:

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-

Out of this world jack-o-lantern

Phil Plait — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:30:37 +0000
Click here to view gallery

Great Tyson’s ghost!

Phil Plait — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:10:53 +0000

If you’re looking for some spooky listening for your Halloween, then aim your ectoplasmic resonator at astronomer Neil Tyson’s Star Talk radio show, because last night he hunted ghosts… or at least, talked to some folks who know about ghosts. He chats with author Mary Roach, skeptic ghost investigator Joe Nickell, and… me!

Yeah, I’m not really an expert on ghosts — still being alive and all — but I’ve seen a few ghost movies in my time, so we chat about those, and why I don’t personally think dead people are floating around, knocking on walls and hoping some "ghost hunter" will notice us and anxiously whisper, "Did you hear that?"

As always, talking with Neil is a lot of fun, and you’ll enjoy the whole show. You can also download the MP3 directly, too. [UPDATE: you can subscribe to Star Talk using iTunes, as well!]

My interview is broken up into several segments; the first starts around 11:30, the second at 24:50, the third at 36:15, and the fourth at 41:00. But of course you should listen to the whole show; it’s pretty ...

Just cos

Phil Plait — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 18:00:37 +0000

Some people might consider this a sin, but hey: I’m no angle.

This comic is from Luke Surl, who has some pretty funny geek comics on his site.

… and if you don’t get it, this might help. Or you could try searching on it; secant you shall find.

Tip o’ the sunscreen lid to Neil Tyson, whom I hear is really into astronomy.