Bad Astronomy » IYA

Hello, Red Planet!

Phil Plait — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:00:40 +0000

If you’ve been outside after it gets dark lately, you may have noticed the brilliant reddish star in the east. But that’s no star; it’s Mars! About every year and a half, the Earth passes Mars as they both orbit the Sun, very much like how a faster racing car on the inside track laps a slower-moving car on the outside track.

When Earth does lap Mars, the Red Planet’s on the opposite side of the sky from the Sun, rising at sunset and setting at sunrise — we say that Mars is at opposition when that happens. When it does, we get two advantages in one: it’s at its closest point, so it’s bigger in telescopes, and it’s up all night so you can observe it at your convenience. This happens next in just a few days, on January 29, 2010.

That’s why the Beauty Without Borders program has set up a Mars observing campaign, to get everyone outside and looking at Mars. If you are part of a local astronomy group, let them know about the campaign, which lasts from tonight, January 25th, through the 30th. Get folks to attend and see Mars through a telescope! It ...

Call to astronomers to report Unidentified Aerial Phenomona

Phil Plait — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:00:04 +0000

I have been saying for years that a) most UFOs are simply misidentified mundane phenomena (satellites, meteors, balloons, Venus, weird clouds, even the Moon) and that 2) if they were real, astronomers — who spend a lot more time looking at the sky than your average person — should be reporting most of them.

My musings on this have been twisted and distorted by UFO folks — shocker! — even though I’ve been pretty clear about what I would count as evidence. But now we may have a way to cut through the garbage. A new website has been started for professional and amateur astronomers to report Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. I rather like this new UAP acronym, since it avoids the UFO/flying saucer baggage. Anyway, it was set up as part of IYA 2009 to help astronomers report things in the sky they may not immediately understand. Better yet, it has links to handy guides that will help people who might otherwise misidentify normal things like sundogs and other weather phenomena.

The website is the brainchild of Philippe Ailleris:

Despite the controversy surrounding ...

Another 365 Days

Phil Plait — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:00:08 +0000

Great news, everyone! The 365 Days of Astronomy citizen podcast will go on for at least another year!

365DoA is an International Year of Astronomy project that lets you, the astronomy enthusiast, create your own astronomy podcast, upload it, and let everyone on this pale blue dot hear it. It was wildly successful, with spots filling up rapidly once it was announce last year. It also won a coveted Parsec podcast award this year, too.

But given this was an IYA 2009 project, I was wondering if it would continue on to 2010 and beyond, and it will! It’ll become a legacy project, and will be handled by Astrosphere New Media Association, a (charitable and tax-deductible!) online astronomy support group made up of dedicated people. I know this for a fact, because I’m a part of it.

Slots for 2010 are going fast, so you better grab a date if you want to participate! And if you want to help, then we could use some sponsors, too:

The podcast team also invites people ...

Aiiiieeee! Slow down!

Phil Plait — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:00:12 +0000

Sometimes, news comes pouring in to Bad Astronomy HQ, and I am but a man, so I can’t keep up (writing about Saturn’s moons and giant galactic panoramas and big weird Scandinavian spinny thingies keep me pretty busy, y’know).

So here are some quick bits o’ interest.

1) Dr. Harriet Hall will inject (haha!) some medical sense into Oprah

2) You already knew this, but Rush Limbaugh is somewhat misinformed on basic matters of science and medicine *.

3) Obama’s science advisor John Holdren reads a book by my Hive Overmind compatriots!

4) Pulsar-discoverer Jocelyn Bell-Burnell blogs.

5) My friend, the Aussie skeptic Richard Saunders appeared on national TV and handed an astrologer his head.

6) My evil twin Richard Wiseman is fun at parties. Here’s the video:

OK, good. That oughta keep y’all busy while I write up my next big astronomy post.

In your head, you may wish to replace my description with some artfully selected words from Al Franken’s book title.

Photogenic astronomers

Phil Plait — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:00:05 +0000

I love clever photographers. Max Alexander falls firmly into that category, given his brilliant collection of photographs he took of UK astronomers as part of the IYA. As he put it:

I chose to portray astronomers as individuals, rather than astronomy as a subject, in order to personalize the contributions to society. [...] Almost every picture has a story behind it, either because of the relevance and personality of the scientist, or because of the context of the situation.

I think he did pretty well! My favorite is this one:

Why? Because of the astronomy inside joke of her holding a staticky television. Read the info for that photo to see why.

Tip o’ the lens cap to my bud Amanda Bauer, aka astropixie.

Moody Moon

Phil Plait — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:00:08 +0000

My brother-in-law is a pretty good photographer (as you may remember). He just posted this lovely picture of the waxing gibbous Moon tucked in amongst the clouds at sunset:

Click it to embiggen. It’s not hard to get nice shots of the Moon, even during the day, though to get one this nice it does take a bit of experience and work. But it’s not all that technically challenging, and since it’s IYA 2009 anyway, I encourage everyone to give it a try. The Moon is bright and easy to spot, making it the obvious target for a beginning attempt at astrophotography. But you’ll need a telephoto; the Moon is smaller in photographs than you might expect. Experiment! Play around! And if you get nice results, link to ‘em in the comments. Let’s see what you’ve got.

Astronomy and skeptical auctions

Phil Plait — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:30:25 +0000

Just a reminder: the Ebay auctions for Apollo commemorative memorabilia signed by me and for a private music session with George Hrab end tomorrow (Tuesday) around 21:00 GMT! The winners of the auctions can then purchase TAM London tickets, so if you still want to attend the meeting here’s a great chance, and you win nifty stuff, too.

Also, the fantabulous Pamela Gay has two Galileoscopes for auction on Ebay with the boxes autographed by some celebrities at Dragon*Con: one is signed by the cast of Battlestar Galactica and Felicia Day, and the other by the cast of Ghost Hunters International. I know, I know, but as Pamela points out, the goal here is to get everyone to look at the sky, and maybe, just maybe, if someone who’s a fan of the latter gets a ‘scope, they’ll observe the dark sky and turn away from the dark side.

I got my Galileoscopes!

Phil Plait — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:19:18 +0000

My Galileoscopes arrived in the mail!

Yay! There were some shipping problems, and it took longer than expected (they arrived about a month ago but I’ve been too busy to write up this post). But still, very cool. I ordered three; one for my daughter and me, one to give away on the blog (coming soon), and one that was an anonymous gift to some place that could use a telescope to show kids the wonder of the skies.

It comes packed pretty well, and all the pieces were there. The lenses are glass — very nice! — and the plastic in the tube is solid and fits together pretty well. I will say that the instructions are not terribly clear; if you get a ‘scope, go to the Universe Awareness for Young Children site, which has language neutral instructions that make assembly a snap.

Once I opened that page, assembly took only a few minutes. When it was done, I mounted it on my sturdy tripod (I highly recommend using one) and took it outside for a spin.

As expected, with the low power eyepiece it’s not too hard to use. The ...

Experience the planets

Phil Plait — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:00:36 +0000

Check out this digital drawing of Saturn:

Gorgeous, isn’t it? Drawn by artist Gregory Siegburg, it’s part of a new project called Experience the Planets, started by a talented group of artists who want to create and collect beautiful artwork of the planets so that people can get a view of them that — so far — are difficult to obtain or cannot be achieved with our probes.

The pictures they have there are incredible, and available for download as wallpaper, too. My only complaint is that they don’t have enough! But they’re looking for more artists, so if you have the talent, you might want to contact them. They’re supported by the International Year of Astronomy, too! So this is the real thing.

Go there and check out their work. It’s beautiful.

Get a Galileoscope! Hurry!

Phil Plait — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:14:26 +0000

A few months ago I wrote about the Galileoscope, a wonderful inexpensively priced telescope that is being produced as part of the International Year of Astronomy. There were some initial problems with shipping, but I have been told that ‘scopes are shipping and will be in the hands of eager folks by early June or July latest! Yay!

Now here’s the thing: production is not so simple for these telescopes, and the folks making them want to continue to do so. But unless they get a bunch of orders right away production will stop. They need orders by the end of May, which means that if you’re thinking of getting one or more — and at $15 each (plus shipping) it’s cheap to do so — then please send in your order now! Don’t wait; if you do it may be too late. At the very least the price will go up, and at worst they won’t be able to make any more.

I bought three: one for my daughter (and, to be honest, me), one for her school, and one to give away on the blog. I’ll do that ...

I sigh, EUSci

Phil Plait — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:30:41 +0000

For those few of you left who aren’t sick of hearing my voice, I did an interview with the podcast EUSci that’s now online (here’s the direct link to the mp3). We talked about IYA, JREF, my book, astronomy… you know, all the ho-hum usual stuff!

100 hours of astronomy!

Phil Plait — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:56:12 +0000

Cripes, I’m getting behinderer every day, so I missed posting about this: The 100 Hours of Astronomy effort began yesterday! It’s a cornerstone project of IYA, to do 100 continuous hours of astronomy-related observations or activities.

For example, telescopes all over the planet are observing the skies and webcasting it all live.

There are star parties all around the world; Popular Mechanics has an alphabetical list of the ones in the US.

Even space probes are in on it; the Cassini Saturn probe team posted their favorite Saturn images on their site in honor of Galileo.

100 Hours was honored in an APOD image, too.

You can follow all this by going to the 100 Hours site, and get info as it happens on their Twitter feed, too. And don’t forget to classify those galaxies!

A million galaxies in a hundred hours

Phil Plait — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:30:37 +0000

Remember Galaxy Zoo? It’s a project using professional images of galaxies, but has citizens — that means you! — classifying them. It’s the crack cocaine of the internet; once you start it’s hard to stop.

Well, the folks in charge of it have decided to use that addictive quality to their advantage. This week is the IYA’s 100 Hours of Astronomy effort, where observatories and other ventures are doing all sorts of outreach including live observations, all spanning the 100 hours of time from April 2 – 5. And Galaxy Zoo wants to classify 1,000,000 galaxies in those 100 hours!

Sound crazy? They’re already halfway there! [Incidentally, in the time it took me to write this blog entry 9000 more have been classified.] If you’ve fiddled with Galaxy Zoo before, you know how much fun it is: all you have to do is take a simple test so that they know you can classify galaxies (into elliptical, irregular, and spiral (both clockwise and anticlockwise)) and once you do, off you go. They’ve made some improvements to the process since I last wrote about it, so even if you’ve been there before, ...

Colbert mocks me again

Phil Plait — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:14:21 +0000

Oh, when will this tyranny of astronomy-related censorship ever end?

I am referring, of course, to The Colbert Report, which has on every astronomer in the world but me. Stephen, what must I do? I wrote a book about the end of the world, and I even threatened to have Buzz Aldrin punch you. And yet you still invite Derrick Pitts on your show, and not me?

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Derrick Pitts comedycentral.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

Sure, Derrick did a really good job, being funny, talking about what Galileo did, and why it was important. But where was the talk of giant asteroid impacts, the vaporizing of our planet by a gamma-ray burst, or the danger of a gigantic solar flare wiping out our electric grid?

Oh, Stephen, when you go for the real information and not the scare factor, what’s next? Unicorns? Rainbows? Politics?

Sigh, maybe when I’m in NYC in a couple of weeks, I’ll see if Neil ...

Galileoscope update

Phil Plait — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:49:15 +0000

I’ve been getting some mail from folks who are a little unhappy with the customer service when they’ve ordered Galileoscopes — a big effort by IYA to get good but inexpensive telescopes into the hands of people across the globe. The IYA just posted about this: basically, it’s being run by a very small group of volunteers who have been a bit (well, a lot) overwhelmed with the response. They assure us the ‘scopes will be shipped in late April.

That’s good news! I’m very excited to get mine — as I wrote earlier, I think it might be able to show the ISS as an extended body, and not just a point of light. How cool would that be?

Bits and pieces, part n

Phil Plait — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:57:27 +0000

A few things:

1) I have been informed by my blogdaughter (I showed her how to get socially networked at an American Astronomical Society meeting last year!) Alice that her blog Alice’s AstroInfo has moved to a new URL (that link goes to the current address). So update your links if you haven’t yet, and/or drop her in your feed reader if you haven’t been reading her stuff.

2) Skepticamp guy Reed Esau tells me that there are two Camps this weekend: one in Phoenix (with the truly awesome Michael Stackpole), and one in Vancouver Canadia.

3) I’ve mentioned this before, but just a reminder that 100 Hours of Astronomy is coming up in early April. Get ready.

4) Also, as many people have noted, I wonder if amateur exorcist and Louisiana doomer Bobby Jindal is scratching his head over volcano monitoring now?

Urban astroninjas

Phil Plait — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:00:33 +0000

One problem with living in light polluted skies is that you grow up with no familiarity with them at all. You really, and simply, don’t know what you’re missing.

That’s why stories like this one, about two astroninjas bringing astronomy to the streets of NYC, are so cool. I’m really glad there are folks out there willing to literally bring the skies to people who otherwise would never know them.

Spread the joy of astronomy with a Galileoscope

Phil Plait — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:18:54 +0000

400 years ago this year, people first started turning the newly invented telescope to the sky, and were astonished at what they saw. Galileo, not a fool when it came to self-promotion (though he stumbled a bit later in life), drew up what he saw and published it… starting a revolution in not just astronomy but in all of science, all of humanity. The aftershocks still reverberate today.

His telescope was crude by today’s standards; lens making wasn’t nearly the craft then that it is now. But it was enough to see craters on the Moon, satellites of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and Saturn’s rings. And now, thanks to the International Year of Astronomy, you can experience what Galileo did and, even cooler, share it with others.

One of the Cornerstone projects of IYA 2009 is the creation of the Galileoscope, a replica of what Galileo used to view the heavens. This little ‘scope sports a glass 50mm (2 inch) lens, tough plastic casing, eyepiece, and a Barlow lens which doubles the magnification. Its construction is extremely simple, so a small child can assemble it in minutes with a little help ...

Beauty without borders

Phil Plait — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:04:57 +0000

Right now as I write this, Venus is a brilliant beacon of light in the western sky after sunset. After the Moon, it’s far and away the brightest object in the night sky, obvious to anyone who can see. It’s also the International Year of Astronomy, so a group of people has decided to merge the two events into one called Beauty Without Borders. Starting February 25 (today!) and going through March 1, they want everyone who can to go outside and observe this gorgeous planet. February 28 is the best day, as the crescent Moon will be near Venus, making a beautiful duet in the sky.

I think this is a great idea. Venus is so bright right now that I’ve received lots of comments on it, from asking me what it is to to people who can’t believe a planet can get so bright! So this is a fantastic opportunity to get people outside and looking up. Tell everyone you know!

Free thoughts

Phil Plait — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:00:36 +0000

I was interviewed a little while ago by the American Freethought Podcast, and it’s now online (here’s the direct link to the MP3). As usual, I ramble on about topics skeptical, the IYA, Darwin, the definition of the word planet, my book, JREF, vaccines, the future of NASA, and other fun stuff.

The interview intro starts at 12:00, and I come in around 18:00 but you should listen to the whole podcast, of course. They’re good skeptics and have a lot of interesting stuff on the ‘cast.

George Hrab is FAR

Phil Plait — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:01:13 +0000

George Hrab’s 365 Days of Astronomy full-length video is up on YouTube!

The best part, of course, is 33 seconds in.

Thesaurus? Fine by me!

The video was done as part of the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast, in turn as part of the International Year of Astronomy.

And, of course, it’s made of awesome, because that’s how Geo rolls.

Lab Out Loud interview

Phil Plait — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:30:55 +0000

I have been tremendously busy this week with JREF stuff, so I’ve been letting some news and other things slip behind me. I’ll try to put down my thoughts on the gassy Mars news soon, but until then, please feel free to comment on my Pope article, find out how far away the horizon is, or listen to an interview I did with Lab Out Loud, the official podcast of the National Science Teachers Association. Here’s the direct link to the MP3. We talked JREF quite a bit, as well as IYA 2009.

More later. Promise.

Busing in astronomy

Phil Plait — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:00:34 +0000

If you live in Toronto, you may notice something the next time you take the bus: someone’s trying to teach you astronomy.

That someone is Ray Jayawardhana, who has coordinated a public outreach campaign called Cool Cosmos to get the public interested in astronomy. Along with the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics he has created a series of five posters that will go on buses, subways, and streetcars. They’re cute, simple, and feature a basic but cool fact. I like this one best:

It says, "Having a long day? It will only get longer. Tides caused by the Moon are slowing down the Earth’s spin, making each day a tiny bit longer than the one before."

How cool is that? The others are good too. This is a very clever campaign, and I think at the very least it’ll get people thinking about nifty ideas about the Universe. This is being done as a way to celebrate IYA 2009, too, and it’s an excellent endeavor.

My one complaint: they should’ve talked to the folks at Spitzer first about the name. D’oh!

Carnival of Space #85

Phil Plait — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:50:44 +0000

Cheap Astronomy is hosting the 85th Carnival of Space, just in time to goof off on a weekend. Remember, it’s the International Year of Astronomy now, so you have to read an astronomy article every day. It’s in the intertoobs bylaws.

And somehow I forgot to post about last week’s carnival at Next Big Future. So that’s double your astrogoodness for the week!

Welcome to The International Year of Astronomy!

Phil Plait — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:04:14 +0000

Happy New Year!

And what a year it will be: it’s the International Year of Astronomy, a 365-day long celebration of the coolest science there is. The idea is simple: promote astronomy, and increase everyone’s awareness of the Universe around them. A noble effort, and one I support wholeheartedly.

There are a lot of ways you can participate. First things first: go to the IYA2009 website, and spend some time poking around there. That is the central hub of the effort, with a huge amount of information on how you can participate.

My personal suggestion is to throw a star party. Invite your neighbors to see the planets or the Moon through a telescope (if you don’t have one, find someone in your area who does). Joining or just contacting an astronomy club would help. I have links to find one near you on the old site.

A star party might take a while to set up, but there are things you can do right now. There are so many online activities! There are three I particularly like:

Cosmic Diary: "The Cosmic Dairy aims to put a human face on ...