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Domain: astroday.net

Stories and comments across the archive that link to astroday.net.

Comments · 6

  1. SE/PO types... and parents. by Shag · · Score: 2, Informative · on Tomorrow's Science Heroes?

    There are a lot of people who work in science education and public outreach. Staff at museums and planetaria, for example. Outreach people from research facilities (here on Mauna Kea, just about every observatory has official outreach people). And people who just think what they do is so fun and cool they want to share it with people.

    I'm fortunate enough to work in astronomy, and I love bringing my daughter up to the visitor station for stargazing or hiking, or video-chatting with her while operating or observing. I also volunteer at the visitor station, lead tours of the summit, and generally "reach out" to anyone who's interested. I don't get any observing time on the 8-meter I operate, but I just got offered some time on a 2-meter and am going to work with my daughter, my nephew and my neighbors' kids to come up with a project.

    These are 8-14 year olds, so they can probably weigh in on whether we should look at asteroids, kuiper belt objects, supernovae, black holes, or whatever. But I started in the field when my daughter was 5, and even though the first few years she was mostly just wanting to look at stuff in the sky, and not caring so much about what it actually was, she's grown up knowing that her dad gets to do really cool stuff, instead of just sitting in a cubicle. Probably also doesn't hurt that she has autographed photos of a couple NASA astronauts she's met. :)

    There are a lot of science outreach activities in our town, like AstroDay and Onizuka Science Day and robotics competitions and all that... plus public talks, the world's first 3-D planetarium, and... okay, okay, the whole farkin' island is one giant playground for any kid (or adult) who's into natural sciences at all.

    Find your local science museums or science centers or observatories or planetaria or whatever, find out who handles the local robotics competition, etc. Plenty of unknown heroes out there.

    Oh, one word of advice, though: don't expect the kids to go for your favorite science. I may be an astro-geek, and her mom's a social scientist, but my daughter tends more toward chemistry.

  2. "TWEEL" seems like a bad design by ryanw · · Score: 4, Interesting · on Lunar Oxygen and Water Production Tech Tested

    It looks like "if" it happens to stumble upon water there would most likely be mud causing the holes in the wheels to fill up with gunk. Also I could see rocks and things getting stuck on this holes causing it to weigh more and change how it operates. http://www.astroday.net/Images/MKrovers/PISCES005.jpg

  3. They've already funded this. Did they forget? by Shag · · Score: 1 · on NASA Can't Pay for Killer Asteroid Hunt
    NASA and others have already funded a whole bunch of things to find asteroids. Like:

    LINEAR
    LONEOS
    NEAT
    Spacewatch

    The next generation involves ones that will find more, find smaller (but still dangerous) ones, and find them faster. Like:

    Pan-STARRS (prototype built)
    LSST (proposed)

    Pan-STARRS most certainly is funded, is in active development, already has a single-telescope prototype up and running to some degree, and hopes to have its full system (4 telescopes, each with a 1.4 gigapixel camera) operational in the next few years. (The nastiest rock we're aware of so far will miss us in about 22 years.)

    If there is a life on earth ending event occurring from some asteroid they COULD find, does it matter at all? There is nothing we can do about it anyway.


    Actually, there is. Nature ran an article 2 years ago on a proposal for a "gravity tractor" by NASA astronauts Ed Lu and Stan Love. I've seen Ed's presentation on it, and he knows his stuff. (He's a farkin' astronaut, after all, and was an astrophysicist before that.)

    So, to recap:

    NASA has funded this stuff all along. The stuff Congress wants done probably will actually get done. And NASA's own people are already telling anyone who will listen what to do if we do find the big nasty rock.

    Exactly why nobody at NASA can remember any of this when testifying before Congress... I have no idea. :)

    Disclaimer: I work for the institute that's the lead organization on Pan-STARRS. Ed Lu used to work there too; I've met him; I may be biased. :) I also know and work with the (in)famous David Tholen, who found that 2029 rock, Apophis.

    Oh, and if you'd like to check out a talk given by Ed, David, and Pan-STARRS's Rob Jedicke and Nick Kaiser, I'm sure my buddy over at AstroDay.net won't mind a few visitors... dunno if you'll all be listen to the audio podcast of the session at the same time, though!

  4. Went to a talk about this last month. by Shag · · Score: 1 · on Asteroid Highlighted as Impact Threat

    q.v. http://www.astroday.net/AstroTalk35.html - the panel featured Dave Tholen (discoverer of Apophis, and colorful Usenet figure), Ed Lu (NASA Shuttle and ISS astronaut and co-inventor of the "gravity tractor" idea) and a couple guys from the Pan-STARRS asteroid-hunting project.

  5. Re:Note To NASA by Shag · · Score: 1 · on Deep Impact Comet-Smashing Video
    Although they may be "very excited and looking forward to the encounter", they won't be able to see the results very well.
    Well... actually, it depends on how you define "they." And if "they" are "everyone on the science and engineering teams," that includes a lot of people who aren't hunkered down over screens at JPL. In fact, academics outnumber NASA folks on the science team.

    I only know the whereabouts of one science team member on that fateful night - my colleague at U. of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy, Karen Meech. She'll be at one of the observatories on Mauna Kea, which, like all the others up there, and at least one over on Haleakala, will be watching the impact in whatever wavelengths work best.

    Given that the impact has been timed to make it observable from Hawaii, it's a fairly big deal out here. I'll be part of the public outreach program over on Maui that night, and my only regret is that I'll have to miss the program here in Hilo to do that.

    (I wouldn't really be at all surprised if some other science team members are out here for the impact - I've seen more than one astronomer from far away point out that the advantages of siting telescopes in Hawaii include periodically having to take a trip to Hawaii.)

  6. Good concept! by Shag · · Score: 3, Insightful · on Time Lapse of Lunar Eclipse
    Kinda need more zoom (500mm is good for most kinds of eclipses, I think), though. A nice telescope with a guider on it would work wonders for this sort of thing.

    Another timelapse of the same eclipse, from 2400 miles WSW of San Francisco, is at http://www.astroday.net/LunarEclipse.html in QuickTime format... I hope my friend doesn't mind the slashdotting. Still not much in the way of telephoto or zoom, but nifty cloud patterns and stuff.