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100 Hours of Astronomy Webcast Underway

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the unabashed-eye-candy dept.

An anonymous reader writes "As part of the International Year of Astronomy, the live video webcast Around the World in 80 Telescopes is taking place now, with fascinating live linkups with the world's leading observatories. The schedule for the webcast is available as a PDF and the recorded videos are available via the 100 hours of astronomy page"

8 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Year of Astronomy... by ajs · · Score: 3, Informative

    150 years since the publication of OoS just doesn't seem all that interesting to me. 400 years is a much rounder number.

    In the year 2009, the world will celebrate the International Year of Astronomy as it commemorates the 400th anniversary of Galileoâ(TM)s use of a telescope to study the skies, and Keplerâ(TM)s publication of Astronomia Nova. 2009 is also the anniversary of many other historic events in science, including Huygenâ(TM)s 1659 publication of Systema Saturnium.This will be modern astronomyâ(TM)s quadricentennial, and the 2009 Year of Astronomy will be an international celebration of numerous astronomical and scientific milestones.

    -- http://astronomy2009.us/

  2. Re:Year of Astronomy... by east+coast · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Feel free to celebrate Darwin all you want. Nothing is there to stop you. Why is there this pervasive attitude around here that we have to choose one or another?

    If I had to choose I would still go for astronomy. I bet you that astronomy has spurred many more people into taking up an interest in science more than evolution could ever imagine. Why do you think the vast majority of all science fiction is based on space? The rallying points for science set out there for the public needs to get a hold of people's imagination. Astronomy does that in spades.

    --
    Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
  3. Re:ISS by LordSnooty · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you've got no imagination then yes, I suppose you'd find it disappointing. Me, I found it awe-inspiring, to think that this is a craft with up to six people on it, shooting across the sky at an incredible rate (30 minutes before it was on the other side of the world). Seeing the Shuttle just ahead of it, moving at the same speed on the same plane was the icing on the cake.

    What were you expecting, dancing girls and a cool laser show?

  4. Re:Year of Astronomy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why do you think the vast majority of all science fiction is based on space?

    Because alien chicks can have any arbitrary number of boobs.

  5. Re:Year of Astronomy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yeah, 150 years since OoS.
    64 years since the first computer,
    62 years since transistors were invented,
    51 years since integrated circuits were invented,
    38 years since Intel invented the 4004,
    31 years since the first Apple ][s,
    28 years since the first IBM PC,
    25 years since the first Mac,
    17 years since Bill and Lynne Jolitz released 386bsd,
    And 17 years since Ken Thompson invented UTF-8.
    But in the 21st Century, Slashdot still uses fricken ASCII

  6. Great stream - relevant, entertaining, educational by JehosaPhat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is a fantastic idea, and a wonderful implementation. . . . not to mention that it is a great use of internet video streaming. Compared to all much the inane video junk available, this is truly educational and engrossing. When my kids get home form school in an hour or so, I am confident that this will be a wonderful for them to get exposed to contemporary science issues without realizing they are being more than just 'entertained'. Thank you for the post.

  7. 365 days of Astronomy Podcast by coastwalker · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Enjoying the video stream, never realised there were so many observatories doing cool stuff. Also try the excellent podcast stream, one per day for the rest of the year.
    http://365daysofastronomy.org/
    (Yes I bought the tee shirt)

    --
    Facts are history now plebs have politics for religion on social media.
    1. Re:365 days of Astronomy Podcast by wwphx · · Score: 2, Informative

      Off-hand, I know of five in Southern/Central New Mexico: Apache Point, National Solar Observatory at Sun Spot, Very Large Array, Magdalena Ridge, the former Liquid Mirror Telescope installation just outside of Cloudcroft. There's also New Mexico Skies east of Cloudcroft, but that's a for-profit venture with large amateur models.

      In Arizona, you've got Kitt Peak, Mount Graham, Lowell Observatory (Pluto discoverer), there's at least 1 more in Southern AZ but I can't think of the name. And usually these have multiple telescopes: Apache Point has my wife's 3.5 meter, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey 2 meter, and 1 meter and a .75(IIRC) meter, but the point is it has two haard-core science-grade installations, and it could get a third.

      The important thing is the site. The spend, just surveying the sky optical quality, over a year studying it. Then the soil/geology studies. Can we build a big enough road up to it? Is there close enough housing and facilities? And a huge list of etceteras. So there's a lot more telescopes than there area observatories.

      And they also have a pretty good size IT infrastructure with LOTS of linux admin geekery and programming to be done in a lot of different environments because each instrument's controlling computer is created by that instrument's scientists, so they talk in a number of different crazy ways. Apparently it's quite a challenge being an admin up there, I certainly don't have the chops for it (I'm a database guy).

      --
      When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.