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User: Ian+Paul+Freeley

Ian+Paul+Freeley's activity in the archive.

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  1. What did your dad say on Interviews: Ask Malcolm Gladwell a Question · · Score: 2

    when he saw you wrote about the "Igon Value" problem? Wasn't he a math professor? http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/I...

  2. Re:Partial List Revealed! on Proposed Posting of Clients List In Prostitution Case Raises Privacy Concerns · · Score: 1

    How dare you out me like that!

  3. Re:Hire two more astronomers. on NASA Ponders What To Do With a Pair of Free Space Telescopes · · Score: 1

    That's for undergraduate Astronomy *majors*--they are getting jobs, but not as Astronomers. Of course, most Art History majors don't go on to be Art Historians either--but many of us would hope that a degree in astronomy would be more like a degree in engineering than a humanities degree.

  4. Re:Look at the price tag on How To Build a Telescope That Trumps Hubble · · Score: 1

    Yes, if only there were a google-map-like app that had SDSS data in it. I know, they could call it google sky! Oh wait, they did. Personally I prefer wikisky.org.
    Step 1. Put survey data on web with a nice interface
    Step 2. ?????
    Step 3. PROFIT!

  5. My new dream Mythbusters episode... on Oil Leak Could Be Stopped With a Nuke · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "So Jamie, there's a myth in a Russian newspaper that says you can plug an oil well with a nuclear bomb"

    "We've got that pile of U235 left over from the radiation myth episode, let's skip the mock-up and go straight to full-scale."

  6. Re:"soon-to-be Leader of the Free World" on Obama's "ZuneGate" · · Score: 1

    How many of those can you do at once?

  7. Re:Star photo on Very Large Telescope Captures New 27-Megapixel Deep Field · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, it's time to hire Mythbusters to settle this. Maybe its both. If the struts were that big of a problem, then couldn't they use a flat lens-plate(s) to hold the secondary mirror instead?

    Astronomers hate putting lenses into their optical systems--there is always some light lost to reflection off the glass surface. The VLT is an 8 meter diameter telescope, so supporting a giant lens above the telescope would be a major engineering issue. This isn't really a problem you can solve by adding a new lens or tweaking the secondary support structure--it's a fundamental feature caused by the wave nature of light. Anytime light passes through an aperture, it creates a diffraction pattern.

  8. Re:Star photo on Very Large Telescope Captures New 27-Megapixel Deep Field · · Score: 3, Informative

    Why do star photos have crosses over bigger stars?

    Refraction flares caused by the crystalline pattern of molecules in the glass of the lenses.

    Um, no. The spikes are caused by the diffraction of light around the struts supporting the secondary mirror in the telescope. The wave nature of light ensures that no matter how large you build your telescope, you cannot focues stars to a perfect point.