Sometimes I stop to think that some people never stop

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a textbook example why teaching science properly to our children is so important.



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Whether you believe the current consensus on global climate change, or believe those that deny it, you have to understand that this woman, a State Senator in Arizona, is making decisions about our future based on a truly warped view of the universe. The evidence is overwhelming that shows the Earth is 4.5 Billion Years old. A belief that the world is 6000 years old and hasn't been hurt by human endeavors yet means we don't need to protect the environment is utterly stupid and without basis.

Aside from the fact that a majority of the world's climate scientists believe human activity has had a negative and profound impact on global climate, and that history shows that humans have effectively wiped out entire species multiples of times (except cockroaches... we're still working on them), she believes that because the Earth is an amazingly ancient 6,000 years old and is still here that we can't possibly do anything to hurt it. She's wrong. Deadly wrong.

The Titanic couldn't sink, either.

When an expert or scientist says something is possible, they are most likely right. When an expert or scientist says something is impossible, they are most likely wrong. When a non-expert says something is impossible - they are certainly wrong. (Apologies to the Great, Late Arthur C. Clarke for mangling his quote).

For Arizona state Senator Sylvia Allen I'm willing to say that on this topic she is entirely wrong.

Now, that doesn't mean that mining Uranium in Arizona is a bad idea. It also doesn't mean it's a good one. What it means is we can't follow her advice about whether it's a good or bad idea. But she isn't giving advice, she's proposing or supporting legislation and basing her decisions on a bad interpretation of the Genesis account in the Christian Bible and Hebrew Pentateuch.

People! Don't let this happen in your state! Teach your children how science works! It isn't a collection of facts and figures - it is a journey of discovery toward understanding.

What we understand now is that the Universe is about 14 Billion years old, that the Solar System and the Earth are about 4.5 Billion years old, and that humans have been roaming the Earth for a few hundreds of thousands of years. What's new is our technology, and our apparent lack of understanding of its impact on our habitat.

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Really Cool Home Observatory

Browsing around in SecondLife™ I came across a group watching a video about a guy that built a really large telescope and an observatory to put it in. It's in seven parts.

Part One:


Find the rest after the fold!

Part Two:


Part Three:


Part Four:


Part Five:


Part Six:


Part Seven:


That looks like an interesting project - wonder what my home owners association would think...

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Independence Day - Happy 4th, y'all.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin (17 January 1706 – 17 April 1790)

The men and women of the late 18th Century gave up a great deal of security to wrest control of their liberty away from a foreign power. Let's not forget what they so dearly obtained. Let's not abandon our liberty in some vain attempt at security. Of all the rights and freedoms citizens of the United States of America enjoy, five are expressly listed in the Preamble to our constitution.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Happy Birthday, USA.

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A Little Sidewalk Astronomy

We enjoyed a clear sky Monday evening. The quarter moon hung in the sky nearly due south of us. At the appointed time my daughter and I began our observing. The appointed time being any time after 5:30 and before 8:30,
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At first I tried my binoculars. Since I hand held them finding the X proved too difficult. I pull out the Bushnell 70mm refractor. But the mount for that telescope really doesn't work - at least not properly. I'll write about that in another blog post. So I brought out the really big gun, the cannon, the Dob. I also brought out my camera.

I explained to my daughter why the shine and shadow make the X. As the sun rises at the craters that form the X the bottoms of the craters and the ground around them are still in shadow. The brightly lit rims meet and stand out against the shadow in the shape of an X. As the sun continues to rise over that part of the moon the ground brightens and the X disappears.

Here is a short group of photos:



Andrea after taking a look at the moon in the telescope. Yes, it's broad daylight. When looking at the moon, broad daylight is only a minor annoyance. In fact, in some instances, because of the way your eyes work, looking at the moon in daylight can be more comfortable. The major negative is that the sky is bright and the contrast of shadows is significantly reduced.

The following photos were all post processed for extra contrast (contrast stretching) and resized to fit the web page.



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Perhaps finding the X is challenging for you - I'll provide a little help in the images at the bottom. For now, the X is on the terminator, the line between daylight and night. This image is essentially upside down because the Newtonian Reflector design rotates the image 180 degrees. It's about 1/3 from the top left edge of the moon.



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"Can you See Me Now", says the X.



A close up view of the X.

Use the little triplet of craters right next to the X and see if you can find it in the other photos.

This is part of what I find fun about Astronomy. My Daughter enjoyed herself - although she did prefer directing me to point at other objects she thought would be interesting. She discovered clouds aren't so interesting when looked at close up, that the white part of the radio tower behind the house across from us has red splotches on it, and that Daddy really prefers looking at the moon.

Now, go listen to 365 Days of Astronomy and then go out and look up!

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Lunar X Marks the Spot

Way back in April - on the 2nd - I mentioned the X on the first quarter moon. Monday, the 29th of June is the next one. Should the clouds take the day off, you should be able to watch the X form starting about 5:15 PM Central Time (assuming I did the math correctly).
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So, here are some ideas:

If you don't have a telescope or binoculars, just go out and look up at the moon and take in the sight of the first quarter moon. Each quarter takes about 7 days to reach from the previous. The four quarters are New Moon, First Quarter, Full Moon, and Third Quarter moon.

As an alternative, go visit a friend with a telescope and get them to set up to take a look. The sky will be fairly bright, so you'll have to look carefully, but you should still see the X.

If you do have binoculars, go out and look. Invite some friends and family. That goes twice for folks with telescopes. And if you're set up to take pictures at about 50 to 100 times magnification... Do so!

Now, go out and look up!

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Friday Night at San Antonio College

[For whatever reason, this post wasn't displaying correctly in my browser and I couldn't find where the code was broke - so I deleted the fold - the whole post is on the front page rather than my preference for a teaser paragraph and link to the rest.]

Well, the weather wasn't perfect. The seeing wasn't great. Still, the visit to the Scobee Planetarium was fun. With the sun still high in the sky, because of Daylight Saving Time, I only partially setup my telescope when I arrived at 6:00 PM or so. I left the dust cover over the end, the cleaning cloth over the finder scope, and didn't put an eye piece in. I aligned the tube with the sun for minimal heating and went to chat with the crew.

Much of the usual crowd showed for tonight. We had several Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes, a few Dobsonian Newtonians, and a refractor or two. Even after the first planetarium show finished we had a bright sky. The moon, nearly full, made an obvious object of interest. Some of the comments of the kids looking at it in my telescope:

"Wow!"

"Whoa!"

"It's almost three-D!"

They're lucky they weren't looking through Keith's telescope... I hear he charges a nickel for "Wow!" and a quarter for "Whoa!"

Because the moon still had a day or so before being full, we could see the edge of the shadow; the terminator. Where the light ends and shadow begins, the craters really stand out. Really, I think a partially full moon is way more interesting to look at than the full moon. There's just that little bit more detail to see.

While waiting between shows, before the sun fully set, some folks drove up and asked about the bright ball in the sky a few nights ago. Sadly, I had to admit I hadn't heard about it. These folks told me it had zoomed below an aircraft flying overhead. I couldn't find any decent reports on the web when I got home, so I have no idea what they saw.

As the sky darkened, Saturn became visible, though the first to find it had the "Go To" telescopes and could use the computers to find it. Some of the folks got a chance to see Saturn in the telescope before we could see it naked eye. Using one of the "Go To" telescopes as a guide, I found it in my binoculars, and then my own telescope (it had just become naked eye visible).

In my telescope, Saturn showed just a hint of shadow where the rings cross the face, and with them edge on, just the barest line extending to either side. For astronomers, this is a time when Saturn can be the most interesting. Somethings lost in the glare of the rings become visible. In my telescope, though, the planet just takes on the look of a symbolic Saturn: A Disk with a line through it.

I did take the opportunity to look through the large observatory grade telescope, with it's excellent tracking drive and superior optics. There I really could see a dark line in front of the planet where the ring crossed as well as what I think are shadows across the rings from Saturn as it blots out the Sun for that portion.

I also spent some time trying to help someone with a Portaball telescope. I'm afraid I couldn't do much. The focuser came out from the mount on the tube. We tried to fix it, but the little set screws that hold it in place didn't seem to be engaging. Still, the Portaball telescope could be used with the lightest eyepieces, and the owner did get some looks at Saturn with it.

Now, go have a listen to The 365 Days of Astronomy and go out and look up! Oh, and if you haven't done so, go buy a Galileoscope or two.

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Quick Post

I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth. Or floated up and away. Or any other sort of disappearing act. Between the weather and going to classes for the summer, I haven't done much note worthy.

Diana and I did make a lamp for a church auction (the shades, actually. Two of them). Have a look:Find out more after the fold!


The Two lamps use the same base, so it's really one lamp with two shades.

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