Krioma.net

In the past I have mentioned NASA's Astronomical Picture of the Day (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html). This is a lovely site and you always get something interesting and beautiful. Today I would like to mention the Lunar Photo of the Day site (http://www.lpod.org/). This site is a great showcase of amateur astronomers efforts into imaging the moon and some of the pictures they produce are absolutely stunning. Some of their pictures are almost as good as some of the ones archived by NASA's / ESA's spacecraft! They also, like the NASA site, have a good description of what you are seeing. Well worth a visit when you are a little bored and trying to figure something to have a look at.

Earlier I mentioned the Lunar Picture of the Day site, well here is another wonderful image of the Moon. The is of Vallis Alpes. The lunar surface looks very odd in this region. I think it sometimes can look like trees, obviously there are no such objects there. Still though it is an interesting example of strange lunar geography. A few more images of this can be seen here. An there is a rather interesting discussion about some of the observational phenomenon associated with this object here.

If you missed Google's April Fools then you missed a treat. Google Gulp is what it is called, take a look at: http://www.google.co.uk/googlegulp/

Ever wanted to polar align your telescope in a more accurate method than with you eye? Well you could try a webcam. Webcam astronomy is getting bigger and better all the time. It opens up astrophotography to anyone with a scope and a £100 or so cash to spend. You can get excellent results and you don't need a hideously expensive CCD. Polar Aligning a telescope can be annoying at best but you need to do it well. It can be improved by using a webcam and here (http://www.madpc.net/~firmament/polar_alignment.html) is a good method to do so.

If you are using Mozilla Firefox as your web browser (if you aren't then get it from http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/) then there are now a myriad of different add-ons available. I personally use SAGE which is a feed reader. Quite useful to get the latest news. One thing I have always thought would be good for web forms, that don't have the functionality built into them, is a spell checker. Well I shall now introduce you to Spellbound, http://spellbound.sourceforge.net/. This is a rather useful and I personally like it, though I haven't used it much yet but I know I am bound to. All I need now is a grammar checker and off I go :-)

Following on from my previous attempt at astrophotography with a mobile phone on the Moon (see: http://www.krioma.net/blog/archives/2005_03_20.php#000585) I decided to go for another object to see what I could get out of it. The method is very simple. Get your mobile phone. Place it at the eye piece of a telescope. Focus. Press button when camera is aligned - this can be a tricky procedure. Due to this the pictures that are obtained aren't the best but I wouldn't expect much from a mobile phone camera anyway. Here is Jupiter and her moons (I haven't identified which on is which yet as I am being lazy - will do this later).

With 'night vision' mode:



Normal setting:

Ever fancied doing something different with your scope? A common research tool is to obtain an object's spectra. This can tell you lots of things. In general this is useful to determine what the object is made out of, but you can do other things. For example for a spectra of a galaxy you can determine the morphological type without the countless problems that can occur due to photometric methods. Well I am getting away from the subject of this post and am introducing a bit of unnecessary jargon. With a webcam, as you probably are aware, you can set it up to take nice pictures. Well what don't we stick a diffraction grating in the way and obtain the object's spectra? Sounding interesting yet? Personally I have done this many times with modern CCD's and I even wrote some control software for a spectroscope (see: http://www.krioma.net/articles/spectrograph/Computer%20Controlled%20Spectrograph.htm). I have to say though I am very intrigued to do this with a webcam. I think it shall be something I encourage the astronomy society I am part of to give a go and if they don't want to I shall do it on my own when I get some time. I came across a very useful site full of wonders and helpful suggestions on how to accomplish webcam astronomy, see: http://www.leadbeaterhome.fsnet.co.uk/spectroscopy.htm

The Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting got going today. I intend to write a few posts on things I came across today. Lots of interesting ideas and a few comments I have. I am too tired now so will leave it for now. Lots of press releases today and some have even got into the press! Here are some links I have come across in a quick search: (some of these contain very similar content!)

Swift ready for Universe's worst - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4414293.stm
Plenty of Earths await discovery - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4411865.stm
Galaxy has mystery star clusters - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4412287.stm
Astronomers Discover Mysterious New Star Clusters -
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/physik_astronomie/bericht-42486.html
'Super-starburst' galaxies hide active black holes -
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0504/04starburst/
Earths Galore -
http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1511&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Real Science: Millions of 'Earths' await discovery - http://www.thealienonline.net/ao_030.asp?tid=1&scid=72&iid=2807
Habitable Planets: Disaster Zones and Safe Havens - http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050405_earth_like.html
Large Number of Earth-Like Planets 'Likely' - http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4354371
How Many Habitable Planets Could Be Out There? -
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/how_many_habitable_planets.html?542005
Black Holes, Exploding Stars and Solar Storms: Shining Stars of Astronomy Gather on Campus - http://www.newscentre.bham.ac.uk/release.htm?releaseId=1760

This was presented last night. All I can say is yippee!!!! Maybe it should be a more dignified response but no, I think yippee does the trick. Good for Birmingham. This title is given by the Royal Astronomical Society and the press release (http://www.ras.org.uk/html/press/pn0529ras.html) can be seen below:

Birmingham to be the UK's "City of Space 2005"

Birmingham is to be awarded the title of "UK City of Space 2005" by the UK's space and astronomy community. The title is being awarded in recognition of the city's role in hosting two major space events and its initiative in organising other space themed activities this year. The "City of Space" title is being conferred by the Royal Astronomical Society and the British National Space Centre Partnership, a group of government departments and research councils that coordinates UK civil space activity. This is the first time that such a title has been awarded. The President of the Royal Astronomical Society, Professor Kathy Whaler, will formally bestow the title and present Councillor Alden, Cabinet Member for Leisure Sport and Culture at Birmingham City Council, with a certificate during the opening reception for the 2005 RAS National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Birmingham. The presentation will take place at 7:45pm at the Barber Institute on Monday 4th April. Birmingham will be visited by 400 of the UK's leading astronomers and space scientists from 4-8th April, when the University of Birmingham hosts the 2005 RAS National Astronomy Meeting. This is one of the most important regular gatherings of astronomers in the UK. This year's event has been organised by the University of Birmingham's Physics and Astronomy department, which has significant research interest in astrophysics and space. Later this summer, Birmingham's Thinktank Museum of Science and Discovery will be hosting the British Festival of Space from 30th June-3rd July. The British Festival of Space is a showcase for the UK's space programme and offers events for schools and for members of the public, including hands-on activities and talks about the latest news in space exploration. In addition, Birmingham City Council has chosen to organise space themed events during 2005, including its "Discovery Day" on 21st August when space-themed activities for families will be organised throughout the city centre.

I decided to go to this morning's plenary sessions. The first was basically the status of exoplanet discoveries and theories. Very interesting. The second was along the same sort of lines, but was about the possibilities of life on other planets. This was very much astrobiology minus any detailed biology so was actually quite interesting and I was able to keep my eyes open - I don't think I would have if the speaker had gone on about biology in any detail, apart from the obviously needed stuff. I see there are also a bunch of press releases out and so far today I have spotted the following media attention:

Telescope catches early starlight - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4414481.stm
Light Seen From Earliest Stars -
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/light_earliest_stars.html?642005
Astronomers Expect To Be "Dazled" By Views Of Ancient Universe -
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/physik_astronomie/bericht-42607.html
Universe spawned stars at a young age -
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050404/full/050404-5.html

I saw an image at last night's talk that I just had to post. I have seen this image many times before but never noticed what I am about to show you. Last night's talk (the Allison-Levick Lecture) by Fred Watson of the Anglo-Australian Observatory (more info here) was very interesting. I even went for a nice balti afterwards with the guys from the AAO. One thing that really struck me from this talk was one particular image which he showed and described:


Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), N. Walborn (STScI) and R. Barbß (La Plata Obs.), NASA

All I am going to say is that it is a very thought provoking image. Maybe God is sending us a message? I think a better description is on NASA's APOD site (here is the page): "Explanation: This dense cloud of gas and dust is being deleted. Likely, within a few million years, the intense light from bright stars will have boiled it away completely. Stars not yet formed in the molecular cloud's interior will then stop growing. The cloud has broken off of part of the greater Carina Nebula, a star forming region about 8000 light years away. Newly formed stars are visible nearby, their images reddened by blue light being preferentially scattered by the pervasive dust. This unusually-colored image spans about two light years and was taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in 1999. This Carina sub-cloud is particularly striking partly because its clear definition stimulates the human imagination (e.g. it could be perceived as a superhero flying through a cloud, arm up, with a saved person in tow below)."

Or maybe we should follow the principles of Occams Razor - sometimes the most simplest explanation is the best!
Oh and here is the larger image. The above is a effectively a zoomed in version - you will see the nebula on the left hand side.

Here are some of the latest news items in relation to the RAS National Astronomy Meeting on Day 2:

Astronomers Expect To Be "Dazled" By Views Of Ancient Universe - http://www.physorg.com/news3622.html
Aurora Science Workshop - http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=16413
Astronomers expect to be 'Dazled' - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4418131.stm

Oh and before anyone says anything - yes so am I with the lateness. The Guardian, for those of you that don't know it is a (crap!) British newspaper, printed an article in February that I just came across today. Basically they state that Mimas looks like the Death Star from Star Wars. AS if we all didn't have that thought a very long time ago when we saw the Voyager images. What is the point in printing something that was observed 20 years ago? Looks like filler material to me. Come on get some original material. Surely they could have printed something else that was interesting in Astronomy if they wanted to do an article about space. Well I guess there is one good thing that will come out of this, and that is that hopefully some youngster will have come across this and gone wow! Oh and at least they did mention that it was first seen by the Voyager space craft. Though the images of Mimas taken by Cassini are looking more like the Death Star than the old images by Voyager did. The Guardian article can be found here and a really cool picture of Mimas can be found here.

Today I attended lots of talks on galaxy evolution, all very interesting. I think the week has gone well. Well I haven't heard anyone complaining about the registration system / upload facility on the website so I am not going to moan :-) I have came across the following news items about NAM:

Deepest X-rays tell merger story - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4420209.stm
UK Provides e-Ffective Access to Upcoming Solar Dynamics - http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=16559
Solving the Mystery of Solar Flares - http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=16561
Earths Galore -
http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1511&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
In the Stars: Seeking Earth's counterparts - http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050405-080053-1464r.htm
Supernova origin clues found in dusty stellar wind - http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0504/04supernova/
Starburst Galaxies Hide Black Holes - http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/starburst_galaxies_black_holes.html?542005
Searching for Gravity Waves - http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/searching_for_gravity_waves.html?542005
Solution Found for Cosmology's Great Pancake Mystery - http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=16560
Concentrated Dark Matter at the Cores of Fossil Galaxies - http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=16562

Today was the final day of the National Astronomy Meeting and it seems to have gone well. Well done to the organisers for a good event. I was glad I was able to go along... I now have a few more ideas to look at. As I have done on every other day, here is a list of news items I have come across:

Fossil galaxies 'eat neighbours' - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4423651.stm
Astronomers Discover Mysterious New Star Clusters -
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/physics_astronomy/report-42486.html
Galactic pancake mystery solved - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4422555.stm
X-ray vision of violence in interacting galaxy clusters - http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0504/07merging/
X-Ray Vision of Violence in Interacting Galaxies - http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=16586
Structure scales - http://www.astronomy.com/default.aspx?c=a&id=3051
Galaxy Clusters, Near and Far, Have A Lot in Common - http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=16582
Ground-based Telescopes Have An Extremely Large Future - http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=16585
Really Big Telescopes are Coming - http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/big_observatories_coming.html?842005
First galaxies arrived early, and overweight - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/06/early_galaxies/
Discovery Of Giant X-Ray Loop Hints At Cosmic Particle Accelerator - http://www.keralanext.com/news/indexread.asp?id=174728
Cosmic Particle Accelerator at the Centre of the Milky Way - http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/cosmic_particle_accelerator.html?842005
The Milky Way's central X-ray loop - http://www.astronomy.com/default.aspx?c=a&id=3047
M31's strange new star clusters - http://www.astronomy.com/default.aspx?c=a&id=3043
UK Provides E-ffective Access To Upcoming Solar Dynamics Observatory - http://www.keralanext.com/news/indexread.asp?id=174666
New solar flare evidence may solve mystery - http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0504/07flare/

My site was, again, referenced on the Crimea's website (see: http://www.inaudible.co.uk/archives/00000434.html). Lets hope they can build on their success of last year though I doubt I will hear much new stuff from them myself - since they haven't had an official album release for the charts yet. Hopefully soon. After reading their site (http://www.inaudible.co.uk/archives/00000434.html) it seems as if their South By Southwest festival shows went well. Good for them. I wish them every success since their music is damn good. All I am going to say is listen to them!

Yesterday there was a hybrid solar eclipse across the pacific / americas. A good article describing what happened and what it is a hybrid solar eclipse can be found here. There is also an excellent excellent gallery of images here. My favourite is probably this one - wow! A few other excellent images can be found here.

Cosmic 'traffic pile-ups' probed - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4426643.stm
First stars seen in distant galaxies - http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0504/08firststars/

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) have approved the following new designations and names of satellites of Jupiter (more info here):
Jupiter XXXIX Hegemone = S/2003 J 8
Jupiter XL Mneme = S/2003 J 21
Jupiter XLI Aoede = S/2003 J 7
Jupiter XLII Thelxinoe = S/2003 J 22
Jupiter XLIII Arche = S/2002 J 1
Jupiter XLIV Kallichore = S/2003 J 11
Jupiter XLV Helike = S/2003 J 6
Jupiter XLVI Carpo = S/2003 J 20
Jupiter XLVII Eukelade = S/2003 J 1
Jupiter XLVIII Cyllene = S/2003 J 13
If you want to know more about these satellites or Jupiter's satellites in general take a look here. Oh and more info about on planetary nomenclature can be found on this site.

Last night me and Steve went to the Uni's observatory to take a few images. One of the targets we investigated was M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy. We still have lots to do with our images. So far all that has been completed is the removal of the bias, dark and flat frames. I thought I'd post what we have got so far as I think it looks quite good for little processing and our first real attempt at this (oh and this image was taken in the V band).

M51 is a spiral type galaxy which lies in Canes Venatici. It was originally discovered by Charles Messier, hence the M, in 1773. The galaxy itself lies about 37 million light years away from us! More information about this wonderful object can be found at: http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m051.html

Here is the scene - AC Milan vs Inter, a big derby match. It is also the Quarter-Finals of the Champions League and AC are 2-0 up after the first match. They both share a ground - so both are at home. AC took the lead so where 3-0 up then in the second half a goal was disallowed. I think it should have been given but heck I am not a ref. It was then the catalyst to a war zone. The Inter fans started throwing stuff at Dida, the AC Milan goalkeeper, who stood tall. It was only bottles at first. Then came a flare (anyone seen at an English game with one of these is normal banned for life from the ground!) which luckily didn't hit anyone. Then another came and another. I don't think Dida had quite noticed this and then bang on hit him on the shoulder which was lucky as he was just turning around. This resulted in first degree burns to his shoulder.



The flares keep raining down and it ended up looking like a war zone. The teams went off. They came back and tried to restart but it was no good it just started again. Result - AC Milan through and I UEFA debating disciplinary action. I hope it is severe. It better be as they are always crucifying English fans. Time for UEFA and FIFA to open their eyes to the Italian fans. I just hope that tomorrows match with Juve goes well with no problems. Come on the REDS!!!!

For more see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/4432047.stm

This flash animation is all about hard disks and the flipping of bytes (http://hitachigst.com/hdd/research/recording_head/pr/PerpendicularAnimation.html) ... take a look its quite funny.

According to BBC News:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4420385.stm
Tony Christie's cult song Amarillo is becoming an election soundtrack. Is anyone else a bit sick of this?

This is another news article to come out of NAM (National Astronomy Meeting) that is quite interesting (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4426535.stm) Oh and someone has to remind astronomers how to name things - OWL is the new one and it stands for Overwhelmingly Large Telescope. I guess it beats the VLA (Very Large Array) and the Very Large Telescope (VLT)!

Take a look at: http://www.whoshouldyouvotefor.com/ it isa rather interesting webform that we take you inputs and give you a result of who you should vote for based on the manifestos of the parties. My result can be seen below and doesn't differ from what I thought would be the case. Come on the lib dems!





Who should I vote for?


Your expected outcome: Liberal Democrat


Your actual outcome:

Labour -4
Conservative -61
	Liberal Democrat 86
UK Independence Party -29
	Green 7

The LibDems take a strong stand against tax cuts and a strong one in favour of public services: they would make long-term residential care for the elderly free across the UK, and scrap university tuition fees. They are in favour of a ban on smoking in public places, but would relax laws on cannabis. They propose to change vehicle taxation to be based on usage rather than ownership.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

Last night I went to see The Amityville Horror. It wasn't a bad film, at times it was actually quite good and if you remove the cliched feel that you get from this then it is actually quite good. The important thing to remember is that it is a remake of a 1970s horror film. I was well entertained. It is supposedly based on a true story. Being interested I looked at a few websites and it is quite an interesting story even though some of the more recent stuff appears to be of legal wranglings! The first site I came across was http://www.amityvillemurders.net/ which I feel is trying to sell you a book more than present information but it isn't a bad site and has some interesting stuff on it. I then came across http://www.amityvillehorrortruth.com/ which has loads of interesting stuff on it, though at times a bit imaginative it is still very interesting. Oh and there is even an interview on there with George Lutz - who lived in the house and the stories are based around. As for the film take a look at: http://www.amityvillehorrormovie.com/

It astonishes me at what domains people hog at times, here is the latest example and it has divine implications.

Is that a bird? Is that a plane, well yes it is - but it is damn big! The world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, completed its maiden test flight today. It has been said to be the biggest thing (not literally!) to have happened to european aviation since concorde! It was even watched by 50,000 - they should have sold tickets and made some cash! For more see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4488361.stm and here for the pictures.

No not a downstairs bedroom!! Straight into the first floor bedroom.



The really funny thing is that the police don't seem to understand how this was possible! Well they didn't earlier when I was discussed on BBC News 24 - looks as if they are going for "it hit the kerb" solution. Take a look at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/4493713.stm

...in norway - this is a landmark case: http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1027927.ece

oh and this is a landmark post - my 600th!

Yesterday I got back my big group photo picture of us at the PPS ball - taken by the pro's. Below you can see a scanned in photo. I like to think that us physicists can scrub up quite well! :-) What a crazy night - for more photos see here.

A friend of mine sent me this, I thought it was quite apt.

HOW TO IMPRESS A WOMAN


Compliment her,

respect her,

honor her,

cuddle her,

kiss her, caress her,

love her, stroke her,

tease her,

comfort her,

protect her,

hug her,

hold her,

spend money on her,

wine and dine her,

buy things for her,

listen to her,

care for her,

stand by her,

support her,

hold her,

go to the ends of the Earth for her.


HOW TO IMPRESS A MAN

Show up naked.

Bring food.

This is probably the funniest flash animation I have seen in a long time. It includes all your favourite stars from modern politics, Blair, Bush, Coward (sorry Howard), Kennedy (legend!), Bin Laden, Blunket, Cooke and a few other suprises... If this doesn't make you go out and vote then I don't know what will. http://www.gbjab.com/

Oh I particularly like the intro with Bush and then the Howard rap! :-)