Astronomy from a skewed perspective

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My apologies everyone for not posting for so long.  There’ve been some personal developments that I really can’t go into but I wanted to let you know that my posts will be fewer, at least for the short term.  I’m trying to juggle a lot of things right now, and I’ve had to prioritize things [...]

Okay, new contest. Sudoku for Astronomy Haiku.It’s easy. Write me haikus and you could win your very own Sudoku Hand-held Game!So, anyway, here is the deal: I have somehow ended up with two very nice hand-held electronic sudoku games. One of them, the igadget sudoku, even has a backlit screen. Fancy. [...]

Okay, new contest. Sudoku for Astronomy Haiku.It’s easy. Write me haikus and you could win your very own Sudoku Hand-held Game!So, anyway, here is the deal: I have somehow ended up with two very nice hand-held electronic sudoku games. One of them, the igadget sudoku, even has a backlit screen. Fancy. [...]

Many of you have probably heard this story, but I am going to blog about it for the heck of it because I love this story so much. The most famous version of this story is pretty much the way it appeared in Stephen Hawking’s 1988 book A Brief History of Time, and it [...]

Many of you have probably heard this story, but I am going to blog about it for the heck of it because I love this story so much. The most famous version of this story is pretty much the way it appeared in Stephen Hawking’s 1988 book A Brief History of Time, and it [...]

s m a i s m r m i l m e p o e t a l e u m i b u n e n u g t t a u i r a sNow rotate your decoder ring two half turns left…..Actually, the above mish-mash of letters is an anagram. An [...]

s m a i s m r m i l m e p o e t a l e u m i b u n e n u g t t a u i r a sNow rotate your decoder ring two half turns left…..Actually, the above mish-mash of letters is an anagram. An [...]

Gulliver must’ve traveled to Mars.How else do you explain the fact that Jonathon Swift, writer of Gulliver’s Travels, predicted the two moons of Mars and their approximate positions over a hundred years before their discovery? Explain that. I think Gulliver must’ve made a pit-stop to Mars somewhere down the line. Here [...]

Gulliver must’ve traveled to Mars.How else do you explain the fact that Jonathon Swift, writer of Gulliver’s Travels, predicted the two moons of Mars and their approximate positions over a hundred years before their discovery? Explain that. I think Gulliver must’ve made a pit-stop to Mars somewhere down the line. Here [...]

I watched this movie called “The Heavenly Body” starring Hedy Lamarr on Turner Classic Movies. I am not sure why the movie is called “The Heavenly Body” …..unless they are referring to how astronomically hot Hedy is. What is the name Hedy short for? Hedwig?Anyway, the plot goes like this: an astronomer [...]

I watched this movie called “The Heavenly Body” starring Hedy Lamarr on Turner Classic Movies. I am not sure why the movie is called “The Heavenly Body” …..unless they are referring to how astronomically hot Hedy is. What is the name Hedy short for? Hedwig?Anyway, the plot goes like this: an astronomer [...]

Dear Theta:You are but a capital, cursive O. Theta, you are but a zero with a curvy line. An egg with a skull cap. You are but a simply decorated easter egg. How simple you are–yet, so useful. You, you, simple symbol, simple ambassador of mathematics, physics, meteorology…. Just [...]

Dear Theta:You are but a capital, cursive O. Theta, you are but a zero with a curvy line. An egg with a skull cap. You are but a simply decorated easter egg. How simple you are–yet, so useful. You, you, simple symbol, simple ambassador of mathematics, physics, meteorology…. Just [...]

I love coffee. I lurveth it. I slurpeth it. Without it, I am a worthless lump of astronomer. I do not drink Starbuck’s coffee often, as I prefer the local coffee from Columbia Street Roastery in good ‘ol Champaign, IL.With that said, I must share with you this cute-cup quote:Coffeecup photo [...]

I love coffee. I lurveth it. I slurpeth it. Without it, I am a worthless lump of astronomer. I do not drink Starbuck’s coffee often, as I prefer the local coffee from Columbia Street Roastery in good ‘ol Champaign, IL.With that said, I must share with you this cute-cup quote:Coffeecup photo [...]

http://www.stargazing.net/kevin/poetry.htmlApril is National Poetry Month.What better way to celebrate National Poetry Month than to write an astronomy limerick or haiku?Haiku is 3 lines: 5 syllables in first line, 7 syllables in second line, 5 syllables in last line.Okay, here is an example:Astronomybuff,I carry them in my heart,how I love thy blogs.Now, I want to see [...]

http://www.stargazing.net/kevin/poetry.htmlApril is National Poetry Month.What better way to celebrate National Poetry Month than to write an astronomy limerick or haiku?Haiku is 3 lines: 5 syllables in first line, 7 syllables in second line, 5 syllables in last line.Okay, here is an example:Astronomybuff,I carry them in my heart,how I love thy blogs.Now, I want to see [...]

See story summary here:http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080417/tod-space-astronomy -germany-us-offbeat-f62056d.html Nasa Vs. little German boy: who was right, anyway? 1:450, or 1:45,000? One zero, or three?Viva la scientific notation!Where you put the commas and the zeros….…… makes a BIG difference! It turns out that the German Whizkid boy was wrong about the probability of the Apophis asteroid colliding with [...]

See story summary here:http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080417/tod-space-astronomy -germany-us-offbeat-f62056d.html Nasa Vs. little German boy: who was right, anyway? 1:450, or 1:45,000? One zero, or three?Viva la scientific notation!Where you put the commas and the zeros….…… makes a BIG difference! It turns out that the German Whizkid boy was wrong about the probability of the Apophis asteroid colliding with [...]

No–or at least not that we know of– or have studied in depth. Earth is the only planet in our solar system that has been observed to have active plate tectonic activity in our crust. There is no current evidence of plate tectonic activity elsewhere in the solar system. So, you see, [...]

No–or at least not that we know of– or have studied in depth. Earth is the only planet in our solar system that has been observed to have active plate tectonic activity in our crust. There is no current evidence of plate tectonic activity elsewhere in the solar system. So, you see, [...]

Dear Illinois, Boy, you are just full of surprises. Your unpredictable weather: cold, cold, dreary, yucky, winter with foggy skies. Colorado is not nearly as cold as you, unless you are at high altitudes, like in the mountains. And what now, an earthquake? WTF, Illinois? [...]

Death and Taxes: … by ~mibi on deviantARTDONE!  FINALLY!  I’ve spent last weekend contaminating my trusty MacBook Pro with TurboTax and IRS webpages and now, I’ve sent the results of our hard work (my Mac and me, I tend to anthropomorphisize devices I’m a attached to) off to the government.Paying taxes hurts, especially when you [...]

Remember LiteBrite, a toy introduced in 1967 by Hasbro?Here is the Supernova explosion process explained by SlackerAstronomy using LiteBrite as a learning tool: “I thought that I had a solid grasp of discourse analysis, I really did. I’ve never received a mark lower than an A+ on any of the discourse analyses that I’ve written [...]

I am sure most of you have heard of the Google Earth program’s Google Sky component. Well, this Spring, Microsoft will also come out with a similar Windows-only software called WorldWide Telescope. Me, I am strictly a Mac-man so I probably won’t even personally bother using this, but the prospect of another mass-produced [...]