More carnivals
21 Apr at 21:52 by Wilson
The Carnival of Space has reached edition number 50! It’s hosted at KySat, the website of the Kentucky Space Program. This week, you can read lots and lots of articles about Mars and its satellites, plus information about the Rocket Racing League (yes, it is as fun as it sounds) and, fittingly, you can also watch an episode of Firefly. And much more, of course.
Carnival of carnivals
29 Feb at 23:51 by Wilson
This is a bit embarassing, but I missed posting about a few editions of the Carnival of Space… so, here they go!
Two weeks ago, New Frontiers hosted the record-breaking (in number of articles) Carnival of Space #41, where we learned about cosmic cannibals, uses for the Wii remote, the Columbus module and Columbus’s compass, among many others.
Last week, Chris Lintott hosted the Carnival of Space #42 and ordered the entries by distance from the Earth: from what’s beyond our horizon, through the possible location of the world’s most powerful telescope, all the way to Phoenix, including everything in between.
And this week Starts With a Bang hosts the Oscar-themed Carnival of Space #43, with awards for Stellar Breakthrough Performance, Biggest Burst, Best Broadcast and many others, including (of course) Best Picture.
And, if you want more, head over to the Conspiracy Factory for this week’s leap-year themed Skeptics Circle.
Enjoy!
Microsoft virtual telescope to be launched, 27 Feb
19 Feb at 23:11 by Wilson
Techcrunch is reporting that Microsoft is expected to launch a “virtual planetarium” application later this month, on 27 February (probably 28 February for those of us in Australia), during this year’s TED Conference. Under the name WorldWide Telescope, it is reported to be significantly better than Stellarium, the very useful open source application that transforms your PC in a planetarium.
Still according to Techcrunch, MS will display data from the Hubble Space Telescope and ten other Earth-based observatories, and the user will be able to view the sky in a range of different frequencies.
I will definitely be trying this out, and I’ll write a bit more once I’ve seen the product.
Moon hoax - busted
12 Feb at 9:14 by Wilson
This Week at NASA reports that the Mythbusters are recording an episode about the “Moon hoax” — you know, the claim by conspiracy nuts that the Moon landings of the late 60s and early 70s were faked. The show has recorded segments at several NASA centres, but I have no idea about when it’s going to air (neither in the US nor in Australia, especially with SBS’s wild rearranging of the order of the episodes…).
I wonder if Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, is involved with this. He has an excellent website responding to the claims of the “Moon landing deniers”, and apparently he was approached by the Mythbusters years ago with the possibility of doing some astronomy-related segments…
Carnival of space #40
8 Feb at 13:01 by Wilson
It’s Friday (in Australia), so it means a new Carnival of Space is up. This time it’s number 40, and it’s at the Orbiting Frog, who introduces a brand new way to browse through the articles.
And it does look like there are more and more articles in the carnival each week. That’s a very good sign.
Carnival of Space Noir #38
25 Jan at 15:41 by Wilson
Well, that is different. This week’s Carnival of Space is up at Sorting Out Science, and it’s written as a crime story.
“I’m Addie — Addie Astra. And I seem to have a missing mass problem.” I told her that what she did with her Sunday mornings was her business — but the joke went right past her. This Addie, she’s a cool one, all right — or maybe just not the brightest star in the sky. Or maybe she just wanted me to think that.
Go check it out; it’s very cool. And so are all the stories linked from it.
Carnival of Space #36
11 Jan at 16:46 by Wilson
Dynamics of Cats has the latest edition of the Carnival of Space, and we’re up to number 36 already! One of the interesting stories it points to refers to 2007 WD5, the asteroid that might impact Mars later this month. The chance of impact at one time was 1-in-25, but it now looks more like 1-in-10,000. Too bad.
Plus: gorgeous pictures, 200 Lunar sci-fi stories, black holes in Saturn and more!
AAS meeting
10 Jan at 17:03 by Wilson
The American Astronomical Society is now having its annual meeting in Austin, Texas, and as a consequence there is a flood of astronomy news floating around. In fact, there’s too much for me to write about, and people that are better (and more knowledgeable) writers than me have being doing a great job of covering the news. So, for lots of information on the meeting, see:
- the Bad Astronomy blog, by Phill Plait
- Star Stryder, by Pamela Gay, who can also be heard with Fraser Cain on…
- the Astronomy Cast podcast, where there’s live coverage, videos and audio of the meeting
Enjoy!
Barbecues and Carnivals
7 Dec at 13:35 by Wilson
I should have mentioned this earlier, but… tomorrow (8 Dec) the Astronomical Society of Victoria promotes the 2007 Star-Be-Cue at its dark sky site in Heathcote, Victoria. The event is open to the general public; it starts at noon and officially ends at 11.30am on Sunday (but, of course, one is free to arrive and leave at any time). Arriving before sunset is much recommended. Several vendors will be around displaying products, there are prizes, Santa will be showing up, a hot dinner and cold drinks will be provided, and a beautiful starry sky is expected to make an appearance and to be on display on a number of different telescopes (weather forecast: 9 to 29°C, mostly sunny). The full program of events and instructions for finding the site are at the ASV website. $5 for members, $10 for non-members, but well worth it.
And, in the online world, Carnival of Space #32 has been posted, including an assortment of links about missions to the Moon, missions to Mars, missions to Grand Central Station in NY, sailing missions around the solar system and many other mission- and non-mission-related posts around the astrosphere.
Carnival of Space #30 is up
26 Nov at 14:41 by Wilson
The newest edition of the Carnival of Space is up at the Bad Astronomy Blog, and it brings several amazing pictures, lots of information on the recent Rosetta fly-by, and even an analysis of the science content of a comic strip. Go get it!
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