Browsing all posts in December, 2007.

T’was the Astronomer’s Sys Admin’s Night Before Christmas

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and clouds filled the sky
Not an object was twinkling, not even Iota Tri;
The telescope was parked in its dome with great care,
In hopes of spying a star on which it could stare;
My students were nested all snug in their beds
While visions of data danced in their heads
And I in my [...]

Repeat: T’was the Astronomer’s Day Before Christmas

A couple years ago I wrote the following for “Slacker Astronomy.” Enjoy! (New adventures may be posted this evening).
[Link To Audio]
T’was the day before Christmas, and all through the dome
Not a GUI was stirring, not even gnome.
The CCDs were stored in their cases with care,
In hopes that a super nova soon would be there;
The astronomers [...]

Austin Meetup Jan 8 at 8pm

Astronomy Cast and the Bad Astronomer his bad self are planning to have meetup for all you wonderful fans and friends out there who will be at the AAS meeting or who feel like driving to Austin.
The place isn’t set in stone, but we’re thinking maybe the Iron Cactus downtown (the bar and grill within [...]

Carnival of Space #34

Yes, it’s that time of the week again.
This weeks carnival can be found over at Rainer Gerhards’ Spaceflight Blog

Tis the Season for Cynicism

It’s nearly Christmas.
Everyday my email is getting blasted with messages from Amazon, Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware reminding me exactly how long I have to order if I want gifts to arrive by Christmas. The neighborhood houses have grown luminous fur (whoever came up with the idea of icicle lights needs to be shot), and [...]

Getting Ready for AAS

It is just a few short weeks until the Astronomy Cast crew (that would be Fraser, Rebecca and I) as well as the Bad Astronomer (that would be Phil) all head down to Austin, Texas for this year’s winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
It should be a great meeting. We have funds to livecast [...]

Of Bathrooms and Underware

Ok, I have to admit that is a title I never thought I’d use, but it was a weird day.
Somehow, bathrooms/toilet rooms, and underware just kept coming up as topics.
For instance at lunch… We’d wandered onto a nauseating topic, so I mentioned, to distract things, that my husband and I spent the weekend tiling our [...]

Another Breakup: Comet Boethin forces Deep Impact to turn its eyes elsewhere

The holiday season is hard on everyone. There is the stress of trying to find the right gifts, trying to get the house ready for guests, trying to get finals graded, (trying to recover from the most malevolent case of the sniffles encountered in many years), and so many other stresses. It never surprises me [...]

Carnival

While it started yesterday, it’s not too late to enjoy this week’s space carnival over at Universe Today.

Finals Week

It’s final week here. This means faculty are wondering around, hyped up on caffeine and glee that the semester is almost over while the giggle while writing exams and cry while grading them (okay, maybe that’s just me). Writing finals is almost a religious act. We all have our own personal philosophies on why finals [...]