Archive of Writings
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Mt Palomar and San Diego Fires
N.B. I just checked the Palomar Observatory website. They simply say the observatory is closed due to fire. I tried accessing the Hale webcam and my connection timed out. Nothing good comes from a firestorm. Perhaps this one will at least spare the telescopes.
New Computers and Returning Carnivals
I got a new laptop. I'm currently trying to transplant my brain onto it and the surgery is taking longer than expected (although, so far there seem to be no complications). The surprise I had planned for yesterday it currently sedated, but I expect the patient to...
Making photometric data fit in a Standard System Using Excel
This entry goes out to all you amazing observers who want to do better science with your photometric data. Over on the AAVSO listervs I also see emails from folks asking for good comparison stars for variable stars, especially those one off variables - supernova and...
AstroFest
I go to a lot of conferences. Some are good, some are bad, and most are just, well, a generic conference. In addition to the science content presented, I tend to judge conferences by three other criteria: Is it pleasant (are the hotel and conference center places I...
Beneath Cygnus
I have to admit, I'm not quite sure where I am, other than I'm in Texas and Cygnus is straight overhead. The town is call Quanah, and it is small, and dark, and the desk clerk at the hotel is very friendly and missing a front tooth. Did I mention it's dark? I was...
In Search of Alien Air
Looking for planets is a difficult task. Planets are physically small (compared to stars), physically faint (compared to stars), and are consistently located next really bright objects (those would be the stars). Looking at planets isn't much different from looking at...
Travel, Politics, and other Randomness
This year I'm traveling more than I think I have ever traveled before. Thursday I'm flying down to Texas to attend AstroFest, which is being hosted by the Swinburne University of Technology and their program Swinburne Astronomy Online. Friday morning I'll be giving a...
Sputnik in the Corn
I now have a bathtub. Yesterday, my husband and I drove 230 miles across Missouri and 230 miles back in the name of saving gobber money in shipping on an acyclic claw-foot tub to replace the one that got removed in the process of trying to save my bathroom from its...
Carnival Time Again
If it's Thursday, there's a Carnival. It's Thursday 🙂 Check out the Carnival at Advanced Nanotechnology.
Type 1a Supernoave: A Non-Standard Candle
One of the most exciting discoveries of astronomy in recent years was the measurement of an acceleration term in the universe's rate of expansion. Announced by both the Supernova Cosmology Project at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the High-z Supernova...