by Pamela | Apr 12, 2008 | Astronomy, Observing
The nearest star to the Earth is easily observed during the day. It just happens to be called the Sun. The problem is, it’s quite close and this can make it very hard to observe safely without hurting yourself or hurting your eyes. The current speaker, Lee...
by Pamela | Apr 12, 2008 | Astronomy, Stars
The word Novae generally refers to a “New Star,” or a “Guest Star” – An object that springs up in the sky quite suddenly as a new but non-permanent object. Today we give these non permanent sky features a dozen or more names: Supernovae...
by Pamela | Apr 12, 2008 | Personal
[Note: This post was written over three days] My second morning in Oxford can perhaps best be described as a series of directions: around the circle, through the campus, over the hill, past the castle, down the hill, dash at the bridge. I’m currently sitting...
by Pamela | Apr 11, 2008 | Personal
After the talk on spectral work by amateurs I fled across campus to the Pathology building and a room of Naked Scientists. More exactly, one of our wonderful fans e-introduced Chris Smith and I and said we should meet, and she was right. Chris Smith is the originator...
by Pamela | Apr 11, 2008 | Astronomy, Observing
One of the hardest things you can observationally do in astronomy is spectroscopy. You have to guide really well to keep the light on the slit. You have to calibrate the sensitivity across you chip (flat fielding like you do in imaging), the sensitivity as a function...
