From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4@msn.com)
Date: Sat Aug 10 2002 - 00:20:29 PDT
----- Original Message -----
From: badastro@badastronomy.com
Sent: Friday, August 09, 2002 8:59 PM
To: badastronomy@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [badastronomy] Bad Astronomy Newsletter Issue #20 (August 9, 2002)
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
4 DVDs Free +s&p Join Now
http://us.click.yahoo.com/pt6YBB/NXiEAA/Ey.GAA/1.XolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
THE BAD ASTRONOMY NEWSLETTER
Issue #20
August 9, 2002
http://www.badastronomy.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/badastronomy
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Bad Astronomy Newsletter #20
Contents:
1) Perseids peak on August 12
2) More Planet X stuff
3) Streamed Australian radio interview
4) Red Rover
5) Subscribe/Unsubscribe info
* * * * * * * * * * * *
1) Perseids peak on August 12
The Perseid meteor shower is probably the most dependable shower
of the year. It comes to a peak on Monday night/Tuesday morning
August 12/13 this year. If you are in North America, you should
take a chance and look for them on Sunday night/Monday morning as
well. If you are in Europe, you are favored for the best peak Monday
night. Expect to see roughly 60 meteors per hour from a dark site.
>From my own light-polluted area (I can see 4th magnitude stars
easily from my back yard, but not much fainter) I might see 20
or so per hour, just to give you an example.
Meteors are best seen after local midnight, when the dark part
of the Earth is facing into the direction of travel. This is like
watching a rain shower while driving; more drops hit your front
windshield than the rear one. So after midnight is the best time
to watch. Get yourself a lawn chair and watch the skies!
For more info, try the Sky and Telescope website at
http://skyandtelescope.com/aboutsky/pressreleases/article_680_1.asp
or Astronomy Magazine's website at
http://www.astronomy.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/000/961duqdq.asp
For general information about meteors and showers, go to Gary Kronk's site:
* * * * * * * * * * * *
2) More Planet X stuff
I have been adding to my webpages about Planet X. Mark Hazlewood,
one if the propagators of this pernicious piece of Bad Astro, has
taken notice of me, and is now posting unflattering commentaries
about me on his newsgroup with some regularity. Oh well, turnabout
is fair play. I guess if I disagree with him, I must be a
Government Disinformation Agent, bent on making sure the public doesn't
find out about this non-existent planet that won't kill us all next May.
Confused? Well, the fact that Planet X is an issue at all confuses me
a bit too. Read all about it here:
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/planetx/index.html
* * * * * * * * * * * *
3) Streamed Australian radio interview
I was interviewed about misconceptions in astronomy for an Australian
radio broadcast a few weeks ago. They have streamed the interview online,
and it includes bad astronomy comments from other folks as well. You can
listen at
http://www.abc.net.au/melbourne/stories/s610534.htm
* * * * * * * * * * * *
4) Red Rover
Yesterday as I write this, I was at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL) for a meeting about astronomy education. We took a brief tour of the
facility after lunch, which was cool because I have never been to JPL before.
We went to the observation deck over a clean room. A clean room is a
workshop where equipment is built; it is called "clean" because the
environment inside is tightly controlled. The air is filtered
very vigorously to prevent dust particles from contaminating optical
surfaces, for example.
So we were looking down on the clean room, and people wearing funny
white suits (to prevent their clothes from generating dust; the outfits
are called "bunny suits") were scurrying around fussing over weird-looking
devices. It occurred to me after a moment that what we were seeing was
really and truly something being sent into space. That was cool enough,
but then we were told what was being built: a rover that will be sent
to Mars next year. Called MER (Mars Explorer Rover), it will be the next
step in Mars exploration. You may remember the Pathfinder mission, which
sent the rover Sojourner to Mars. The MER rover is much larger, the size
of kid's wagon, and will be far more mobile than Sojourner.
The spacecraft will use the Martian atmosphere to slow itself initially.
Then it will use a parachute to slow even more. After that, it surrounds
itself with giant airbags, and will use those to absorb the impact
as it hits the surface. After it comes to a stop, the bags will deflate.
The lander itself is basically a tetrahedron, a four-sided pyramid.
The sides will open up like a flower, creating a platform for the
rover.
In the clean room we saw the frame of the rover, as well as three
of the petals that will open up.
Let me reiterate that standing there looking down on this stuff was
*very* cool. It's not often you can stand five meters from something
going to another planet. If we could get more people to actually see
these things, NASA funding might not be in so much trouble.
For more info about the MER missions, try these sites:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/future/2003.html
and for Pathfinder info:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/index1.html
* * * * * * * * * * * *
5) Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information
Subscribing to this newsletter is easy! Just go to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/badastronomy/join
and fill out the form. You can also sign friends up; they will get
a note in their email asking them to confirm the subscription (to
prevent spamming).
If, for some weird reason, you want to *unsubscribe* to this
newsletter, just send email to badastronomy-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
with no body text. Make sure you send it from the address to which the
newsletter is sent! Alternatively, you can unsubscribe from the
Yahoo!Groups website. Go to
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/groups/groups-32.html
for more info.
Remember, the newsletters will be archived on the website at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/badastronomy
so even if you unsubscribe you can still read them there. I suggest
staying subscribed so you get them as soon as I send them.
Also, I do *not* sell your email addresses and neither does Yahoo!
Take a gander at the Yahoo!Groups privacy message if it makes you
feel better:
http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy/us/
Note that the email addresses *are* visible to me, but I have no prurient
use for them. If that makes you nervous for whatever reason, feel free to
unsubscribe and simply read the archived newsletters at the website listed
above.
**************************
Phil Plait
The Bad Astronomer
badastro@badastronomy.com
http://www.badastronomy.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
badastronomy-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Sat Aug 10 2002 - 00:42:08 PDT