SETI bioastro: Fw: [badastronomy] Bad Astronomy Newsletter Issue #35 (Feb. 6, 2003)

• Previous message: LARRY KLAES: "SETI bioastro: Fw: Nikon digital camera captures Columbia"

----- Original Message -----
From: badastro_at_badastronomy.com
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 1:42 AM
To: badastronomy_at_yahoogroups.com
Subject: [badastronomy] Bad Astronomy Newsletter Issue #35 (Feb. 6, 2003)

THE BAD ASTRONOMY NEWSLETTER

Issue #35
February 6, 2003
http://www.badastronomy.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/badastronomy

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Bad Astronomy Newsletter #35

Contents:

   1) Columbia
   2) Something to look forward to: Jupiter's moons
   3) Something else: Moon Hoax in NY Times Magazine Sunday
   4) And again more: Bad Astronomy book goes another round
   5) More? The Amazing Meeting... in the next newsletter
   6) Subscribe/Unsubscribe info

* * * * * * * * * * * *

1) Columbia

This has been a tough week, as we all know. To be honest, there isn't much
I can say here just yet. We have all seen the footage, heard the newscasts,
listened to the speeches.

The Shuttle was lost while I was attending James Randi's Amazing Meeting.
A man by the name of Hal Bidlack told us what had happened. He made
the most incredible speech about it, and I cannot do it justice from
memory. I have asked to get a transcript from the meeting (it was taped),
and when I do I'll post it here. But the essence was: keep moving
forward, keep looking ahead. I agree with him wholeheartedly. In that
spirit, the following items are all things to look forward to.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

2) Something to look forward to: Jupiter's moons

Jupiter has a passel of moons swinging around it. They all orbit in
just about the same plane; that is, if you look "from the side", the
orbits would all appear to line up. Every six years or so that plane
points edge-on right toward us, so we see the moons swing back
and forth as if on a line. From our viewpoint, that means the moons
can actually appear to physically move in front and behind one another,
and this can be seen in a telescope.

Here is a link to a list of these "mutual events", as they are called,
over the next few months.

http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/planets/article_771_1.asp

(the list is on the third page of that story).

Get yourself to an observatory, or find a local astronomy club
and see if you can spot the events on one of those dates! Here is
where you can find local clubs near you:

http://www.badastronomy.com/bitesize/astroclubs.html

Here's a great chance to wonder at how amazing the Universe
can be, and you can see it with your own eyes.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

3) Something else: Moon Hoax in NY Times Magazine Sunday

The New York Times Sunday magazine this weekend (February 9)
will have an article about the Moon Hoax in it. The writer talked
quite a bit with me, as well as with Bart Sibrel and other people
on both sides of the Moon Hoax issue. I expect this article
will be very interesting, since I was given the chance to explain
in detail why Mr. Sibrel is so incredibly wrong in everything
he says. ;-) The magazine can be seen online at

http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/

(you need to subscribe, but it's free). I don't know if the
article will be there or not. I'll put a link on my website if
the article goes online.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

4) And again more: Bad Astronomy book goes another round

I was informed by my editor the other day that my book is still
breathing; we are going to have a fifth printing! I was able to send
in a few more corrections to some lingering errors. It's amazing how
many can creep into a book, and how hard they can be to root out. Even
now there are certainly a few still in there. I get email sometimes
pointing out a mistake or two. One came in today, but unfortunately
it was too late to make the printing. I was able to correct a really
dumb mistake in my Velikovsky chapter (I said the Hebrew calendar
was invented 6000 years ago; in reality it was created about 2500 years
ago, and the Hebrews just set it up so that it started at year 0
with their creation date). Anyway, the fifth printing should last
quite some time. I have no idea if there will be a sixth. I'm surprised
it's gone this far! Either way, it's been a great ride.

Now I just need to figure out what to do for the next book...

* * * * * * * * * * * *

5) More? The Amazing Meeting... in the next newsletter

The Amazing Meeting was, well, amazing. There is a lot to say, and
it'll take me a while to write it down. For now, I'll just say that
I had a wonderful time, met lots of great people, and took lots of
fun pictures. If you want more info, then first check James Randi's
website at

http://www.randi.org

Then, if you want some first-hand accounts (with pictures) then
go to the James Randi Educational Foundation forum, Randi's bulletin
board. A lot of the board members went to the meeting, and have posted
their stories:

http://66.192.47.137/vbulletin/

The meeting has its own forum, down near the bottom of the list on that
page.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

6) 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_at_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_at_badastronomy.com
http://www.badastronomy.com

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
badastronomy-unsubscribe_at_yahoogroups.com

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

• Previous message: LARRY KLAES: "SETI bioastro: Fw: Nikon digital camera captures Columbia"

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.6 : Fri Feb 07 2003 - 05:44:07 PST