Archive for the 'Astronomy' Category

Crash Positions! Incoming Brain Dump! (part 1)


3carsblog
(A scene from last weekend. There were actually five classic cars in a row. It was *so* cool! )

It seems to me that this blog was supposed to entertain someone at work, and I have been falling down on the job. So…here is a bunch of stuff to keep y’all entertained.

* As I may have mentioned the other day, Carl Sagan’s Cosmos is on Hulu. Well, at least season one anyway. Check out episode one here.

* After watching “A Glorious Dawn” did you go check out Symphony of Science webpage?

* Speaking of symphonies, have you watched the YouTube Symphony Orchestra? Check them out at Carnegie Hall (sorry, they are too wide to embedd)- Act 1 and Act 2. (Good music and some really cool stories.)

*…But back to Carl Sagan. Someone recently visited his grave and played a bit of music for him.

* On a sillier note, try the “Geocities-izer” on a website. Make it look like it’s from the mid-1990s.

* Guess where I’m going in another week and a half or so! Reno, Nevada. Am I going there to gamble or take in a show? Nope. I, and a couple of my friends, are going to the National Automobile Museum. I’ll be sure to tell you when to go over to the Where’s Calliope blog to follow my progress.

* And now, for those of you who care about the environment, “NBC is teaming up with Prince Charles for a new TV special about the environment. Harmony, which is slated to air in November, stems from Prince Charles’ three decades of work fighting climate change and searching for new solutions to the worldwide environmental crisis.” You can watch the teaser here. (Sorry, it’s another video too big to embedd.)

* Need an onlineetymological dictionary? How else will you know what a word used to sound like when you need the information at 2 am?

…and this is getting a bit long, so I’m going to break it up into a couple of bits.

Posted on 27th April 2010
Under: Astronomy, Information, Language, Link, Photo, Video | 2 Comments »

Carl Sagan – ‘A Glorious Dawn’ ft Stephen Hawking (Symphony of Science)

You know how I feel about Science and Music by now, right?

Where to even begin?

Okay. There is a group called Symphony of Science, and they describe themselves thusly:

“The Symphony of Science is a musical project headed by John Boswell designed to deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form.”

“A Glorious Dawn” (below) is their video that has been nominated for a Webby Award. (So, vote for it, if you can.)

Basically, this group combines music and the voices and images of science/scientists. The classic series Cosmos with Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking from Stephen Hawking’s Universe are the ones featured in A Glorious Dawn.

Sound difficult to wrap your brain around? It isn’t, really. Just watch and see/hear for yourself. (And if watching this video makes you wish that you could go back and watch Cosmos again…Season 1 is available for free on Hulu.)

(If, like me, this song really gets to you, you can buy it on itunes. Just search for “A Glorious Dawn.)

Posted on 25th April 2010
Under: Astronomy, Music, Video | 2 Comments »

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D

I got this link from a friend the other day, and all I can say is…wow.

Posted on 23rd January 2010
Under: Astronomy, Video | No Comments »

Another Messy Office

mms_resized_pix

My sister was kind enough to send me this photo of her Home Office for you all to see. I should point out here that her room is larger than mine, just to give you all a point of reference. What do you think? Do you have a messier office? (Hmm…is that “messy-er” or “messier”? ‘Cause “messier” makes me think that we’re talking about stars or something.) Send me photos, folks!

Posted on 22nd July 2009
Under: Astronomy, Photo, Rambling | 2 Comments »

Rambling and Today’s Good and Bad

jewelsinthenight.jpg
A massive young star cluster in the Milky Way

The Hubble takes the best pictures, doesn’t it? These jewels in the night are from the giant nebula NGC 3603. It’s only 20,000 light years away. What I wouldn’t give to have a TARDIS so that I could pop over and take a look a bit closer up.

My day was a bit of a blur. I discovered that a certain person at work who has been a bit…overly friendly won’t be bugging me for a bit. Needless to say, I’m relieved. I really don’t like it when people hit on me. A little flirting is fine, but that’s not the same thing. I’m thinking that I will start wearing my engagement ring more often, even if it doesn’t nestle against my wedding ring properly. Just to make the ring finger more noticeable. Also, it looks like I’m on the blog committee for my branch. (Actually…I may *be* the blog committee.) I expect that it’s up to me to make sure that the blog is marketed well and has a lot of fresh content. I’ll find out at the meeting with my boss and her boss on Tuesday. I’ve got a lot of ideas. Let’s just hope that I can translate them well enough for the non-bloggers I’ll be talking with.

Wish me luck for tomorrow. I have to get a new drivers’ license and go in search of my mail organizer. *stress*

And now, my daily good and bad:

Good: Well, I thought that today’s good was going to be “no one hit on me at work” or “The blog at work is mine muahahaha”, but I was wrong. One of my friends I hadn’t heard from for a while posted her personal statement from her college apps on her LJ, and I was one of the folks she dedicated it to. Colour me excessively honoured.

Bad: My mail organizer is lost somewhere. The company has it listed as delivered, but the only thing I’ve received it the free DVD. *sob* Tomorrow, after I deal with the driver’s license, I’m going to stop by the post office and see if there is anything I can do.

Posted on 5th October 2007
Under: Astronomy, Good&Bad, Rambling | 2 Comments »

New HubbleSite Image

The HubbleSite now brings us an image of the Carina Nebula. In this active area stars are being born and dying. Beautiful, isn’t it?

carinanebula.jpg

Posted on 24th April 2007
Under: Astronomy | No Comments »

Ah…Mars

I was just pondering my obsession with [tag]Mars[/tag], and I thought I’d post another pic from the Hubblesite to counteract my rant earlier. Mind you, I’m still upset that I won’t be able to get to Mars…unless kidnapped by aliens I suppose…

mars1.jpg

Posted on 10th April 2007
Under: Astronomy, Photo | No Comments »

I Seem To Have a Galaxy Fixation

So, I was just over on the [tag]HubbleSite[/tag], and in their news section that had this beautiful picture of the Hubble’s View of [tag]Barred Spiral Galaxy[/tag] NGC 1672. For the record, NGC 1672 is a little more than 60 million light years away from us.

NASA Says: “As a prototypical barred spiral galaxy, NGC 1672 differs from normal spiral galaxies, in that the arms do not twist all the way into the center. Instead, they are attached to the two ends of a straight bar of stars enclosing the nucleus. Viewed nearly face on, NGC 1672 shows intense star formation regions especially off in the ends of its central bar.”

Pretty nice for star-forming clouds and interstellar dust, eh? Yes, this is my new desktop wallpaper.

hubblebarredspiralgalaxyngc1672.jpg

Posted on 6th April 2007
Under: Astronomy | No Comments »

My Cube and Astronomy

It’s late, and I’m waiting on my server to get fixed, so I thought that I’d share a cool website with you all. My cube at work is boring (rather like my hair was, come to think of it) and bare, so I decided to add some pictures to the walls. I should mention here that I’ve just finished weeding the Astronomy section, so I thought it might be nice to look at bits of the universe while I work. Conveniently, The [tag]Hubble Telescope[/tag] has a website with a gallery containing all sorts of gorgeous images. One of my favorites is the [tag]Black Eye Galaxy[/tag]. Yum! Take a look around. There’s even wallpapers for your computer. Well, I’m off to bed now. May your night be full of stars!

Posted on 31st March 2007
Under: Astronomy | No Comments »