Becca Stareyes

This post is mostly for padparadscha who asked to pick my brains about a planet with an 80°+ axial tilt. On the other hand, it means I can write about something that came up at work recently, so I thought I'd combine things.

So, I recommend What if the Moon Didn't Exist: Voyages to Earths that Might Have Been (by Neil Comins), since one of the chapters features a variant-Earth with a tilt like Uranus. On the other hand, I just realized that chapter got one of the details wrong: the status of our moon.

( More than You Ever Wanted to Know About the Phase of the Moon )

I sometimes wonder if I should practice my science blogging skills by writing up the weekly colloquiums that my department holds, or at least the ones I don't fall asleep in. So far, it's been a good semester, despite both presentations being on interstellar dust. Then again, the first presenter was a researcher from our department with a good speaking style so he can make something like 'crap in space'* interesting. The second guy also had a good send-up and it was partially interesting to me since he was using some of the same techniques that I use for Saturn's rings on the Interstellar Medium.

* This is my friend Cece's nickname for the Interstellar Medium back in undergrad. We had a whole semester talking about it, thanks to Nebraska offering three astronomy courses, all of which an astro-focused person needed to take. Well, technically four, but the fourth was removed from the coursebook my freshman year after they realized that no one could teach it, and that had been the case for years. So everyone took 'Stellar Atmospheres and Interiors', 'Galactic Astronomy' and 'Physics of the Interstellar Medium' after they did the 'Astronomy for Majors' and 'Astronomy Lab'. It wasn't that bad, since you can get a lot of basic astronomy out of what's going on, and meant that I've had more repetitions of radiative transfer than any sane human being really wants.

So, anyone want to hear about what I learned about Crap in Space? It's interesting, I promise.

Writing is going well. I got back some concrit on the Cordelia/Aral story, and want to take a looksee at the story for editing. I'm also breaking a normal habit. Normally, I write drabbles in a universe first before I try to do full-length fiction. Well, except for Yuletide, where I don't get a choice, or when I crazily sign up for a ficathon. But, now I'm trying to write my first Firefly story, when I haven't ever written for that fandom before. Mostly because it came out of the Random Fanfic Prompt Generator I wrote. It's weird.

(Speaking of Bujold, the latest book came out on Tuesday. I need to go to the bookstore and pick it up.)

Also drawing. I have two exchange pictures due, then I promise I'll start work on those meme pictures. I haven't forgotten. Expect an art dump soon.

I'm not looking forward to going to work tomorrow. Not because of anything I have to do -- I'm in the 'advisor wants a report that we can start editing into a paper' stage, which is a good one. Plus, I'm already starting on another project, or picking up an old half-finished one, rather. I had planned to have both of these done, so I could do the final bit for my thesis over my fifth year (possibly edging into my sixth if I had to). I think I also have a meeting for student government but that just means I have to spend an hour and a half talking about money and eating free food.

But, I happened to have an office across from Ed Salpeter, an emeritus professor, and he passed away over the holidays. He was a pretty nice guy -- I mean, the man was in his eighties and officially retired, but he still hung around the department and went to functions. And, since we worked in the same place, he would say hello to me occasionally. The grad student group hosted a dinner for him just last month and he and his wife sat down and talked about the history of the department. She also asked us to do something about the Styrofoam cups the department used, because we're in 2008, and they should know better.

( Read more... )

So, feeling much better. Enough to go to work, though I might end up setting up shop in the cafe instead of going into my office before noon. (What?) We also had our first 'snowfall' of the year, or at least the first one that has stayed on the ground. It is truly a winter wonderland.

For you music geeks, Cornell put up the concert the orchestra (plus IC's orchestra) did of "The Planets", with the visuals folks at the Astronomy department did. (I helped with Saturn, though Matt H. did most of the work!). I'd be interested to see what you guys thought of it. The link is here though I can't get the plugin to work, and had to use the 'download video' link. Since it's a camera and not the original movie files, the quality is a bit lower, but it's still pretty awesome. Also, kudos to the orchestra. Sadly, this doesn't include the original piece that a local composer wrote for Cassini's Saturn (called "Anillos" -- rings), but I guess he might not want the first recording of it available for free over the internet. Holst's work has been in the public domain for a while now, so it's not like most people will care that a university orchestra is playing this.

(Also there are some planets that can be real pains in the butt to find pictures off. Mercury's was assembled before a lot of MESSENGER data came down, and includes a lot of Sun footage. Uranus and Neptune also are pains in the neck.)

Also, since Holst was more into astrology than astronomy, and wrote the piece before Pluto was a speck on Clyde Tombaugh's photographic plates, it's seven pieces (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune).

Also, I made my Thanksgiving plans. I'll be in the Boston area from Tuesday around noon until Friday (though most of Friday-in-Boston will be spent waking up and getting on the bus to Logan Airport). Also set my Christmas plans -- Lincoln, Nebraska from 16 December to 5 January. My sister works in Omaha now, so it makes flying a bit cheaper if I can arrive and depart sometime close to when she works -- Mom refuses to use the Omaha airport if possible, since the interstate around Omaha is possibly the most confusing thing known to mankind, and she can't drive well after dark/before dawn. (There's a part in Good Omens where the demon Crowley notes that he made sure a certain part of the British highway system was built in the shape of a satanic symbol to generate increased ire from drivers. Yeah.)

( What determines how big a planet gets? )

So, this weekend, the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Science is having its annual conference in town. ( In addition to giving a poster presentation* as part of my work, and listening to talks and 'networking'**, the conference organizers organized some events.  )

I can't seem to get the hang of posting on one topic. Oh, well.

I played softball today. We had a grand total of six people show up, and we got our butts kicked. Though not as badly as we could. I still am batting 0.000, unless you count the time I got on second by fielding error. (League rules is if the opposing team throws the ball out of bounds, you can advance one extra base -- mostly to cover situations where the ball gets thrown into the bushes and it takes a bit to retrieve.) On the other hand, I'm getting better at fielding -- I managed to hold one to a double. I'm still hindered by my inability to throw hard enough to get it to the infield.

So, question for you all, blog. So, over on Bad Astronomy, Phil Plait posts a quote from Buzz Aldrin, where Buzz says that the unrealistic expectations created by science fiction makes people less interested in the real accomplishments of the space program. Phil disagreed -- he thinks that science fiction spurs us on and inspires us.

I'm biased -- I was a space nut before I learned how to tell SF from horror. Every time I saw the crew of the Enterprise beaming down to a planet, or read novels about imaginary moon colonies, I wanted to work all that more to go there. Or at least learn as much as I could about the real thing.

So, what do you all think?

So, I'm trying to think of a Halloween costume. Here are my criteria, in order from strongest to least strong:

1. No wigs. Hats are okay, and makeup is okay, and I might even go for hair extensions, but I don't feel like putting down the money for a quality wig. (And I don't want to deal with a cheap wig -- someone else can tell the story about how Integra Hellsing suddenly developed short, dark hair because my cheap wig gave up the ghost around lunchtime of Day I of AnimeIowa)

2. Something I can wear to CJAS's cosplay contest. Which means anime or manga character. Maybe video game. Probably not anything from Western fandoms or webcomics.

3. Something that is recognizable as something* by the mundanes, in case I go out with my work friends, or decide to wear the costume to campus or something. By which, I mean, they might not recognize Kenshin Himura, but the sword and outfit look like 'samurai'.

* Something reasonably specific, not 'what the hell costume is that?'

( Current Ideas )

Also, I found this blog post by Mike Brown that pretty much sums up the whole planet debate. It makes the point that scientists had two classifications: 'round & geologically varied (plus the gas giants, which are round and atmospherically varied with interesting interiors)' versus 'not round and & impact-dominated geology' and 'single objects in distinct orbits' versus 'clouds of similar objects in similar orbits'. Both are useful, and a scientist might deal with one more than the other (a geologist cares more about the first, to the point of even throwing in moons, while a dynamicist the second), and asking 'which is a better classification scheme' is silly, because they are both good and useful things. The IAU wasn't asked that -- they were asked, which classification scheme should be used as planet versus not-a-planet. Which is really a judgment call.

I was thinking the same thing, but this post explains it better. I was thinking about it because I noticed Dr. Bell (Martian geologist) has a 'Save Pluto' bumper sticker pinned to his bulletin board. In retaliation (I assume), Dr. Margot (asteroid and Kuiper Belt dynamicist) put up a 'Save Pallas' sign on his bulletin board. (Guess what both of them think of the IAU's definition? Go on, guess.)

We also have a new official dwarf planet -- Pluto, Ceres and Eris can welcome Makemake (mah-keh-mah-keh) to their numbers. First dwarf planet named after a non-Greco-Roman god, also! (Makemake was the creation deity of Rapa Nui (aka Easter Island) -- Makemake was discovered near Easter, and informally called Easterbunny.)

http://martianchronicles.wordpress.com/

I didn't realize three of my classmates kept a Mars blog.

So, click to learn about Mars!

(The really weird thing is that I learned about this via the Planetary Society's blog, via the Bad Astronomy site. People I know are Internet Famous.)

Does this mean I have to give in to Ryan and Briony bugging me to give a lunch talk, since their blog is more widely read than mine?

Yes, this is a tasteful post. Not surprising, if you know me.

( Cut for SCIENCE! )

So, here are two pictures I saw today. Both were taken by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, orbiting Mars. And reconnoitering.

And it found an avalanche by accident. It's spring on the northern hemisphere of Mars, and the ice caps are receding. Which means that you can get landslides. And this one happened to occur when HiRISE was looking.

(Statistically speaking, since we have crazy amounts of pictures of Mars, it had to happen sooner or later.)

And this, which is not Mars. Yes, that is the Earth and Moon. Yes, it was taken from Mars. Isn't that cool?

(Sadly, when we take pictures from Saturn of the Earth, it looks like a pale blue dot. NASA loves Mars more. ;_;)

I didn't get anything I wanted to do done over the weekend. Bah.

Oh, and there's also an initiative to map the light pollution in the sky this fortnight (today until March 8, while the Moon isn't visible in the sky). And you all can help, provided you can find Orion in the sky. Go here for more info.

I want you all to do this. It'll maybe take an hour of your time, and it's a good excuse to go stargazing and learn one constellation.