Sun January 9, 11
Sonnenfinsternis am 4. Januar über Wien
Hallo!
Das astronomische Jahr 2011 began gleich mit einem schönen Ereignis, nämlich einer partiellen Sonnenfinsternis (SoFi), die in den Morgenstunden des 4. Januar über Europa, Nordafrika und dem westlichen Asien beobachtbar war. Ich konnte die Finsternis von meiner neuen Wohnung in Wien aus verfolgen, wo beste Wetterbedingungen herrschten. Leider waren nicht alle SoFi-Fans so im Glück, [...]
A tour in Paranal, including an earthquake
Alien, as I said before. As a token, a couple of videos, with the landscape and the residence. The first time I visited, it looked like a research station in Mars. I still have the same feeling. I cannot avoid remembering a science fiction story by John Varley: In the Hall of the Martian Kings.
Perhaps [...]
Sat January 8, 11
Return to … Paranal
After ten years … again back in Paranal. One of the most amazing observatories in the world, if not the most alien. Mauna Kea in Hawaii is very beautiful, but gentle, with the smooth slopes of the volcanoes. So gentle, that it is difficult to notice the presence of the Mauna Loa, the largest volcano [...]
Tue January 4, 11
The Eclipse from WISE
WISE flew through the Moon’s shadow over the North pole during the 04 Jan 2011 solar eclipse. The plot below shows the number of coarse digital Sun sensors giving usable output, and the number fell to zero during the eclipse.
Since this eclipse was much shorter than the eclipses by Earth around the June solstice, [...]
Partial Solar Eclipse Jan 4th 2011
Seems we are clouded out, or should I say SNOWED out here in Manchester! Yes the site for today’s live BBC Stargazing LIVE broadcast from Jodrell Bank and my home further down the road have snow!
I was very kindly sent this image after numerous attempts to connect to Ido Bareket’s live webcast of the partial [...]
The generalized Newton's law of gravitation
I have recently generalized Newton law of gravitation to become Lorentz-like. The new law predicts deflection of light, precession of perihelion of planets and binary pulsar which are in agreement to those found by Einstein. The interpretations of these phenomena are different from Einstein one but they coincide with the experimental findings.
Read this at http://www.springerlink.com/content/x085216p48408281/
http://www.springerlink.com/content/u08251k201650110/
http://www.springerlink.com/content/npu03u1v3711r122/
Thank [...]
Thu December 30, 10
BBC Live Stargazing Astrocast
Its been a while since I have posted here, almost a year has passed since the closing ceremony of the International Year of Astronomy and as a legacy to IYA a number of initiatives have carried on carrying the torch of astronomy/science communication. One of these initiatives is Global Astronomy Month, which says what it [...]
Thu December 16, 10
WISE gets new NEOs for its birthday
WISE just found two Near Earth Objects in the last two days: a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) 2010 XP69 and a half km object that can get within 10 million km (just outside the limit for PHAs), 2010 XZ67. WISE has been observing in a two band mode without any coolant since October.
And WISE [...]
Fri December 10, 10
Renovation of the German-Spanish agreement for the future of Calar Alto
After many moths and a lot of work …. (and this is one of the reasons why I was not active writing posts, or in science) ….
We have an agreement! Calar Alto Observatory (Almería, Southern Spain) will continue it scientific operations up to the end of 2018. I am attaching the press release.
On December 2nd [...]
Thu December 9, 10
The aftermath of the Great Debate
After the Great Debate, I had a chat with Pavel Kroupa. Here follow some quotes from one of his emails:
“The Event was interesting, but it is clear that rational argumentation will not bring L-CDM followers into thinking otherwise. It is like with the searches for DM: if you do not find it then [...]