dear blog

dear blog,

i do think about you, sweet blog.   i think about things i'd like to write and post and share and comment on, and then i cant seem to find the time.   it's some combination of my new(ish) job, that has me doing outreachy type things for the AAO during my days, and rekindling a couple old hobbies, that has taken my attention away from you.

i'll try to do better.  i want to do better.   in fact, i want to move you to a different host and redesign your look a bit. i've talked about this before, but i promise i will dedicate time and take action to do this soon. maybe some kind soul will even help (actually, i would pay them for their skills and time).
 
i have some good photos and stories in the works to post to you soon, so please be patient.  until then, old friend, to tide you over here are a few photos from last week when i was working in new zealand, so that you dont forget me.

(upsidedown) orion and a bright jupiter (lower right)

In the Land of the Long White Cloud

the southern cross over the ocean

thanks for your continued dedication :)

astropixie

cosmic inflation

did you hear about the big physics news that came out this week?  a "spectacular" discovery showing observations consistent with the illusive theory of cosmic inflation?

the topic is subtle, but the PhD comic below does a fantastic job of explaining the discovery.

as with any science experiment, i will let myself get much more excited when another experiment verifies the result, but in the meantime,  there's a fascinating discussion happening on a facebook page created just before the press release came out.  there are many eminent physicists taking part in the discussion, and it seems like an interesting avenue for real scientific debate in the future.

fly through all the galaxies!

the GAMA survey is one of the research projects i work on - studying how characteristics of hundreds of thousands of galaxies depend on the types of neighbourhoods they live in, how much gas they have, how many stars they have, etc.

some colleagues produced this fly through tour of all the galaxies in the survey, and it has been getting some press today.  

Fly through of the GAMA Galaxy Catalogue from ICRAR on Vimeo.

the dailymail (?!) even features some GIFs.  somehow it feels like the survey is officially a success now :)

dubai galactica

dubai looks like such a surreal city.   wonder if i'll visit one day.

this photo is a montage of different images taken by photographer daniel cheong.  he took the photo of dubai's buildings and fog in may and the milky way from reunion island in july.  

Photo by Daniel Cheong

sam i am

green eggs and ham is one of those fabulous dr seuss books that i love, but can only read a couple times before going a little crazy, unlike most kids i've read it to, who insist on several reads per sitting.

the solution has arrived!  just sit them down with this wonderful reading of green eggs and ham by british author neil gaiman, which was so surprisingly enthralling - i actually listened twice in a row!?!

painted stone: asteroids in the SDSS

the sloan digital sky survey is a large astronomy project that has looked at a huge area of the sky several times over the last ~15 years.  from this data comes the ability to identify objects that move position over time.

the video below shows the orbital positions of 100,000 asteroids in our solar system observed by sloan. fantastic visualization by astronomer alex parker.  enjoy!

Painted Stone: Asteroids in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey from Alex Parker on Vimeo.

the details:

Over 100,000 asteroids and their colors, as seen by a single remarkable survey telescope. 

This animation shows the orbital motions of over 100,000 of the asteroids observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), with colors illustrating the compositional diversity measured by the SDSS five-color camera. The relative sizes of each asteroid are also illustrated. 

All main-belt asteroids and Trojan asteroids with orbits known to high precision are shown. The animation is rendered with a timestep of 3 days. 

The compositional gradient of the asteroid belt is clearly visible, with green Vesta-family members in the inner belt fading through the blue C-class asteroids in the outer belt, and the deep red Trojan swarms beyond that. 

Occasional diagonal slashes that appear in the animation are the SDSS survey beams; these appear because the animation is rendered at near the survey epoch. 

The average orbital distances of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter are illustrated with rings.

lift off!

what a cool perspective photo of a launch!

Photo by Will Haney

what a leader can do

a quote by david foster wallace about what it means to be a "leader" and how coming across a real leader makes you feel.  i've known a few true leaders and this is right on.

Quote by David Foster Wallace.  Print by Debbie Millman

COSMOS revisited

many of you might remember the original COSMOS book and tv series brought to us by carl sagan and ann druyan.  i'm certain it inspired many of my peers to get interested in astronomy.  the content of the original series is still excellent, but the visuals are a bit outdated and now there are whole new branches of astronomy with exoplanet detections and dark matter/energy searches.

luckily, new generations can now board the Ship of Imagination as the series has been rebooted and modernized. the sydney launch of the updated series happens tonight at the opera house with special guests neil degrasse tyson (who stars in the new series) and ann druyan (who produced and wrote much of it)! here is the trailer:

i was originally surprised that this will air on fox, but i think it's a good choice. and while i personally find neil degrasse tyson a bit annoying, i cannot deny his enthusiasm or the brilliance of the original COSMOS series. i hope it inspires many more for years to come.

the series premieres officially in march this year.