Search found 24 matches

by lolife
Thu May 13, 2010 12:59 am
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: Astronomy for Ham Radio Dorks
Replies: 4
Views: 644

Re: Astronomy for Ham Radio Dorks

We are going to give it a go twice per month. I made a little site for it here:

http://sites.google.com/site/astrohamnet/

Please stop by!

Michael Koppelman
KD0GQX
by lolife
Wed May 05, 2010 10:49 pm
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: Astronomy for Ham Radio Dorks
Replies: 4
Views: 644

Astronomy for Ham Radio Dorks

D'oh. I totally forgot to post this here. Who would have come? Who will come next time? Are you an amateur radio operator (aka ham)? Are you familiar with EchoLink? And/or are you in the Minneapolis area? We are having our first ever amateur astronomy ham radio net on 5/5/10 at 03:00UT. The late tim...
by lolife
Fri Apr 10, 2009 5:37 pm
Forum: Forum Help, Comments
Topic: NEW Message Board
Replies: 17
Views: 9453

Re: NEW Message Board

Nice work!
by lolife
Tue Oct 02, 2007 5:50 pm
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: Great show on PBS tonight
Replies: 5
Views: 650

I watched it in HD and saw the ads. They looked great. Even if we didn't see a direct impact, it is important to let the community know we are here and that was a good way to do it, IMHO.
by lolife
Mon Sep 03, 2007 11:30 am
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: Starhouse Star Party
Replies: 5
Views: 750

Re: Starhouse star party

egage wrote:Sounds interesting. I'll see if I can make it. Which would be more helpful to bring, a 15" Obsession or an NP127?
Whichever is convenient for you. A 15" scope would be a lot of fun!

M.
by lolife
Mon Sep 03, 2007 1:50 am
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: Starhouse Star Party
Replies: 5
Views: 750

Re: Starhouse Star Party

It's that time of year again. The party is on September 8th this year, otherwise identical to the previous description. Let me know if you think you might come. Cheers, Michael Koppelman My annual Starhouse Star Party will be held on September <strike>9th</strike>8th starting at 6pm. For those unfam...
by lolife
Sun Aug 27, 2006 9:32 am
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: Starhouse Star Party
Replies: 5
Views: 750

Starhouse Star Party

My annual Starhouse Star Party will be held on September 9th starting at 6pm. For those unfamiliar with this, it is more "party" than "star party". We have a keg of beer and BBQ and bonfire. I open up my observatory and show people stuff. Generally 3 or 4 other people set up scop...
by lolife
Thu Aug 03, 2006 5:49 pm
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: What's new in Linux astronomy programs?
Replies: 3
Views: 479

Most of these:

http://www.eso.org/science/scisoft/Scis ... tents.html

...can probably be run under Ubuntu. I only really use ds9, IRAF and Xephem in the GUI and cfitsio, wcstools and other command-line stuff.
by lolife
Sun Mar 26, 2006 10:00 am
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: Absolute Magnitude
Replies: 8
Views: 1434

According to http://user.bahnhof.se/~davidgr/browndwf/bd_def.html a brown dwarf has an absolute magnitude of about +17, about 1/100,0000 of the luminosity of the Sun.
by lolife
Mon Aug 08, 2005 11:35 am
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: Slacker Astronomy
Replies: 8
Views: 1650

Those guys are friends of mine. I interviewed them on my podcast here:

http://www.lolife.com/blog/archives/000087.html

Cheers,
Michael
by lolife
Fri Jul 08, 2005 9:35 am
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: Cosmology heretics - Lots of 'em!
Replies: 18
Views: 2853

I am reading The Fabric of the Cosmos and the remarkable success of inflation is pretty convincing. Yes, it is most certaintly wrong in ways but it is a fantastically successful theory.

The best part of science is when we disagree. That's when the real work gets done.

Michael
by lolife
Sun Jun 19, 2005 4:45 pm
Forum: Beginners SIG
Topic: Astronomical Twilight?
Replies: 3
Views: 1075

Re: Astronomical Twilight?

When I see the following information related to star parties what does it mean: Astronomical Twilight End: 23:36 Astronomical Twilight Begin: 2:56 It means that in the evening astronomical twilight (when the sky is as dark as it is going to get) ends (meaning its finally dark) at 11:36PM the night ...
by lolife
Fri May 20, 2005 4:00 pm
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: no es bueno
Replies: 7
Views: 1223

Ok, time to put my meteorology degree to work... Russ Thanks, Russ, that's what I was thinking must be happening. The air temp was about 58 degrees so the clouds were indistinguishable from the ground. It cost me a night, dab nabit. I always ignore the visible (non-infrared) stuff but perhaps if I ...
by lolife
Fri May 20, 2005 9:53 am
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: no es bueno
Replies: 7
Views: 1223

Starforce2 wrote:did u check infared? satalite only works when it's sunny, or atleast most of them do, like weatherbug.
Yes, it was infrared I was looking at...
by lolife
Fri May 20, 2005 1:04 am
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: no es bueno
Replies: 7
Views: 1223

no es bueno

Looked like it was gonna clear up tonight. Drove out under clear sky. Satellite looked good. Got one image done and the clouds moved in. When back in and checked the satellite and it looked perfectly clear still. Yet overhead was clouds. Thick clouds.

no comprende.
by lolife
Thu Mar 24, 2005 2:54 pm
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: John Dobson Talk
Replies: 14
Views: 2248

So in essence, he isn't questioning what we see (the evidence) he is questioning the explanation for what we see. He seems to feel that his theory explains the observed in a simpler manor that does not need to resort to things like dark matter. I asked a physics professor at the U about dark matter...
by lolife
Wed Mar 23, 2005 9:00 am
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: John Dobson Talk
Replies: 14
Views: 2248

Kirk wrote:Did Dobson ever claim the BIg Bang was metaphysics?
I can't answer that but I chose that word to describe the notion that the Big Bang is not based on evidence -- that is is somehow a non-quantitative theory. That is the notion I disagree with.
by lolife
Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:20 pm
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: Cosmology heretics - Lots of 'em!
Replies: 18
Views: 2853

I think that your summary is fair, Michael. I don't think the Big Bang theory is dogmatic. That does not mean it is correct, necessarily, only that it seems to be the best theory going right now. We should continue to explore alternate theories, which seems to be the bitch of the open letter folks, ...
by lolife
Fri Mar 18, 2005 12:31 pm
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: Cosmology heretics - Lots of 'em!
Replies: 18
Views: 2853

Hey, Michael, disagreement is fun! Yes, perhaps people are wedded to the theory but my argument is that it is for scientific reasons. Read Ryden's <i>Introduction to Cosmology</i> and then talk to me about the lack of science in the big bang theory. There is no lack of science, it's real, observatio...
by lolife
Fri Mar 18, 2005 11:19 am
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: Orbit your own satellite
Replies: 8
Views: 1537

Dang, that moon sure makes it difficult to get something stable...
by lolife
Fri Mar 18, 2005 11:09 am
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: Cosmology heretics - Lots of 'em!
Replies: 18
Views: 2853

This is very interesting. It seems to me somewhat similar to the creation vs. evolution debate in that the complaint of these people seems to be that most scientists agree with the big bang theory. The accusation is that science is biased towards some theory even though that theory is not complete. ...
by lolife
Thu Mar 17, 2005 1:20 pm
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: John Dobson Talk
Replies: 14
Views: 2248

Few would deny that Dobson's observations include metaphysical and philosophical elements. Surely they do. But he also examines a lot of fundamental physics and raises some serious questions about whether orthodox cosmologists today are drinking their own Kool-Aid, rather than applying the most rig...
by lolife
Sun Mar 13, 2005 9:05 pm
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: Favorite beginner's book
Replies: 29
Views: 6435

'Twas Nightwatch for me, too.
by lolife
Sun Mar 13, 2005 8:53 pm
Forum: General Astronomy
Topic: John Dobson Talk
Replies: 14
Views: 2248

I've been meaning to ask how that talk was. I missed it, unfortunately. Is he nuts? Was it science?

Michael