Blog / Monthly archive / November 2010
November 2010
Observational highlights for November 2010
November 2010 will be remembered for the final phases of totality, with hints of 3rd contact beginning to appear.
During the course of the month and since mid-eclipse in August 2010, a 63 day periodicity in the visual light curve has become more noticeable, as noticed by Thomas Karlsson. Recent minima occurred in late Aug and early Nov, and recent maxima in early Oct and presumably in early Dec 2010.
The latest CHARA+MIRC observations were obtained in late Oct (poor observing conditions) and again in early Nov (better conditions). While the data reduction remains challenging, these images show a hint of elongation of light toward the egress end of the disk. Our next chance to confirm this is with scheduled time Dec. 9+10, 2010.Read more
New DSLR Air-Mass Corrected Spreadsheet!
I would like to announce that the DSLR Documentation and Reduction Team has released the long-awaited Air Mass correcting spreadsheet in the Intermediate-level Final Reduction tutorial. If you have been doing DSLR work in the last few months and your target star has been more than 30 degrees from the zenith, we highly suggest you re-reduce your data with this spreadsheet.
There are sure to be a few bugs we didn't get worked out in the tutorial and/or spreadsheet so if you find something please let us know. If you have any questions/comments, please post them in the photometry forums.
A Problem of Distance
About three weeks ago I went through the second-to-last administrative hurtle in the process to getting a Ph.D.: a dissertation proposal defense. During this meeting I presented what I propose to do for my dissertation and defended the topic and methods to my committee. Now all that remains is actually doing the work, writing the dissertation, and defending it in front of my committee.Read more
Distribution of Planetarium Video Underway
We are ready to distribute the Timothy Ferris Citizen Sky 6-minute planetarium trailer to theaters interested in showing it. Click for more information.
Click here for background information on the show and to view it via YouTube. But remember that YouTube's small screen doesn't do it justice. The Cal Academies rendered a beautiful show that excels on the big screen.
Versions of the planetarium show have been sent to all of the major planetarium manufacturers and content distributors. You should be able to contact your vendor of choice for a copy. They should be free to use.
Please contact us if you plan to show the video!! It will help us greatly if we can give the National Science Foundation a report of how many theaters are showing the video! Just e-mail info@citizensky.org or use this feedback form.Read more
