Science communicator – Professor Brian Cox

Few days ago I came across Professor Brian Cox’s lecture on YouTube – A Night with the Stars [BBC]. I have followed other science communicators like Neil deGrasse Tyson and Jim Al-Khalili, and I have added Brian to the list of people whose talk I shall never miss. Each one of them has a different personality that brings a new style of persuasion. With Neil it is his sheer power and quick comments & replies, with Jim it is all about the deep and revered sense of curiosity & wonder, and with Brian it is his charisma and definitely the boyish demeanor (and of course the British accent ).

So without much delay here is what I found …………. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f9wcSLs8ZQ

Sierpinski triangle

Note: It would help to know a little bit about fractals to appreciate this post.

Ever wanted to create a fractal? For those who are not aware of fractals think of it as a special figure that retains its form no matter how much zoomed in you are, a property known as self-similarity. Don’t believe me, check out this and this.

Quite mind boggling in itself, now if someone told you that this can be generated by a random algorithm!! I had to check it out for myself, so I used the familiar and easy to use Processing programming language to test it. You can read about the algorithm here, it basically involves a moving point whose direction is determined by rolling a dice. The point moves half distance towards one of the three vertices of a triangle When the dice has been rolled a sufficient number of times, you can see the Sierpinski Triangle. In this case the main triangle can be broken into 3 triangles which look like the original triangle and sub-triangle can be broken into 3 more similar triangles. See for yourself ……………..
http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/iframe.php?visualID=46948&width=400&height=400&border=true

Here are some screen shots;

Science communicator – Professor Jim Al-Khalili

I have never seen a documentary quiet like this where I learned so much, not only technically but also about the nature of research. I have been in research for a long time and was aware of the typical challenges but never had perspective. We all (graduate students) knew that getting funding was most difficult, there is always a sense of urgency to get results and publish, any new result would be almost certainly contested etc. But I never truly realized that it has always been the case. For example, the story of the first element to be chemically isolated – the guy who did it had to pretty much boil lots of urine using his wife’s fortune! He eventually succeeded but his coffers were empty by then and he had to sell his knowledge at a very low price. Another interesting story, the race to liquify Hydrogen – two researchers had to race each other putting everything of value at stake and of course only one won. The history of science is replete with examples of people pursuing the unknown (sometimes it is just challenging the known) while putting their regular life and stability in harms way.

Also, the presenter, Prof. Jim Al-Khalili, has done an exceptional job at projecting the sense of amazement, curiosity and wonder that comes with science. Here are some of his documentaries, each one is a masterpiece Kudos to BBC for such a great TV series. Some of these videos can be found in YouTube or Google Videos. They may also be a great gift for school students or anyone interested in such topics. I recommend it to any school or university student who is looking for resolution.

Chemistry: A Volatile History (multi-part series) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxd-fcubJRE (sorry couldn’t find the link to part 1/5)

Atom (multi-part series) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80dS-xZ5-MQ

While you are at it, do also check out The Secret Life of Chaos.

Nice infographic about Solar System and distances involved

I found this great infographic which gives a mind boggling insight into the distances involved just with in our Solar System. Similar infographics are available in abundance but this one has a new twist in that it shows the distance traveled by light in time scales that we use in our daily lives. The original link of the articles is here. This infographic is a long one so I am posting couple of screenshots to entice you You can find the infographic below the screenshots.

PS: The below picture of the Milky Way is an artist’s rendering and not an actual image. To do this we will have to send a probe outside the Milky Way (as of 2011, we have barely managed to send 2 probes out of the Solar System). However this picture is not just wild imagination. We have photographed other galaxies and we have studied (& photographed) our own Milky Way from inside and this picture is a combination of all that knowledge.

Ah … the (below) picture that shows the size of planets and Sun to scale. No matter how often I see this, it always amazes me. All the Sun has to do is send out a little burp and we will simply cease to exist!!

And here is the infographic, you may begin your journey …………… Live Long and Prosper

Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

Encyclopedia of Astronomy by SAO – COSMOS

“COSMOS – The SAO Encyclopedia of Astronomy” is a great collection of definitions and explanations of astronomy related terms. Wait, it gets better, it is written by research astronomers!! so you get information “directly from the horse’s mouth” which is always the most authentic source.

Dark Sky viewpoint around Phoenix

You may scream ARE YOU CRAZY? or more appropriately ARE YOU BLIND? Dark sky in Phoenix, one of the most light polluted cities in continental US!!!!!!!!

Yup I am talking of THE Phoenix in Arizona granted it is not the best dark sky location but hey give it some credit for being just 40miles from the city center and you can still see the Andromeda galaxy (M31)

Where to find it ………. head out in a North-Eastern direction on highway 87 (Beeline Hwy), keep going and cross Fort McDowell Road and then Bush Highway, watch for a big green sign saying “Four Peaks *something*” on your right leading to a dirt road; just drive in couple minutes and ta-da you are there.

View Larger Map

Don’t believe me!? check out these pics that I took there, see the little light smudge at 2 o’clock position (click the image to go to Flickr and see the notes) …………..

Hey I even took a shot of Perseid meteor shower (click the image to go to Flickr and see the notes) …………..

NOTE: This spot is lonely (depending on the day of the year) and very dark AND you will hear animals that howl, so use common sense and be alert.

Awesome pics from a blog

This is what I love about internet and blogs, sitting in my house in Phoenix, Arizona, I can experience a person’s interest who lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

This philosophy professor processes planetary images from various sources and produces amazing pictures of planets and their moons, check it out for yourself, very high quality images, almost surreal views ……………. http://planetimages.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_archive.html

Since Blogpost does not let you link to a specific post I am linking the entire page and this is the topic I want you to look at first, then feel free to explore his blog. Search for “New Color Views of Europa” in the above link and be dazzled

What can you see with a 4.5″ telescope? – Ptolemy Cluster (M7)

Surprise surprise, I woke up at 3am to feed the baby and once I was done I decided to step outside with my 10*50 binocular and voila ……….. there was M7 in all its glory I ran back in and got my telescope.

The exciting part was that it was not visible with naked eyes, the light pollution was surprisingly high even at such early hours – suburban skies, what more can I say . I saw something that looked like the Orion’s belt and in my zeal to view my favorite constellation (actually asterism) using my first telescope, I quickly concluded that it was the Orion’s belt. But a voice deep inside me kept on pointing to contrary evidence like the absence of Betelgeuse or why was Orion’s sword’s center star so bright?! While scanning the alleged Orion’s sword I went off track and chanced upon this high concentration of stars. Immediately I knew that it was a star cluster. Happy with my observation and eager to catch some sleep before the baby wakes up I went to bed. As soon as I got up I looked up the star chart and almost instantly realized my folly, Orion’s belt is not visible during early summer (May) So what was it? luckily I remembered the approximate orientation, time and star layout, and it turned out to be …….. M7 – a beautiful open cluster, also known as Ptolemy Cluster. This is the essence of astronomy as a hobby, a chance discovery, seeing things that are not visible with naked eyes.

25mm EP (eyepiece) (36X with a Meade 4400) gave the best view where you could distinguish the cluster’s stars from the overall background stars. The 12.5 mm EP was way too zoomed in to appreciate the cluster and as usual the 4mm was absolutely useless.

As far as pics, I need to see what I can do, esp. since I do not have a tracking mount and anything other than the moon and planets are difficult to image without tracking.

What can you see with a 4.5″ telescope? – Saturn’s rings

Today I saw Saturn’s rings. Saturn is very easy to spot with naked eye and at a convenient elevation at 9 pm.

25mm (36X with a Meade 4400) and 12.5mm (73X with a Meade 4400) eyepieces worked just fine but the 4mm (228X with a Meade 4400) eyepiece was very susceptible to vibration, quickly moved out of view, and was blurry due to atmospheric disturbance.

The 25mm eyepiece resolved the planet as a small circle but the rings and its shadow did look like horns on the plant The 12.5mm clearly showed the ring around the planet. I also saw a spec of light very close Saturn, I think it is one of the moons but got to confirm it. Neither of them could resolve any surface features on Saturn.

Again my 3X Barlow lens was not of much use since any higher magnification caused blurry images and the subject moved out of view (I do not have tracking mount).

Later I will try to snap a pic You know what they say “pics or it did not happen”

PS: Viewing from backyard in the light polluted city of Phoenix, AZ, USA

Pics are not at all good since I was pointing my DSLR on the eyepiece and contorting my body in all possible ways to align with the optical axis, a.k.a. “afocal coupling“. This is pretty much the size that you will get to see with a 12.5mm (73X with a Meade 4400) but it will be much more clear and sharp.

CLICK the pic for better view

CLICK the pic for better view

What can you see with a 4.5″ telescope? – Moon

Today I saw the moon and it was awesome. In a way this is the first light for my telescope even though it is second hand. I could clearly see the mountains, impact craters, lava filled craters, craters with a small peak right in the middle, the dark colored flat regions on the moon, craters within a crater, so on and so forth ………………

When I used the 25mm (36X with a Meade 4400) eyepiece, the moon filled the field of view while the 12.5mm (73X with a Meade 4400) eyepiece allowed me to view about half of the moon and more details. The 4mm (228X with a Meade 4400) eyepiece showed only a small fraction of the surface but it enabled me to see numerous surface features. However since I was at a high magnification, the moon moved while I was viewing it and in few seconds I had to realign my telescope. After a while this became irritating and I switched back to 12.5mm eyepiece.

My 3X Barlow lens was not of much use since any magnification at or above 200X causes the moon to quickly move out of view (I do not have tracking mount).

Pics are coming sooonnnnnnnn ………… (if I can manage to aim my DSLR into the eyepiece without smashing my camera’s lens!!)

PS: Viewing from backyard in the light polluted city of Phoenix, AZ, USA

Pics are not at all good since I was pointing my DSLR on the eyepiece and contorting my body in all possible ways to align with the optical axis, a.k.a. “afocal coupling“. This is pretty much the size that you will get to see with a 12.5mm (73X with a Meade 4400) but it will be much more clear and sharp.

CLICK the pic for better view

CLICK the pic for better view

CLICK the pic for better view