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AAVSO & Variable Star Astronomy

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Car Boot Sales

[Jul. 20th, 2008|08:16 pm]

We went to Dunchurch as normal and were surprised that the sale had far fewer sellers than normal - perhaps 50 fewer. No obvious reason that I could think of becuase it was not wet, windy or the school holidays.

The range of goods on sale was also narrower. Few if any of the book stall type so perhaps they thought it was going to be wet?

Still loads of videos that nobody was buying.

Trash Day...Over!

[Jul. 19th, 2008|11:20 pm]

The (one) closet in the bottom floor of Darrowby House is somewhat under control.

The Carriage House is cleaned out.

The first floor of the Barn is cleaned out.

The Mudroom is cleaned out.

All Hail to Buddha - I couldn't have done it without him!!

The story sometime tomorrow. I am dead tired right now.

one reason why dogs bite children!!

[Jul. 19th, 2008|09:12 am]

So where was the responsible adult photographer while this was happening?

dog

see more dog pictures

5 comments|post comment

for the easily amused

[Jul. 18th, 2008|02:34 pm]

[

mood

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sleepy

]

Here is the story of my encounter with StatStar, as written up in a fit of silliness for the AAVSO Eyepiece Views newsletter. They didn't print it.

FORGET SUDOKU!

One day last week I was poking around on the Internet trying to answer a somewhat AAVSO-related question: whether, for purposed of modeling an eclipsing binary with the BinaryMaker software, a Wolf-Rayet star should be considered a “convective” star or a “radiative” star. I didn’t find the answer.
But I did find StatStar.

( Read more... )

2 comments|post comment

semi mistaken identity

[Jul. 18th, 2008|04:34 pm]

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

4 comments|post comment

Truck From Hell...

[Jul. 18th, 2008|01:14 pm]

U-Haul just called.

I had reserved a 5m truck for Trash Day, Part II.

They only have an 8m truck available.

Geeze!

"Give the Dwarf the Big Truck!"

6 comments|post comment

a little relaxation

[Jul. 18th, 2008|09:08 am]

[

mood

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sleepy

]

I finished a large section of a project at work yesterday, so I took a vacation day today. I did a little visual observing last night (44 stars), even though the Moon was pretty bright. The GRAS telescope in New Mexico is back working, although the weather out there sucks. Phoebe is working & for the most part fits the data. Kip is without his cone, at least while I'm there to keep an eye on him. The vet said the pad is almost completely grown back.

I was going to sleep in, but was awakened by a dog fight ... two dogs who somehow got into the same crate with one toy, I guess. This was the only down side.

I do have a few chores to take care of today: change a lock because the key keeps getting stuck (something is loose), get Frontline for everybody, attend a lunchtime "Dog Day" BBQ at work, do some laundry. After that, I have the weekend.

Working Late Into the Night...

[Jul. 18th, 2008|11:52 am]

...Or: I Have Pants Again!

Tomorrow is "Trash Day, Part Two" which Bu has graciously agreed to help me with. We'll finish up with the debris in the Carriage House, take out the rest of the debris/recycling in the 1st floor of the Barn (about 90% of it is gone), and then clean out the Mudroom.

In preparation for the Mudroom, I was carting stuff to there from, basically, the closet last night. I only have one closet and it largely became a catchall for everything, especially after one point when we had to pick up for a Vampire game. Arc pulled the classic "shove everything in the closet" routine. So, I basically cleaned out the closet.

You'd be amazed! First of all, in a classic "Doc's cleaning! Grab anything you ever want to see again now!" move, I am trashing all of my video tapes. By definition, those in the closet have not seen the light of day (or the magnetic field of a VCP) in over three years. They're gone - bye bye!

Second, I found (and do need to save), the handwritten reply to a letter I'd sent my favorite President, Jimmy Carter, after Ronald Regan's death. Do need to save that.

Finally, and in this context most importantly, I have pants again!

I have had, since I can't remember when, two pairs of jeans. Both these jeans, even I can see, are dead now. So dead. One pair can't be cleaned. I have tried and tried and tried. Used bleach, the whole bit. And when people see them they wonder where I've been digging in the dirt (a question someone actually asked me, in fact). The others are ripped to a point where it is obvious what color boxers I'm wearing that day.

But no more. Yes, in the closet I also found four pairs of new jeans! Yes, folks, it will thrill you to know that I have pants again! :-)

4 comments|post comment

The Bush Presidential Libraray

[Jul. 18th, 2008|09:02 am]

Kindly sent me by a colleague ... I almost deleted it w/out reading until I remembered that he often sends jokes.

Please consider a contribution to our President's new library with locations in Crawford, Texas and a satellite facility in Bagdad.

The George W Bush Presidential Library is now in the planning stages. The Library will include:

The Hurricane Katrina Room, which is still under construction.

The Alberto Gonzales Room, where you won't be able to remember anything.

The Texas Air National Guard Room, where you don't even have to show up.

The Walter Reed Hospital Room, where they don't let you in.

The Guantanamo Bay Room, where they don't let you out.

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room, which no one has been able to find.

The National Debt room which is huge and has no ceiling.

The "Tax Cut" Room with entry only to the wealthy.

The "Economy Room" which is in the toilet.

The Iraq War Room. After you complete your first tour, they make you to go back for a second, third, fourth, and sometimes fifth tour.

The Dick Cheney Room, in the famous undisclosed location, complete with shotgun gallery.

The Environmental Conservation Room, still empty.

The Supremes Gift Shop, where you can buy an election.

The 'Decider Room' complete with dart board, magic 8-ball, Ouija board, dice, coins, and straws.

The museum will have an electron microscope to help you locate the President's accomplishments.

Admission: Republicans - free; Democrats -- $1000 or 3 Euros

2 comments|post comment

California flash flood

[Jul. 17th, 2008|06:03 am]

Here is a cool video of a flash flood/mudflow in Kern County last week:

http://gallery.mac.com/kcfd#100101

1 comment|post comment

[Jul. 17th, 2008|07:48 am]

In case you're wondering, I've been hit by some ungodly fucking evil-as-satan's shit fucking virus, and I've had a fever of 103* or higher, up to 105*, since last Wednesday night/Thursday morning.
Holy shit I feel awful.

1 comment|post comment

The Gamma Cygni Nebula – A big image from a small telescope

[Jul. 17th, 2008|08:07 am]

The Gamma Cygni Nebula – A big image from a small telescope

The Gamma Cygni Nebula is much larger and far more complex that most
astronomers realise. For example SkyMap Pro quotes a size of 50 x 30
arc minutes yet the image on the web site below (145 x 97 arc minutes)
still only shows a portion of what is present!

http://www.martin-nicholson.info/gammacygni/gcygni.htm

What a Way to Start the Day...

[Jul. 16th, 2008|11:11 am]

Who says astronomers don't have [bad] senses of humor??

One of my old grad school classmates, upon hearing that Budweiser was sold to a Belgium company, remarked:

"This Bud's for EU!"

...and the groaning was heard the world over.

1 comment|post comment

Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas

[Jul. 15th, 2008|04:11 pm]

I finally finished this game - just over 18 months after I started it.

OK, a big gap in the middle when I wasn't playing it but rather slow. I found the flying missions the hardest as I think did daughter #2.

[Jul. 15th, 2008|09:46 pm]

dog

see more dog pictures

Phoebe progress

[Jul. 15th, 2008|09:24 pm]

[	Tags	\|	eclipsing binaries, phoebe, wolf-rayet stars	]
[	mood	\|	pleased	]

With the help of my second future co-author on the eclipsing binary star project & without the benefit of any software manual whatsoever, I am finally getting PHOEBE helping instead of hindering. We CAN describe our pair of stars ... there are solutions that look pretty much like the data! That is GOOD! That having been said, there are some "features" (as opposed to bugs?) in the light curves that do not fit; we had to remove those data points. But we could tell from looking at the light curves that those points were going to be a problem. Now we just have to stretch our brains to figure out what else is happening in the system to cause the "features".

I'm thinking that this system ought to look something like my UserPix, only tilted to an angle instead of "face on". The two orbiting stars would be in the middle, where the red is. The spiral is due to one of the stars shedding matter at a prodigious rate. The orbit winds the trail up into a spiral. Now the bright blue & green stuff in the UserPix, will it add to the light or, when it passes in front of one of the stars, will it block light out & if so how much?

PHOEBE, by the way, is quite CPU intensive. I've never before purposely subjected my little computer to 90 sec of pegged CPU & loud, whirring fan. And that is only one iteration. We have to go through that a few times before she decides what parameter values are best. Even Statstar (another long story that I will tell sometime) does not push the computer that much.

Tweets for Today

[Jul. 15th, 2008|10:19 pm]

13:55 @simostronomy Don't die, Mike. We need you! #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

[Jul. 15th, 2008|12:57 pm]

[

mood

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busy

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Ha. Began some edits on Scheme of the Necromancer, at long last. So far I've taken out sentences rather than paragraohs, though I've begun an outtakes file for them, just in case: what's going is what so far seems to be too much infodumping. THe outtakes are reserved because they may end up back in the story. Notes on page removed from, of course. Gah! Wish my printer was working! (no cartridge, lol)

( 1:19 PM edit: )

[Jul. 15th, 2008|12:39 pm]

[

mood

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amused

]

Meme ories...

[Jul. 15th, 2008|12:23 pm]

[	Tags	\|	meme	]
[	mood	\|	accomplished	]

From: becca c
Date: Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 9:34 AM
( Subject: FW: Fun facts )

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