Author Archives | ttfnRob
ttfnRob - who has written 479 posts on Orbiting Frog.
I am studying for my PhD in Astronomy at Cardiff University in the UK. Star formation is my main area of research but really I like anything to do with space, science and the internet.
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Posted on 08 October 2008
It’ll be upon us before we know it: 2009 is less than three months away! It will be the International Year of Astronomy and as part of the festivities, a new podcast is being launched. Every day, a new episode of 365 Days of Astronomy will become available for your listening pleasure.…
Tags: IYA2009, Podcast
Posted on 07 October 2008
I have a copy of The Universe Season Two to give away to one lucky Twitterer. Read more about this great space documentary series here and find out how to win a copy.
Tags: dvd, giveaway, review, the universe
Posted on 30 September 2008
Just wanted to point out this wonderful xkcd comic. I like that it ends (or starts, if you like) with ‘folks’. This is why I love xkcd.
xkcd - A Webcomic - Height
Posted on 29 September 2008
The Jules Verne ATV, which was launched earlier this year by ESA to aid in deliveries to the ISS, will burn up today in a controlled fireball re-entry. The main event kicks off around midday (UT), as the spacecraft descends into the Pacific Ocean.
Tags: ATV, ESA
Posted on 20 September 2008
It has been a very busy Summer for me, and now it looks to be a very busy Autumn. This week I will be running the .Astronomy Conference, a meeting about networked astronomy and the new media. I recently submitted a telescope proposal for time on the JCMT. I have…
Posted on 13 September 2008
These are the top stories from the Digg Space category for the week ending Saturday 13th of September 2008:
Posted on 10 September 2008
The LHC goes online today. Here are some cool numbers.
Posted on 06 September 2008
These are the top stories from the Digg Space category for the week ending Saturday 06th of September 2008:
Posted on 01 September 2008
I was tinkering about earlier and created this automator script, which changes my desktop image to be today’s APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day). This is Mac OS X only.
Posted on 16 August 2008
These are the top stories from the Digg Space category for the week ending Saturday 16th of August 2008:
Posted on 10 August 2008
Flickr user FlintstoneStargazer captured all 110 of the Messier Objects between March 7th and August 6th this year. They have all been compiled into a big mosaic.
Tags: Astrophotography, Messier
Posted on 29 July 2008
Finally my paper studying the Ophiuchus star-forming region is done and dusted and has been accepted for publication. Today it appeared on the online research paper service, astro-ph and it be published properly by the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in (hopefully) the near future.
Tags: Cardiff, Ophiuchus, Star Formation
Posted on 28 July 2008
I have finally seen the (former) planet Pluto, thanks to some very dark skies and a decent telescope. Here’s a quick overview and some information about the dark, cold and very distant dwarf planet.
Tags: Magnitude, pluto
Posted on 27 July 2008
I have been experimenting with astrophotography from my current, dark location in the south of France. However I am stuck and need some help in both taking and then processing the images. I know there are loads of photographic astronomers out there - I need you!
Tags: Aquila, Astrophotography, Constellations, Cygnus, France, Lyra, Plough
Posted on 26 July 2008
“Prof Chandra Wickramasinghe and Dr Janaki Wickramasinghe claim Venus’s clouds contain chemicals that are consistent with the presence of micro organisms.”
These two are from Cardiff’s centre for Astrobiology and the elder of the two has singlehandedly given the field a bad name over the past twenty years.
The whole concept of…
Tags: Cardiff, Earth, Venus
Posted on 26 July 2008
These are the top stories from the Digg Space category for the week ending Saturday 26th of July 2008:
To…
Posted on 23 July 2008
Ah here I am in ever-so sunny Aix in the south of France. I’m blogging from my iPhone right now because I’m by the pool and too comfy to go and find my laptop. I’m also testing out the Wordpress app from the App Store.
The skies here are big and…
Tags: aix, Cardiff, weather
Posted on 17 July 2008
You may have noticed that I have ‘fallen off the internet’ this week, as a friend of mine recently said in a text message. Well the reason is that I have been attending a meeting about star formation and the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Tags: Cardiff, Harvard, Infrared, Spitzer
Posted on 12 July 2008
These are the top stories from the Digg Space category for the week ending Saturday 12th of July 2008:
Posted on 10 July 2008
Was just looking through the App Store on iTunes and found an astronomy application for the iPhone/iPod Touch called Starmap. It will be fun to play with this tomorrow when I can actually install any of these apps. Why Apple has let me browse and buy these things a full day before I can even use them, I don’t know. (Screenshots inside).
Tags: iPhone, iPod
Posted on 10 July 2008
Black holes are very interesting things, aren’t they? There’s something fascinating about those things which are so hard to understand. Black holes are one of the most asked about objects at almost any public space talk. Certainly school children seem to be obsessed with them! This week I had more than one person ask about them via email.
Tags: Black Holes, Light
Posted on 05 July 2008
Tonight, July 5, look west and you’ll see a temporary “Belt of Three Stars”. Saturn, Mars and the star Regulus are sitting by Leo in a chance alignment that literally will only happen tonight. Very cool.
Tags: Leo, Mars, Saturn
Posted on 05 July 2008
The top stories from the Digg Space category for the week ending Saturday 05th of July 2008.
Posted on 04 July 2008
I love that this happened just down the road from where I live. Police called out to a 999 call about an unexplained object in the night sky solved the mystery straight away for their when they realised it was actually the Moon. Well worth listening to.
Tags: Funny, Moon
Posted on 04 July 2008
We did a cool experiment last Wednesday about the UV properties of various liquids. It yielded this very cool picture which looks like something from science fiction.
Tags: Cool