Whilst I have been trapped in the thesiverse, I have been diligently attempting to ignore all my other projects – but they keep moving along. Whilst Avalon sits behind me in a playpen saying “ba ba” to several bears – and offering the dog a squeeky toy – I thought I would try and write a quick update on some of the projects I intend to resume with whatever free time I find myself with after submission.

.Astronomy

Earlier this week, we had a meeting of the .Astronomy team to discuss the third .Astronomy workshop. It was very exciting with lots of possibilities for locations and dates discussed. We also caught up on some of the projects created and advanced at the Leiden meeting.

A big question that came up – and one I am still mulling over – is that of the nature of .Astronomy. What exactly is it, and how do I know it when i see it? I tend to use it as a descriptive term now (e.g. “ah yes, that is very .astronomy”) but I think it is time to figure out why. This question being raised, and serious discussions of sponsors and venues for a 2010/2011 event leave me feeling very proud. .Astronomy has clearly demonstrated that it is worthy of continuation and expansion.

I can’t wait to get back into a more fully-engaged mode with the whole project. I am extremely glad to have the whole team working with me, and letting me focus on my thesis in recent months. Thanks guys and gals!

365 Days of Astronomy

365 (as people seem to call it) is expanding into 2010 and the days are filling up fast. More sponsorships are needed and I fully intend to dive headlong into comment moderation and posting when I finish the thesis. Another thing that I want to do – and any of you could also do this – is create some backup podcast episodes for 365. When scheduled contributors don’t appear or cancel it is useful to have a bank of backup episodes ready to go.

Chromoscope

Exploring the universe in multiple wavelengths is a lot of fun but I’ve had so litle time to offer this project recently, I’m starting to feel very guilty. We’ve recently added Gamma Ray to the site, from Fermi, and I am slowly compiling a massive UV map, using GALEX. Stuart has been chipping away at new Chromoscope features (such as language support, and making Chromoscope embeddable) and there is talk of an iPhone app in the near future.

Everything Else

There are also my Tweprints and OverTwitter projects which both have potential, large-scale alterations to be made. I shan’t go into details here but maybe these are things I could work on at the next .Astronomy meeting. There is also a cool new project that came out of .Astronomy (I’m currently calling it Zombie) which I really want to get my hands dirty with. Like all the others though, it will have to wait.

The Thesiverse is a large and expanding, multi-dimensional reality. Time is quite variable there too. Next week I am relieved of childcare duties to make a final push at finishing the beast, so wish me luck. Hopefully I shall find my way to a singularity and pop out into your realm once more. Oh dear, Avalon is now trying to get the dog into the playpen so I must go. See you on the other side!

I think it is technically now possible and so I am putting out a personal plea for translators! Help! I have so far obtained a first draft version of my tweets in French and Dutch, as I will outline below.

The phrases that needs translation are as follows:

SATELLITE will pass over CITY at mag XX at HH:MM on DD/MM. Moves from XX° elevation COMPASS to XX° elevation COMPASS over X min

Mag XX Iridium flare over CITY at HH:MM on DD/MM. Will appear at XX° elevation, bearing XX° from North

Here is a list of the current feeds that need translating. If you would like to volunteer to help me out when please reply to me @orbitingfrog. The only requirement I have is that you have a Twitter account so that you can stay subscribed to the feed as we get the translation right.

So here’s the list as it stands. Feel free to comment or tweet and I’ll update the list as we go along.

French (Aix, Paris) (with thanks to @sarahkendrew)

• L’SATELLITE passera au-dessus de CITY avec mag XX à HH:MM le DD/MM. Trajectoire de XX° d’élévation COMPASS à XX° d’élévation COMPASS en XX min
• Flash Iridium mag XX au-dessus de CITY à HH:MM le DD/MM. Apparaîtra à XX° d’élévation, XX° d’azimuth

Dutch (Amsterdam) (with thanks to @sarahkendrew)

• SATELLITE vliegt over CITY met helderheid XX om HH:MM op DD/MM. De hoogte gaat van XX° COMPASS naar XX° COMPASS, gedurende XX min
• Iridiumflits met helderheid XX over CITY om HH:MM u op DD/MM. Verschijnt op hoogte van XX° N, XX° azimut

Greek (Athens)

Norwegian (Bergen)

German (Berlin, Munchen, Wien) (with thanks to @drmirror)

• SATELLITE überquert CITY mit Helligkeit XX um HH:MM am DD/MM. Zieht von XX° Höhe COMPASS nach XX° Höhe COMPASS in X min.
• Iridium Flare der Helligkeit XX über CITY um HH:MM am DD/MM. Erscheint in XX° Höhe, Richtung XX° von Nord.

Spanish (Madrid)

Russian (Moscow)

Czech (Prague)

Italian (Rome)

Korean (Seoul)

Swedish (Stockholm)

Arabic (Tehran)

Japanese (Tokyo)

Hebrew (Tel Aviv)

Other languages for possible future feeds:

Poruguese

During next week’s Moonwatch event at Cardiff University, I’ll be manning a stand showing people how to use Twitter, Google Earth and the Internet to find satellites in the night sky. As well as showing them how to use Heaven’s Above, I’ll also be outlining my own projects OverTwitter, LookUp and Satellite KML.

I’ll also be talking about .Astronomy, Galaxy Zoo and how to view interesting and alternative wavelengths on Google Sky. I’m going to be busy!

Since most of my readers are in the US and Canada, you can download my poster about my own projects rather than fly all the way to Cardiff next week. You can also download this handout explaining these projects and providing links.

If you you are in the Cardiff area, then you’ll need to register to attend our Moonwatch event because it is full up! However, if you have a telescope of your own, I would suggest holding your own smaller Moonwatch event locally. Invite the neighbours round and have some drinks while you show them the Moon!