Interesting

Amazing Perseid Meteor Animation

Interesting by ttfnrobAugust 13, 2013

Interesting by ttfnrobJuly 17, 2013July 17, 2013

What is Citizen Science?

For better or worse citizen science has become a fashionable term, but what is it and why do people like it? Citizen Science is a big component in a larger movement of public participation and engagement. There are makers and hackers everywhere and participation in science feels like it is increasing in general. This is […]

That’s No Supermoon

News by ttfnrobJune 24, 2013

Searching for Planets in the Pleiades

Interesting by ttfnrobJune 14, 2013

More on Men and Women in Astronomy

The response my previous blog post about gender bias took me by surprise. Apparently if you talk about this stuff openly, people have a lot to say. More than 500 people have read the post on this site and more over at the Women in Astronomy blog. After posting it, I also emailed the upcoming […]

Men, Women and Self-Promotion in Astronomy

Interesting by ttfnrobJune 10, 2013June 14, 2013

Interesting by ttfnrobJune 10, 2013June 10, 2013

Aurora Borealis Timelapse

A recent APOD featured this beautiful video of the Northern Lights over Norway. The opening shot is almost exactly how I saw the aurora in 2012. The Sun is at the peak of its activity and therefore the likelihood of seeing aurora (at either pole) are increased at the moment.

Interesting by ttfnrobAugust 7, 2012June 5, 2013

Apollo Astronauts and Solar Radiation

The Apollo astronauts narrowly avoided serious health problems, and even death due to exposure to radiation from the Sun. Here’s a plot of the approximate Solar proton flux during the Apollo era: Here’s the same but with the missions and health warnings labelled: Scary stuff! I made these images for a talk I gave a while […]

Interesting by ttfnrobJuly 17, 2012June 5, 2013

ITER: A Thermonuclear Reactor That Scientists Will Tidy Up When It’s Done

Yesterday I toured the site of ITER, the nuclear fusion plant under construction near Cadarache, France. A multinational collaboration is pumping 150 billion Euros into this experimental fusion reactor, which aims to create 500 mega-watts of power, for every 50 that are pumped into. ITER, which sort of means International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor but is […]

Interesting by ttfnrobApril 19, 2012June 6, 2013

Olbers’ Paradox

Wendy Sadler (of Science Made Simple fame) was asking, on Facebook, what explanations people usually gave for Olbers’ Paradox. The slew of answers from several people revealed that the canonical answer is not the only one people think of. The paradox is named for a 19th Century astronomer, Heinrich Olbers, who remarked that if the […]