Inspiring and intriguing science fiction January 23, 2009
Posted by astroed in General.Tags: science fiction
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Today’s Guardian online section has a detailed and intriguing list of the must read works of science fiction and fanatsy. It is part of their ongoing discussion of 1,000 must read books. Whilst there are many expected or familiar works in the list it is much better than other attempts at lists as it casts its net widely and provides several neglected masterpieces.
This is certainly a list to reminisce over and identify works to seek out and read over coming years.
St Andrews, in the footsteps of James Gregory September 21, 2008
Posted by astroed in Astronomy, Education.Tags: history, stargazer, telescopes
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On Saturday we travelled out from Edinburgh to the ancient kingdom of Fife, just north of the Firth of Forth. After a pleasant stop at Elcho Castle we arrived in the University city of St Andrews, otherwise famous of course for golf. Our goal was to visit some places in town associated with the Scottish astronomer and mathematician, James Gregory (1638 - 1675) who was Regius Professor of Mathematics at the University.
Gregory has often been compared with Isaac Newton but unfortunately died tragically young at 36 years old before his achievements were fully recognised.
Gregory is today commemorated by the type of reflecting telescope that bears his name, the Gregorian. In Gregory’s time telescope makers were still making telescopes from lenses - refracting telescopes. These suffered from problems with chromatic aberration that split the light into component colours when looking at brighter stars and planets. The other issue was that in order to get higher magnifications the refracting telescopes used longer and longer focal length. This resulted in ridiculously long telescopes that were increasingly hard to handle and point successfully at stars.
Whilst Newton is credited with building the first successful reflecting telescope, that is one that uses a primary mirror instead of an objective lens, there is strong evidence to support the case that Gregory had built an earlier one in early 1663 using a concave primary and a concave secondary. A year earlier he had published his work Optica promota that was well received. Gregory also developed an early form of what we now call calculus, another discovery normally attributed to Newton and Leibniz.
Joseph Knibb’s split-second clock, used by James Gregory.
In St Andrews we were fortunate to visit the Senate House that houses the clocks built by the clockmaker Joseph Knibb and purchased by Gregory in 1673 for timing his observations. One of these early pendulum clocks was the first to record split-seconds. It had a mechanism that used 1/3 second motions. Gregory conducted his observations from the room next door, now the St James Library. He used a transit telescope pointing south out of one o the windows. The transit line is now hidden beneath the carpet but the bracket on which his transit telescope was mounted is still visible through the window. Unfortunately a building has now been built adjacent to it, blocking the view that Gregory would have once had.
Bracket (at left) that Gregory used for his transit telescope.
In the ruins of St Andrews Cathedral, once one of the largest in the British Isles is the imposing Rules Tower. The university had suggested to Gregory that he could build his observatory on the top of the tower but declined, probably wisely given the task he would have faced lugging his equipment to the top!
Earlier in the week I had come across one of the first successful gregorian telescopes built many years later and now housed in the National Museum of Scotland.
Gregorian telescope from National Museum of Scotland.
Before we departed St Andrews we were also fortunate to visit the modern observatory of the university led by Professor Andrew Collier Cameron, Professor of Astronomy at the university. Here we inspected the 40” Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope now called the Gregory Telescope. This is still in use for exo-planet transit studies. It was actually only the second telescope of this design ever built. The first, a half-size prototype was also built for the observatory and housed in a nearby dome but has since been dismantled.
Dinner was an extremely enjoyable meal at The Hideaway in Dunfermline, run by Fred’s son-in-law. Our dinner guest was none other than the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Professor John Brown from the University of Glasgow. He entertained us with some magic tricks for black holes, interstellar dust and cosmic strings. A fine way to end such a wonderful day.
Professor John Brown, Astronomer Royal for Scotland having fun with cosmic strings!
Questions:
- Why was the invention of the pendulum clock important for astronomers in the second half of the 1600?
- What are some advantages of a reflecting telescope over a refracting (lens) telescope?
400 Years of the Telescope - Edinburgh September 20, 2008
Posted by astroed in Astronomy.Tags: history, stargazer
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I’m now on a tour of Europe with a group of Australian astronomy enthusiasts. We are celebrating the 400th anniversary of the first recorded public demonstration of the telescope by spending 18 days travelling to sites associated with the early history of the this amazing invention. The tour is led by renowned astronomer and public face of astronomy in Australia, Professor Fred Watson, Astronomer-in-Charge of the Anglo-Australian Observatory at Coonabarabran. He wrote a book about these very events, Stargazer, a few years ago.
As we journey around Europe over the next few weeks I hope to post as many entries a I can about the trip. I was inspired to write this and post some accompanying questions for school students by a dynamic teacher from Queensland, Charlotte Pezaro, who I met recently at CONASTA. Her class and another one in Texas will hopefully follow our journey. As time is tight on the trip I intend to post some more detailed articles here once I get back to Australia.
Our tour started in Edinburgh in Scotalnd on Thursday 18 September. On the Friday we journeyed up onto Blackford Hill, three kilometers south of the centre of Edinburgh to the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.
The Royal Observatory Edinburgh is home to one of the world’s great collections of early astronomical books. The Crawford Collection was gifted to the nation by the 26th Earl of Crawford in 1888 and contains over 15,000 items. Gems include a first edition of Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus that was owned and annotated by by Erasmus Reinholdus, Professor of Astronomy at Wittenburg. Many experts regard this as the most important copy in existence as Erasmus’ comments give us an insight into how Copernicus’ ideas were received in the early days.
We were privileged to have access to the collection’s gems. The Librarian in charge of the collection, Karen Moran, discussed some of the Sidereus nuncius, Newton’s Principae and Halley’s synopsis on comets.
Today’s Questions:
What was the most important idea in Copernicus’ work?
Why was the development of printing books important to the spread of new astronomical ideas?
Mission Astronomy Teacher Workshop September 10, 2008
Posted by astroed in Astronomy, Education.Tags: workshop
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A week ago I had the opportunity to visit Toowoomba to help present Mission Astronomy, a workshop for high school teachers from across Queensland. The three-day event was held at the University of Southern Queensland where local astronomer Dr Brad Carter proved a great host. The workshop was modelled on the three-day Astronomy from the Ground Up! workshop that I run annually at the Parkes Observatory.
The workshop included a mix of talks on basic astronomy, areas of current research and plans for future telescopes such as ASKAP and the SKA. A session in the computer lab gave teachers a chance to explore free packages such as Stellarium, Celestia and the new World Wide Telescope. We had planned to have both nights at USQ’s Mt Kent Observatory, a 30 minute drive from town, but the Friday night proved cloudy and windy after a day of rain. Following a tasty Indian meal in town we abandoned the idea of driving out to the observatory but ended up with an impromptu viewing night on the driveway of the motel! The fast-moving clouds gave us short glimpses of Jupiter and a chance to use the SkyScouts to find where objects were hiding behind the clouds.
Saturday evening was fine so we headed out to Mt Kent for some observing under dark, clear skies accompanied by a barbecue. I’ll publish another post soon about some wonderful astroimaging done by a couple of teachers on the night as it deserves space for all the details.
Sunday morning saw us take an unusual group photograph. USQ has a Tardis that they use for open days and promotions for Maths and Science. It was pretty authentic looking though I’m not telling you if it was actually larger on the inside!
Workshops such as this are a great professional development opportunity for teachers. They are also invaluable for networking and socialising away from the school environment and thus removed from the constant interuptions that occur there (and most workplaces). It is always exciting to see teachers re-energised by these events. They go back to their schools with new ideas and a willingness to try out new approaches. There is an on-going need for effectiveness astronomy education programs and training opprotunities for teachers.
September 10: Beam Day at the LHC September 4, 2008
Posted by astroed in Physics.Tags: LHC
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Tuesday 10 Sep is a long-awaited day by physicists around the globe. It is the day that the beam will be turned on in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.
There are lots of things going on to celebrate this event. At the bottom of this post I have some details of a free public talk at the University of Sydney. First though, have a look at this great video - The Large Hadron Rap. I thnk they had lots of fun making this.
FREE PUBLIC TALK
Build your own Big BangAt 5.30 pm AEST next Wednesday 10th September, scientists will hit the big green button on the world’s largest experiment, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The huge energies given to tiny particles in this experiment will take us closer to the Big Bang than we have ever been before and propel us towards answering questions of Life, The Universe and Everything.
One of the thousands of scientists holding his breath is Dr Kevin Varvell from the School of Physics University of Sydney. “At last we can test some of our ideas about what we are made of!” he says. Some ideas are very solid, some such as mini-black holes less so.
At a public talk next Wednesday evening Dr Kevin and Dr Karl Kruszelnicki will be giving the low down on the Large Hadron Collider, colder than deep space, and buried 100 m in the ground in a tunnel 27 km long under the French-Swiss border - as well as streaming live video from CERN.
Date: Wednesday 10th September at 7pm
Venue: Slade Lecture Theatre, School of Physics
Presenters: Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and Dr Kevin Varvell
RSVP: 9351 3472
Popular science books project September 3, 2008
Posted by astroed in General.Tags: books, Science
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Jennifer Ouellette has an interesting challenge on her Cocktail Party Physics - Physics with a twist blog. She has provided a list of popular science books and asks you to highlight the ones that you have read an asterix those you intend to. She also asks you to add other books that should be on the list. Here is my version based on her original list with my additional suggestions following. What do you think should be on it?
1. Micrographia, Robert Hooke
2. *The Origin of the Species, Charles Darwin
3. Never at Rest, Richard Westfall
4. *Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman, Richard Feynman
5. Tesla: Man Out of Time, Margaret Cheney
6. The Devil’s Doctor, Philip Ball
7. The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes
8. Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos, Dennis Overbye
9. *Physics for Entertainment, Yakov Perelman
10. 1-2-3 Infinity, George Gamow
11. *The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene (owned but as yet only skimmed)
12. Warmth Disperses, Time Passes, Hans Christian von Bayer
13. Alice in Quantumland, Robert Gilmore
14. Where Does the Weirdness Go? David Lindley
15. *A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
16. A Force of Nature, Richard Rhodes
17. Black Holes and Time Warps, Kip Thorne
18. A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
19. Universal Foam, Sidney Perkowitz
20. Vermeer’s Camera, Philip Steadman
21. The Code Book, Simon Singh
22. The Elements of Murder, John Emsley
23. *Soul Made Flesh, Carl Zimmer
24. *Time’s Arrow, Martin Amis
25. The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments, George Johnson
26. Einstein’s Dreams, Alan Lightman
27. *Godel, Escher, Bach, Douglas Hofstadter
28. The Curious Life of Robert Hooke, Lisa Jardine
29. A Matter of Degrees, Gino Segre
30. The Physics of Star Trek, Lawrence Krauss
31. E=mc<2>, David Bodanis
32. Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, Charles Seife
33. Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold, Tom Shachtman
34. A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, Janna Levin
35. *Warped Passages, Lisa Randall
36. Apollo’s Fire, Michael Sims
37. Flatland, Edward Abbott
38. Fermat’s Last Theorem, Amir Aczel
39. Stiff, Mary Roach
40. Astroturf, M.G. Lord
41. The Periodic Table, Primo Levi
42. Longitude, Dava Sobel
43. The First Three Minutes, Steven Weinberg
44. The Mummy Congress, Heather Pringle
45. The Accelerating Universe, Mario Livio
46. Math and the Mona Lisa, Bulent Atalay
47. *This is Your Brain on Music, Daniel Levitin
48. The Executioner’s Current, Richard Moran
49. Krakatoa, Simon Winchester
50. Pythagorus’ Trousers, Margaret Wertheim
51. Neuromancer, William Gibson
52. The Physics of Superheroes, James Kakalios
53. The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump, Sandra Hempel
54. Another Day in the Frontal Lobe, Katrina Firlik
55. Einstein’s Clocks and Poincare’s Maps, Peter Galison
56. The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan
57. The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins
58. The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker
59. An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears
60. *Consilience, E.O. Wilson
61. Wonderful Life, Stephen J. Gould
62. Teaching a Stone to Talk, Annie Dillard
63. Fire in the Brain, Ronald K. Siegel (owned but unread)
64. The Life of a Cell, Lewis Thomas
65. Coming of Age in the Milky Way, Timothy Ferris
66. Storm World, Chris Mooney
67. The Carbon Age, Eric Roston
68. The Black Hole Wars, Leonard Susskind
69. Copenhagen, Michael Frayn
70. From the Earth to the Moon, Jules Verne
71. *Gut Symmetries, Jeanette Winterson
72. Chaos, James Gleick
73. *Innumeracy, John Allen Paulos
74. The Physics of NASCAR, Diandra Leslie-Pelecky
75. Subtle is the Lord, Abraham Pais
There are several books on this list that I haven’t heard of I must admit. I’m not sure NASCAR travels well out of the US too though thanks to Jennifer’s earlier review I had heard of this book.
Here are a few recommendations (in no particular order):
1. Sleepwalkers, Arthur Koestler
2. Sidereus nuncius Galileo
3. The Birth of a New Physics, I. Bernard Cohen
4. The Pinball Effect, James Burke
5. Kepler and Doctor Copernicus (two novels) by John Banville
I have a tendency to buy books faster than I get a chance to read them so have several books on Jennifer’s list that I own but have yet to get around to reading. What about you?
Brisbane Planetarium and IYA August 31, 2008
Posted by astroed in Astronomy, Education.Tags: IYA
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On Friday morning I flew to Brisbane. The main reason for my trip was to help run the Mission Astronomy teacher workshop at the University of Southern Queensland but you’ll have to read a later blog posting for details about that. Before going to Toowoomba for the workshop I participated in a meeting at the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium in the grounds of the Botannical Gardens in Brisbane. This was my first visit to the planetarium and I was impressed by the design of the building as well as the lovely setting in the gardens.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the International Year of Astronomy 2009 with interested stakeholders from Queensland. It was a productive meeting with representatives from several amatur socieities, the planetarium, the Science Teachers’ Association of Queensland, universities and the Queensland Museum. Following an overview of IYA then how it is structured and what is already planned for IYA in Australia we had a lengthy discussion about possible events and activities in Queensland. I llok forward to following up ideas with the group over coming months.
Near the entrance to the planetarium is an engaging new addition - a bronze statue of rocket pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, donated to Brisbane last year by a Russian trade delegation. It is almost whmsical but also quite touching.
Before our meeting we had a chance to see the planetarium in action. It still uses a Zeiss optical projector plus a newer digital one. The 12.4 m dome seats about 120 people and hosts up to several shows a day. They have an active education program and the place certainly seemed buzzing with enthusisatic school students during my visit.
Introducing ‘Fermi’, the telescope formerly known as GLAST. August 27, 2008
Posted by astroed in Astronomy.Tags: Fermi
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NASA revealed the new name of the recently-launched gamma-ray telescope hitherto known as GLAST yesterday. Following a competition to suggest a suitable name from the world of high-energy physics and astronomy they have renamed it Fermi, in honour of the famous Italian physicist (and later American resident) Enrico Fermi. Read the NASA news release for more details.
Great post on getting teachers engaged with ICT. August 25, 2008
Posted by astroed in Education, ICT.add a comment
Chris on Betchablog has a great updated post on 11 things that make a difference. He provides a clear and concise summary of 11 things that help teachers gain confidence and apply ICT across their teaching. Highly recommended.
Some great ‘Sleek Geek’ science videos. August 21, 2008
Posted by astroed in Astronomy, Education, ICT.Tags: Eureka, schools, Science, videos
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This week saw the annual Eureka Prizes for Science awarded. Part of the awards are sponsored by the University of Sydney and hosted on the ABC’s website: The Sleek Geeks Science Eureka Schools Prize. Check out some grat videos produced by school students. There is a lovely video by a very passionate four-year old volcanologist, Aydin Neighbour.
From an astronomy perspective there is the winner in the Secondary Schools section about the Copernican revolution. The winner in the University section is also a favourite.
Happy viewing.
