Introducing the Plutoids. June 12, 2008
Posted by astroed in Astronomy, Education.add a comment
Welcome Pluto and Eris, the first of the Plutoids. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has finally resolved the naming of Solar System objects such as Pluto. At their General Assembly in Prague in 2006 the IAU voted to reclassify Pluto. It was no longer a planet but instead was known as a dwarf planet. At the time terms such as pluton were suggested but this was already used in geology. From the media release:
Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the Sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighbourhood around their orbit. The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris.
Ceres does not qualify as it resides in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
There is a useful teaching resource about the initial naming controversy that is freely available from the Astronomy Education Review site. This provides teachers and other educators with some effective learning strategies.
GLAST launched successfully. June 12, 2008
Posted by astroed in Astronomy.add a comment
The GLAST spacecraft launched successfully from Florida at 12.05 pm EDT today. It is now in orbit about 560 km above the Earth with solar arrays deployed. A launch image is shown below (credit: NASA TV).
GLAST ready for launch, June 11. June 11, 2008
Posted by astroed in Astronomy.add a comment
The GLAST satellite is ready for launch. It is scheduled for launch on a Delta II Heavy rocket with a launch window from 11:45 a.m. – 1:40 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, June 11.
Astronomy Ambassador Summer School at ARCC, UTB June 10, 2008
Posted by astroed in Astronomy, Education, ICT, Physics.3 comments
I’m here in the Sci-fi looking Arecibo Remote Command Center (ARCC) within the Center for Gravitational Wave Astrophysics (CGWA) at University of Texas Brownsville. I’m surrounded by a keen if slightly nervous group of high school students from Texas and Puerto Rico who are about to embark on a three-week long Astronomy Ambassadors summer school. This is one of three summer schools, the others in computer science and mathematics, that the university is running over the next few weeks.
Students meet at 10 am each day for a subject-specific session that is then followed by a scientist from the university or elsewhere giving a lecture to the combined groups. Today’s talk will be about gamma-ray bursts. The afternoon session is a two-hour lab with a range of activities. I’m only here for the first four days as I fly home to Australia on Friday. Nonetheless I’m looking forward to working with the students on some introductory activities and giving Wednesday’s talk to the whole group about telescopes of the world.
Unfortunately I miss out on the camping trip next week to western Texas. There the students will construct their own Dobsonian telescope that they get to keep then use it under the dark skies of the region to observe the stars. They will also visit McDonald Observatory, home of the 9.2 m Hobby-Eberley Telescope and other telescopes.
When I arrived at ARCC late Friday afternoon they were busy mounting large, flat-screen LCD displays from the ceiling and walls. On Saturday afternoon there was a welcome and briefing for the five new undergraduates who have just been accepted as ARCC Scholars. They have a four-year program at UTB studying Physics and related subjects whilst working closely with scientists at the CGWA and using the ARCC to observe pulsars using the famous 300 m Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico.
On Sunday we welcomed the students and parents involved in the Astronomy Ambassadro program. They were able t observe an actual observing session at Arecibo conducted by UTB students using the ARCC as you can see below.
ASP Symposium: Weekend Workshops – Day One June 2, 2008
Posted by astroed in Astronomy, Education.6 comments
I arrived in St Louis on Friday night after a long flight from Australia sans luggage. Oh well! Fortunately Jim Small from the St Louis Astronomical Society helped me out by taking we down to a couple of Jazz/Blues bars near the BUSCH Stadium where the local Cardinals were playing Pittsburgh (baseball). Had a nice Cajun meal, a few restorative beers and managed to buy a t-shirt from BBs so I was respectable for the following day’s workshop. Just got back to the hotel before a massive thunderstorm struck. Lots of others didn’t quite make it so there were many drenched people arriving in the hotel lobby. Thunder and sleep don’t mix hen combined with jet lag so only got a few hours sleep.
Saturday saw day one of the weekend workshops organised by the ASP. Three were on offer and I had selected Amateur Astronomers as Champions of IYA 2009. This turned out to be a sound choice as the workshop had a range of presenters and topics and gave overview of some IYA activities an how amateurs can get involved. I’ll try and summarise the sessions below.
- The workshop was introduced and hosted by Marni Berendsen and Vivian White from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
- First topic was by Sun-Earth Day Opportunities by Lou Mayo and Isabel Hawkins.
- Marin and Vivian then gave an overview of of the IYA Program for Amateur Astronomers.
- Stephen Pompea and Rob Spark from NOAO presented Teaching with the Galileoscope in the IYA. This was a really useful session and I was impressed how the team working on the Galileoscope have reined the concept and have what appears to be a workable, flexible and engaging solution. he plan now is for a scope with about 45x magnification, 1 degree field of view and a large eye relief. This will give a telescope that is suitable for urban students to view the Moon and the planets. The telescope can also double a an optical lab and is reusable so different groups can construct their own telescope. The aim is a scope for about $10 per unit.
- Following lunch Vivian showed us how to make a comet from dry ice and some other ingredients. This is always a fun activity. An engaging addition was getting each group to design and decorate their own Comet Cook aprons.
- Brian Day introduced us to LCROSS, (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) a lunar mission that will send a Centaur rocket stage crashing into a polar crater on the Moon. The collision and resulting cloud of ejecta will be monitored by the LCROSS probe following 4 minutes behind. They hope to find evidence of water in the cloud. One point that grabbed my attention was the that high school students in the GAVRT scheme using the 32m dish at Goldstone will be monitoring the LCROSS trajectory from the Earth to the Moon. Depending on the launch date (currently projected as late December 08) this could take a few months. Brian and I chatted about the possibility of some Australian students involved in PULSE@Parkes also getting involved and observing the probe. Marni then consolidated this by presenting some cratering activities and simulations including the bowl of flour dusted with cocoa powder and some useful hints as how to maximise the impact (pardon the pun) of these.
- Dark Skies from the Ground up: Amateur Astronomers as Ambassadors for GLOBE at Night covered by Connie Walker from NOAO and Dark Skies Discovery Sites by Terry Mann from the Astronomical League. GLOBE at Night is a wonderful project set up by Connie and her team. It runs during March each year and involves anyone going outside at night, finding Orion the trying to compare what they see with one of six diagrams available from the website. There is an excellent range of online and support materials. What I particularly like is that it is designed for use anywhere and caters for southern hemisphere observers
After a long but stimulating day I returned to the hotel to find that my luggage had finally arrived intact! I didn’t have much time to relax though as I was soon heading off with a group about 30 km out of St Louis for a great party at Pamela Gay of StarStryder and Astronomy Cast fame’s home. This was a wonderful way to end the day and meet lots of people. I finally met Phil Plait (of Bad Astronomy) and Chris Lintott having been a regular reader of all their blogs. Phil in his former employment had worked on the GLAST Outreach materials whilst Chris is one of the team heading up Galaxy Zoo. I’ll be attending their workshop on new media in astronomy on day two. Another heavy thunderstorm enlivened the evening but was mixed with some fine food, beer and conversation.
