SpaceShipOne
SpaceShipOne |
|---|
Title: Visual Perception
Speaker: AMIR BAHA
Time: 4:00 PM on Thursday, November 4, 2004
Place: Science Room 334
All students and faculty are welcome to attend. Refreshments will be served...maybe even hotdogs?
 |
The annual SFA 101 tour of the Observatory has been scheduled by Dr. Markworth with Gloria Montes in the SFA 101 office. These tours are for students in the SFA 101 course. We could use some helpers for these large groups. I think we will provided dinner around 6pm for our majors and SPS members that are able to help us at the observatory. Busses will arrive at the observatory at 7, 8, 9, and 10pm on the following nights:
Monday, November 8, 2004
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
We will have public viewing session at the SFA Observatory on the following day (weather permitting):
Tuesday, November 16, 2004 at 8:00PM
It looks like the Leonids peak around 2:25am on November 17th. That's a Tuesday night, Wednesday morning. The moon will be a thin crescent. The peak will only be about 10 to 15 meteors an hour this year. That's far from our 1 per second in the "Great Leonid Meteor Shower of 2002".
Predictions online say that "...2004 will see a continuing decline in activity back towards its earlier ZHRs of 10-15. Certainly, no enhanced activity is predicted, although as meteor enthusiasts know well, surprises can occur from even the best-known showers on occasion!" http://www.imo.net/calendar/cal04.html#Leonids (ZHR=Zenith Hourly Rate)
For more information see Dr. Markworth, Dr. Bruton, or this link:
http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/observatory/tour_form.html
 Live Images |
|---|
Movie: I'd hire this guy in a minute.
http://observe.phy.sfasu.edu/courses/ast105/lectures105/99-Interesting/SmartestKidinClass.wmv
Mount St. Helens Eruption Warning - Live Images
http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/
American trio wins physics Nobel
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/10/05/nobel.physics.ap/index.html
Mars Rovers Exceed 50,000 Images
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
The Cassini is now near Saturn. The Huygens probe will float to the surface of Saturn's largest moon in January 2005!
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/saturn-arrival/saturn-spotlight-why/index.cfm
Movie: Cassini Mission Overview...an exciting journey...
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/videos/movies/casoverview.mov&width=480&height=360&type=movie
More Saturn Movies
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/latest/index.cfm
Watch the Research Channel online?
http://www.researchchannel.org/
http://www.uwtv.org/
http://www.uctv.tv/
The American Association of Physics Teachers is offering a $2,000 scholarship for future high-school physics teachers.
http://www.aapt.org/grants/lotze.cfm
Make a ramjet from 2 coffee mugs and a sink strainer!
http://www.cottrillcyclodyne.com/Maggie_Muggs/Maggie.html
Faded star defies description: Astronomers have no idea what EF Eridanus is now
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/10/05/space.star.reut/index.html
Movie: Watch the X-Prize Flight Online
http://www.xprize.com/
Awarding the $10,000,000 ANSARI XPRIZE is not the end, but the beginning...
http://www.xpcup.com/
X Prize evolves into annual competition
Organizers hoping for 'grand prix of space'
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/10/05/spaceshipone.race.ap/index.html
SpaceShipOne captures X Prize
Privately funded craft reaches altitude requirement
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/10/04/spaceshipone.attempt.cnn/index.html
Very Able Stars
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap041012.html
AN ECLIPSING BINARY IN THE TRAPEZIUM
http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/objects/variablestars/
Total Lunar Eclipse
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/13oct_lunareclipse.htm?list1065276
OCTOBER'S IDEAL LUNAR ECLIPSE
http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/objects/eclipses/article_1340_1.asp
THE DIM CORE OF A STRIPPED STAR
http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1367_1.asp
CLASH OF THE TITANS
http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1363_1.asp
HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY
http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/ataglance/
Top 50 Texas Foundations
http://fdncenter.org/fc_stats/pdf/10_top50_tg/2002/tx_02.pdf
Nacogdoches from Space
http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/observatory/NightLights/index.htm
UNDERSTANDING ENGINEERS - TAKE TWO
To the optimist, the glass is half full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
UNDERSTANDING ENGINEERS - TAKE SEVEN
Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.
UNDERSTANDING ENGINEERS - TAKE NINE
An engineer was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him
and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess."
He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.
The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into
a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week."
The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned
it to the pocket.
The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a
princess, I'll stay with you and do ANYTHING you want."
Again the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into
his pocket.
Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a
beautiful princess and that I'll stay with you for a week and do anything
you want. Why won't you kiss me?"
The engineer said, "Look, I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a
girlfriend, but a talking frog, now that's cool."
RANDOM SPACE FACT
Currently, three space vehicles are capable of transporting humans to space: the U.S. Space Shuttle, the Russian Soyuz launch vehicle, and the Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft.
We learn 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see and 95% of what we teach. Consider teaching labs for our department or teaching at the high school or college level in your future. For more info see your professors and http://www.aapt.org/
Thanks to Jeremy Pruitt, Chris Dahl, Wally Boyd, Justin Fenley, Barry Smith and others for the links and information above. Feel free to send any interesting links that you find. This email message is sent to students, alumni, faculty, staff and friends of the department. If you would like to be removed from the emailing list or are getting multiple copies of these newsletters, then feel free to reply to this message with your request.
Clear skies,
Dan Bruton
astro@sfasu.edu