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Posted by: djellison May 20 2008, 09:01 PM

Myself, Chris Lintott, and Peter Grindrod will be gathering at Sir Patrick Moore's house, Farthings in Selsey, on Sunday afternoon. The four of us will be Blogging, uStreaming and Youtubing our way through the night, pulling together any and every source of information we can find, previewing the events of the evening, and hopefully filling the gaps between NASA TV coverage. I'll also be making sure we 'stand down' during Emily's hour at JPL, as frankly, I want to watch it myself!

We've set up a blog to preview events and to be a home for the content we come up with on the big night - hopefully some of you will pop in and pass comment through the night! We will have more details closer to the time at http://www.marslive.co.uk

Posted by: Oersted May 20 2008, 09:28 PM

Will be there, virtually, and... munch, munch!

Congratulations on watching it together with Sir Patrick.

Posted by: Stu May 20 2008, 09:44 PM

Oh good, ANOTHER website to keep an eye on on landing night! I was starting to worry I would get bored with just the six I already have bookmarked...

Sounds excellent, I'll definitely look in regularly.

Posted by: ElkGroveDan May 20 2008, 10:02 PM

This might be a good place for a comprehensive list of all those links for landing day.

Posted by: Phil Stooke May 20 2008, 10:13 PM

I'm old enough to remember when UMSF was all you needed.

Phil

Posted by: Stu May 20 2008, 10:48 PM

Well, here's what I've got so far...

http://www.dmuller.net/phoenix

http://twitter.com/MarsPhoenix

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/blogs

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv

http://planetary.org/blog

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu

http://www.marslive.co.uk

To add to this list will be the site for Emily's live video chat, of course.

Not saying these are all websites everyone should check on the night; just letting people know what's out there.

Posted by: tim53 May 20 2008, 11:05 PM

I will be bringing my latest landing site map with me to the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference - Astronomy Expo in Big Bear, CA (Camp Oakes) this weekend.

The hope is that we'll be able to let people put postits on the map where they think the lander will land, and win a poster or some other non-commercial-endorsement-by-NASA prizes for the person who picks the closest site to the actual landing site.

Of course, this presupposes we'll know by late Sunday evening where the lander touched down. The Conference ends Sunday night/Monday morning.

For those people interested in telescopes and camping out under the stars (and the moon!), logistics can be found on their website: http://www.rtmcastronomyexpo.org/

-Tim.

Posted by: nprev May 21 2008, 12:29 AM

Gonna stay home, crack me a few cold ones, and watch 7 websites & TV simultaneously. (Clearly, the beer is a must-have, and lots of it; multiple vision WILL be required!!!)

Posted by: elakdawalla May 21 2008, 01:57 AM

Nprev, the biggest drawback to watching the mission from JPL is that I won't be able to crack a cold one. I may have to schedule an escape from the press room with a few other people for a little pick-me-up some time in the long day. Or after.

--Emily

Posted by: nprev May 21 2008, 02:22 AM

Well, if it gets to be too much for you, give me a yell; I'll be in a cab to Pasadena with a cooler!

Posted by: dmuller May 21 2008, 02:43 AM

Other than where you follow it, I'm just wondering when you all follow it ... when does the landing occur in your mind and imagination? Clearly NASA TV will be on Earth Received Time, but your mind (and the real-time simulation) can be tuned to Spacecraft event time (so far I see about an even split between ERT and SCET on the simulation).

Daniel

Posted by: elakdawalla May 21 2008, 02:48 AM

Whenever I follow a critical mission event I'm always acutely aware of the difference between spacecraft event time and earth received time. When we're waiting for news of a deployment or chute jettison or some such, I'm always imagining the spacecraft, and imagining the information from the spacecraft winging its way across the vast reaches of space, and I'm even imagining myself sitting there at the same time that the spacecraft is doing its thing and the radio information is flying along....to the point that it can take a major effort to bring myself back to reality. In fact, I'm already halfway in that state, feeling like my brain is with Phoenix, and just loosely connected to my body, which is, meanwhile, going through the motions of everyday existence. Fortunately I've bathed, dressed, and fed my daughter enough times that I can do it in such a state -- and she's young enough not to notice how "spaced out" I am!

--Emily

Posted by: dvandorn May 21 2008, 05:02 AM

Ah, but... this whole discussion depends on accepting the concept of simultaneity. And in a relativistic universe, there is no such animal.

Until and unless anyone figures out how to propogate information faster than C, as far as our perceptions are concerned, nothing "occurs" until we perceive it.

So I'm an ERT kind of guy. I just don't accept that simultaneity is a valid concept...

edit: To put it more clearly, I don't think of events at Mars as happening ten minutes ago. I think of them as happening ten light-minutes away. For me, it's a function of distance, not time.

-the other Doug

Posted by: climber May 21 2008, 05:19 AM

Bottom line is : when we see it starts, it's already over. That's the power of imagination over physic laws

Posted by: djellison May 21 2008, 07:22 AM

Here's how I'm going to play it. On spacecraft time, I'm going to run the HUD animation, think about what's happening (whilst keeping an ear on NTV ). I want to use that time to act as a 'preview' if you will. But - then - whilst we get the Odyssey coverage, in my mind I'll be thinking 'well - it's all over one way or another' - but my attention will be firmly on following events in 'real time', 'real' being ERT.

Doug

Posted by: ustrax May 21 2008, 07:37 AM

Hey! Aren't you forgetting something?...

Posted by: dmuller May 21 2008, 08:34 AM

Aaah relativity ... so we should not look at all as we might kill Schroeder's cat, errrr NASA's Phoenix


but but we dont want the landing to simply "occur", we want to make it happen! So I'll be watching 15 mins 20 secs ahead of SCET because that's the last time we could make changes

Gee I'm glad I studied Economics after all. Relativistic theory with a pinch of salt is so much more fun.

Daniel

Posted by: PhilCo126 May 21 2008, 04:55 PM

Doug, do You guys already have an idea if a BBC TV-crew might be present in order to use some of the footage of the event to be used in a future episode of " The Sky at Night " ?
Looking forward to a great weekend... have the peanuts ready !!!

Posted by: djellison May 21 2008, 05:22 PM

Nope - BBC's not involved at all.

Doug

Posted by: Julius May 21 2008, 05:26 PM

I'm gonna have to stay up really late and hoping I'll be looking straight enough for work on Monday.Mars landing remains a priority thou ..wont be missing on the fun..GO PHOENIX...I'll be following events from my home from sunny warm Mediterranean!

Posted by: Sunspot May 21 2008, 05:28 PM

Still not sure i'm going to be brave enough to watch it on NASA TV online or follow the descent online. I watched the landing of Opportunity again a few days ago and it still gives me sweaty palms and butterfly's. I'm tempted to come on 4 or 5 minutes after the predicted landing time and just get a definitive Yes or No rather than experience those "seven minutes of hell"!!!

Posted by: chrislintott May 21 2008, 07:02 PM

We decided on Sky at Night that the time for a Phoenix special would be the following month, when hopefully results will have begun rolling in. So keep an eye out for the July edition of the show - it's going to be a good one.

Posted by: Stu May 21 2008, 07:05 PM

Oh Sunspot, you'll be watching with the rest of us, you know you will... You won't be able to stop yourself...

Posted by: dvandorn May 21 2008, 07:50 PM

Speaking of "The Sky at Night," is there any way to get BBC-America to start running it? I appreciate being able to watch Torchwood and Dr. Who on BBC-A, but it would be great if we could get TSAN to us Americans, too!

-the other Doug

Posted by: Del Palmer May 21 2008, 08:06 PM

Are you able to http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/spaceguide/skyatnight/proginfo.shtml on this page (I understand the BBC does sometimes block IP addresses that originate outside the UK)?

Another way to get it would be to buy the accompanying http://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/, which has a cover CD containing the full TV episodes in MPEG-1 format.

Posted by: 1101001 May 21 2008, 09:49 PM

I did a list at BAUT Forum (Bad Astronomy and Universe Today), that repeats some of the above, http://www.bautforum.com/space-exploration/16616-phoenix-mission-7.html#post1245546:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/index.html
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/landingevents.html
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/blogs/index.html
http://twitter.com/marsphoenix
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/emily-lakdawalla
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001432/
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001431/
http://www.planetary.org/image/phoenix_landing_site_usgs_map_20080519.jpg
http://www.planetary.org/image/Phoenix_prelanding_base_timparker_50m.jpg
http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/phoenix/
http://twitter.com/badastronomer
http://www.marslive.co.uk/
http://www.dmuller.net/phoenix/
http://www.google.com/mars/#lat=68.35&lon=-127&zoom=7

Posted by: centsworth_II May 21 2008, 10:02 PM

I don't think they heard you.

http://www.spaceurope.blogspot.com/

Posted by: ustrax May 21 2008, 10:05 PM

Well...let's call it a well kept secret...

http://spaceurope.blogspot.com/2008/05/this-has-nothign-to-do.html

Posted by: nprev May 22 2008, 12:35 AM

As a side note, the forum's sure starting to get busier...guess we're all starting to get just a little excited, don't ya think?

Posted by: Zeke4ther May 22 2008, 03:37 AM

Most definitely

Posted by: dvandorn May 22 2008, 04:05 AM

Oh, yes -- as much as I'm trying to hold it back and save myself the crushing disappointment if anything goes wrong, I have to admit that I'm getting very excited.

Lines from totally unrelated movies and TV shows keep popping into my head in relation to the upcoming event. For example, all of last week, I could see myself commenting right before the landing "I'm taking an awful risk, Vader. This had better work."

Today, as I realized we're four days away from landing, I found myself paraphrasing a line by John Adams from the film 1776 (the character was speaking of the Declaration of Indepence, I'm only adjusting the line slightly): "This landing will be a triumph! I tell you, a triumph! If I was ever sure of anything, I'm sure of that. A triumph. And if it isn't, we still have four days left to think of something else."



-the other Doug

Posted by: dmuller May 22 2008, 03:47 PM

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com (?)



Everything Phoenix related is getting busier ... frantic preparations for the weekend (Monday morning in Australia, so convenient!), emails, questions, testing, ... Just look at the site visits to the real-time simulation: anybody else seeing a "trend"?

Posted by: Stu May 22 2008, 03:50 PM

Haven't forgotten UMSF from my list, don't worry; it's kind of taken as read that I'll be following UMSF, I mention it in every one of my Carnival of Space blog posts! Another reason I didn't put UMSF in my list was because as yet there's no specific thread to point lurkers towards. That will change come Landing Night, sure, but as yet UMSF is a BIG place to send unsuspecting Phoenix fans too...

Posted by: climber May 22 2008, 04:27 PM

I cannot believe you're SO nervous and didn't get what Rui was talking about

Posted by: Stu May 22 2008, 04:44 PM

I'm not THAT nervous! I didn't mention Rui's site on the list because, again, at the time I wrote it there were no specific plans for Landing Night events over on spacEurope. As soon as Rui releases his plans I'll be linking to him, fear not.

Posted by: PaulM May 22 2008, 05:40 PM

Most BBC programs are now available for viewing for one week after transmision using the BBC iPlayer. This probably includes the Sky at Night. Unfortunately there is currently a check for copyright reasons that the user is located in the UK. The good news is that the BBC have said that they will soon introduce an international version of their iPlayer.

I have tried the similar service which allows all BBC radio programs to be listened to over the internet for the next week. BBC radio programs can be listened to throughout the World without restrictions.

Posted by: chrislintott May 22 2008, 06:47 PM

You should be able to watch the programs on www.bbc.co.uk/skyatnight without going through the iplayer.

Chris

Posted by: eeergo May 22 2008, 09:36 PM

Long time lurker, and hoping this will be the first in a long series of posts in this awesome forum! Phoenix's landing will be my first big piece of space news followed from start to finish here Great to see even the fabolous blogger Emily is around.

Posted by: ElkGroveDan May 25 2008, 10:19 PM

Everyone is now invited over to the http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=5157.

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=5157