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Inaccuracy in reporting astronomy and science
As old as Voyage...
post Jan 8 2007, 07:15 PM
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I have just watched the BBC's report on the newly created 3D map of dark matter using Hubble data; and it made my heart sink.

I applaud the BBC for giving airtime to such discoveries, but for such a respected organisation their research was awful.

It's no wonder the vast majority of people are either bewildered or disinterested the the universe as a whole when the facts they are given are completely wrong.

It's a shame that tonight 60 million or so people in the UK and many other people around the world were told Hubble shone a beam of light out into the depths of the universe and studied how it was bent by the gravity of dark matter billions of light years away!

And this was a report from the BBCs science correspondant!

I remain downhearted that perhaps the most important story of the week was reported in such a shoddy manner.

Does anyone else feel space is being let down by TV coverage?


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ollopa
post Jan 7 2008, 01:12 AM
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Another cool project for Google, methinks. Since there are more stars than people who have ever lived (or likely ever will), this has real outreach potential. Even an informal database on Google Sky might give a new impetus to skywatching. "Aunt Ethel is just to the right of Regulus. Whaddya mean you haven't heard of Regulus?"
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Stu
post Jan 7 2008, 10:38 AM
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QUOTE (ollopa @ Jan 7 2008, 01:12 AM) *
Another cool project for Google, methinks. Since there are more stars than people who have ever lived (or likely ever will), this has real outreach potential. Even an informal database on Google Sky might give a new impetus to skywatching. "Aunt Ethel is just to the right of Regulus. Whaddya mean you haven't heard of Regulus?"


... except - as I understand it - all the stars these companies offer are far below naked eye visibility, so a Google-type database would be next to useless for people who a) don't know the sky, and cool.gif don't have a telescope.

This is something only people who have actually spent years looking at and studying the sky can understand, just how hard it is to find things in the sky. The bright stars might be obvious, but none of those are up for naming, only mega-faint stars are. So a Google-type database/interface thingy would have to be written in such a way as to give people who have no knowledge of the sky whatsoeever directions to "their" star. That means locating the constellation it's in by entering its exact co-ordinates. Then you'd need to determine that constellation's location in the sky... that constellation's visibility in the sky for that viewer (no point someone in New York looking for Crux Australis or Pavo, etc)... that constellation's visibility in the sky at that time of year if it is visible from their latitude (no point our New Yorker looking for Orion in July, etc). Then, with all those things tackled, you'd have to find a way to teach the viewer how to "star hop" from a bright nearby star to the area where their target star is, and then you'd have to help them distinguish that star from all the others.

Sounds easy? Just pour some sugar or salt into your hand, tip it out onto a tabletop and look at it...

...that's what a starfield looks like through a telescope.

The best astronomy outreach is still organising a star-watch or an eclipse-watch in a park or school field, getting together a whole bunch of amateur astronomers with telescopes, inviting the pubvlic, and then just showing people cool things in the night sky. Whenever we hold one here in Kendal I come away bouncing like Tigger, it's such a buzz. The looks on people's faces when they see a galaxy, or Saturn's rings, or the Moon's craters through a telescope for the first time is just incredible. And introducing people to the stars... pointing out Vega, Deneb and the Pole Star to them, helping them find Orion and Taurus in the sky, introducing them to the characters and legends behind Perseus, Andromeda etc, it's just magical, and as good as Google Sky gets it will never replace the experience of having someone stand with you on a cold and frosty night and tell you "See that star overhead? That's..." smile.gif


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akuo
post Jan 7 2008, 11:51 AM
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QUOTE (Stu @ Jan 7 2008, 10:38 AM) *
The bright stars might be obvious, but none of those are up for naming, only mega-faint stars are.


Not so. There are only a couple of hundred stars with proper names. There are plenty of naked eye stars with just Baeyr or Tycho catalogue number at best.


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Stu
post Jan 7 2008, 12:30 PM
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QUOTE (akuo @ Jan 7 2008, 11:51 AM) *
Not so. There are only a couple of hundred stars with proper names. There are plenty of naked eye stars with just Baeyr or Tycho catalogue number at best.


I meant that they're neither offered by the star naming companies, or by the IAU. As far as I know. But even if I'm wrong in that, here's the bottom line - none of these companies has any right to name a single star in the night sky. No getting around that.

Think of it this way. Here's a pic I took of Kendal Castle (where I hold the Kendal "skwatch" events at, by the way) back in September...

Attached Image


Now, if I set up a website, offering to let people name the blades of grass on that hillside and hilltop after a loved one for £25 a time (or for another £20 you can have one of the stones in the castle wall named after your loved one instead, let's call it our Deluxe Package) for which they would get just a fancy-looking certificate, how hard would you laugh? Well, that's what these star registry companies are doing. Taking money off people for giving names to things they don't own.

mad.gif


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Posts in this topic
- As old as Voyager   Inaccuracy in reporting astronomy and science   Jan 8 2007, 07:15 PM
- - Ames   Yes I do! Don't get me started... Only ...   Jan 8 2007, 09:09 PM
- - Sunspot   I saw that report too, without a doubt the worst p...   Jan 8 2007, 10:37 PM
- - Stu   Absolutely appalling and - after yesterday's ...   Jan 8 2007, 10:51 PM
|- - Bob Shaw   The thing that worries me is that there must be ma...   Jan 8 2007, 11:10 PM
||- - tedstryk   QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ Jan 8 2007, 11:10 PM) T...   Jan 9 2007, 01:39 AM
||- - ugordan   QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ Jan 9 2007, 12:10 AM) T...   Jan 9 2007, 10:07 AM
||- - 4th rock from the sun   It's not just the news that are incorrect and ...   Jan 9 2007, 10:30 AM
|- - ynyralmaen   QUOTE (Stu @ Jan 8 2007, 11:51 PM) Unbeli...   Jan 9 2007, 12:01 AM
- - Sunspot   Quite a contrast the BBC online News report about ...   Jan 8 2007, 11:49 PM
- - nprev   Wow. I have to say that as an American I'm p...   Jan 9 2007, 01:48 AM
|- - climber   QUOTE (nprev @ Jan 9 2007, 02:48 AM) Wow....   Jan 9 2007, 02:21 AM
|- - Tesheiner   QUOTE (climber @ Jan 9 2007, 03:21 AM) We...   Jan 9 2007, 09:48 AM
- - TheChemist   My latest Sunday newspaper included as a gift a Di...   Jan 9 2007, 12:59 PM
- - ngunn   Yes I saw that ridiculous dark matter report on BB...   Jan 9 2007, 01:32 PM
|- - Stu   QUOTE (ngunn @ Jan 9 2007, 01:32 PM) Yes ...   Jan 9 2007, 03:50 PM
||- - ngunn   QUOTE (Stu @ Jan 9 2007, 03:50 PM) Yep. I...   Jan 9 2007, 04:31 PM
|- - ynyralmaen   QUOTE (ngunn @ Jan 9 2007, 02:32 PM) ... ...   Jan 9 2007, 04:42 PM
- - ollopa   They've pulled it. However............ ........   Jan 9 2007, 04:42 PM
|- - AndyG   Thanks, Ollopa, for posting the link. I didn...   Jan 10 2007, 08:55 AM
|- - Stu   QUOTE (AndyG @ Jan 10 2007, 08:55 AM) I r...   Jan 10 2007, 09:12 AM
|- - karolp   Hello everyone, I must admit that I stopped wathc...   Jan 10 2007, 12:56 PM
- - Sunspot   The weird thing is, they must have deliberately pl...   Jan 9 2007, 05:33 PM
- - nprev   ...wow. Thanks for the clip, ollopa; now I fully u...   Jan 10 2007, 03:49 AM
|- - mchan   QUOTE (nprev @ Jan 9 2007, 07:49 PM) ......   Jan 11 2007, 07:04 AM
- - ElkGroveDan   This one has always been one of my favorites:   Jan 10 2007, 04:00 PM
|- - dvandorn   QUOTE (ElkGroveDan @ Jan 10 2007, 10:00 A...   Jan 10 2007, 05:52 PM
|- - ynyralmaen   My favourite was in print, not on the telly... Th...   Jan 10 2007, 07:37 PM
- - nprev   You know, I'm still after all these years tr...   Jan 11 2007, 04:05 AM
- - edstrick   ".... just can't compete in the public...   Jan 11 2007, 12:29 PM
- - Ames   "Comet McNaught is passing close to the Sun, ...   Jan 11 2007, 01:10 PM
|- - MahFL   I just read that also and was going to post it. An...   Jan 11 2007, 03:05 PM
|- - Jeff7   QUOTE (Ames @ Jan 11 2007, 08:10 AM) ...   Jan 12 2007, 01:00 AM
|- - mchan   QUOTE (Ames @ Jan 11 2007, 05:10 AM) ...   Jan 12 2007, 04:19 AM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (mchan @ Jan 12 2007, 04:19 AM) Tha...   Jan 12 2007, 08:44 AM
- - nprev   Mchan: Sadly, I think that most of these guys thin...   Jan 12 2007, 04:42 AM
|- - Bob Shaw   QUOTE (nprev @ Jan 12 2007, 04:42 AM) Mch...   Jan 12 2007, 06:33 PM
- - edstrick   "...A fav of mine is Pohl's The Space Mer...   Jan 12 2007, 11:19 AM
- - Stu   They replied to my complaint re the now infamous ...   Jan 12 2007, 11:28 AM
- - djellison   A total fob-off. The problem isn't that they ...   Jan 12 2007, 11:58 AM
|- - MahFL   Another one from Yahoo's slideshow.... ...   Jan 12 2007, 12:12 PM
|- - ngunn   QUOTE (MahFL @ Jan 12 2007, 12:12 PM) Ano...   Jan 12 2007, 12:30 PM
- - edstrick   This "Streaker" is clad only in long flo...   Jan 12 2007, 01:41 PM
- - nprev   ...yeah, I'm convinced that Franky lacked the ...   Jan 12 2007, 07:27 PM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (nprev @ Jan 12 2007, 07:27 PM) Pre...   Jan 19 2007, 12:35 PM
|- - climber   QUOTE (djellison @ Jan 19 2007, 01:35 PM)...   Jan 19 2007, 12:38 PM
|- - nprev   QUOTE (djellison @ Jan 19 2007, 04:35 AM)...   Feb 9 2007, 02:25 PM
- - Steffen   Newspapers even get the basics wrong, adding the w...   Jan 19 2007, 12:29 PM
- - PhilCo126   Not Astronomy, but spaceflight this time ... On 2...   Jan 23 2007, 12:29 PM
- - Tesheiner   A local newspaper published this monday an article...   Jan 31 2007, 04:02 PM
- - djellison   You would expect space daily to do better than put...   Feb 9 2007, 01:19 PM
- - ngunn   Yes you would, but... Hands up anyone (other than...   Feb 9 2007, 01:38 PM
- - dvandorn   I have a slightly different issue to bring up, tho...   Feb 14 2007, 11:58 PM
- - nprev   Yeah...I've noticed that too. I think they...   Feb 15 2007, 12:14 AM
- - PhilCo126   Luckily there're some good programs around as ...   Feb 15 2007, 08:13 PM
- - John Flushing   QUOTE (As old as Voyager @ January 8th, 2007,...   Mar 1 2007, 03:16 AM
- - ElkGroveDan   This one's not TV but I though it deserved not...   May 23 2007, 04:39 AM
|- - Stu   QUOTE (ElkGroveDan @ May 23 2007, 05:39 A...   May 23 2007, 05:28 AM
- - ElkGroveDan   Here's a good one. I saved a pdf in the event...   Oct 3 2007, 09:59 PM
- - nprev   I was afraid of this. George Takei has cornered mo...   Oct 3 2007, 10:20 PM
- - edstrick   I keep hearing the news as the asteroid was RENAME...   Oct 5 2007, 09:52 AM
- - Stu   Don't know if any other UK viewers caught it, ...   Jan 4 2008, 06:31 AM
|- - tty   QUOTE (Stu @ Jan 4 2008, 07:31 AM) Wow, h...   Jan 4 2008, 07:03 AM
|- - ngunn   QUOTE (Stu @ Jan 4 2008, 06:31 AM) Don...   Jan 4 2008, 01:42 PM
|- - Mongo   QUOTE (ngunn @ Jan 4 2008, 01:42 PM) ...   Jan 5 2008, 06:10 PM
- - Stu   Off topic a wee bit, I know, but doesn't seem ...   Jan 4 2008, 06:53 AM
- - nprev   I'm waiting to see what will happen if the pot...   Jan 5 2008, 06:23 PM
|- - Stu   QUOTE (nprev @ Jan 5 2008, 07:23 PM) BTW,...   Apr 24 2008, 04:24 PM
|- - laurele   QUOTE (Stu @ Apr 24 2008, 12:24 PM) Resur...   Apr 24 2008, 05:47 PM
- - hendric   Will all the deep surveys going starting up, I...   Jan 6 2008, 04:09 AM
- - nprev   Oh, crap...dude, PLEASE no!!!! I...   Jan 6 2008, 04:31 AM
- - Stu   At first glance this is quite an amusing subject, ...   Jan 6 2008, 08:38 AM
- - nprev   ...thanks for the wake-up call, Stu. Did not reali...   Jan 6 2008, 02:13 PM
- - lyford   In my wild and impetuous youth I did this for my f...   Jan 6 2008, 06:27 PM
- - Stu   I try not to crush people when I tell them the tru...   Jan 6 2008, 07:44 PM
|- - lyford   QUOTE (Stu @ Jan 6 2008, 11:44 AM) Still,...   Jan 6 2008, 08:31 PM
- - nprev   Hate to say it, but the continuing & widesprea...   Jan 6 2008, 08:46 PM
- - lyford   Good idea, nprev. You know I just realized the di...   Jan 6 2008, 09:50 PM
- - djellison   I know of a case where a family 'named a star...   Jan 6 2008, 10:00 PM
|- - Stu   QUOTE (djellison @ Jan 6 2008, 10:00 PM) ...   Jan 6 2008, 11:32 PM
- - nprev   To say nothing of the embarassment once they reali...   Jan 7 2008, 12:27 AM
- - ollopa   Another cool project for Google, methinks. Since ...   Jan 7 2008, 01:12 AM
|- - Stu   QUOTE (ollopa @ Jan 7 2008, 01:12 AM) Ano...   Jan 7 2008, 10:38 AM
|- - akuo   QUOTE (Stu @ Jan 7 2008, 10:38 AM) The br...   Jan 7 2008, 11:51 AM
|- - Stu   QUOTE (akuo @ Jan 7 2008, 11:51 AM) Not s...   Jan 7 2008, 12:30 PM
|- - nprev   QUOTE (Stu @ Jan 7 2008, 04:30 AM) Well, ...   Jan 7 2008, 12:49 PM
- - gndonald   Not really from the Television Media, but somethin...   Jan 12 2008, 03:19 PM
- - dvandorn   Reminds me of the only morbid chuckle I came acros...   Jan 12 2008, 05:10 PM
- - nprev   "C: It's not just a good idea, it's t...   Jan 12 2008, 05:45 PM
- - ElkGroveDan   Avalanche Photographed on Mars By SPACE.com staff,...   Mar 4 2008, 06:32 AM
- - nprev   Dan, think I'd have to call that hilariously i...   Mar 4 2008, 06:42 AM
- - elakdawalla   um, nprev, I hate to say it, but I think Dan was r...   Mar 4 2008, 06:43 AM
|- - nprev   QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Mar 3 2008, 10:43 PM...   Mar 4 2008, 01:40 PM
- - As old as Voyager   A little off topic, but an inaccuracy nonetheless....   Mar 4 2008, 09:39 AM
- - centsworth_II   Porno at CERN "The claim is that... the LHC m...   Mar 12 2008, 11:40 PM
- - gndonald   I've picked up the April 2008 edition of APC (...   Apr 1 2008, 03:10 PM
- - volcanopele   Io is my moon. It's mine. I own it. I g...   Apr 24 2008, 06:24 PM
- - nprev   Why not? I'm certain that the IAU would put ...   Apr 25 2008, 12:21 AM
|- - ElkGroveDan   I think it's a bad idea. Once you start bring...   Apr 25 2008, 02:17 AM
- - nprev   Hmmm...persuasive, Dan. I may be being naive abo...   Apr 25 2008, 02:52 AM
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