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Inaccuracy in reporting astronomy and science
lyford
post Jan 6 2008, 09:50 PM
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Good idea, nprev.

You know I just realized the disconnect here - for me it was just some fun - but from your comments now I can imagine how harmful it would be if someone was doing it seriously as a way to honor a loved one. It would be a shock like finding out the ashes you paid to have scattered at sea were just dumped in the drain that runs to the ocean.

I was coming at this from a completely different angle, hence my Medieval Times analogy, and now I see what the furor is - and can completely understand the outrage.


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djellison
post Jan 6 2008, 10:00 PM
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I know of a case where a family 'named a star' after their son who tragically died aged a few months old. I couldn't bare to tell them the truth after seeing the finder chart on the wall with the name at the bottom. I hope they never find out to be honest.
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Stu
post Jan 6 2008, 11:32 PM
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QUOTE (djellison @ Jan 6 2008, 10:00 PM) *
I couldn't bare to tell them the truth after seeing the finder chart on the wall with the name at the bottom. I hope they never find out to be honest.


I know what you mean, it's a dilemma sometimes. But I have no doubt - at all - that some of the companies rely on knowledgeable people's "don't upset them with the truth" instincts to protect themselves and maintain their business.


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nprev
post Jan 7 2008, 12:27 AM
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To say nothing of the embarassment once they realize that they've been had; probably a lot of customers just don't want to mention it to anyone, so the scam goes on.

God, Doug; that's just awful about that couple and their son.

I encourage everyone to go to that IAU contact link in my previous post and ask them to start naming their own stars. With any luck, the first use of the proceeds could be to buy the customer lists of these charlatans (once the IAU puts them out of business once and for all) and legitimize them...


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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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nprev
post Jan 7 2008, 12:49 PM
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QUOTE (Stu @ Jan 7 2008, 04:30 AM) *
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


Just so. That's why the IAU, the only agency with the internationally recognized authority to assign nomenclature to astronomical objects (by definition!), needs to step in & derail these predators. mad.gif


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gndonald
post Jan 12 2008, 03:19 PM
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Not really from the Television Media, but something that I spotted today in the NZ Herald, its an article about someone who works for Virgin Galactic entitled "Selling Earthings Trips to the Stars..." which included the following piece of information about the trips to orbit Richard Branson is planning to offer:

QUOTE ( N.Z. Herald)
The aircraft will then reach the speed of sound in less than 10 seconds and nearly four times the speed of light in under 30 seconds.
Emphasis mine.

I'd like to know just how they plan to deal with the time dilation...
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dvandorn
post Jan 12 2008, 05:10 PM
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Reminds me of the only morbid chuckle I came across on February 1, 2003. In CNN's coverage of the Columbia disaster, at one point, the titles that run under the talking heads read "Columbia broke up while traveling at 15 times the speed of light." I looked at the person I was watching the TV with and said "Well, that was the problem, right there!"

-the other Doug


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nprev
post Jan 12 2008, 05:45 PM
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"C: It's not just a good idea, it's the law!" (An oldie but a goodie...)

I wonder how much the lines have blurred between TV & movie space operas (did not say 'science fiction', because so few actual SF shows have ever been made, IMHO) and reality in the eyes of many people in the general public. Reason I ask is that I've met many people over the years that are surprised to learn that we haven't had a manned Mars landing yet, and seem to take for granted that people are zooming all over the Solar System, if not the Galaxy. (Amazing, but true!) One of the main questions I get is whether the MERs or Cassini are manned...

The depressing flip side to that is why aren't these people clamoring to sign up for the next flight out? God knows I would be if I thought that space travel was easy and routine.


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ElkGroveDan
post Mar 4 2008, 06:32 AM
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Avalanche Photographed on Mars
By SPACE.com staff, posted: 03 March 2008

...The camera was tracking seasonal changes on Mars when it inadvertently caught the avalanche on film...


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nprev
post Mar 4 2008, 06:42 AM
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Dan, think I'd have to call that hilariously ironic rather than inaccurate...yep, bet that's a seasonal change alright, moving at 15m/sec!!! laugh.gif


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elakdawalla
post Mar 4 2008, 06:43 AM
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um, nprev, I hate to say it, but I think Dan was referring to the space.com reporter's take on what medium was being used to record the avalanche rolleyes.gif

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