Stupid Astronomer Tricks #6: Key observation

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This entry is part 6 of 17 in the series Stupid astronomer

We’re running a membership drive this month – our goal is 150 new members, and we’re well on our way – and as a part of it we’re including this blatant clickbait series… Besides, it’s a chance to tell some of the funny stories that come up during cloudy nights at the VATT! The old astronomer tells the tale… A researcher asked to sign out the department truck in order to run an errand. The keys were duly handed over: a key ring containing a metal tag with the vehicle number, and two keys. Moments later, the frustrated researcher came running back to the office, keys in hand, insisting to the Admin that they were the wrong keys. A quick trip to the parking lot with the researcher confirmed that the department had only truck in the lot and it had the same vehicle number as the one hanging from the key tag. “But the key won’t open the truck door,” insisted … Continue reading →

Soaring in Kentucky in 2019

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There were two bald eagles soaring over the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky one Saturday this past October.  My wife and I saw them while we were taking a walk on a brisk, fall day.  They were wheeling far overhead in a perfect azure sky.  It was October 12.  The eagles were not soaring over some remote part of the Ohio River—they were on the river where it passes right between the downtowns of Louisville on one side, and Jeffersonville, Indiana on the other.  Below the eagles were bridges, boats, cars, buildings, parks, and lots of people out enjoying the day. The first time I ever saw a bald eagle in the wild was also on the Ohio River.  This was in the early 2000s, when my family was exploring a remote area west of Leavenworth, Indiana.  Then, a few years later, when my college’s observatory was located in Otter Creek Park, on the river well south-east of Louisville, everyone … Continue reading →

Stupid Astronomer Tricks #5: Opening a can of…

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This entry is part 5 of 17 in the series Stupid astronomer

We’re running a membership drive this month – our goal is 150 new members, and we’re nearly 10% of the way there so far, thanks! – and as a part of it we’re including this blatant clickbait series… Besides, it’s a chance to tell some of the funny stories that come up during cloudy nights at the VATT! The old astronomer tells the tale… As we know, most astronomy runs on coffee. (Except, of course, for the excellent astronomy department at Brigham Young University, the LDS equivalent of the Vatican Observatory; Mormons don’t drink coffee!) So you can picture the scene… A senior professor, a theorist needless to say, came into the Admin Assistant’s office with a can opener in hand, and a puzzled look on his face. “We’re out of coffee,” he said. Before the Admin could growl at him, he hastened to add, “I know, your job is not to make coffee for us; and I am willing to make … Continue reading →

Bones in Space – Solarblack

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Solar Orbiter In February 2020 an Irish company will showcase to the world its innovative use of burnt bone charcoal. ENBIO has developed a use for charred bone with its unique product Solarblack. This product will bring heatshields for spacecraft to another level. ESA’s Solar Orbiter is due to launch on February 5th. Bones in space – Solarblack high technology for the next decade. Solarblack The application of Solarblack to heatshields is for the thermal protection of spacecraft working in the harsh environs of space. Yes, the Solar Orbiter space probe will soon be on its way to study the sun. Its duty is to  inform us more fully about the origins of spaceweather. The mission will  to being a  manmade probe closer to our star than ever  before. The word Solarblack suggest bright and dark. The brightest thing you can think of i.e. the Sun and the darkest colour of all, pure black. This product is a Thermo optical … Continue reading →

VOF YouTube Channel

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Check out the Vatican Observatory Foundation’s YouTube channel! We have several videos about current astronomical issues as well as shorts films about the relationship between the Catholic Church and Science today and historically – we’ve also linked to numerous other videos featuring VOF staff. We’re running a membership drive this month – our goal is 150 new members. Please subscribe and help support this website and VOF education and outreach programs. … Continue reading →

Stupid Astronomer Tricks #4: Keep Calm

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This entry is part 4 of 17 in the series Stupid astronomer

We’re running a membership drive this month – our goal is 150 new members – and as a part of it we’re including this blatant clickbait series… Besides, it’s a chance to tell some of the funny stories that come up during cloudy nights at the VATT! The old astronomer tells the tale… As a guest in one of the University telescope domes, I watched as two observers set up for a planetary occultation observation. The senior astronomer worked quickly to get a strip chart recorder fixed (this was a while ago!) before the observations were to begin, while the grad student opened the dome and readied the telescope.   In those days, when you actually worked in the dome, you also had a finderscope with an eyepiece. But looking through the eyepiece, the student reported in a panicked voice, that nothing could be seen! I looked up into the dome. The telescope was pointed at the wall. I decided to let … Continue reading →

ⓜ Pronouncing the Names of the Moons of Saturn…

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This entry is part 8 of 4 in the series And Then I Wrote

…or, Pulling Teeth from Tethys (And Then I Wrote…) Since this site began more than six years ago, every Thursday I have been publishing a reprint from my column “Across the Universe” in the British Catholic journal, The Tablet. I have finally gone through all of them (except for 2019’s columns) and I’ve even re-published a few of the oldest ones that came out here before our readership had grown.  In order to let my backlog build up a bit, I am taking “Across the Universe” offline for 2020. Instead, I am republishing a selection of other articles that I have written an published in various places… often obscure. Here’s an offprint of a paper I first published in the AGU newspaper EOS back in 1982, on a topic that is still current. At the time, I was a postdoc at MIT working on computer models of the moons of Saturn, which were just coming up in conversation for the … Continue reading →

Stupid Astronomer Tricks #3: The Dog Star

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This entry is part 2 of 17 in the series Stupid astronomer

We’re running a membership drive this month – our goal is 150 new members – and as a part of it we’re including this blatant clickbait series… Besides, it’s a chance to tell some of the funny stories that come up during cloudy nights at the VATT! The old astronomer tells the tale… In our Jesuit community nowadays there are too many people (with too many allergies) and too many trips away from the house to let any of us keep any pets. It’s a kind of poverty, I guess. However, many years ago when there were only a handful of Jesuits at the University of Arizona, one of them did have a dog. “Underdog” was his name. Of course, with such a small community, it was a problem going away from the house for a few days, to go up the mountain to the telescope for an observing run. Who would care for the dog? His solution was to bring Underdog … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – January 14, 2020

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This entry is part 131 of 133 in the series In the Sky This Week

We’re running a membership drive this month – our goal is 150 new members. Please subscribe and help support this website and VOF education and outreach programs. Mars appears near the star Antares in the southeastern horizon before dawn this week; a waning crescent Moon joins them on January 20th. The Moon appears near the star Regulus at midnight on January 13th, and near the star Spica on January 17th. Venus appears high and bright above the southwestern horizon at dusk this week.   The Moon is a waning gibbous, rising after sunset, visible high in the sky after midnight, and visible to the southwest after sunrise. The third quarter moon occurs on January 17th, rising around midnight, and visible to the south after sunrise. After January 17th, the Moon will be a waning crescent, visible low to the east before sunrise. Moon News Impact craters come in many sizes. In this image, the crater on the top left, called … Continue reading →

Stupid Astronomer Tricks #2: The anti-terrorist

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This entry is part 3 of 17 in the series Stupid astronomer

We’re running a membership drive this month – our goal is 150 new members – and as a part of it we’re including this blatant clickbait series… Besides, it’s a chance to tell some of the funny stories that come up during cloudy nights at the VATT! The old astronomer tells the tale… “It was after 9/11, about a year or two after, and we were meeting in Rome, Jesuits in science from all around Europe. France, Germany, Portugal were all represented; and of course Jesuits from Italy… not to mention us from the Vatican Observatory. After the meeting, like all good scientists, we gathered in a local bar to shoot the breeze. Of course, this being Italy, the bar was a coffee bar and we were downing espressos (at 10 pm? Hey, live dangerously!) and telling tall tales. English, of course, was the one language we all had in common. Out of nowhere one of the Italian scientists, a … Continue reading →

Goodnight to the Lake of Death

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This entry is part 15 of 17 in the series Lunarcy

Often I show image covering from Aristoteles to Hercules in sunrise. But here I want to zoom in on a small area of that region this time at sunset. Just above center in this image is the crater Burg (41km dia.) in the center of the rough hexagon of Lacus Mortis (155km). The detail in the eastern wall of Burg is nicely displayed here along with several of the diverse rimae on the floor of this Lacus. Below Burg are two wonderful craters, the flat floored Mason (44km) on the right and Plana (46km) with the little central peak to the left. That central peak, with the 3km impact crater on the south side, is only the tip of what was once a much larger mountain but for the lava flooding of this crater that filled up the interior. The only feature on the floor of this crater seen here is a small (2.5km dia.) crater at the tip of … Continue reading →

Stupid Astronomer Tricks #1: The Exploding Briefcase

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This entry is part 1 of 17 in the series Stupid astronomer

We’re running a membership drive this month – our goal is 150 new members – and as a part of it we’re including this blatant clickbait series… Besides, it’s a chance to tell some of the funny stories that come up during cloudy nights at the VATT! The old astronomer tells the tale… “There were three of us heading up Mauna Kea, elevation about 15,000 feet, for an observing run. Dave was driving, I was giving directions, and in the back seat was Ed, going through our list of observation candidates. He kept all his notes in a metal briefcase, it looked like something a spy would take with him, which was sitting next to him in the back seat. The road was still pretty rough in those days, driving took all your attention. And as the air got thinner, even paying attention took your attention. And then, at around the 10,000 feet level… POW! It was a loud explosion, … Continue reading →