Wockets.org

Hopefully I’ll have some astronomy stuff to post soon, we’re working on a new astrophotography setup, using an 80mm refractor.

“All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage, torture, the use of hostages, forced labor, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians, which does not change its moral color when committed by ‘our’ side…. The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”

George Orwell

Read it at Dynamics of Cats.

Solar Cycle 24!

The first reverse polarity sunspot has appeared on the sun. What does this mean?
The sun has reached solar minimum, the solar cycle is restarting, and activity will now be increasing again, towards the solar maximum in 2011 or 2012.
More details here.

White Dwarf Pulsar

Astronomers have found a White Dwarf with a hard x-ray beam. Usually a staple of neutron star pulsars. Their fast rotation and strong magnetic fields act as a particle accelerator, capturing and accelerating high velocity charged particles we see as cosmic rays. When these particles are ejected from the magnetic field, interactions produce a beam of hard (high energy) x-rays. When this beam sweeps over us, we see it as a spike in x-ray emissions.

This is the first white dwarf to show such a periodic spike, and shows they too are capable of this feat.

Details here.

Chinese Lunar Orbiter Returns First Pictures

Chang’e 1 has returned its first pictures from the moon. Contrary to rumors, they are not fake.

Details and pictures at the Planetary Society.

So, republicans are up in arms, doing everything they can to destroy the latest threat. They are issuing threating phone calls, visiting area businesses and staking out a house.

This obviously grievous threat: A 12 year old boy and his brain-damaged sister.

Their crime: Receiving health care after a horrible car accident, and daring to tell people about it.

For this heinous act, republicans will stop at nothing to destroy this family. Their hatred knows no bounds.

The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but, on the contrary, that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge-hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one’s will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic. And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp.

The really sad thing is, even if all their allegations were true, even if this family had done everything they say - it will mean nothing at all. Regardless of this boy and his family, there are still millions of others who were also helped by the CHIP program. Destroying him does not change the fact, and it doesn’t change the message.

All this hatred, and they don’t even have a point.

Yes, yes, I know. Havn’t updated in months, “Blawg Moar!”, etc.. I’ll try.

For now, some gratuitous fire:

I took this image of M51 and its companion galaxy last night at the LAS Observatory. Meade 8″ LX200, SBIG ST-8 CCD, 80 second exposure, 3×3 binning.

M51 is a spiral galaxy, and its companion is a nearby dwarf galaxy. M51 and its companion are interacting - the well defined spiral arms are an effect of this interaction.