Astronomy night was a bit of a bust

It was the cloud cover that let everyone down last night out at Sleaford Observatory. My friends and I also had an invite to join another friend for a rib night back in the city so we decided to leave before the slide show presentation. While I never got to look through any telescopes, I did come out of there a little more learned. These are things I didn’t know that I didn’t know:

1. Astronomers hate white light because it kills night vision. Is that why towers always have red blinking lights? I knew it was noticeable but I didn’t think it served an additional purpose beyond warning pilots a tower is there. One of the women suggested that if we ever come out again to see some cool things on a clear night, we should bring a flashlight covered with red nail polish or cellophane. We didn’t even remember to pack a flashlight, and it was hella dark out there without one. There was just enough light to see the astronomy horde lurching through the field like zombies unsure of where to step. Nobody else thought of flashlights either.

2. If you’re watching at the right time when a satellite passes by, you’ll see the sun reflect off it and it will flash in the night sky. It’s called an iridium flare. It is also possible to track the path of a satellite and predict these events, which is why we all knew to look up at 17:46 and get a few seconds worth of “Ooh! Shiny!” out of it. Amaze your friends or convert followers to your new religion. (“That flash is god’s message to you, my people, that I’m your new savior! All praise 1minion!”)

3. There are different types of telescopes. There’s the Galilean version, which you can make yourself if you have the right stuff. There’s also a Newtonian version that uses mirrors instead of concave and convex lenses. These can also be home made if you like insane challenges. There’s also a Keplerian style, which is based on the Galilean but with improved bells and whistles.

4. I’ve noticed this before – on hazy nights when the atmosphere is just so, street lights (and headlights and yardlights) seem to shine a beacon right up into the sky. Even 65 Km away from the city we could see dozens of them. One of the guys said that had to do with diffraction, but now I don’t remember what else he said about it. I’m assuming it has to do with the design of the light source because it doesn’t happen with all of them.

5. I think I misunderstood a fellow over there who was talking about Canada’s space telescope. I thought he said we were about to launch a little one, but a bit of hunting turned up the 6th year anniversary of the one we have already. It’s called MOST (Microvariability and Oscillations of STars) and is nicknamed the “Humble” because it’s only the size of a suitcase. It’s designed for long term work on specific projects regarding a single star or planet rather than photograph gorgeous space art like the Hubble does.

6. Any Canadians who attend a Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Galileo inspired event this weekend to celebrate The International Year of Astronomy will be given the opportunity to fill out an online form with a secret code (available only to attendees) and all the names collected are going to be added to a disc that will go up with NEOSsat, in 2010. I’m sure having our names up there is not so aliens know who we are, but more like a time capsule nobody can open again until it hits dirt. Pretty nifty.

So, while I never got my telescope chance last night, it wasn’t a complete waste of time. And, since I now know that I know someone who knows people in the astronomy club, we may get a chance to tag along some night and try them out when there isn’t such a crowd.

Did you know it’s the International Year of Astronomy?

I only find these things out when the year is nearly done for some reason. Ah well. Better late than miss it altogether.

Tonight I’m taking in an open house at the Sleaford Observatory. They do that every year but this weekend they’re also celebrating Galilean Nights like a lot of other locations across the world so it wouldn’t hurt to check if there’s anything happening near you.

On 22-24 October 2009, the International Year of Astronomy 2009 Cornerstone Project, Galilean Nights, will see amateur and professional astronomers, enthusiasts and the public taking to the streets all around the globe, pointing their telescopes to the wonders that Italian astronomer Galileo observed 400 years ago.

Spread over three nights, astronomers will share their knowledge and enthusiasm for space by encouraging as many people as possible to look through a telescope at our planetary neighbours. The focus for Galilean Nights is the objects that Galileo observed, including Jupiter and the Moon, which will be well-positioned in the night sky for observing.

I’m going with a friend from work and her sister who already called the organizers to find out what the plan is if cloud cover gets in the way of the sights. They’ll have a slide show and speakers prepped to make it worth the drive out there.

It should be a fun night and quite educational. I may even get to look through someone’s telescope finally. It’s high time I mark that off my list of things to do. That’s one thing I never begged my parents to get me for some reason and I’ve never befriended anyone who had one that we could set up in the boonies and try out.

Check back on Saturday for details of how that went.

Do prayers get noticed? It depends on who prays.

I don’t like using World Nut Net Daily as a source. All it’s good for is scoffs and mockery, in my mind. Still, allow me to try and take this latest headline at face value.

According to WND today, 60,000 gathered in Times Square yesterday for a great big Christian Pray-In and apparently nobody noticed. Nobody in the media at any rate. It was called Prayer in the Square and went for an hour.

Event organizers from Time Square Church had expected some 15,000. But their expectations were far exceeded at the third event of its kind in the last three years.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who helped the church cut through the red tape necessary to hold such an event, addressed the crowd.

“It’s a little strange for me to be up here,” he said. “I’m a Jew. But I just celebrated Rosh Hoshana, our new year. So I guess it’s appropriate for me to wish you all a happy new year.”

Despite the magnitude of the event, no major media covered it – even in the center of the media world on a slow news day.

More than 200 churches joined with the Times Square Church in promoting the rally to pray for the city and the nation.

Aren’t Muslims gathering in D.C. tomorrow to pray for the country? Your rally had no chance of getting noticed under the dark weight of that impending doom, and doom it must certainly be for the Christian mainstream in charge of most of what makes America so annoying great.

I quote from Charismamag:

Abdellah, who is African-American, said President Obama’s words at his inauguration, describing the U.S. as a nation of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and nonbelievers, and his speech this summer in Egypt seeking to build bridges with the Muslim world led him and a New Jersey imam to begin discussing the idea.

“He’s articulated a position that’s consistent with the Constitution of the United States, that there would be no discrimination based on race, religion, national origin,” he said. “That was inspirational. He used passages that are more Islamic-friendly than cause tension and intimidation.”

Some Christians also are mobilizing to pray on that day. An e-mail circulating virally calls for Christians to oppose what they see as Islam’s growing influence on the U.S. through prayer.

“If ever we needed to be crying out for mercy for America, it is now,” the e-mail reads. “We must stand strong and speak Truth wherever we are and at every given opportunity. … May there be multitudes come in to the kingdom of God while there is yet time.”

Abdellah said he doesn’t understand why Christians would object to Muslims praying. “What is there to fear about that?” he said. “Nobody’s praying for any destruction? We’re praying for reconciliation and that people get along.”

But Nigerian minister Mosy Magdugba believes the Muslim prayer gathering is part of a spiritual battle for the soul of the nation. In an e-mail, the leader of Spiritual Life Outreach in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, called on Christians to fast from midnight Sept.25 until the Muslim prayer event ends at 7 p.m.

“It is warfare time,” Magdugba wrote. “Do not joke with this. If Christians fail to frustrate this game plan in the spirit, you will regret the outcome.”

Florida resident Karen Leach agrees, saying she plans to fast and pray on Sept. 25 because she sees the event as a subtle form of “cultural jihad.”

“I’m very distressed,” Leach said. “I’m distressed when I read the statement, ‘We want to show America how we pray.’ … I feel that any kind of prayer speaks into the heavenly realms. So I feel if they’re going to be speaking into the heavenly realm into the forces of darkness, I want to speak into the forces of light.”

I bold that which interests me. I’m sure Abdellah hopes that everyone who gathers will be praying for what he says they want. I’m also sure many of them will be praying for the very thing that’s already freaking out these quoted Christians, though.

This is why religions need to go. They don’t interlock very neatly. They don’t fit nicely side by side like puzzle pieces of a multicultural world. They’re in each other’s way like two large men trying to share one little prison cell. Only the large men are really large groups of men and women and the prison cell is their own damn country. Somebody is going to get shanked one of these days and the blood is going to fall on everyone.

If prayer worked, that is a day I would pray not to see happen. Ever.

Moose on the loose?

I don’t know why I don’t hear about this stuff when it happens. Last weekend

A maverick moose calf has been reunited with its herd, but not before playing hooky in Saskatoon’s river valley for several hours.

Police say they were call about a moose running at large in the city’s Buena Vista neighborhood.

They were eventually able to herd the wayward animal into the riverbank area, where they helped conservation officers shoo the moose across the water to reunite with a second moose.

But the young truant eventually re-crossed and wandered back into the city.

That’s when wildlife officers tranquillized the bull moose, believed to be about one year old, and returned it to a small herd that live in the Pike Lake area.

No word on whether the herd imposed a curfew on the calf.

And the police report a case of another this weekend:

The moose ran at large for approximately 3 hours and was eventually tranquilized in the Grovenor Park neighborhood. Officers from SERM will be removing the moose from the city.

The Star Phoenix has a few photos of the first one.

Pope says Wal-mart fashion is in this season

Well, not quite, but Old Ben is applauding the fact that people want to make their dollars and pounds and Euros stretch further this Christmas and Wal-Mart concurs.

“Stripped of its materialistic and consumer trappings, Christmas offers a chance to welcome as a personal gift the message of hope that emanates from the mystery of Christ’s birth,” he added. “Even a nonbeliever can perceive something special, transcendent and intimate that speaks to the heart.”

Wal-Mart agrees, judging by its new motto, “Save money. Live better.” And at least one therapist vouches for thrift as the new global virtue.

“Forced frugality will give folks the chance to really examine their priorities and reconsider the role and meaning of gifts and holiday expenses. With less comes more appreciation and gratitude for what you have and what you´re given,” said Kit Yarrow, a psychologist with Golden Gate University.

Only for adults. Kids don’t think that way at all. I can’t quote it verbatim, but I’m reminded of a scene from Hogfather where old Albert is telling Death (his boss) all about this toy rocking horse he saw in a store window as a boy and had drooled over until his nose froze to the glass. Someone else bought the toy and his father made him a wooden horse instead that year. Death says something similar to what Yarrow did, about how a handmade gift means more and oh what a lesson it must have been about the true meaning of Hogswatch and Albert’s quick to put the kibosh on that kind of thinking. Plus, his father sat on the toy later and broke it. I can think of a few Christmases where disappointment was under my tree, too.

Of course Wal-mart would encourage frugal spending. Even if you only spend $20 each time you’re in there, thousands of other people are doing the same thing. It all adds up to more money for Wal-mart. They sell cheap stuff that’s cheaply made at 35% markup in some cases (or more). They also spend frugally, forcing the companies they deal with to sell their stuff at a lower price. They also encourage waste. Besides restaurants, who can eat a gallon of pickles before they go wobbly and soft? That table you returned because you spotted a nick in the finish that somehow dissatisfied you? It did not get another chance to live in a house with people who needed a table and didn’t care what it looked like. After you got your money back, some Wal-mart employee threw it in the garbage crusher and destroyed it instead. As soon as something is considered “damaged” in any way, that’s what they do with it, even if it is still usable as is. How is adding more crap to landfills doing the world any favours?

It’s hard not to live large, though — and the transition from prosperity to possible penury is rife with stress. Still, such circumstances prompt us to get kinder and more protective with one another, which is psychologically healthier, Miss Yarrow said.

“People are resilient, more than they think,” she added.

Indeed, a Zogby poll of 1,039 adults released Wednesday found that while 71 percent of Americans plan to cut back on their holiday spending this year, 72 percent also are convinced that the economy will recover and 91 percent remain proud of their country.

That’s a very American kind of survey, isn’t it? The pride bit I mean. I’m not sure about the “kinder and more protective” aspect. Maybe recession suggests we ought to be better people who care about how everyone’s pockets are suffering, but don’t people get even more selfish and self-absorbed during times of money trouble?

“Save money. Live better” does nothing to appease the family of Jdimytai Damour
. He died badly because people were self-absorbed and wanting to save money. They’ll likely never pin down who caused his death – not in any jail-term kind of way. Unless someone’s willing to admit their feet helped crush him just so they could save fifty bucks. Who’d want to admit to being that kind of person?

Women will be less like Martha Stewart and more like Betty Crocker, she said — the “good enough Beta Mom” rather than Alpha super mom. If you’ve got it, don’t flaunt it. He who has the most toys no longer wins. And, according to Miss Popcorn’s latest research, 90 percent of us are interested in simplifying our lives.

We’ll see. Interest doesn’t mean actively attempting. And I think a definition of “simplify” is also needed because it means different things to different people. For me it means owning less clothes and wearing them more than once before I wash them. I’ll also use a needle and thread to repair stuff when it needs mending. I don’t have any major perks on my telephone (cheapest internet package they provide) and rarely dial long distance. I don’t have cable or satellite or satellite radio. I don’t buy many books or movies or CDs because the library has everything I’d want already. I try not to waste food. I don’t replace stuff if it still works. I go through my closets and boxes every few months to see if there’s anything else I can give away. I live in a small apartment because I don’t need much space and and as near as I can figure, I have everything I need in here already. That’s the big money saver right there.

I think that’s something everyone needs to look at – the needs verses the wants, used and not used. Examine the priorities in every aspect of our lives. The feeling that we can’t live without certain things is a habit that needs breaking. Doing without – not because we can’t afford it but because we choose not to own it in the first place – that’s the real trick.

Canada votes sooner than expected

I never really followed American politics much, always getting Republicans and Democrats mixed up. One team roots for a donkey and the other one an elephant, right? That was all I ever got out of it. As I get more “political savvy”, it gets better.

I wonder if Americans, used to a marathon election process that seems to be designed like Death Race 2000, are aware of Canada’s political sprinters. Yesterday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a Federal election for October 14th, 2008. Not only are we racing to the polls, but it sounds like we might have jumped the gun by almost a year according to the radio announcer this morning. Harper’s either convinced he’s a shoe-in for another term, or he’s afraid his popularity will drop faster than a hockey puck if he waits until next year. I think it’s likely the latter.

I wonder how much they’ll be spending on their election ads and the like over the next few weeks. While googling around looking for a dollar amount spent on American primaries, I came across this observation Josh Tinley made in February, 2007:

Up to a point, spending money on a campaign for public office is spending money on democracy. As a nation, we passed that point a long time ago. The billions spent on advertising of all types in this country is disturbing, but most marketing efforts are at least tied to products that are tied to jobs and the economy in general. Much of the money spent on presidential and other major political campaigns is vanity money. Thirty-second TV, radio, and Internet spots are not conducive to constructive political debate. These ads put image above substance and focus the public’s attention on incomplete truths and unfair attacks. Bumper stickers, yard signs, and web banners say little or nothing about key issues or a candidate’s ability to lead.

Same thing happens up here. Over the next few weeks, every bit of green space will be littered with posters and signs advertising the names we’ll see on the ballots in each riding. This morning, CBC Radio 1 played clip of the Conservative party’s first ad, insulting the Liberal’s green initiative as not being good enough, green enough, or helping enough fluffy bunnies or some shit. Whatever. There will be little on the television or radio that actually illustrates what each party wants to bring to their term in Parliament and how they plan to help the people.

They’ll all waste a lot energy claiming to be greener than the other guys. I can see that coming. So, how big a “carbon footprint” does election prep make?

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Edit Sept 13

According to Brian at Primordial Blog, the negative campaign is in full swing.