Chaotic Astronomy

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ESOcast 4: 24 hours in the life of an ESO astronomer.

Have you ever wondered what it must be like to be an astronomer? In this fourth episode of the ESOcast, Dr. J takes us behind the scenes at ESOs Very Large Telescope in Chile to show us what a day in the life of an ESO staff astronomer is like.

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The countdown for an exciting night with an observation run at the world’s most advanced optical telescope, the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), has begun …

In this ESOcast episode, were going to follow a day in the life of Dieter Nürnberger. Dieter is a staff astronomer at ESO. His job is to support those scientists that have managed to get observing time on ESOs Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory in Chile. Dieter spends most of his working days helping the successful few to make ground-breaking discoveries.

Dieter Nürnberger is on his way to meet the visiting scientists to team up for the night to come. The three have been observing together for several nights, today is their final evening and they are keen to get started. Over dinner they discuss plans for the night ahead.

Well before sunset they leave the Residencia and drive up the desert road to the building housing the VLT control room. At the control building they prepare the observations and check the set up of the telescope. Observing time on these great telescopes is precious and delays must be avoided at all costs.

Like a pilot checking his plane before departure, Dieter goes through a detailed check of his instrument, while the telescope operator does the same for the giant telescope. The astronomers have travelled far for a glorious view of the Universe, and here a glorious view of the sunset is included for free! As usual at Paranal, the conditions are perfect and Dieter and the visiting astronomers return with high expectations.

Read more: http://www.eso.org/public/videos/ESOCAST4/ESOCAST4.pdf

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ESOcast is produced by ESO, the European Southern Observatory. ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the pre-eminent intergovernmental science and technology organisation in Astronomy designing, constructing and operating the worlds most advanced ground-based Telescopes.

• http://www.eso.org/
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Duration : 0:6:0

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I’m planning on getting the nikon action 16×50 porror prism binoculars. Would that be good enough for Astronomy ? Or something else.

And is Bunshell a quality optic supplier? How good are the optics?

Personally, having used a few different binoculars i find 10×50′s are quite good for astronomy the 16x magnification may sound appealing however shaking will become more of an issue, you may think it will be a subtle difference, but you can tell. For ease of use and portability, I find 10x 50′s are good and anything like 20×70′s aren’t very effective – unless you have a tripod, that’s when those size binoculars outshine 10×50′s in my opinion.

A good basic introduction to what spectroscopy is and how it’s used in Astronomy.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectroscopy and so on for more detailed information.

Duration : 0:9:47

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Reissued in HD. Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shows us the ropes on the Red Planet. His amazing book “Death from the Skies,” is now available in paperback via Amazon.com.

Duration : 0:3:21

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An astronomer shows us why the periodic table is much simpler through his eyes. More about the creation of the elements at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhhdkYFmd7A

Duration : 0:1:50

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Host:Dr. Kiki
Some newish Astronomy news, and a look at silly Geocentrists and conspiracy theorists.
Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/kiki.
We invite you to read, add to, and amend our show notes.
Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Duration : 1:0:28

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I’m so interested in science, mostly in astronomy. I’m 13 years old and I don’t know how can I improve my knowledge about it.

Can you tell me a good way to memorize stuff and how can I know more about astronomy.

Where i can learn things apart from science in school.

I would suggest a subscription to a magazine such as "Astronomy". I got this magazine when I was about your age, after a few years, if you still have an interest, I would then "graduate" up to "Sky & Telescope", it is good for more advanced amateurs. They both have good web-sites too.

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Astronomy vs Astrology – Best of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos (Part 15)

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BEST OF CARL SAGAN’S “COSMOS”:

1) 10 Years After: Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Reflect:

2) Lost Between Immensity And Eternity:

3) The Realm Of The Galaxies:

4) Our Galaxy, The Milky Way:

5) Our Solar System:

6) Eratosthenes And The Round Earth Model:

7) The Library Of Alexandria:

A Short History Of The Universe:

9) Artificial And Natural Selection:

10) The Cosmic Year:

11) Tree Of Life – 4 Billion Years Of Evolution:

12) The Miracle Of Life:

13) DNA – The Common Basis Of Life:

14) Abiogenesis The Origin Of Life:

15) Astronomy vs Astrology:

16) Pictures In The Sky:

17) Ancient Astronomy:

18) Triumph Of Modern Science Over Medieval Superstition:

19) The Mysterious Tonguska Event:

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Carl Edward Sagan, Ph.D. (1934-1996) was an American astronomer, astrochemist, author, and highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics and other natural sciences. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

He is world-famous for writing popular science books and for co-writing and presenting the award-winning 1980 television series “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage”, which has been seen by more than 600 million people in over 60 countries, making it the most widely watched PBS program in history.

A book to accompany the program was also published. He also wrote the novel “Contact”, the basis for the 1997 Robert Zemecki’s film of the same name starring Jodie Foster.

During his lifetime, Sagan published more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles and was author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books. In his works, he frequently advocated skeptical inquiry, secular humanism, and the scientific method.

http://www.carlsagan.com

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Duration : 0:10:57

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I love Astronomy and simply considering going into that field. But astrophysics also is in my interest. Yes, i know the difference and like both. So what will decide my future? Money. Which one is economically wiser to chose?

‘Career’. They’re basically the same thing – very few astronomers can get away without doing a lot of physics these days. The days of observing something and reporting on it without trying to interpret it are past. And neither of them pay well considering how long you’ll be in school – 8-12 years of college, and then most people spend the first 5 years or so after the PhD doing various post-doc positions, which pay about 40k a year. If you can get a faculty job, that starts out between 40k and 70k, but those are hard to get – there are far more PhDs who want to teach than there are jobs for them, and many are teaching making 20k a year without benefits (yes, with a PhD). And NASA doesn’t pay a lot more, if you can get that job – there are even fewer of those. In fact, a lot of astronomers leave the field to make more money elsewhere within 10 years of getting their PhD – they simply can’t get a job in their own field.

What is the difference between Astronomy and Astrophysics?
I’m so interested in this kind of area and I want to know which course is more for me.
I got the impression that Astrophysics is much more "mathsy" but I’m not overly sure of which bits are different….

astronomy is the study of the universe. astrophysics is the study of how the universe works, and the laws that take place thereof.