What are the Odds? Astronomical Apparently

B&N's Nook Color
B&N's Nook Color

As an anniversary gift, my husband bought me a Nook Color last week.  I’ve used the free downloadable Nook for PC software for years (well, at least as long as Barnes & Noble has offered it) and even used it on my BlackBerry last year before budget belt tightening meant my employer retracted said BlackBerry.   So, I’ve accumulated about three dozen ebooks from various sources, including Barnes & Noble, but relied heavily upon Project Gutenberg for access to public domain works from the 19th century, which allowed me to read such English Literature classics as The Age of Innocence and Jane Ayre as well as purchase contemporary science fiction and fantasy works that I consider some of my all-time favorites like The Time of the Dark and The Magic of Recluce.

The first week or so of ownership didn’t involve much reading, in the traditional sense.  I test read a couple of books (including reading the Nook Color User’s Guide twice) to adjust the font size to suit my aging eyes.  I explored various wifi hot-spots I might frequent near my employer’s building (including the free one offered by the KC Public Library via their Plaza branch) and at home (my own guest wifi network which I setup a couple of months ago but had not tested yet).

The first app I downloaded and tested I heard about at GoodReadsAnnounced on their blog back in late April, the developers at my favorite book-lovers website created an app specifically for the Nook Color.  Currently, the app is limited in functionality very similar to their mobile site but I hope for some improvements in future versions, most notably the ability to vote (or like) reviews from my updates feed and support for discussions and groups.   I may have found a bug in the status update feature, at least as respects audio books or ebooks (which use percentage read instead of page read).  Since the Nook Color also includes a web browser, I can surf to GoodReads’ mobile site or even regular website if I encounter a problem with the app.

The Pulse news feed application came next.  I am not as wowed by what it serves up for news articles and find myself preferring my laptop and FireFox web browser for current events perusing.

Since I had given up on listening to audiobooks on my dumbphone, I took the 4GB microSD card I purchased several months ago (and could not use in said dumbphone due to firmware restrictions to 2GB) and inserted it into the Nook Color.  I then connected the device to my laptop via the miniUSB cord and copied the entire audio book for Elvenbane (all 15 CDs worth in MP3 audio format).  Using my old BlackBerry stereo headphones (the best sounding most comfortable ear buds I’ve every worn), I have enjoyed listening to the book while relaxing on the back seat of the van I ride to commute daily.

Astronomy Magazine (June 2011)
Astronomy Magazine (June 2011)

But the most exciting opportunity occurred today at lunch, while I surfed my feeds at Twitter and Facebook using Planet Sub‘s free wifi service.  Astronomy Magazine announce today, at 11:25 a.m. the ability to subscribe to a digital version for the Nook!  I subscribed right then and there and downloaded the June 2011 issue before returning to my office building.  Now, if I can just get B&N to also offer Sky & Telescope for the Nook Color, I’ll be in astronomical heaven!  I will console myself by reading the digital edition of Astronomy magazine on the ride home this afternoon.

The first ten days of ownership of the Nook Color promise many more enjoyable hours of reading, listening and surfing.  I have had very few problems with the device.  I highly recommend it for the geeky gadget-loving reader.

Kicking Off Astonomy Week 2011

Five Planet Line-up (courtesy Earthsky)
Five Planet Line-up (courtesy Earthsky)

Even though I had the day off on Monday May 2nd, I awoke at my usual alarm time of five o’clock Central, hoping for a chance to see the planetary lineup visible immediately prior to dawn.  I retrieved my telescope from my father’s house Sunday evening, gambling on clear skies and low humidity.  I left the equipment in the trunk of my car so I would not be delayed this morning.

I drove just a couple of blocks up out of the Fawn Valley subdivision to the dead end in front of Lansing City Hall, where a clear empty lot provides a spectacular view of the eastern horizon unbroken across the Missouri River to KCI.  I had just exited the driver’s side door and had my head and upper torso bent over the back seat retrieving my tripod and camera when Lansing’s finest arrived to ask if I was lost.  I patiently explained I planned to watch the planets and sun rise and proceeded to setup my equipment while he back his squad car warily into the City Hall parking lot.  I ignored him and began scanning the horizon for planets.

Venus had already risen, but was hidden among some tree branches, so I moved my tripod across the street and into the empty lot slightly northeast of my car’s parking spot.  For the next hour I watched Venus continue to rise, and the haze continue to brighten with the advent of the sun’s dawn.  At no time did I see Jupiter, Mercury, Mars or the tiny sliver of the moon left visible.  I had no hope of seeing Uranis, which rose before Venus, without the aid of a more powerful telescope than I currently own.

Once I started having trouble finding Venus in the brightness of the imminent sunrise, I packed up my camera and tripod and consoled myself with a mocha from Baristas before returning home, dreaming of retiring to the desert southwest and clear, crisp mountain air free of humidity, haze, smog and other discouraging particulates.

Astronomical Society of Kansas CityRegardless of my Monday morning set back, I am excited about several events scheduled for this weekend in the Kansas City area.  Please check out the Astronomical Society of Kansas City’s web page for details on events at Union Station and Powell Observatory Friday and Saturday night. Check out Sky & Telescope’s ‘This Week’s Sky at a Glance’ for other interesting items to keep you looking up.

Below, please find the ASKC May calendar of events:

ASKC Calendar of Events for May 2011
ASKC Calendar of Events for May 2011

Click here for the ASKC monthly calendar.

Amateur Astronomers Attend

My dad and I ventured out Saturday night to attend the April 2011 general meeting of the Astronomical Society of Kansas City, held on the fourth Saturday of nearly every month at Royal Hall on the campus of UMKC.  Dad volunteered to drive from Lansing/Leavenworth to just east of the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri.  We had a pleasant uneventful drive.

Once we arrived on campus and eventually navigated the one-way streets around Royal Hall to find the entrance to the parking garage, we entered the building and immediately recognized a couple waiting in the hallway outside the lecture room.  We stumbled upon old friends from our amateur radio past.  We spent several minutes getting reacquainted and catching up.  We gravitated towards the lecture hall and sat together.

The first hour of the meeting involved various awards for observing activities, reports on scholarship funding and distributing, status of the DSS (dark sky site), encouragement to try an observing club or activity and brief demonstration of beta testing a recent kit from the NASA‘s Nightsky Network.  There was also a brief commercial for a performance called ‘Orbit‘ by Dark Matter scheduled for the first weekend in May at Union Station‘s Gottlieb Planetarium.

CME blast and subsequent impact at Earth
CME blast and subsequent impact at Earth

The meat of the meeting came with a presentation on Solar Observing Basics by Neta Apple.  Her talk covered safety, first and foremost, various filters (white light, calcium K and hydrogen alpha – her personal preference).  an introduction to the interior of our closest star, umbrae, penumbrae, light bridges, granulations, prominences, faculae and solar flares.  Neta mentioned a 19th century solar flare, commonly know as the Carrington Event, named for the British amateur astronomer who observed it in 1859.  She asked the audience what we thought the result of a large or super flare of similar magnitude to the Carrington Event would do to our technology heavy civilization?  While we might survive that Russian roulette with the Sun’s gun, we lack the stockpiles of electrical transformers to replace all those that would be destroyed (estimates predict it would take two years for the Mexican manufacturers to create enough to replace just those lost in the United States alone).

On a happier note, Neta wrapped up with some examples from NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO for short) web site and opened the floor for a brief question and answer period.

By this time, we were approaching the latter half of the nine o’clock hour, and the meeting coordinator (the President was absent, so there was a substitute) decided to de-formalize the scheduled town hall meeting to a social gathering, with refreshments, encouraging attendees to meet their board members and  other club regulars.  I took the opportunity to quickly skim through the available observatory activities, grabbing the Astronomical League‘s Urban Observatory Club handout, but forgetting to grab ASKC’s Astro Quest one.

I asked a question of the Membership Secretary and then said goodbye to our old amateur radio friends.  Dad and I returned to the car and drove home, under cloudy skies.  I’m looking forward to ‘opening night‘ at Powell Observatory on Saturday, May 7th, featuring the ‘Galaxies of Spring’ and I hope to see you there!

Book Review: David Levy’s Guide to the Night Sky

David Levy's Guide to the Night SkyDavid Levy’s Guide to the Night Sky by David H. Levy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A good, but somewhat sporadic, book on astronomy by one of the astronomers who discovered the comet Shoemaker-Levy (yeah, the one that crashed spectacularly into Jupiter). The information seems a bit dated, even though this is a second edition (or a reprint ten years later). I went in search of astronomy books on the shelves of my local library and gave this a whirl.

View all my reviews

Mixed Media Meltdown

I’ve been following a debate which crops up quite frequently in reading circles:  Why can’t I resell my ebook?  Both readers and authors have joined in the discussion threads at these GoodReads SciFi & Fantasy Book Club topics:  e-Book Piracy and   Do you care if you own a work?

One of the best links posted happened to refer to Scalzi’s Whatever blog post a year ago entitled Why in Fact Publishing Will Not Go Away Anytime Soon: A Deeply Slanted Play in Three Acts.  Well worth the time and will definitely have you smiling, if not laughing out loud before you reach the stunning conclusion.

All of this got me thinking about the media used over the centuries to store our content.

Pictograms, Horseshoe Canyon, Canyonlands National Park, Utah
Pictograms, Horseshoe Canyon, Canyonlands National Park, Utah
Egyptian Hieroglyphs
Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Cuneiform script by an expert scribe, 26th century BC

Cuneiform script by an expert scribe 26th century BC

Papyrus

Papyrus
Printing press from 1811
Printing press from 1811

Edison Home Phonograph, Suitcase-Modell

Edison Home Phonograph, Suitcase-Model

19th century studio camera, with bellows for focusing

19th century studio camera, with bellows for focusing
"Super 8" 8 mm films
"Super 8" 8 mm films
A typical LP, showing its center label
A typical LP, showing its center label
Philips Cassetten-Recorder EL 3302 (1968)
Philips Cassetten-Recorder EL 3302 (1968)
Size comparison between a Betamax cassette (top) and a VHS cassette (bottom).
Beta v. VHS
Floppy Drives
Floppy Drives
The readable surface of a Compact Disc includes a spiral track wound tightly enough to cause light to diffract into a full visible spectrum
Readable surface of a Compact Disc
Six hard disk drives with cases opened showing platters and heads; 8, 5.25, 3.5, 2.5, 1.8 and 1 inch disk diameters are represented.
Six hard disk drives with cases opened showing platters and heads; 8, 5.25, 3.5, 2.5, 1.8 and 1 inch disk diameters are represented.
Cloud Computing
Cloud Computing

Out of all of the media types (and obviously many that I’ve left out like the ever popular 8-track tape), which ones can you read without the benefit of proprietary equipment or electricity?

Imagine yourself a visitor to Earth in the far future, to an Earth either abandoned (because we migrated to other planets or galaxies by discovering FTL) or lifeless (because we didn’t see the writing on the wall and continued our parasitic existence to extinction).   What format has the best chance of being understood and surviving to be reviewed?  In our mad dash to digitize everything, for convenience and experience, what do we leave for posterity?

I have boxes of albums from the 70s and 80s in my basement I can no longer listen to because I don’t own a turntable.  I even have a few 8-tracks and Beta tapes holding content hostage.  I have crates of recorded VHS tapes of movies, television shows and family gatherings, which I could possibly view, if my ancient VCR still functions and the magnetic tape hasn’t degraded or been demagnetized.   I have a project back-burnered for the moment to review several thousand slides taken by my father, his brother, his father and my aunt in the hopes of converting them to a digital photograph format.

I fear there will be no Rosetta Stone to help our alien visitors nor a still functioning DVD reader or Internet to Google the translation.  Our binary epitaph of bits and bytes may languish forever locked in silence and darkness while the humble book shines forth as a beacon of historical hope.

Singing, Snowing, Zinging, Knowing

My least favorite forecast includes ‘wintry mix’ concatenated with ‘winter storm warning’ culminating in excruciating commute times.  My vanpool dodged that bullet (barely) on the return trip home last night, for which I am very grateful.  It allowed me to watch and listen to my daughter’s first concert of the year, as a member of the Chamber Choir at the UNT College of Music.   While she is also a member of the Collegium Singers, she enjoys the challenge of increasing her repertoire in those two choirs and in her vocal performance studies individually as well.  Musicology is her primary focus as an undergraduate for the next year or so.   Living eight or ten hours north (by automobile) from her concerts would be torture if it weren’t for the appeasement offered by the College’s live streaming of most of the concerts.

Even though the concert only lasted thirty minutes, Terry and I enjoyed hearing Rachelle’s voice across the aether of cyberspace.

Immediately prior to the concert, while I shook off the last dregs of the work day, Terry tried a new recipe for stuffed tomatoes, which we barely got in the oven before the singing started.  Twenty minutes later we sampled his latest savory culinary comeuppance.  Delicious!

We opened the front door to near white out conditions.  We couldn’t see across our court to the houses on the opposite side.  Thick snow blanketed the steps and driveway, even though just ninety minutes prior there had been less than a half inch of icy, slushy, sleety mess.  We promptly closed the door and return to our regularly scheduled DVR programming.

Snow Accumulation in just 90 minutes Thursday evening
Snow Accumulation in just 90 minutes Thursday evening

Due to some systems maintenance performed overnight, I overslept by thirty minutes, awaking at 5:30 a.m.  Barely stopping to slap on some socks, I jammed on my boots, grabbed my coat and gloves and opened the garage door to an even thicker blanket of snow.  And while it looked fluffy and airy, it proved to be heavy and wet.  I began to doubt my ability to shovel just half the driveway to the street in the thirty minutes before I needed to dress for work.  My white knight came to my rescue and helped vanquish the snow dragon.   He even volunteered to do the steps while I finished my morning ablutions.

Terry drove me the two miles north to the Hallmark plant in Leavenworth so I could catch my ride to work.  As we were passing by the IHOP in Lansing, I commented that we should have had breakfast when I was awake between two and four o’clock earlier this morning.  Being such a considerate husband, he drove in a circle around the van chanting ‘na na’ at me because he planned to stop at said restaurant for breakfast on the return trip home.  True to his taunting, we saw him parked front and center at the IHOP as we headed south on K-7/US-73 (aka as Main Street in Lansing).

Our commute to Kansas City’s Midtown and Plaza regions remained uneventful, if a bit slow.  We observed several cars languishing in the medians and ditches, but we deigned to join them.  And for once, I made it to work when some of my team members decided to turn around a go home due to the icy road conditions in their part of the metro area.

Finally, and in closing, in perusing the blogs I follow as part of my morning tea sipping ritual, Modesitt posted a rebuttal to his previous blog (from earlier this week).  The earlier post, entitled ‘The Problem of Truth/Proof” generated several comments (a couple of which were mine), which then spurred Mr. Modesitt’s posting this morning, entitled “True” Knowledge is Not an Enemy of Faith.  I will monitor this blog throughout the day to follow the next wave of comments, but will probably refrain from commenting myself.

May you all have a restful and peaceful weekend!

Midweek Mull

Perhaps I’m in a funk because at least one of the four books I’m currently reading is a dystopian classic by Sinclair Lewis entitled It Can’t Happen Here (1936), part of my journey into various warped zones.   Perhaps it’s just hormonal, pre-menopausal doldrums.  Not enough fruit, vegetables and exercise?

I did purchase a new battery for my pedometer, hoping the predicted snow for later this week leaves only a dusting so I and my Rotts can get back in shape.  We could all benefit from a brisk walk and fresh air to invigorate our outlook on life.

My outlook dimmed after reading L.E. Modesitt’s recent blog post about the problem of proving truth.  I attempted to comment, probably not very eloquently, nor diplomatically, but again, my fug lens needs cleansing.

I do have my daughter’s first concert of the spring semester to look forward to tomorrow evening.  One of the choirs she’s a member of (Chamber Choir) performs a short concert at 6:30 pm, streamed live over the Internet.  She’s listed in the program under the Altos as Rachelle Moss, mostly because the color of her voice lands her in that section nine times out of ten.  I do miss hearing her rehearsing at home.

I’ll get little rest, peace or quite tonight (so I might as well walk the dogs) since it’s practice night for my husband’s rock band.  I just wish it wasn’t dark so early, because I could take my camera with me while walking and probably snap a few interesting photos.  I don’t want to start yet another book (on audio via my phone) nor do I want to re-hash all the old MP3s I’ve let languish there.  Guess I’ll just talk to Roxy or Apollo until they howl me silent.

I did finish my third crochet project of the year, but haven’t had a chance to photograph Terry modeling his new scarf.  He did wear it yesterday when he was out and about, but said it was so warm he had to remove it.  At least he won’t be cold the next time we have a frigid blizzard in February.

Today I wish my mom a very Happy Birthday.  Here’s a photo of her from 1965 helping me celebrate my first birthday:

My Mom, me and my cousins in 1965
My Mom, me and my cousins in 1965