Newsletter

I have just added another reference socklet to the SiS menu, containing the letters of the Greek alphabet, for people who are interested.

Ways you can make use of the Greek alphabet might include:

• Travelling to Greece
• Randomly calling out the names of Greek letters in an attempt to convince a tertiary level discrete mathematics examiner that you know exactly what you're talking about and your exam really doesn't have to be marked
• Applying it to the names of assorted stars in such a way as described in the other new socklet, which is all about star naming

Enjoy.

- Mike

Some people will have noticed that there's now a guestbook available from the contents page.

I'm still messing around with the formatting of the guestbook to try and stop it clashing with the rest of the site. Meanwhile, please go and sign it. If you don't, I'll have to go and sign it several hundred times myself using false names, and that would be a really boring activity. :-)

- Mike

Hi everyone.

It's an entire year since Dark Skies first came into existance, and I've just given it a complete and total re-doing. It's not absolutely complete - I'm still touching up some of the pictures and so on. For the moment though, welcome to the new format. Please let me know if you find something not working the way it should.

Happy stargazing. :-)

- Mike

It's rant time again. :-) Today's topic is telescopes.

When someone finds out that I'm into astronomy, one of the first questions I get asked is almost unfailingly "Do you have a telescope?"

The answer I repeatedly give is "no".

As any intelligent astronomer will be very happy to disclose, a telescope is not necessary to enjoy astronomy. After all, stars can be seen without a telescope. They're up there all the time. There is nothing preventing anyone from simply going outside at night, and looking up. The astronomer concerned will then typically proceed to remove a greater than 6" scope from the car, and spend the rest of the night "oohing" and "aahing" at things that can't be seen any other way.

So do you really need a telescope to enjoy astronomy? The implied answer is:

"No. You just need one to enjoy astronomy for more than two minutes."

The more correct answer however, is that if you don't have a telescope, you might feel a bit dejected from a lot of other people in the astronomical community, no matter how much they try to get you involved. This doesn't mean you can't enjoy astronomy.

As I've already said above, I don't own a telescope. Officially, I can't afford it as a result of my studying. Unofficially, if I wanted one badly enough I would have found a way to get one long ago.

If I did have one, I know that I would not use it much. It doesn't suit my lifestyle. I live on the side of a hill, and there is no easy place to set it up. The side of the hill happens to have an excellent view of a city, including a hockey stadium which is lit up brightly for many nights of the year. Being the student I am, there is no easy way I could regularly move it to a better observing position.

Deep sky and closeup telescopic observing (which everyone seems to automatically associate with astronomy) has never been my central interest anyway. It's fun given the opportunity, but I also enjoy simply sweeping the sky with nothing stronger than a pair of 7x50 binoculars. I can carry them with a planisphere and a red torch in a backpack nearly anywhere I go.

My main interest in astronomy has always been simply being outside under the stars and looking up. That's about the best way to describe it, since no effort I've made to narrow it down has ever been successful. I don't need a telescope for that. I might get one in the long term, but right now I'm in a perfectly happy medium.

The reason for this rant and my problem is this:

"Where is everyone else like me?"

This is definitely not an attack against people who use telescopes, which is perfectly okay. I'm simply frustrated at the lack of active astronomers around who have no immediate interest in obtaining or using a telescope whatsoever. I would like to point out to people that you do not have to have and use a telescope to take an active part in the astronomical community.

Well I've had fun. Happy stargazing. :-)

- Mike

Firstly, happy new year! 1999 is set in quite nicely now. People are back at work, other people are almost back at school, and at least one person has finally finished writing a completely pointless socklet for display on the Socks in Space menu.

If you're one of those people who bothered to read the preceeding sentence, you might be wanting to know something more about this socklet. Strapped for ideas, I've resorted to writing something completely pointless describing the relevance of caffeine in astronomy. Interestingly enough, this has prompted the inspiration of a new section on the Socks in Space menu, colourfully titled Pointless time wasting. :-)

- Mike

Wow, it's the first Christmas of Dark Skies and I'm still here! :-)

Not much to add since I've been working a fair amount, which is why additions to the site have slowed down a little recently. I haven't forgotten about it though, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to drop in and say Merry Christmas.

Did anyone get out to look for the Geminids? I was unable to due to work commitments. It was disappointing but at least the weather wasn't the best, anyway.

Meanwhile I'm going to abuse my power and put in a plug for the website of the Wellington Astronomical Society on the links page. Why? I'm designing it! If you think some of the layout looks similar to Dark Skies, you would be right. I like this format.

- Mike

I have just added a new link to the links page by the name of itty bitty blackboard. Normally I wouldn't mention it here in the newsletter, but this site is really worth it if you're just looking for information.

The site is full of up to date news about astronomy (with some less interesting sciences also thrown in), and the layout is very professional. The library of information is fully accompanied by fast loading animated pictures everywhere. Go to the links page and check it out.

- Mike

That more or less explains it - the leonids were fun. They weren't everything we hoped for, but I'll show off my excellent vocabulary by saying they were good, and well worth it. :-)

I find it nearly impossible to wake up at 2am, so I stayed up all night and went to look at it from around Breaker Bay with some other people in the Wellington Astronomical Society. This was a nice area close to Wellington, which overlooks Wellington Harbour.

The sky was good for viewing given the city location, and at one point we were seeing about one bright meteor a minute. The exact count from our group is arguable, and depends on who you talk to. :-)

Other than that, there was an Evening Post photographer who came and took a front page picture of us just before we left. :-)

- Mike

I've just added another socklet all about how brightness is measured. It describes what magnitude is, how it works, and includes a quick lesson on how it came to be that way.

- Mike

Hi everyone. In recent times, I've been struggling to answer one of those really annoying questions. Why is it that the Dark Skies astronomical dictionary seems to be full of words and terms in the first half of the alphabet, but almost nothing in the second half? Something is wierd. Anyway, don't forget to tell me if there are any words or terms which you think should be there.

In other news, there's now a new green back arrow on the site's title bar. This returns you to the previous page you were looking at, as opposed to the page structurally above the current page as seen in the site map. It can be quite handy if you've just checked a definition and want to return to the socklet you were reading. For it to work, your browser needs to support javascript - which includes most popular browser these days anyway. The arrow does exactly the same thing as the "back" button on your browser, but I thought it'd be quite fun to make it part of the site. :-)

- Mike

I have just added another tip to the socklet menu explaining how and why stars have colours. This is the first socklet in quite a while. Free time strikes again. :-)

- Mike