I don't have a vast knowledge about astronomy. From time to time I find some interesting news to post at the astronomy category. I follow the top news of New Scientist, Popular Science, Scientific American and the fantastic pictures of Astronomy Picture of the Day. And that's all.

I wasn't part of the generation who watched Cosmos on TV. To be sincere, and his fans will have to forgive me, I just knew about Carl Sagan many years after his success to popularize science. And let me scare you a little more: I never watched the series or read his books (until now). However, before you start thinking of throwing some rocks on me, let me say something: I'm "fixing" this problem.

I started reading his last book, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. Partly because I'm curious and it was already on my shelf. But I had other reasons, for instance, it has beautiful images, it's not only about astronomy, and he was a great writer. I don't want to impugn its merits, no way, but I 'd say it's almost "astronomy for dummies".

For a first specific contact with that area, it looks perfect to me, because it does the most important part, as all good books do, it gets your attention and keeps you interested. I'm reading a Portuguese edition, hardcover, published in 1996 that was a gift, and now it's precious. This book is out of print in Brazil and I couldn't find any other version of it. It seems that astronomy isn't so popular in Brazil as I thought.

If I asked someone how should I have first contact with astronomy, that person would probably suggest me the book Cosmos or the TV series. And I said probably, because it is excellent, at least the bits I watched. As part of my plan to fix my lack of the knowledge in this area, I did a quick research about the "Cosmos" videos, since it isn't available in DVD here. It was quick because, you know how those things are nowadays, the videos appear from nowhere, and these did.

My first impressions of Cosmos: amusing, interesting and it's not only about astronomy. It's also about history, culture, biology and about life. I also have to say that Carl Sagan's voice was hypnotic. As far as I can tell, Sagan should have been a fantastic teacher, since the videos are very didactic and his introductions to every subject, captivating. And last, but not least, he already pointed out an important issue, specially nowadays: ecology.

The new age music presented in the episodes is a little too calm for my taste, but it perfectly fits them. If you have the chance to buy the DVD series, do it. Otherwise, take a look at the playlist I did, with all the episodes on-line, with Japanese subtitles. Of course, they won't stay there forever, so start watching them now, or again if you already did, and then buy it.

Posted by Bibi on July 12, 2007 09:58 PM in Astronomy, Books, Science, Science, Video ||

Hi guys, I hope you are having a loving night - or day. I selected some interesting news about internet and technology to blog in this amusing day. Let's go to the latest news.

- Astronomy Picture of the Day posted an incredible picture of Americans Defeat Russians in First Space Quidditch Match (image above). But it doesn't beat Water on Mars.

- Following the steps of several social sites, Slashdot started to use a rating system similar to Digg, but open to everybody - no registry is required. Choose an article and vote. (image)

- From the French site Techno-Science: Découverte d'un miroir gravitationnel: observer la Terre du passé (discovered a gravitational mirror). The text is in French, but the very illustrative image has the text in English.

- Interesting and scary news from Mobile Gazette: Will Mobile Phones Destroy the Earth? The interview with the Professor Dummkopf explains why we should be afraid. (screenshot)

- If you are a Metafilter user don't forget to visit Ask MetaFilter and help to solve some questions. The doubts could be interesting for non users too.

- PC Magazine has a very nice article about Haptics Turns Phones into Weapons.

- The Swedish torrent site The Pirate Bay announced in its blog: Finaly a permanent solution for the hosting. Today we announce that we're moving some of our servers to the North-Korean Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden. (screenshot)

- The Australian on-line community Gush decided to redo Gush as a myspace page because it's a place where there's heaps of young people, so they can get so many more people involved! (screenshot)

- The excellent internet and web 2.0 site TechCrunch Has Acquired FuckedCompany.com. More details, including the press release on the Techcrunch and Fuckedcompany 2.0 sites. (image)

- Reg Hardware, a The Register site, says that Research reveals mislaid microprocessor megahertz. Not only are chip companies regularly releasing ever-faster microprocessors, but new research has revealed that modern CPUs actually lose megahertz over time.

- The Warcraft Universe wiki site, WoWWiki, was redesigned, changed the name to MeoWWiki and it looks much better now! (screenshot)

- This sounds great: New Eco-Friendly Computers, a Sharpened article.

- Whirlpool News says Mandatory ISP filtering will block P2P. The federal government has shocked industry by rushing a bill through parliament that will compel ISPs to block all P2P traffic. (screenshot)

Posted by Bibi on April 1, 2007 03:46 AM in April Fools, Astronomy, Internet, News, Science, Science, Technology ||

Since I'm fascinated by magic lanterns, here are few links to sites with vintage slides of them:

At EVE (Everyone's Virtual Exhibition) there is a huge collection of magic lantern slides divided in gallery like Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The World War and Dickens' Christmas Carol, and images of magic lanterns. (via Agence eureka)

The Victorian Magic Lantern contains a very nice collection of hand painted magic lantern slides and photographically reproduced and then possibly hand-tinted. Many of those slides are photographic registries from different countries, like France, Japan, Rome and Egypt, and others "just" pretty illustrations. (via Agence eureka)

Magic Lantern Slides from The Berkeley Geography Collection, the slides date from about 1900 to around 1915.

Some are part of a series used by the Southern Pacific Railroad to show off the beauties of California,where it not only monopolized transport, but also owned a tremendous amount of land. Another series seems to have been assembled to aid in teaching the physical geography of California.

Millington-Barnard: Magic Lantern Slides. These slides are believed to have been purchased in 1859, by Chancellor F.A.P. Barnard for the University of Mississippi. They were used in classroom lectures on astronomy.

More magic lantern at Early Visual Media Magic Lantern Slides and de Luikerwaal.

Posted by Bibi on January 10, 2007 02:30 PM in Astronomy, Illustration, Vintage ||

While I try and finish yet another complex post, why don't you keep your hands busy with two awesome paper models? In theory those two models, of Copernican System and Ptolemaic System, are for kids learn more about the history of science, and the universe, but who cares? I loved them!

Download the PDFs The Ptolemaic System and The Copernican System at the very cool Science Museum of Canon, where there are many other models about universe and nature, including dinosaurs for Calvins wannabe. Just in case that you still having doubts about Ptolemy and Copernicus theories, Wikipedia will help you: The Copernican heliocentric system and Ptolemy, or Copernicus Pages, from Department of History and Philosophy of Science. Or go even far and read the The Problem of the Planets (De revolutionibus orbium coelestium) in Latin, or this translation of it.

Posted by Bibi on December 27, 2006 05:51 PM in Astronomy, Craft, Science, Science ||

The moon is made of green cheese, right? But it's better don't eat it. The APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) has a picture taken by Hubble Space Telescope with the expiration date for green cheese moon.

Posted by Bibi on April 1, 2006 01:20 PM in April Fools, Astronomy ||

Astronomy lovers and curious people must read this New Scientist article: Best ever map of the early universe revealed.

On Thursday, the WMAP team revealed the best map ever drawn of microwaves from the early universe, showing variations in the brightness of radiation from primordial matter. The pattern of these variations fits the predictions of a physical theory called inflation, which suggests that during the first split second of existence the universe expanded incredibly fast.

Update: more about the map at Astronomy Picture of the Day - Inflating the Universe.

Posted by Bibi on March 24, 2006 07:08 PM in Astronomy, Science, Science ||

Today, the Astronomy Picture of the Day is a high resolution image from the last Annular Solar Eclipse, happened on Monday (October 3). The author of that picture, Stefan Seip, takes amazing astronomy photos. If you can't check all the pictures on the site (and they worth it), here are my highly recommend suggestions of his galleries of images to see (don't forget that I'm a lay person in astronomy): Moon, Sun, Planets, Constellations, Nebulas, Galaxies and Miscellaneous.

More nice images from the solar eclipse on Flickr here and here. Plus: Northern Lights - stunning pictures of Aurora Borealis by Sigurdur H Stefnisson (via Cynical-C).

Posted by Bibi on October 5, 2005 10:55 AM in Astronomy, Photography, Photography ||

Rare Books and Glass Plates - illustrations from Rare Books and other objects in the U.S. Naval Observatory Library Collection. An amusing collection with great images. Take a look too: Uranometria - Bayer's Uranometria was the first star atlas of its kind. It includes a fully engraved title page and a series of 51 maps. (via BibliOdyssey)

Posted by Bibi on September 20, 2005 02:21 PM in Astronomy, Books, Illustration, Science, Science ||

Sci-Philately - A Selective History of Science on Stamps. Make a short and amusing travel through the history of astronomy and cosmology, chemistry, mathematics, biology, atomic bomb, geology, Nobel Prizes, electromagnetic theory, genetic, evolution, physics and modern physics with stamps.

Posted by Bibi on August 30, 2005 07:09 AM in Astronomy, History, Science, Science ||

Very important astronomy news from New Scientist: read first New solar system world has a moon, go to New world found in outer solar system and finish reading Tenth planet discovered in outer solar system. One more planet? Wow!

Posted by Bibi on July 31, 2005 08:19 AM in Astronomy, News, Science, Science ||

One more very cool Google "toy": Google Moon. In honor of the first manned Moon landing, which took place on July 20, 1969, we've added some NASA imagery to the Google Maps interface to help you pay your own visit to our celestial neighbor. (via Google Blog)

Posted by Bibi on July 20, 2005 09:31 AM in Astronomy, Google ||

Did you see the Astronomy Picture of the Day of July 4? Stunning! Take a look there.

Posted by Bibi on July 5, 2005 02:10 AM in Astronomy, Photography, Photography ||

Chasing Venus: Observing the Transits of Venus 1631-2004.

"Chasing Venus" tells the story of astronomers' pursuit of this phenomenon, through rare books and articles written on the subject over the last four centuries. The exhibit also marks the sixth observed transit of Venus, in June 2004.

Posted by Bibi on June 3, 2005 09:49 PM in Astronomy, History ||

Visible Earth: a catalogue of NASA images and animations of our home planet. Amazing images with a very good resolution of countries, agriculture, atmosphere, biosphere, oceans, hydrosphere, land surface, cryosphere and more. BTW, here is the gallery of photos of my country and my city. (Thanks André!)

Posted by Bibi on May 27, 2005 03:38 PM in Astronomy, Photography, Photography, Science, Science ||

This music video is very silly: Astronomyx - Really Big Universe. "Really Big Universe" is the new hit single from Doc Philly and Prof. Dee's new album, Check Yo Equation. To listen more bizarre songs visit The Escape Artists page.

Posted by Bibi on May 23, 2005 08:55 PM in Astronomy, Fun, Fun, Video ||

World Sunlight Map: A world map showing current sunlight and cloud cover. And you can choose what projection what you want see: Mercator, Peters or rectangular. Also available is a semi-realistic view of dawn and dusk from far above the Earth and a look at the moon.

Posted by Bibi on April 2, 2005 03:07 AM in Astronomy ||

Astronomy Picture of the Day always have great images. Today they have a fantastic image of Water on Mars. You have to see it.

Posted by Bibi on April 1, 2005 04:59 PM in April Fools, Astronomy, Science, Science ||

The name is good, but the article is much better: New Scientist 13 things that do not make sense is a New Scientist article about 13 areas in which observations do not line up with current theory. They are: the placebo effect, the horizon problem, Ultra-energetic cosmic rays, Belfast homoeopathy results, dark matter, Viking's methane, tetraneutrons, the pioneer anomaly, dark energy, the Kuiper cliff, the Wow signal, Not-so-constant constants and cold fusion. It's a very interesting article. Go read it. (via Slashdot)

Posted by Bibi on March 18, 2005 05:47 AM in Astronomy, Science, Science ||

Cool Cosmos! is a suite of websites made by NASA's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center and the SIRTF Science Center. They include cool facts about astronomy and science. Their infraread fetish can be seen on the Infraread Yellowstone Gallery, The Infraread Astronomy Session and the Infraread Zoo Gallery.

See also: infraread astronomy, heat and temperature (with cool infraread pics) and Herschel, the discoverer of infraread light.

Posted by Bibi on March 5, 2005 07:53 AM in Animals, Astronomy, Science, Science ||

I know just a few things about astronomy, but I love the images on Astronomy Picture of the Day. As the name says a new image every day. And something more: an explanation about the image and links with the meaning of words and expressions. To see a new image everyday you can go to the site or sign via RSS as I did it.

Posted by Bibi on November 29, 2004 02:21 AM in Astronomy, Photography, Photography ||