The Bad Astronomy Newsletter

Bad Astronomy Newsletter #13

Contents:

1. Newsletter note
2. Big News: Radio interview debating Bart Sibrel!
3. Bad Astronomy talk in L.A. on Sunday
4. Report from Florida
5. Subscribe/Unsubscribe info

1) Newsletter note

Because of item number 2, I wanted to get this letter out in a hurry. As such, there is no astronomy tidbit this time, but I'll have one in the next letter. I also plan on seeing the new Star Wars movie this weekend, and I'll send out a newsletter announcing when I have the web review up!

2) Big News: Radio interview debating Bart Sibrel!

I have been invited to debate notorious Moon Hoax Believer (HB) Bart Sibrel live on the radio. Mr. Sibrel made the video "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon", a compendium of the worst of the Moon Hoax silliness going around. It should be... an interesting experience, to say the least. Some of you may know I declined the opportunity to debate him on the radio last year, because the show's host also was a big HB and I didn't think I'd get a fair shot.

Not so this time. The radio station is WRUV, 90.1 FM out of Burlington Vermont, and the debate is at 11:00 a.m. (Eastern time) on Friday, May 17, TOMORROW as I send this message out. WRUV is a college station, and the format is such that both Mr. Sibrel and I will get our say. If you are not local to the station, you can listen on the web! Go to http://www.uvm.edu/~wruv/ and click on "Tune In" on the left-hand menu. You'll need Real Player, which is freely available from a link on the same page.

Before the show, I suggest you see what Mr. Sibrel is claiming about Apollo. Check out his website at http://www.moonmovie.com and then find out exactly where he is wrong (which is, essentially, everywhere he says something) at http://www.clavius.org/bibsibrel.html. That might help you understand what we will be talking about during the program.

3) Bad Astronomy talk in L.A. on Sunday

Just two days after I debate Mr. Sibrel, I will fly to Los Angeles to give a public Bad Astronomy talk. I will be speaking on Sunday, May 19, at 2:00 p.m. Pacific time. The talk is at CalTech, at Baxter Hall. Admission is $8 for the general public and $5 for members of the the Skeptics Society. You can find out more about the Society at http://www.skeptic.com/.

Baxter Hall is smack dab in the center of campus. You can get a map at http://www.caltech.edu/map/. Baxter Hall is Building 77 on the map.

4) Report from Florida

I just returned from a trip to Florida that was both for business and personal reasons. I attended a conference on developing science and math materials for classroom use in schools, which was pretty interesting. My day job is to do just that, and the conference was specifically on how NASA can help get that material into the hands of teachers.

The conference was at Cocoa Beach, just a few minutes from Kennedy Space Center (KSC). We went to KSC twice, which included a trip up to the Shuttle Endeavour, sitting on the launch pad, and an amazing tour of the Saturn V building, where they have a full-size Saturn V lying on its side. The rocket is astonishingly huge, detailed (much of it is from flight-ready hardware) and complex. A film was presented of the days leading up to the Apollo mission, the simulated launch of an Apollo mission, and another simulating the lunar landing.

All in all, it was a moving experience, and one I highly recommend. Yes, we did go to the Moon, and it's an epic story of incredible human triumph.

I have uploaded a few pictures of the trip to the newsletter website. Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/badastronomy/ and click on the "Photos" link in the left hand menu. The images are roughly 40-50 kb each.

At KSC I saw the new 3D IMAX movie "Space Station". The three-dimensional glasses coupled with the enormous IMAX screen make for several times where your eyes are utterly convinced you are floating in space along with the astronauts. It's very cool.

Also, while at KSC I gave my Moon Hoax talk, which was warmly received. I just wish I could have stayed an extra day; astronaut Story Musgrave was there the next day and I would love to chat with him. Some years ago I used the camera he installed aboard Hubble... but that's another story, so to speak.

While at KSC, I met with JoAnn Morgan, a wonderful lady who happened to be the only woman in the firing room (that's launch control to us laymen) during the Apollo missions. In many ways, she is NASA, and it was an honor and pleasure to split a plate of chicken wings with her.

After the conference, I visited the Gulf Coast Wonder and Imagination Zone (GWIZ), a science museum in Sarasota. I gave my Moon Hoax talk again, which was great fun. GWIZ is getting its sealegs now after a pretty big renovation, and it's looking great. I hope to go back in January and give another talk too. If you are in that area, or plan to be, drop on by.

For info about GWIZ, go to their website, and for info on the IMAX film, go to their website.

For information about the Kennedy Space Center, try their website; it has lots of info about the Shuttle too: .

5) Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information

If, for some weird reason, you want to unsubscribe to this newsletter, just send email to badastronomy-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com with no body text. Make sure you send it from the address to which the newsletter is sent! Alternatively, you can unsubscribe from the Yahoo!Groups website. Go to http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/groups/groups-32.html for more info.

Remember, the newsletters will be archived on the website at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/badastronomy so even if you unsubscribe you can still read them there. I suggest staying subscribed so you get them as soon as I send them.

Also, I do not sell your email addresses and neither does Yahoo! Take a gander at the Yahoo!Groups privacy message if it makes you feel better: http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy/us/ Note that the email addresses are visible to me, but I have no prurient use for them. If that makes you nervous for whatever reason, feel free to unsubscribe and simply read the archived newsletters at the website listed above.

Phil Plait
The Bad Astronomer
badastro@badastronomy.com
http://www.badastronomy.com