The Bad Astronomy Newsletter

Bad Astronomy Newsletter #33

Contents:

1. American Astronomical Society Meeting Summary
2. Radio/streamed interview on "Technobabble"
3. Max Goes to the Moon!
4. New Planet X Stuff
5. Subscribe/Unsubscribe info

1) American Astronomical Society Meeting Summary

During the week of January 5 - 9, 2003, I attended a meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Seattle, Washington. As usual, it was great to see old friends and listen to talks about recent advances in astronomy. I attended as a member of the press, and I fully intended to write up any interesting news and send it to you, my Bad Readers, as soon as I could. However, my laptop decided to go on the fritz during the meeting, and without it I was unable to write anything (there were computers there, but there was typically a long line of people waiting to get on them, and I didn't want to hold everyone up while I hacked out a newsletter). My apologies to everyone.

As it happens, there were some interesting news conferences. You can find synopses and links to more info at The Universe Today website. Just go to the Astronomy section and look at any articles that came out from January 5 to about January 12 or so. I am hoping to write up some articles about news from the meeting for a couple of different venues, and I will send out a newsletter as soon as that happens.

2) Radio/streamed interview on "Technobabble"

I was interviewed by Mat Kaplan on his talk show "Technobabble" which airs at 17:00 Pacific Time on Monday, January 20 on KUCI out of Irvine, California. The show is also streamed via the 'net. We talked about the Moon Hoax, and it was a fun interview. I hope everyone can tune in.

3) Max Goes to the Moon!

I received a surprise gift in the mail the other day: a book, sent to me from a buddy of mine from grad school. It was a children's book titled "Max Goes to the Moon", about a dog who, well, goes to the Moon. The author was another buddy of mine, Jeffrey Bennet, a professor at the University of Colorado. I knew Jeff had written a popular astronomy textbook, but I had no idea he had written anything else, let alone a book for kids.

The book is really very well done. It uses accurate science to tell a funny and cute story of a girl and her dog who rally the public into funding a rocket to the Moon. The artwork is excellent, the story engaging (my six-year-old daughter really liked it, and laughed a lot at Max's antics), and there are sidebars on almost every page with a more detailed description of the science in the book. That last part is aimed at the parents who may need a little help in explaining things like lunar phases, rockets and the like to their wee ones.

I recommend this book to any parents who have kids in the range of about 5-10. You can order it from Jeff's publishing company. It won't be available anywhere else for a few months yet, so I suggest getting it from him directly.

4) New Planet X Stuff

I updated my Planet X pages with a description of how some astronomical imaging is being misused to promote the idea that a rogue planet is hurtling towards us. The essay was on my bulletin board, but I updated it a bit and added some images to make it clearer.

I am also putting the finishing touches on my Planet X talk for the Amazing Meeting, which I talked about in my last newsletter. Here is more info on that. Preparing this talk has been both fun and nightmarish. It's been nightmarish because dealing with this subject is truly aggravating; the people involved seem to make more outrageous claims every day (the latest: NASA is supporting my "staff and luxurious office", which cracks me up: until very recently, I was crammed into an office not much bigger than a closet, which I also shared with a coworker. We just moved to a new building, but that was "supported" by Sonoma State University, not NASA!). But it was fun because I know I get to thoroughly trash their claims at the meeting. I'll report on that right afterwards, on or about February 3.

5) Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information

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