The Bad Astronomy Newsletter

Bad Astronomy Newsletter #35

Contents:

1. Columbia
2. Something to look forward to: Jupiter's moons
3. Something else: Moon Hoax in NY Times Magazine Sunday
4. And again more: Bad Astronomy book goes another round
5. More? The Amazing Meeting... in the next newsletter
6. Subscribe/Unsubscribe info

1) Columbia

This has been a tough week, as we all know. To be honest, there isn't much I can say here just yet. We have all seen the footage, heard the newscasts, listened to the speeches. The Shuttle was lost while I was attending James Randi's Amazing Meeting. A man by the name of Hal Bidlack told us what had happened. He made the most incredible speech about it, and I cannot do it justice from memory. I have asked to get a transcript from the meeting (it was taped), and when I do I'll post it here. But the essence was: keep moving forward, keep looking ahead. I agree with him wholeheartedly. In that spirit, the following items are all things to look forward to.

2) Something to look forward to: Jupiter's moons

Jupiter has a passel of moons swinging around it. They all orbit in just about the same plane; that is, if you look "from the side", the orbits would all appear to line up. Every six years or so that plane points edge-on right toward us, so we see the moons swing back and forth as if on a line. From our viewpoint, that means the moons can actually appear to physically move in front and behind one another, and this can be seen in a telescope. Here is a link to a list of these "mutual events", as they are called, over the next few months. http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/planets/article_771_1.asp (the list is on the third page of that story). Get yourself to an observatory, or find a local astronomy club and see if you can spot the events on one of those dates! Here is where you can find local clubs near you. Here's a great chance to wonder at how amazing the Universe can be, and you can see it with your own eyes.

3) Something else: Moon Hoax in NY Times Magazine Sunday

The New York Times Sunday magazine this weekend (February 9) will have an article about the Moon Hoax in it. The writer talked quite a bit with me, as well as with Bart Sibrel and other people on both sides of the Moon Hoax issue. I expect this article will be very interesting, since I was given the chance to explain in detail why Mr. Sibrel is so incredibly wrong in everything he says. ;-) The magazine can be seen online (you need to subscribe, but it's free). I don't know if the article will be there or not. I'll put a link on my website if the article goes online.

4) And again more: Bad Astronomy book goes another round

I was informed by my editor the other day that my book is still breathing; we are going to have a fifth printing! I was able to send in a few more corrections to some lingering errors. It's amazing how many can creep into a book, and how hard they can be to root out. Even now there are certainly a few still in there. I get email sometimes pointing out a mistake or two. One came in today, but unfortunately it was too late to make the printing. I was able to correct a really dumb mistake in my Velikovsky chapter (I said the Hebrew calendar was invented 6000 years ago; in reality it was created about 2500 years ago, and the Hebrews just set it up so that it started at year 0 with their creation date). Anyway, the fifth printing should last quite some time. I have no idea if there will be a sixth. I'm surprised it's gone this far! Either way, it's been a great ride. Now I just need to figure out what to do for the next book...

5) More? The Amazing Meeting... in the next newsletter

The Amazing Meeting was, well, amazing. There is a lot to say, and it'll take me a while to write it down. For now, I'll just say that I had a wonderful time, met lots of great people, and took lots of fun pictures. If you want more info, then first check James Randi's website.

Then, if you want some first-hand accounts (with pictures) then go to the James Randi Educational Foundation forum, Randi's bulletin board. A lot of the board members went to the meeting, and have posted their stories. The meeting has its own forum, down near the bottom of the list on that page.

6) 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.

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