Seeing Stars: Amateur Astronomers Aim Thousands of Eyes at the Universe

Just a quick post regarding on how amateur astronomers can help in professional astronomy field and you can find the transcript below this video. The last quote from Gus Johnson make my heart touched, spontaneously. Enjoy this short but meaningful story.



[spoiler]

Astronomer Gus Johnson likes the quiet and the dark. But weather conditions are working against him this night near his home in Maryland.

GUS JOHNSON: "Well, Jupiter went behind a cloud so we have the moon ... "

Johnson has been watching stars for 50 years. He remembers hundreds of star positions and he loves to share what he knows.

GUS JOHNSON: "That planet has a diameter 11 times that of the Earth."

In 1979, Johnson discovered a supernova, or exploding star. Scientists now believe his supernova is the newest and nearest black hole.

GUS JOHNSON: "That's the supernova right there. When I came to M100 [galaxy], there was this other little star that for some reason caught my attention. I don't know why. And later on, I checked the photograph, and it wasn't on the photograph. And that proved to be the Supernova SN 1979c."

Was he happy with the discovery?

GUS JOHNSON: "Yes, I was. And I am, and thankful too because so few people actually get to discover things."

Scientists believe that black holes are often created. But to see it happen is extremely rare. Kim Weaver is an astrophysicist. Last year, she and other scientists announced that Johnson's supernova was probably the birth of a black hole.

KIM WEAVER: "We want to watch how this system evolves and changes in its youthful stages from when it's first born to when it grows into a child and a teenager."

Some astronomers dismiss the work of what they call citizen scientists. But Weaver says these amateur astronomers do put thousands more eyes on the universe.

KIM WEAVER: "They don't have access to the large telescopes that professionals have access to. But what they can do is they have [the] freedom to be able to use smaller telescopes any time they want to look all over the sky."

Caroline Moore and her father are amateur astronomers.

CAROLINE MOORE: "This was the first telescope that I had ever got." The Moores made an observatory behind their home in New York State. Caroline made a major discovery two years ago, when she was only 14. She studied hundreds of images with a computer as part of a search team.

CAROLINE MOORE: "I discovered the least luminous supernova ever to be observed, which is a ... and I am the youngest person to discover a supernova so it kind of makes it a double interesting thing."

Back in Maryland, Gus Johnson observes fresh-fallen snow and an ice-covered lake. There is something almost sad about his intense love of the environment. Was he looking for a supernova that night long ago?

GUS JOHNSON: "Nope. It was entirely accidental. It's kind of the grand realities of existence. The earth and everything we know is such a minute part of the whole universe. Watching the creation of God ... that's pretty spectacular."

I'm Christopher Cruise.

[/spoiler]

osu! - rhythm is just a click away

Alright since HoshikunV2 introduced you with a good rhythm game now I would like to share a popular game played by mostly Japanese media fans. The title explains the name and a catchy phrase but none of them gonna change your mind unless you try it yourself.

Lets check out the main page itself of what this game is all about;

osu! is primarily played using a mouse to click 'beats' displayed on-screen in time with the music. This is analogous to tapping the beats on the Nintendo DS screen with a stylus. At the top of the screen, a health bar is present, which is constantly drained. If the player hits or clears a beat, the health meter at the top of the screen fills slightly. If he misses a beat, a large part of the meter is drained, and if it gets completely empty, he fails the song. There are three types of beats in the game: Hit circles, sliders and spinners. Every time the player hits a hit circle or an end circle, touch a slider tick, or clear a spinner, the combo is raised by 1. If he misses any of the above, the combo is reset back to 0.

Basically, this rhythm game require you to click on their 'beats' using your mouse before the meter drained. The hardest part is to maintain the faster beats that constantly appeared plus the moment while you are sliding the spinners, a part that total beginners would gave up and throw up the game in the dustbin straight away. Put that aside, this game is totally enjoyable with the good interface and you may use them as your personal MP3 player if you are tired of playing.

Audiosurf : Surf through your musics!

Since my exams are coming around soon enough, i do have a lil' bit of boredom doing drills and studying all the time. I'd prefer some high-graphic games but with this temporary cooked PC, that ain't gonna do.  Thus I've found a game that will let me relax my thoughts and minds. Ofc, it's  rhythm-music game.

Audiosurf is an award-winning puzzle/rhythm hybrid game created by Invisible Handlebar, a personal company created by Dylan Fitterer.Its track-like stages visually mimic the music the player chooses, while the player races across several lanes collecting colored blocks that appear in sync with the music. The game was released on February 15, 2008 over Steam; the full version was for a long time only available for purchase through Steam, but was later released as a retail product in Europe, by Ascaron. Audiosurf was the first third party game to use Valve's Steamworks technology. The Zune HD version was also released as Audiosurf Tilt.

sauce: wikipedia

here's some of screencap that i captured:

[caption id="attachment_466" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Visual for the gameplay. Move your mouse and hit the coloured, avoid the grey blocks."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_467" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Interface for the song selection. You could use your own song. Ain't that cool?"][/caption]

Audiosurf is pretty old, but as long as there are new songs, it'd be nice to play 'em wif this. For my view, yes, it appears to be pretty entertaining. There's also multiple choices of game modes for different difficulties. What I like the most is because they allow you to choose your own song. That's pretty convenient, deshou?

For rating, i'm giving it 8/10. It's a nice game for a break. How about giving it a try?

Ah yea, for the video gameplay:


Looks fun, deshou?
well, for the download, i'll leave it to your guys to search for them. It's not hard since you just need to put the title of the game in the google search engine then add the word "mediafire" behind it :3

Violent Occasion: Supernova in M101

On the latest news of astronomy world, a new supernova was seen on August 24 by Caltech astronomers. This new supernova, now called SN 2011fe (initially designated PTF 11kly), was exploded in the Pinwheel galaxy (M101) in the constellation Ursa Major. The star was first a dim magnitude 17.2, but now has brightened to magnitude 10 and easily reached under a 4-inch telescope.

Of course this is a great news for amateur astronomers. However, M101 itself is a little hard to see at this time as the Big Dipper is low on the horizon for most of the night, and it is impossible to spot M101 from the deep southern hemisphere as the position of the Big Dipper is under the horizon. But if you insist to observe it, go outside around 7 PM and yes, naked eyes won't do but a backyard telescope or good binoculars should be enough to see it.

Here are some pictures taken by astronomers from various sources. The supernova itself is equally bright to the galaxy nucleus and make it relatively easy to observe, even over very long distance. Well just sit back and enjoy the stars, there will be more occasion waiting for you.

Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari - supercell PV

Though it would be inconvenient for me to introduce myself here, but i might as well do it as this is my first post. Well, a new writer here invited by ZerOne01. I'll keep this site updated anything related with anime or J-stuffs whenever i have time.

Okay, that's all for intros~

So, as the title says, yea i know, it's a not-very-old-but-looks-old song. This song was the ED of Bakemonogatari, which i recently watched(should've before, oh well time counts).

Tbh, I was really touched with the lyrics. Guess what? It's a confession of a girl, which is turned into a song. And this song also relates astronomy like the "Natsu no Sankaku" (The Summer Triangle) which consists of the stars Deneb, Altair and Vega.

Watch it first before i start ranting or else you won't get a single thing.

And yes, for further info about what the heck is happening in the video, there's a link in the description(that guy's view) and some description regarding "Natsu no Sankaku"

Alright, as you can see the music of the song is nice. I like the drumming and the piano sounds in this as both of them attracts my ears the most besides the voice. The first two line already means like she's telling a story instead of some flowery lyrics. I like the way she put it through outspokenly. And what makes me replays this song again and again is her voice and the lyrics. Notice that there's a line for confession around at the end of the song? If i were to put this, it's like confessing your feelings(girl) to someone you like(guy) even though you'd knew you would be rejected after all. Her voice type is freedom. It makes the listener feels like running in a vast field opposing the swift wind, unstoppable.

For a rating out of 10, i'd give it 9/10. Well, that's a short review of my view of the song. It's best to feel it yourself and perhaps you'll have different than mine. Have a good time enjoying this one :3