Eight Minutes Old

Hey Guys, well, I am back in Germany now. After some warm Days in Sydney, Australia (including some hours at the sun-filled beaches of Manly and Bondi ) I have returned, just to find Europe freezing under a carpet of snow. The return flight on the 22nd of December was good timing: Right after the first cold weekend with closed airports, but before increased security at airports. So everything went smoothly, although the 22nd was my ‘longest day’ so far: it had 34 hours instead of 24, because of the time-difference of 10 hours. We got up at 3 in the morning in Sydney and arrived after noon here in Bonn.

Well, then there was Christmas, which we more or less did not notice at all: jet-lag and coming from 30 degrees Celsius at a palm-lined beach is not the best preparation. And now there is Snow everywhere, and the temperatures remain freezing for the last and probably also the next week. This actually slows down my film-processing. I’ll explain why:

All in all I shot 34 rolls of black and white film in Australia (well, and in Singapore). In Sydney I finally ran out of film, I had packed 30 rolls, so I had to buy some. Quite expensive over there… Anyway, now they all have to be developed. I prefer to do this on my own, in the bathroom-lab. But I can only process two at a time. It would take me weeks to develop all of them, especially because of the time they take to dry when it is cold. So I decided do send them to a good lab for processing. The first 10 are on their way already. But I am afraid of sending the others right now. The frost can not be good for them. So I am forced to wait for warmer days.

Oh, before I forget it: Happy New Year to everybody. The last one was extremely busy, with me finishing my last exam, helping to organize the TDGBonn conference (and attending it), writing my thesis, giving a talk about it and becoming a PhD Student. I married my wonderful wife, who also finished her studies in fall, and we went to Australia. I would not have expected so much to happen in only one year. But it is a good feeling to look back at it. And it somehow fits that it was the International Year of Astronomy. For me, it also was a personal year of astronomy.

Of course there is more to do. Right now I finally write the paper about my work. This is my first priority right now. I gave a first draft to my professor yesterday, so I can spend some time on other tings over the weekend. And there are new projects planned. I am eager to tell you about them, but I better wait until everything is settled.

Tags: Bondi, Manly, Sydney, TDGBonn, Beach, black and white, Bonn, Christmas, Developer, Europe, Film Photography, Flight, Germany, Happy new year, IYA, Photography, Singapore, Travel, University of Bonn, Winter

UPDATE: It is online in the Mediathek.

Apparently, the documentary for which a German television team visited the institute last week will be aired tomorrow it now seems to be scheduled for Friday 23rd evening on “3Sat” in a “Nano” show at 6:30 pm. Unfortunetely it is in German, of course, but it will be available online after the show. I will post a link once it is online.

Tags: 3Sat, Newton, Astronomy, Dark Matter, Effelsberg, Gravity, IYA, Law of gravity, Nano, Newtonian Dynamics, Radio Astronomy, Radio Telescope, Star Gazer, Tips, TV series, TV, Universe, University of Bonn

Today and tomorrow (1st and 2nd of August) you have the chance to visit the so called Physikshow (Physics-Show). It is planned and performed by Students from the University of Bonn. By now, it has a several year-long tradition and is very successful, for example they have already been invited to make a show in Berlin.

Due to the Moon-Exhibition in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne the students created a special moon-program: “2009 Mond-Odyssee”. Following an exciting story, entertaining physical experiments are shown for young and old. The show takes place in the foyer of the museum, the admission is free, so you do not have to visit the Moon-Exhibition. But I would suggest you to do this, because it is very fascinating and shows many great pictures. It is especially interesting as it is one of the rather few events in the International Year of Astronomy (IYA) that approach it not only from a scientific, but also from an artistic side.

In short:

Physikshow zur Mond-Ausstellung: 2009 Mond-Odyssee (in German)

Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd of August

At 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00

In the foyer “Stiftersaal” of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum (Obenmarspforten, near the Cologne town-hall)

Admission: for free, but only 5 minutes before the show starts.

The Moon-Exhibition

The exhibition starts with paintings, the oldest exhibits date from the Middle Ages. It shows the evolution of the artistic depiction of the moon with time, ending with contemporary positions. On display are mainly Paintings (amongst others by Albrecht Dürer and Caspar David Friedrich), but sculptures, photographs, models of the Moon and even scientific tools are present, too. While the Moon in the early paintings primarily acts as a source of light and is itself depicted as a simple disc, this changes with the advent of capable telescopes. Precise drawings of the moon’s surface are produced, then the invention of photography generates even more exact maps.

For me, the current photo-artistic positions on the topic “Moon” are the most enthralling: One are Sharon Harper’s “Moon Studies and Star Scratches” (Represented by the Gallery Stefan Röpke, you can see more pictures online). This work plays with large-format multi- and long-time-exposures of the night sky and the full or crescent moon. In a separate room there is an impressive ultra-wide panorama “photo”, showing a fairy-tale like journey to the moon and the moon-culture discovered there. It is part of an installation with the title “Moon-Prophecies”, created by the British artist-duo Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick. The project also has a website, where you can have a look at the panorama in parts (the one in the museum is actually many meters wide).

The exhibition still runs for about two weeks until August 16. So don’t hesitate, go visit it!

From today, Thursday (June 25) till Saturday (June 27), there is the “SternenZelt” (Star-Tent) on the Muensterplatz in Bonn (open from 10a.m.-8p.m., Saturday until 10p.m.). As a part of the “International Year of Astronomy” (IYA), scientists and research institutes from our region present astronomy, answer questions and show some of their work to the general public. Everybody is invited to come, it is free and I’ll be there this morning, so if I am in the mood I’ll write something about this later. The announcement an information on the “SternenZelt”-website is in German, but as science is mainly done in English I’m sure everybody will be happy to answer your questions in English, too.

UPDATE: I’ve been there for six hours. It was very nice, the tent is not too big but there are plenty of interesting people, presentations and experiments. We had some English-speaking guests, too. I must admit it was almost easier for me to describe radio-astronomy in English than in German.

I was at the booth of the Max-Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, there were also four from the University (The Observatory on the “Hoher List”, one on galaxies, one from the physics department on cosmic rays and one from the Geodesy showing the potateo-like form of our earth and explaining how this can be measured). Furthermore, the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the German Museum Bonn, the “Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt and some amateur astronomers (observing spots on the sun) were present. And lots of interested people, ranging from small children to elderly people. Even though this only was the first day, I think it is not too early to say this event is a success.

Tags: Astronomy, Bonn, Germany, IYA, Radio Astronomy, Radio Telescope, Star Gazer, Star, University of Bonn

I just found an announcement on the website of the city of Bonn that the city library organizes several events under the topic “City library reaches for the stars” (in German) because of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA). That’s fine, it is a good thing to promote science, and especially astronomy is something many people are interested in.

I read on: There will be lots of talks, Authors reading and Events for kids. Sounds nice.

But then:

Famous authors, astronomers and astrologers will be present.

WTF? Astrologers for the International Year of Astronomy? Why don’t they get it?

Tags: horst fichtner, science fiction, Ulrich Banse, Astrologer, Astrology and Esoteric, Astronomy, Bonn, Books, Germany, IYA, Maya-Calender, Maya, Numerology, Pseudo-Science, Quantum-Physics, Talk, Time

If you happen to be in Bonn tomorrow and are interested in astronomy, there is a very interesting event: The Science Cafe. Astronomy meets Gastronomy is the motto of this event special to the International Year of Astronomy. In the restaurant “Harmonie” in Bonn Endenich (Frongasse 28-30, 53121 Bonn), guests and visitors have the chance to speak to real astronomers, ask questions about astronomy and astrophysics or just hang out with some cool star-gazers.

It’s the first time such an Science Cafe for the general public takes place in Germany. Of course I’ll be there, too. It starts at about 8:00 pm (on Tuesday 03.03.). More info can be found on the German IYA-site here.

(It’s for free. You only need to pay for your drinks, obviously)

UPDATE: Damn, 39 degrees celsius temperature force me to stay at home. Sorry. But I’m sure ther are lots of interesting peaople around. If someone would like to write a report about it (in English or German), I’d be very interested.

Tags: Astronomers, Astronomy, Bonn, Germany, IYA, Meeting, Radio Astronomy, Science Cafe, Star Gazer, Talk, Telescope

To all my photographing readers[1]: Have you ever dreamed of having a extreme tele-lens? Did you ever participate in a informal competition with fellow photographers to shoot with the best, biggest and most expensive lens? How about shooting with a 576,000 mm tele lens having a diameter of 2.4 meters, costing several billion dollars. It’s not even the biggest lens on earth. Actually, it is floating above earth. I’m talking about the Hubble Space Telescope. Ok, you might not be the one to take the picture, but now you have a vote on where Hubble will be pointing for their International Year of Astronomy special.

You have the choice among six different objects in the sky. These are:

1. Star-Forming Region: NGC 6334: A birthplace for stars, forming in molecular clouds and letting the surrounding gas glow in spectacular colours. So this is the ideal choice for baby- and kid-photographers or family guys.
2. Planetary Nebula: NGC 6072 or
3. Planetary Nebula: NGC 40: These have nothing to do with planets or planet formation, the name merely has historic reasons. These spectacular clouds are the results of dying stars. The outer layers of those stars get ejected, forming a shell like structure around them which glow in different colours due to the ionizing radiation of the soon to be dead star. Thus, these are a good topic for social documentary photographers (or fireworks-lovers )
4. Spiral Galaxy: NGC 5172: A spiral galaxy similar to our own. Showing us a more or less “face on view”, so we can see the disk and the spiral arms around the central part. This is what a portrait photographer would choose, I guess.
5. Edge-on Galaxy: NGC 4289: A spiral like the before mentioned, but seen in a profile. Maybe street photographers would like this, as it is similar to the Milky Way .
6. Interacting Galaxies: Arp 274: Two spirals interacting with each other and going to merge in the future. This is astronomical action photography at it’s best. Ok, the action takes place over millions of years, but astronomically speaking this is pretty fast.

Currently, the interacting galaxies are number one, followed by the face-on spiral galaxy and then the star forming region. But things still can change: Cast your vote on YouDecide.HubbleSite.com until March 1 and the picture taken with this amazing instrument will be published during the IYA’s 100 Hours of Astronomy worldwide event between April 2 and 5. And when you vote you even have the chance to win a 16″x20″ photo print of the object Hubble eventually takes the picture of.

[1]: Of cause also for my astronomy-interested readers and probably for everybody else, too.

Tags: Astronomy, Clouds, Hubble Space Telescope, IYA, Milky Way, Nebula, Neutron Star, Photography, Planetary Nebula, Portrait, Spiral Galaxy, Star Gazer, Star-Forming, Star, Street Photography

The year ends tonight, and I wish you all a Happy and peaceful 2009. Next year will be gorgeous: it is the International Year of Astronomy *and* the Darwin Year (he was born 200 years ago). There will be lots of interesting events, not only of official, but of very personal nature for me, too. I’ll write more about this when time has come.

My blog has been around for a bit more than six month by now. Time to look back for a moment. First of all I’d like to thank my loyal readers and all those who have supported my by linking to my site. I will not mention specific names, because I’m sure I would miss someone, but you probably know if I am talking about you ;-). (Actually, there might be loyal readers I don’t even know of. Not everybody comments and I do not track how many people have subscribed to my feed).

In total the blog recieved 4000 to 6000 visitors, depending on who does the counting. A satisfying number for a new blog, I think. Half of them are from Germany, in total there were visitors from 60 countrys! The most read posts (they each got about 150 visitors) were:

1. The three parts of my Christian Pareidolia Study, listing and analysing Jesus- and Virgin-Mary-Sightings.
2. The Exponential-Proof-Post against a creationist argument.
3. And, much to my surprise, a photo post from Paris (actually one of my own favorites ): Texture of Paris.

My earnings from the Blog are: 0 Euro. I don’t want ads around here and will never publish paid posts.

That’s it for now. I have to leave for a New Year’s party. See you next year.