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Topic: IYA 2009 at thenewRadiant

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Grinz
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Kosmik Kat

Joined: 01 January 2004

South Africa
Posts: 2655
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How did your interest in astronomy start? : In childhood/at school
What about astronomy & a space interests you most?: Everything & anything

Posted: 29 August 2008 at 5:33am \| IP Logged

I'm posting a general thread about the International Year of Astronomy 2009 elsewhere, but this one is intended for a somewhat different purpose.

I was wondering if any of you have ideas/requests/suggestions about something we could do here at thenewRadiant specially to celebrate the IYA 2009. I know it is still some time off, but let's start thinking about it.

I am happy, for instance, to start a whole section devoted to it - i.e. somewhere where we can post local, international etc things but also fun stuff and even a traditional "mystery" or two. Thus we can keep all of it together. That is easy to do.

But any ideas about special projects?

I am going to design (at some stage, not right now!) a skin for thenewRadiant that has the logo etc as part of the look & feel of the page - it will be quite a big task, as designing new skins always are, so that is one little project I will do.

Who would like to do what?

Ideas & discussion please!

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Lee aka Grinz
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars - Oscar Wilde

-33°52'1"S 18°28'58"E

Grinz
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Kosmik Kat

Joined: 01 January 2004

South Africa
Posts: 2655
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How did your interest in astronomy start? : In childhood/at school
What about astronomy & a space interests you most?: Everything & anything

Posted: 02 September 2008 at 10:11am \| IP Logged

Err... anybody?

I cannot believe that I'm the only one enthused by this?

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Lee aka Grinz
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars - Oscar Wilde

-33°52'1"S 18°28'58"E

Stuff
Cosmic Explorer
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Our own surfer extraordinaire

Joined: 18 November 2005

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Posted: 03 September 2008 at 11:57pm \| IP Logged

Sorry, Lee, we just returned from a mini-vacation--I will post an obs report later in the week--so this is my first look at this thread...

Here is one idea: 24 hrs of... something, observing maybe. We can do it twice during the year, one on each equinox (that way neither north nor south hemisphere has the majority of dark sky and the weather should be more cooperative). We could do a Messier or other list, or a combination of two or more lists, while conversing via the Chatter Box (can the Chatter Box be captured to print or a file?).

Sorry, but after driving almost 15 hours today I am not very creative right now. It is good to be home...

--stuff

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"Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right." Sir Laurens van der Post

Grinz
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Kosmik Kat

Joined: 01 January 2004

South Africa
Posts: 2655
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How did your interest in astronomy start? : In childhood/at school
What about astronomy & a space interests you most?: Everything & anything

Posted: 08 September 2008 at 5:14am \| IP Logged

Stuff, that is a good start indeed. There is the 100 hours of astronomy event in April (one of the main IYA programmes) amd we could certainly also have an ongoing star party of our own here too. Some of us might be busy with events in our own areas (I certainly will) but it would be nice if we could make that into a place to be in between all the other things...

As to whether there is an ongoing archive of the chatterbox activities, the answer is no We would have so start a thread and the people participating in the dicsussions would have to help by copying and pasting into a thread when they are chatting there. We can practice that sometime and post some hints has to how this works best.

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Lee aka Grinz
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars - Oscar Wilde

-33°52'1"S 18°28'58"E

Clive
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Joined: 16 July 2008

Canada
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Posted: 09 September 2008 at 2:03am \| IP Logged

Hi all

How about a small observing program with a couple of objects to
observe each month. One object that everyone can see and a second
object that is only visible from the north/south hemisphere. Then
everyone post their obs report as they go. This should let us, as a
group, see all the objects even if some individuals are under cloud
for an entire month. Maybe select objects from the Caldwell list well
do, as this list encompasses both hemispheres.

Something like this
All see - Object between +40 and -40
South see - Object between -40 and -90
North see - Object between +40 and +90

Clive

CoreyS
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Astro history sleuth

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Posted: 09 September 2008 at 4:56am \| IP Logged

Maybe we could re-start / finish what was started before ? Or some variation thereof as Clive has mentioned ?

http://www.thenewradiant.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=487&a mp;PN=1

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CoreyS
"The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons." Edwin Powell Hubble

Grinz
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Kosmik Kat

Joined: 01 January 2004

South Africa
Posts: 2655
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How did your interest in astronomy start? : In childhood/at school
What about astronomy & a space interests you most?: Everything & anything

Posted: 09 September 2008 at 5:56am \| IP Logged

Yes Corey & Clive, I agree we should revisit that project, dust it off and get it going again...

Good thinking!

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Lee aka Grinz
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars - Oscar Wilde

-33°52'1"S 18°28'58"E

Clive
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Joined: 16 July 2008

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Posted: 10 September 2008 at 2:08am \| IP Logged

I just added two more objects to the list. It looks like a good list for us
to observe in a year.

Would it be possible to put the list into a poll? Then we can check
objects in the poll and then add comments/observing reports below.
And maybe change the goal from and individual observing project and
make it a group project with all observations to be done in 2009.

Clive

Edited by Clive on 10 September 2008 at 2:09am

Stuff
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Our own surfer extraordinaire

Joined: 18 November 2005

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Posted: 10 September 2008 at 4:11pm \| IP Logged

Clive,

Using a poll to keep track of the observations is a brilliant addition to Andy, Don and Corey's original project: not only will it allow someone to keep "score," the project becomes more attractive because each participant's stake in the project becomes that much greater.

Stuff

Edited by Stuff on 10 September 2008 at 4:16pm

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"Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right." Sir Laurens van der Post

Grinz
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Kosmik Kat

Joined: 01 January 2004

South Africa
Posts: 2655
Gender: Female
How did your interest in astronomy start? : In childhood/at school
What about astronomy & a space interests you most?: Everything & anything

Posted: 11 September 2008 at 5:59am \| IP Logged

Hi guys

Our polls cannot have that many options.. 10 is the maximum I think.

So it cannot be a normal poll.

I think the ideal would be for a simple Excel spreadsheet or something that we can post under our resources page.

This site is not self-built and I've added as many extras & modifications as seem sensible/useful - but the software also has limitations and since I simply don't have the time or skills to do additional programming to try and fit in some kind of observation check list. We could try and modify one of the ones available somewhere on the Net: if someone wants to go and look for one of those and then modify it & share it, it would be great.

My tecchie savvy ends at being a sophisticated user of others' software & a bit od html..

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Lee aka Grinz
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars - Oscar Wilde

-33°52'1"S 18°28'58"E

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