Science!
Wow. Haven't posted in a while. It's 2:45 AM and I'm at the telescope, having a good science night. I'm looking at distant comets (beyond 2 AU from the sun). I pulled up a sky chart of where my latest comet is supposed to be (the comet will be the object that ISN'T on the chart, because it moves), and I saw a pair of gravitationally-interacting galaxies in the sky field! They have already been catalogued, so it's nothing new, but they are so cute! Bonus score! I even moved my coordinates a smidge on my first image to make sure they would fall on the CCD chip, and it worked! Fun!
I have also been in e-mail correspondence with a Canadian geologist about something I noticed while perusing Google Earth last week Wednesday. I did some digging, looking at other geology databases and the existing scientific literature (where I found his name), and stuck my neck out to let this guy know what I found. He e-mailed me back this afternoon to say he hadn't been aware of what I told him, and combined with his other work on the subject it may be publishable in a scientific journal. He even mentioned perhaps submitting to Science or Nature, two of THE biggest multi-disciplinary journals in Western circles. Gulp! I worked some more on that idea while running long CCD exposures tonight, and e-mailed him back with some maps I made.
Whew! Busy night. Only have to stay awake for 3.5 more hours...
I have also been in e-mail correspondence with a Canadian geologist about something I noticed while perusing Google Earth last week Wednesday. I did some digging, looking at other geology databases and the existing scientific literature (where I found his name), and stuck my neck out to let this guy know what I found. He e-mailed me back this afternoon to say he hadn't been aware of what I told him, and combined with his other work on the subject it may be publishable in a scientific journal. He even mentioned perhaps submitting to Science or Nature, two of THE biggest multi-disciplinary journals in Western circles. Gulp! I worked some more on that idea while running long CCD exposures tonight, and e-mailed him back with some maps I made.
Whew! Busy night. Only have to stay awake for 3.5 more hours...