Rainbows and Brilliant Arches

update, addendum

Last week’s astro club meeting was about… as you have guessed, rainbows and arches created by ice crystals. Now, I know it has nothing to do with stars and planets, but hey, the atmosphere is above us, so… Anyways, the bulk of the meeting could be described in the following video:

 

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By the way, about the secondary arc stuff, there is also tertiar, quartenary, etc etc etc. The thing is, each arc decreases in brightness as they reflect and escape inside the raindrop. Also, the third, fourth, seventh, eight, etc are in the sun, and most people don’t look towards the sun when looking for bow. The limit for human eye may be third, who knows, maybe there is a way to see or photograph the third one, but there is none yet. So, I don’t know if there could be a way to see it, though the astro club presenter did suggest an experiment to see it.

Also, if you think that the rainbow actually touch some part of the land or something, you are wrong. So wrong that you don’t even deserve to have a peek at this web site. Seriously, you are really wrong. The rainbow is a product of your mind, an optical illusion, and there is no measurement of its distance. It is only measured in degrees. Therefore, it can be of any “size” (there really is no size, since it is from your mind), but it will always be an angular size between 40 to 42 degrees.

Are You an Astronomer?

Well, this facebook page has a list of things that would make you an astronomer, and they are pretty funny, while at the same time, true. Anyways, I will highlight things which counts for me. (hat tip: universe today)

You know you’re an astronomer when…

Annular Eclipse of Tomorrow

Tomorrow, there will be a solar eclipse, though it will be in the Indian ocean. This time, the moon’s apparent size will be smaller than the sun because the eclipse will happen when the moon is at the farthest point in its orbit. Remember, an orbit is not circular, it is elliptical. Badastronomy has stuff about it. And there is a nice NASA page too. Here is a map for all future eclipses:

Amusing Penis Enlargement Spam and the “Cover Both Sides Fallacy”

Now, what does the penis enlargement spam has anything to do with the “covering both side” fallacy, you say? Well, I got sent a spam in my debunking of “Our Undiscovered Universe” post which said:

I think you are thinking like sukrat, but I think you should cover the other side of the topic in the post too…

Well, it is strange for me. I didn’t think a spammer actually had any other life than spamming. Now, some of you wondering why that is a fallacy? I mean, there are always division in opinion. The problem with that assumption is that when it comes to reality, it is not a matter of opinion. Sorry, but the Earth is a spheroid, and goes around the sun no matter how much you wish it wouldn’t. The same thing is with physics. No matter how much you hate quantum mechanics (Terrence Witt dislike quantum mechanics), it is a very close approximation of how particles behave, so you might as well consider it a fact that particles move in a probabilistic manner.

Though seriously, spammers actually do something other than post spams, and really do have some sort of primitive brain, probably consisting of just the brain stem and the limbic system. I am not joking.

a)Me b)h8 c)teh d)Es.A.Tee. e)no error

Answer? No error, cause the whole thing is true! I hate the SAT! I had my last SAT yesterday, and I am glad I won’t ever see it again. Seriously, it is one of the dumbest test ever. Supposedly, one is supposed to do an essay in 25 minutes, which is probably the most unproductive part of the whole thing. Seriously, an essay in 25 minutes?! That is so dumb I don’t know where to start. Never mind that students have to be taught to revise the essays, never mind they have to think things through in order to not write BS. That is what I probably wrote on the SAT, some BS mixed with lame “coherent thoughts” with no style at all. Secondly, the whole thing drones on for four hours. Now, no matter how much of a supergenius you are,  your concentration takes you only so far. Indeed, even after I have had two doses of chocolate and a bag of chips, I ended up with a headache pounding rithmically to the pulse of my veins. By the tenth section of the SAT, I could not focus well, and probably got a lot of it wrong. So, in my mind, SAT is not hard because of the problems (though some of the problems do have to be thought for a while), the juggling of the speed you do the questions, or which ones you guess or leave blank, but mainly because of the concentration needed to maintain the blazing speed at which you have to solve the problems. The SAT, then, becomes a marathon of concentration.

At least I did better than last time. ^_^ People think you can’t study for this thing, but knowing what to expect, and developing techniques to approach the problems make a whole world of a difference.

Astronomy Picture From Moi

It kind of sucks, but its shows the moon and Venus a few degrees apart. It was taken at the beginning of January. As for why I was late at posting it, well… I couldn’t find the camera, and I didn’t know how to connect it on the computer (I had to choose between a few USB cables and thought I could insert the card itself on the sd card terminal, but it was a different one).

Blah Blah

Cool, I got every single question right in the 150 question psychology mid term. Oh, and guess what, I am writing this at school. ^_^ I am in holticulture, and I basically had to get some pots and transfer some plants. Also, Obama is president, it feels weird, the change of president was just like Whoosh!  Oh, and I am writing this as a filler, I have been busy, and I have an SAT coming up. So, yeah, my lamest post yet.

Another Chandrayaan 1 Pic

Chandrayaan 1 keeps providing is with more cool pictures of the moon, like this one:

Anyways, keep checking Planetary Society’s blog for updates.

Cool Meteor Video (again)

Cool, a meteor fell somewhere in Sweden. Here is the video:

Don’t worry, we are not doomed. ^_^ Most meteors burn up in the atmosphere, and arrive on Earth very cold. Note, the heating is caused by compression of air when the meteor enters at high speed. If it is not large enough, the meteor falls cold, if it is large, well, it burns. Anyways, most disintegrate, and a very few are so large that they cause mass extinctions, which probably happened 65 million years ago, making the dinosaurs go bye bye (so sad 😦 ), which will happen in like a gazillion years later. Cool stuff.

via badastronomy

Choose: People Play Games for…

a) The violencean, or b) the experience and freedom and sense of accomplishment? According to research, the answer is b). There is a video on it:

Video game violence is a concern, and rightfully so because people after all do imitate behaviors based on certain models, and it has been shown that the brain part that has to do with aggression do lit up. Also, blames after certain  violent crimes are placed on games, and the question is whether they can be blamed on games. From what I know, certain crimes did increase when TV became very popular. While they are correlations, an onset of one did follow the onset of another one. So it is a complex thing. Of course, I doubt most people go into a criminal frenzy after playing video games, but it is a good area of research to follow.

To end in a lighter note, someone did a Mario Paint music version of a theme in Mario Galaxy. It is an incredibly accurate version: