Chapter 4 and the Moon

Making a start on Chapter 4. So far it's trying to describe the indescribable (which isn't easy) when it comes to the shape/curvatures of spacetime. Anyway, I'm still one week ahead of schedule.  :)

Last night was the first time I'd had the Moon in a decent position to get the telescope out and have a looksy at it. Tried several different filters, cameras, webcams, phone... you name it. Still couldn't get a decent photo. Best I could get was:

I then settled for drawing the Moon:

I even recorded the entire drawing process, so you can see it being drawn (25mins) at:

Chapter 3 and more Aladin

Chapter 3 was a long one, but they saved the best to last with the Chapter 3 activities being more tinkering in Aladin.

Aladin uses FITS files which contain a lot of information regarding the photo. So, when you load a FITS file into Aladin you can see, using scientific notation (hours, minutes, etc.) where you are in the sky. Aladin also uses layers (like Photoshop) which lets you blend images. You can also create fake colour images.

Taking three layers (each image being photographed with a different type of light capturing camera):

You can apply an RGB to each of the layers to get a fake coloured image:

Having tinkered with it a bit more, Aladin seems kinda low on features, but that might just be ignorance on my part.

To Chapter 4 and beyond!

Chapters 1 and 2, and Aladin

From one of the online OU activities it seems like we'll be using some high-brow scientific software. Aladin to be precise (and, yes, that is how you spell it).

Aladin opens with a completely unintuitive amount of options. Thankfully it has an undergraduate mode which hides most of its complexity. Although, I've still no idea how to fully work the thing. One activity is to load up a FITS image (shown above), zoom in/out of it, tinker with its colours (or lack of) and import an online database of stars and what-not. Techie, and geeky. Thus it has my approval.


MOAR ALADDIN!  :D

It Has Begin: OU S177 - Galaxies, Stars and Planets

Well, when I say 'started' I mean 'hobbled'. <snip>

I'm rewriting this post as, to be fair to OU, the course doesn't officially start until the 12th of May, so I'm being a tad harsh on them,

The course unofficially started on the 08th of May with the rather awful website that I posted about previously. Now, today (09th), they've updated the site to be far more helpful with actual activities using the Aladin (Java based) software and some questions and video files. Hell, there's even a forum for us S177 folks now! Hoorah!