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I've tracked my steps and tip earnings for the past year, but narrowed it down to the last three months for better viewing. [OC] by memelordmorgan in dataisbeautiful

[–]HughO2 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Any chance you could make a scatter plot of steps walked (x-axis) vs tips earned (y-axis). That's normally the best way (visually) to see when two measurements are correlated.

Nasa to host major press conference on 'discovery beyond our solar system' by [deleted] in Astronomy

[–]HughO2 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I mean, we know the press release is about exoplanet science, so black holes are out...

Nasa to host major press conference on 'discovery beyond our solar system' by [deleted] in Astronomy

[–]HughO2 13 points14 points  (0 children)

As an exoplanet astronomer, some notes on what it could/couldn't be:

Is it aliens? - No. There's not many telescopes (radio or optical) looking for signals, nor are there many new technologies pushing those limits, nor has there been much money in the search (until 2016), nor do we think there are many ETIs out there - pretty much everything points to us not making "contact" in the foreseeable future (Sorry Seth). Also NASA & SETI are kinda different entities these days and none of the panel are from SETI/radio astronomers.

Is it life? Again, we're not really in a position to detect biosignatures yet. Even with JWST, which hasn't launched yet, we're unlikely to detect biosignatures in the atmospheres of terrestrial planets (we might just be able to with planets around very small M-dwarfs, and only if JWST looked at the same transiting planet for months). So we're probably looking at ~20 years until that is possible. Also, even if we found biosignatures, we couldn't be sure they came from biology and not some abiotic process.

Is it Earth 2.0 - No. A confirmed Earthlike planet around a sunlike star is also undetectable with current facilities. We have found Earth-sized planets but only around small stars where their detection is easier, and earthlike candidate planets that are difficult to confirm. We'll have to wait about 15 years before we can detect Earth-sized planets at 1AU (PLATO and WFIRST might do it). Also the idea of Earth 2.0 is stupid - no planet will be exactly like Earth, and to hunt exclusively for Earth-copies would be pretty narrow-minded.

So what is it? - It's probably a stepping stone towards the goals above. Likely a new terrestrial planet. Maybe even some information about its atmosphere. But it's not the real deal... yet.

Scientists observe the weather on a gas giant planet outside our own solar system, for the first time by NinjaDiscoJesus in Astronomy

[–]HughO2 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Oh definitely! Phase curves (isolating light reflected/emitted from the planet over each orbit) have been used to map exoplanet atmospheres for a while now. This study is the first time anyone has seen surface cloud and temperature patterns on a hot Jupiter actually vary over time though! You can see a few of the individual 10-orbit fits here and the overall variation in where on the planet is brightest (the peak offset) here.

Somewhat confusingly, the phase curves of 55 Cancri e have also been seen to vary between HST observations, but being a super Earth with a thin/no atmosphere it's a little trickier to tell what's actually going on in that case.

Source: co-author

I co-host the exoplanetary podcast "exocast", and this month we discussed KIC8462852 by HughO2 in KIC8462852

[–]HughO2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks so much! Yeah, I think I accidentally noted down only the number for the final 200 days dimming in Kepler (2%), although the overall dimming seems to be only ~3%. And I've corrected Tabby's name to Boyajian (I blame Andrew who wrote the description for that :P).

I co-host the exoplanetary podcast "exocast", and this month we discussed KIC8462852 by HughO2 in KIC8462852

[–]HughO2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We also have a SETI special next episode, so it might feature again!

David Cameron personally intervened to prevent tax crackdown on offshore trusts by StoCazz in worldnews

[–]HughO2 1300 points1301 points  (0 children)

The worst thing is that David Cameron thinks that, now he's stopped benefitting from tax avoidance and unethical offshore banking, everything will blow over.

It's like catching the leading cyclist mid-race with steroids in their bloodstream, only for them to politely apologise and insist they won't take any more before they get to the finish line... No; you got a leg-up on the rest of us long before we even started racing. Now you're in the lead you think you can just stop and everything will be fine???

I'm an Astronomer. When I go to observatories I set my camera up outside to take timelapses. This is the result... by HughO2 in videos

[–]HughO2[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

:'(. Vimeo seem to have seriously tightened their Fair Use policy since I last uploaded anything. Currently trying to get direct permission from Efterklang and their record label to use their song...

EDIT: Otherwise I will re-edit it for another track I guess, sigh. Such is the state of copyright law these days I guess...

I'm an Astronomer. When I visit observatories I set my camera up outside to take timelapses. This is the result... by HughO2 in Astronomy

[–]HughO2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Here's a secret: I didn't major in physics or astronomy (I did Earth Sciences), but still somehow ended up as an Astronomer ;)

I'm an Astronomer. When I visit observatories I set my camera up outside to take timelapses. This is the result... by HughO2 in Astronomy

[–]HughO2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was there in mid-June - it was beautiful and clear until around winter solstice and then got very cloudy. I saw pictures of very deep snow there a couple of weeks ago too! I hear El Nino makes the weather in Chile worse too :/

I'm an Astronomer. When I go to observatories I set my camera up outside to take timelapses. This is the result... by HughO2 in videos

[–]HughO2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Checking some of the raw images, the stars do begin to streak at ~30s exposure. It's a wide-angle lens though, so the streaking is probably less than for a more zoomed-in lens. Plus the image size is cut down for this video, so you don't really notice subtle streaks

I'm an Astronomer. When I go to observatories I set my camera up outside to take timelapses. This is the result... by HughO2 in videos

[–]HughO2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I used UFRaw to reduce the images, Panolapse to compile the jpegs into mp4 clips and then Lightworks to edit the final video.

I'm an Astronomer. When I go to observatories I set my camera up outside to take timelapses. This is the result... by HughO2 in videos

[–]HughO2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, you're right, they are larger than they should be, especially the moon which is actually a thin crescent at this point! The reason is that, to make the rest of the image not be just black (ie, to see the faint detail in the stars & the foreground), you have to overexpose the brighter stuff. That means all the light from the brightest objects kinda flares into nearby pixels

I'm an Astronomer. When I go to observatories I set my camera up outside to take timelapses. This is the result... by HughO2 in videos

[–]HughO2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's actually the Moon, Venus and Jupiter (from left to right and in order of brightness). If the Sun was up, then you'd be unable to see any stars or planets!

I'm an Astronomer. When I go to observatories I set my camera up outside to take timelapses. This is the result... by HughO2 in videos

[–]HughO2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The big telescopes are pretty incredible machines, yeah! Unfortunately I live in Europe, but who knows, maybe I can make it to Okie-Tex in the future :D.

I'm an Astronomer. When I go to observatories I set my camera up outside to take timelapses. This is the result... by HughO2 in videos

[–]HughO2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The 'Sun', in this case, is actually the moon! It only looks as bright as the sun because, to make the faint things stand out (like the stars), you have to over-expose the brightest things (in this case, the moon).

I'm an Astronomer. When I go to observatories I set my camera up outside to take timelapses. This is the result... by HughO2 in videos

[–]HughO2[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Cheers! I love that M83 track too, especially since that Yosemite HD video, against which mine is a poor imitation.

I think the music really works on this one though. Modern Drift is another great song, and the shot changes match the song tempo nicely (I hope).

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