NASA's Dr. Justin Wilkinson narrates this video which shows gorgeous views of various places on earth, captured digitally by the astronauts while floating in orbit.
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Monday, June 6, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
timelapse: australia telescope compact array
the australian telescope compact array in northern NSW, australia, is a collection of six 22-meter antennas used for radio astronomy. i'm currently working on a proposal for a project that would allow me to use them in about 6 months - if the "time allocation committee" decides my idea is good compared to all the other proposals that get submitted.
this timelapse video of the facility is lovely, but i'm drawn to the shots of birds and wildlife for some reason :)
this timelapse video of the facility is lovely, but i'm drawn to the shots of birds and wildlife for some reason :)
Sunday, May 29, 2011
pendulum waves
this video of a series of swinging pendulums of different lengths is a lot cooler than i thought it would be! the time it takes for a pendulum to go through one swing back and forth (its "period") gets longer as the string length grows. longer string = longer period.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
supernova sonata
in honor of my birthday (i'd like to think ;) today's astronomy picture of the day is a musically based supernova sonata, created by alex parker, a PhD candidate at the university of victoria in british columbia.
to create the sonata, the team utilized the fact that the canada france hawaii telescope (CFHT) watched 4 different regions of sky from 2003 to 2006 looking for exploding white dwarf stars, more commonly known as supernovae!
each supernova explosion is marked on the images in the video and sounds are assigned based on physical properties of each supernova: louder notes are for closer explosions, pitch is determined by how the particular explosion brightens and fades, and the instrument is chosen based on the mass of the galaxy in which the exploding star lives. notes for massive galaxies are played on a double bass (standup bass, upright bass, contrabass, whatever you want to call it...), while notes of less massive galaxies are played on a grand piano.
you can read more at the vimeo link below the video!
to create the sonata, the team utilized the fact that the canada france hawaii telescope (CFHT) watched 4 different regions of sky from 2003 to 2006 looking for exploding white dwarf stars, more commonly known as supernovae!
each supernova explosion is marked on the images in the video and sounds are assigned based on physical properties of each supernova: louder notes are for closer explosions, pitch is determined by how the particular explosion brightens and fades, and the instrument is chosen based on the mass of the galaxy in which the exploding star lives. notes for massive galaxies are played on a double bass (standup bass, upright bass, contrabass, whatever you want to call it...), while notes of less massive galaxies are played on a grand piano.
you can read more at the vimeo link below the video!
Supernova Sonata from Alex Parker on Vimeo.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
flute duet in space
while floating 220 miles above the earth in the international space station, NASA astronaut cady coleman played a flute duet with jethro tull's ian anderson!
according to NASA's site "Coleman and Anderson's performance saluted 50 years of human spaceflight and the anniversary of the first launch of a human to space. Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completed that milestone on April 12, 1961.
a little bit goofy, a whole lotta great!
according to NASA's site "Coleman and Anderson's performance saluted 50 years of human spaceflight and the anniversary of the first launch of a human to space. Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completed that milestone on April 12, 1961.
a little bit goofy, a whole lotta great!
Monday, May 23, 2011
confessions of a tetris addict
its amazing what stories people you know have that you might never hear. i saw james clewett around the physics building in nottingham many times, but never would i have suspected that he was the 1999 tetris world champion!?! brady captures the interesting story and james' personality very well in this short (18 min) film:
Saturday, May 21, 2011
the asteroids galaxy tour
apparently many people know of this song by the asteroids galaxy tour from a TV commercial, but i just heard/saw it for the first time and think its amazing!!
Friday, May 20, 2011
no one likes consequences...
the rapture is timezone dependent, apparently, so pay attention ;)
(seriously, there is nothing to worry about.... relax people...)
(seriously, there is nothing to worry about.... relax people...)
Thursday, May 19, 2011
El Cielo de Canarias
another beautiful timelapse video from spain's canary islands.
the double rainbow around time stamp 1:11 is incredible!
the double rainbow around time stamp 1:11 is incredible!
El Cielo de Canarias / Canary sky - Tenerife from Daniel López on Vimeo.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
where did the women go?
i helped organize a Women in Astronomy Workshop for the astronomical society of australia that took place in sydney this past friday the 13th of may. a major goal of the workshop was to raise awareness of general issues that face women, who ultimately drop out of the field in huge numbers within a few years of getting a PhD, and work towards finding solutions that can be applied by institutions and individuals to retain women in the profession and help them succeed.
so what is the problem exactly? the good news is that half the students attaining undergraduate science degrees from universities are women. not everyone is interested in attaining a degree beyond a bachelors degree, and that is absolutely reasonable, but of those that choose to pursue a PhD, roughly 40% are women (in australia anyway, the percentage worldwide is probably between 30% and 40% for astronomy). but within a few years of getting a PhD the percentage of participating women starts dropping dramatically, such that less than 8% of science professors are women and less than 4% of the top level positions at science institutions, universities, and observatories are appointed to women. from a management standpoint, it is an incredibly poor business practice to invest in the training of so many women only to lose all their knowledge, expertise, and training within a few short years.
keep in mind that this isnt a problem unique to astronomy or even academia: in the corporate sector, women hold something like 15% of the highest positions and board seats, and of all the people in parliament in the world, only 13% are women (source: see video below). it is not possible just simply to say - women have babies and then decide to drop out of their profession. this is true for some, partially because there is not yet adequate support and flexibility to help parents get back into the swing of things after such a career break, but overall the reasons are much more complex and not discussed openly enough, in my opinion.
one point made at the workshop that i had not fully appreciated before is that women tend not to say things in meetings (big or small) unless they are almost certain that what they are about to say is absolutely "correct." it is more common for men to throw out speculative ideas without regard to whether someone might show they are wrong, or without considering whether their statement might hold up an otherwise very tight meeting agenda.
one of the many reasons for this might be something called "the imposter syndrome," which affects most people to some degree, but much more often women, and potentially to a career-debilitating degree. the imposter syndrome describes the fear or worry that eventually someone will figure you out and realize you're not actually as smart and capable as they think you are! this can prevent you from negotiating contracts, asking for promotions, or applying for grants or positions that you think you probably wont get. of course women and men are equally capable, but the trouble is, you can never get something you don't apply/ask for, and the numbers show that men more often ask for promotions and apply for grants than women.
i recognize that it is my responsibility to speak up at meetings and make a vocal contribution of substance in order to be noticed, heard, acknowledged and appreciated, but i have to admit that it's almost always a challenge. when i attend a meeting or listen to a talk and a question or comment pops into my mind, inevitably my heart pounds loudly and i feel myself shaking a little from nerves over the prospect of speaking out to the group. you'd think after attaining a PhD, thinking about this astronomy stuff for so many years, and genuinely believing that i have ideas to offer the discussion, i would have gotten over these feelings, right? wrong. i still have to force myself to be brave and make the statement, to let my face turn beet red and risk sounding unknowledgeable or stupid.
i know i'm not the only one with these feelings and fears and the only way to help get over them is to be aware of them, admit them, talk about them, and have courage (i hope!)! that is part of what the workshop was about. almost 70 people showed up last friday, including several heads of university astronomy groups and the directors of observatories. considering there are only about 400 professional astronomers in australia, i thought the turn out was a great success! there were many female PhD students present, but the audience was noticeably lacking young male PhD students.
unfortunately, i think the tendency for most people is to think "well, i'm not sexist (or racist, etc...) and i don't understand how anyone could openly express such discrimination, so i don't have anything to gain by attending such a workshop."
it's not enough just to believe that you do not practice these behaviours and then ignore the issues entirely, because
we all have "unconscious biases" and many of your colleagues are systematically suffering because of them. we need to be aware of these biases in order to change the current state of career progression and not lose female talent from continuing along the academic (or corporate or political) pipeline.
instead of going on about more potential problems that lead to the decreased number of women at the highest levels, i will refer you to the video below for some other issues, and move on to sharing some practical suggestions that came out of the workshop that can be implemented by institutions and individuals.
action points for institutions:
action points for individuals:
please share any other ideas in the comments and i'll update this list if possible. for further reading, the american astronomical society provides a nice page of resources for all.
i'll leave you with yet another excellent TED talk by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on "Why we have too few women leaders." she articulates some of the above, but also brings up several other very interesting points, including why it's true that "success and likability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women."
so what is the problem exactly? the good news is that half the students attaining undergraduate science degrees from universities are women. not everyone is interested in attaining a degree beyond a bachelors degree, and that is absolutely reasonable, but of those that choose to pursue a PhD, roughly 40% are women (in australia anyway, the percentage worldwide is probably between 30% and 40% for astronomy). but within a few years of getting a PhD the percentage of participating women starts dropping dramatically, such that less than 8% of science professors are women and less than 4% of the top level positions at science institutions, universities, and observatories are appointed to women. from a management standpoint, it is an incredibly poor business practice to invest in the training of so many women only to lose all their knowledge, expertise, and training within a few short years.
keep in mind that this isnt a problem unique to astronomy or even academia: in the corporate sector, women hold something like 15% of the highest positions and board seats, and of all the people in parliament in the world, only 13% are women (source: see video below). it is not possible just simply to say - women have babies and then decide to drop out of their profession. this is true for some, partially because there is not yet adequate support and flexibility to help parents get back into the swing of things after such a career break, but overall the reasons are much more complex and not discussed openly enough, in my opinion.
one point made at the workshop that i had not fully appreciated before is that women tend not to say things in meetings (big or small) unless they are almost certain that what they are about to say is absolutely "correct." it is more common for men to throw out speculative ideas without regard to whether someone might show they are wrong, or without considering whether their statement might hold up an otherwise very tight meeting agenda.
one of the many reasons for this might be something called "the imposter syndrome," which affects most people to some degree, but much more often women, and potentially to a career-debilitating degree. the imposter syndrome describes the fear or worry that eventually someone will figure you out and realize you're not actually as smart and capable as they think you are! this can prevent you from negotiating contracts, asking for promotions, or applying for grants or positions that you think you probably wont get. of course women and men are equally capable, but the trouble is, you can never get something you don't apply/ask for, and the numbers show that men more often ask for promotions and apply for grants than women.
i recognize that it is my responsibility to speak up at meetings and make a vocal contribution of substance in order to be noticed, heard, acknowledged and appreciated, but i have to admit that it's almost always a challenge. when i attend a meeting or listen to a talk and a question or comment pops into my mind, inevitably my heart pounds loudly and i feel myself shaking a little from nerves over the prospect of speaking out to the group. you'd think after attaining a PhD, thinking about this astronomy stuff for so many years, and genuinely believing that i have ideas to offer the discussion, i would have gotten over these feelings, right? wrong. i still have to force myself to be brave and make the statement, to let my face turn beet red and risk sounding unknowledgeable or stupid.
i know i'm not the only one with these feelings and fears and the only way to help get over them is to be aware of them, admit them, talk about them, and have courage (i hope!)! that is part of what the workshop was about. almost 70 people showed up last friday, including several heads of university astronomy groups and the directors of observatories. considering there are only about 400 professional astronomers in australia, i thought the turn out was a great success! there were many female PhD students present, but the audience was noticeably lacking young male PhD students.
 |
| photo credit: bryan gaensler |
unfortunately, i think the tendency for most people is to think "well, i'm not sexist (or racist, etc...) and i don't understand how anyone could openly express such discrimination, so i don't have anything to gain by attending such a workshop."
it's not enough just to believe that you do not practice these behaviours and then ignore the issues entirely, because
we all have "unconscious biases" and many of your colleagues are systematically suffering because of them. we need to be aware of these biases in order to change the current state of career progression and not lose female talent from continuing along the academic (or corporate or political) pipeline.
instead of going on about more potential problems that lead to the decreased number of women at the highest levels, i will refer you to the video below for some other issues, and move on to sharing some practical suggestions that came out of the workshop that can be implemented by institutions and individuals.
action points for institutions:
- appoint diverse committee members to select speakers for conferences and recipients of awards and jobs. our unconscious natural tendency is to want to work with people who are like ourselves. this is mostly ok, or at least understandable, but ever notice, for example, how invited speakers at conferences are almost always men despite the fact that attendees are much more gender balanced? of course there are fewer women who have reached the career stage to give invited talks, but we have to start recognizing and encouraging and exposing the women that are in the field. diversifying selection committees is one way of taking action towards this goal.
- supply childcare at professional meetings, especially national meetings, so that parents can also benefit from the community and the networking possibilities for themselves and their students. and since we all know that a lot of ideas and new collaborations happen at the pub and over dinner, offer a few evenings of childcare as well so parents can spend some time with contacts outside of the rigorous daily conference sessions.
- offer more flexible working arrangements and small grants to encourage mothers and fathers to return to work while dealing with all the unpredictable time frames of children. examples: if you are advertising a position and it is possible to hire someone at part time, mention that in the ad! monash university offers a populate and publish maternity leave grant (what a name!?!). offer an option to take unpaid holidays for school breaks, provide onsite childcare, support a child friendly work environment (and tell employees!).
- encourage employees at all levels to participate in organized mentoring programs. if there is no program in place, develop one. dont make the mistake of assuming that "hard work and merit" are the only factors necessary for advancement for every individual. people also need encouragement and mentoring.
- in applications, ask for selected 5 years of publications, instead of just previous 5 years, to account for career breaks.
- institute a double blind academic journal refereeing system. (can someone explain to me why this isnt already in place? that's not the only problem with the academic journal racket though.)
- have open discussions about these issues inside your working groups!! encourage the acknowledgement of unconscious bias.
action points for individuals:
- speak up at meetings (be brave), network broadly, find mentors, set goals, know when to say no, apply for things!! do not let people assume that just because you do a task once that you will always be responsible for it, especially if it isnt gaining you any prestige or career benefit! dont fear that because you say no you wont be "liked." the point is not to be liked, but to be respected.
- goals should be specific, measurable, attractive to you, realistic, and time-framed (short- and long-term).
- find mentors! seek senior members who can be active mentors (both men and women), or widespread university programs, and do this at every stage in your career! recognize who in your department or institution is useful, successful, powerful, and/or influential and get to know them! seek their advice and mentorship.
- pay attention to words used when writing recommendation letters. (as a test, search through the adjectives you have written in a letter for a man and a letter for a woman. it was a telling exercise in unconscious bias for one speaker at the workshop)
- use appropriate titles (Dr, Prof, etc...) consistently for all colleagues regardless of gender.
- surround yourself with happy (not miserable) people in your working environment.
- make sure your romantic partner is a real partner in every sense of the word.
- be self aware of personal biases
please share any other ideas in the comments and i'll update this list if possible. for further reading, the american astronomical society provides a nice page of resources for all.
i'll leave you with yet another excellent TED talk by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on "Why we have too few women leaders." she articulates some of the above, but also brings up several other very interesting points, including why it's true that "success and likability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women."
UPDATE: if you're interested in this post, i recommend reading through the discussion happening inside the comments. i also encourage everyone to participate!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
timelapse
the moon set is my favorite scene in this one. interesting editing with the wind turbine shots too! the music is violin concerto: III by philip glass.
Leica Summilux-C w/ Tom Lowe from Band Pro Film & Digital on Vimeo.
Friday, April 15, 2011
timelapse: the mountain
these timelapse films of various everyday natural phenomena... sunsets, clouds passing, the milky way crawling across the sky... make me sit back, relax, and smile in awe. enjoy. (full screen view recommended)
these scenes were all filmed in El Teide in spain. it's worth a click to read Terje Sorgjerd's full account of his adventure filming these amazing scenes.
hat tip to tom at timescapes.
The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.
these scenes were all filmed in El Teide in spain. it's worth a click to read Terje Sorgjerd's full account of his adventure filming these amazing scenes.
hat tip to tom at timescapes.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
storm, by tim minchin
i'm impressed by the story told by tim minchin's in this beat poem and also the art of STORM the movie.
enjoy!
enjoy!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
more from dotAstronomy3
here is an exciting summary of some of the scenes of dotAstronomy3 this week:
and a short video explaining why we managed to wipe out the WiFi network. also, ABBA!
.astronomy3 Trailer from Markus Poessel on Vimeo.
and a short video explaining why we managed to wipe out the WiFi network. also, ABBA!
pluto, the previous planet: a song
a couple years ago i was walking to the bus stop with the song "rudolph the red nosed reindeer" stuck in my head, much to my frustration! in order to maintain my sanity, i started singing alternative lyrics based on the phrase that popped into my head: pluto the previous planet! i've been wanting to record this song and post it for the public ever since, but had never really been inspired.
so yesterday during the hack day portion of dotAstronomy meeting, i gathered a few fellow conference participants: astronomers, a great pianist, and an enthusiastic director.... and off we went!
so without futher ado... pluto, the previous planet!!
as much as i like the song as it is, the last verse might lead one to believe that i would like to reinstate pluto as a planet. i want to state for the record that this is NOT the case! i'm pleased that astronomers have decided on a definition of a planet that is based on some actual physics! the song is just fun and i hope people enjoy it.
with all this in mind, we also developed an accompanying website with a special message from pluto:
"First of all, thank you everyone for your concern, but really, I’m happy in my new role as the original dwarf planet! And there’s no need to worry, nothing physically happened to me to cause my reclassification. In fact, Charon’s been jealous for years that I was considered a planet, while we’ve been dancing around each other in our joint orbit around the sun. And don’t forget about our other two small satellites: Nix and Hydra! They may be small, but they’re important to me. And your Earth only has one Moon, so I feel special..."
here's the website: http://youpiter.org/pluto/
hope you enjoy!
so yesterday during the hack day portion of dotAstronomy meeting, i gathered a few fellow conference participants: astronomers, a great pianist, and an enthusiastic director.... and off we went!
so without futher ado... pluto, the previous planet!!
Pluto, the previous planet from carolune on Vimeo.
as much as i like the song as it is, the last verse might lead one to believe that i would like to reinstate pluto as a planet. i want to state for the record that this is NOT the case! i'm pleased that astronomers have decided on a definition of a planet that is based on some actual physics! the song is just fun and i hope people enjoy it.
with all this in mind, we also developed an accompanying website with a special message from pluto:
"First of all, thank you everyone for your concern, but really, I’m happy in my new role as the original dwarf planet! And there’s no need to worry, nothing physically happened to me to cause my reclassification. In fact, Charon’s been jealous for years that I was considered a planet, while we’ve been dancing around each other in our joint orbit around the sun. And don’t forget about our other two small satellites: Nix and Hydra! They may be small, but they’re important to me. And your Earth only has one Moon, so I feel special..."
here's the website: http://youpiter.org/pluto/
hope you enjoy!
Friday, March 25, 2011
KMOS on the very large telescope
the very large telescope array (VLT) is a fascinating and beautiful set of four 8-meter diameter telescopes in the high plains of northern chile. the telescopes can be used together to create one large interferometer, or they can each be used individually with the unique instruments that have been crafted specially for each one.
A new instrument that will be attached to one of the VLT telescopes in the not-too-distant future (next year?) is the K-band (near-infrared) multi-object spectrograph, or more simply, KMOS.
as part of his backstage science series, brady was lucky enough to get a tour of the instrument as it is currently being constructed in scotland. we are lucky enough that he made a video of his experience that we can all watch!
KMOS is an instrument i'm excited to (hopefully) use one day and this video gives a good idea of how technically challenging these upgrades are (remember, the telescope is already built, this is just how the light is processed after it bounces off the main big mirrors!), and it gives some insight to purpose of the robot on the UK schmidt telescope that i showed photos of a few weeks ago.
enjoy!
A new instrument that will be attached to one of the VLT telescopes in the not-too-distant future (next year?) is the K-band (near-infrared) multi-object spectrograph, or more simply, KMOS.
as part of his backstage science series, brady was lucky enough to get a tour of the instrument as it is currently being constructed in scotland. we are lucky enough that he made a video of his experience that we can all watch!
KMOS is an instrument i'm excited to (hopefully) use one day and this video gives a good idea of how technically challenging these upgrades are (remember, the telescope is already built, this is just how the light is processed after it bounces off the main big mirrors!), and it gives some insight to purpose of the robot on the UK schmidt telescope that i showed photos of a few weeks ago.
enjoy!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
the aurora
an aurora is a colorful dance created by energetic particles from the sun interacting with a planet's magnetic field.
i. must. see. earth's. aurora. in. person. one. day!!!
this is just beautiful...
i. must. see. earth's. aurora. in. person. one. day!!!
this is just beautiful...
The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.
Friday, March 18, 2011
messenger's orbit around mercury
in honor of the MESSENGER space craft successfully maneuvering into orbit around mercury this week, i thought i'd share a blast from the past from sixty symbols. if i remember right, this one one of first videos i recorded with brady :)
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