Saturday 8 October 2011

Sterrekundewoordeboek / Dictionary of astronomy


Sterrekundewoordeboek 

Die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns gee vir ons `n aanlyn  Sterrekundewoordeboek / Dictionary of astronomy.

(
Afrikaans – Engels)

Voorbeeld

aangroeistroom (akkresiestroom) : accretion stream
aangroeitempo (akkresietempo) : accretion rate, rate of accretion
aangroeiteorie (akkresieteorie) : accretion theory aanjaagvuurpyl : booster rocket aanraking (kontak) : contact aantrek : attract aantrekking : attraction aantrekkingsfeer (sentrosfeer) : attraction sphere, centrosphere aantrekkingskrag : attractive force
    - Die Engels/Afrikaans-weergawe is later beskikbaar

Ruimtewoordeboek in Afrikaans

`n  Engels/Afrikaans  en Afrikaans/Engels Woordeboek van Ruimteterminologie is in Kaapstad  deur die Internasionale Akademie van Ruimtevaart  (IAA) bekend gestel.
  • Dit is ook aanlyn beskikbaar   (Meer inligting sodra die skakel werk)

Pharos Speller Speltoetser
Nog `n stukkie inligting vir ouens wat met Afrikaanse spelling van woorde sukkel.

Die gewilde Pharos Speller Speltoetser & woordafbreker is pas opgedateer en bygewerk en is nou versoenbaar met Windows 7.
     


A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way





A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way
Edward Emerson Barnard, Yerkes Observatory, Wisconsin


Edward Emerson Barnard's Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way was originally published in two volumes in 1927. Together these volumes contained a wealth of information, including photographic plates of the most interesting portions of the Milky Way, descriptive text, charts, and data. Only 700 copies were printed, making the original edition a collector's item. Reproduced in print for the first time, this edition combines both volumes of Barnard's Atlas. It directly replicates Barnard's text, and contains high resolution images of the original photographic plates and charts, reordered so that they can be seen together. It also includes a biography of Barnard and his work, a Foreword and Addendum by Gerald Orin Dobek describing the importance of the Atlas and additions to this volume, and a pull-out section with a mosaic of all 50 plates combined in a single panorama.

Sunday 2 October 2011

Speed-of-light results under scrutiny at Cern

Enormous underground detectors are needed to catch neutrinos, that are so elusive as to be dubbed "ghost particles"

Source: BBC





A meeting at Cern, the world's largest physics lab, has addressed results that suggest subatomic particles have gone faster than the speed of light.
The team has published its work so other scientists can determine if the approach contains any mistakes.
If it does not, one of the pillars of modern science may come tumbling down.
Antonio Ereditato added "words of caution" to his Cern presentation because of the "potentially great impact on physics" of the result.
The speed of light is widely held to be the Universe's ultimate speed limit, and much of modern physics - as laid out in part by Albert Einstein in his theory of special relativity - depends on the idea that nothing can exceed it.

Thousands of experiments have been undertaken to measure it ever more precisely, and no result has ever spotted a particle breaking the limit.
"We tried to find all possible explanations for this," the report's author Antonio Ereditato of the Opera collaboration told BBC News on Thursday evening.
"We wanted to find a mistake - trivial mistakes, more complicated mistakes, or nasty effects - and we didn't.
"When you don't find anything, then you say 'well, now I'm forced to go out and ask the community to scrutinise this'."
Friday's meeting was designed to begin this process, with hopes that other scientists will find inconsistencies in the measurements and, hopefully, repeat the experiment elsewhere.
"Despite the large [statistical] significance of this measurement that you have seen and the stability of the analysis, since it has a potentially great impact on physics, this motivates the continuation of our studies in order to find still-unknown systematic effects," Dr Ereditato told the meeting.
"We look forward to independent measurement from other experiments."

The Ten Commandments for Amateur Astronomers


 Sourced from October Canopus, Newsletter - ASSA Johannesburg Centre

  • Articles about the Bloemfontein visit in Canopus.

Submitted by Annelie Hoberg; Source: www.physlink.com, Anonymous

1. Thou shalt have no white light before thee, behind thee, or to the side of thee whilst sharing the night sky with thy fellow stargazers.
2. Thou shalt not love thy telescope more than thy spouse or thy children; as much as, maybe, but not more.
3. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's telescope, unless it exceeds in aperture or electronics twice that of thy wildest dreams.
4. Thou shalt not read "Astronomy" or "Sky & Telescope" on company time, for thine employer makes it possible to continue thine astronomical hobby.
5. Thou shalt have at least two telescopes so as to keep thy spouse interested when the same accompanies thee under the night sky or on eclipse expeditions to strange lands where exotic wild animals doth roam freely.
6. Thou shalt not allow either thy sons or thy daughters to get married during the Holy Days of Starfest.
7. Thou shalt not reveal to thy spouse the true cost of thy telescope collection; only the individual components and that shall be done with great infrequency.
8. Thou shalt not buy thy spouse any lenses, filters, dew shields, maps, charts, or any other necessities for Christmas, anniversaries, or birthdays unless thy spouse needs them for their own telescope.
9. Thou shalt not deceive thy spouse into thinking that ye are taking them for a romantic Saturday night drive when indeed thou art heading for a dark sky site.
10. Thou shalt not store thy telescope in thy living room, dining room, or bedroom, lest thou be sleeping with it full time.

Neville Young's book "Astronomy - Yes You Can"




New book - by Neville Young This composite photograph shows Fred Oosthuizen with the Stevick-Paul telescope that he built and mounted inside his observatory on the roof of his house. The photograph is being included in Neville Young's book "Astronomy - Yes You Can" which will reach the bookshops in March next year. Neville is a former chairman of the Pretoria Centre and is still a member of it. 

The book is also being translated into Afrikaans by Bosman Olivier, a committee member of the Pretoria Centre. The book is intended to interest the layman in astronomy particularly and in science generally, but has been received with great interest by the experienced amateur Michael Poll and the professional Barbara Cunow, who are helping Neville to ensure that the content of the book will be accurate.