Comic: what we send the universe

From Astruse Goose.

DOMA

Knitting circle

I attended a new knitting group last night. Age range was 20--80, projects ranged from first-ever scarf to intricate baby clothes. Discussion topics discussed included: quark-gluon plasmas, whether gauge swatches are necessary, the northern lights, felting techniques, scenic camping sites, pronunciation of Portuguese island names, whether the Azores are too touristy (compared to 1950), the game Oregon Trail, the new Star Trek Movie (the older ladies have seen it, and I haven't!). Oh, and someone asked me whether a galaxy of sufficiently high mass and redshift could ever be discovered that would make theorists cry.

This group's a keeper.

Sonic Booms

My wife and I climbed a tallish building before Atlantis landed Sunday. Didn't see it, but we clearly heard the double sonic booms (a few seconds after NASA TV reported them heard at Edwards.) Exactly what it's supposed to sound like. So, in a small way, we welcomed the Hubble repair astronauts home. As, apparently, did pickuptrucks.com (stumbled across the link from Cars.com.) Everyone does love Hubble.

Also in the news, Prop 8 decision was announced Tuesday. Exactly what we all guessed based on the oral argument: Prop 8 stands, but my wife and I stay married, and laws that discriminate on sexual orientation are still subject to "heightened judicial scrutiny".

Afterward, as always, there was a rally. Small group (where the hell are you, pissed-off straight and gay people?), including many parents with kids (I was given a lovely kid-made sign, which made up for in sincerity what it lacked in legibility). Not sure how much the rally accomplished, but the wife said it was cathartic. We wrote letters to the editor this morning, too, not that people read newspapers anymore.

CA Supreme Court to rule on Prop 8

The California Supreme Court will announce its ruling on the constitutionality of Proposition 8 on Tuesday at 10am PDT.

Thank you, astronauts

A snapshot of Drew Feustel (on the robotic arm) and John Grunsfeld (deep inside Hubble's guts). Thank you, Atlantis astronauts, for splendid work refurbishing Hubble, and for risking your lives to advance science.

Lots of space telescope news!

Lots of space telescope news this week:

The Shuttle launched safely on Monday, captured the Hubble Space Telescope on Tuesday, and now astronauts are repairing Hubble. John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel have already removed WFPC2 and installed WFC3 - YAY! They are currently removing the faulty Data Handling Unit.

You can watch the repairs on NASA TV.



Also, Herschel and Planck launched successfully on Thurdsay morning. Herschel is an infrared/submillimeter space telescope, and Planck is a cosmic microwave background experiment.

Finally, No word yet on whether the Spitzer Space Telescope has run out of cryogenic coolant yet -- an event predicted for this week.. Thank, you Spitzer, for 5 years of wonderful science.

Waiting for two launches

Servicing Mission 4 to repair the Hubble Space Telescope is due to launch Monday, May 11 at 2:01pm. The official estimate of the risk from space debris has been lowered to 1-in-221, but the shuttle will still fly tail-first to better shield the spacewalking astronauts, led by astronaut/astronomer John Grunsfeld.

Also, European space telescopes Herschel and Planck are set to launch on Thursday, 14 May from French Guiana. Planck is a Cosmic Microwave Background explorer (meaning it looks at the leftover light from the Big Bang), and Herschel is a far-infrared general-purpose telescope that looks mainly at baby stars in our galaxy, as well as galaxies that are rapidly forming stars.

Fingers crossed and atheist prayers delivered for two clean launches, good spacewalks, and a safe return for Atlantis.

Observing

There are few things more central to professional astronomy than the observing run. They're hard to describe because they're so contradictory -- exhausting certainly, but also frustrating and exhilarating, exciting and tedious.

Right now I'm making multiple copies of my data, so that if my laptop dies on the way home, or a DVD breaks, I'll still have the data for which I've worked so hard. This is, by far, the most tedious part -- you're tired, you've accomplished what you came for (or not, if the weather was bad), and now you sit while the DVD slowly records. My ritual during this process is to listen to an old "Legends of Motown" CD. I have no idea what "Stop (in the Name of Love)" has to do with astrophysics, but it always makes me feel good after a hard night's work.

Had some long exposures toward morning, so I got to stand on the catwalk and watch the stars. Venus, Saturn, and the sliver moon were rather ridiculously lovely. (I'm far too lazy to see the 5am stars unless I've been up all night, so this is a rare treat.) A few good meteors, too, and all above, the Milky Way. Sometimes life, if not perfect, is good enough.

Prop 8: follow the money

Five months later, the pain of Prop 8 still feels fresh. But I'm a data geek, and the AP compiled a database of Prop 8 donors (in support and in opposition), so here goes a quick look.

First, churches. What donors with "Church" in their names gave? Of the 13 churches that donated the most money, only 1 opposed Prop 8. Only 3 progressive churches were able to cobble together 1K to oppose Prop 8. That's just sad.

But those aren't the biggest donors. Here are the biggest donors for Prop 8, against it, and combined.

Some famous names among the big donors:

• John Hormel (first openly-gay US Ambassador), against
  
• Michael Huffington (ex-husband of Arianna), against
  
• Brad Pitt, against
  
• Ellen and Betty Degeneres, against (this one's so cute)
• Templetons (as in the scary Templeton Foundation), for
  
• Nerds: Sergey Brin, Jerry Yang, Apple, George Lucas, against
  

Interesting omissions: California's US Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, and Governor Schwarzenegger are not listed as having made contributions.

You can search by zip code, employer, or name. Leave those blank to search all, then sort by the column headers. What else is there?