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Nerd Nite, Part II
Apr. 5th, 2010 10:06 pmThe second lecture of Nerd Nite was "A Planetarium for Austin; an Historical Perspective," by Torvald Hessel.
The oldest planetarium that is still working (although it's now called an orrery rather than a planetarium) was built in 1774 in the Netherlands. A wool comber built it in his attic. He wanted to base it off a 24-hour clock, but the pendulum required for such a clock was too long to fit in the attic so he had to cut a slot in the floor. Then the pendulum swung right over the bed, between him and his wife, and his wife nixed the idea. So, he switched to an 18-hour clock, which could use a shorter pendulum.
He built this orrery to prove that the forthcoming alignment of the planets was not, in fact, going to mean the end of the world, because our solar system is actually heliocentric rather than earth-centric. It's a model of the solar system with all the planets rotating the sun with the same periods as they do in real life.
Our speaker explained that once again, the world is predicted to end in the near future (12/21/12), and he tried to debunk the evidence, thus:
* Yes, the Mayan calendar ends. Just like ours does every year.
* The so-called lethal alignment happens every year.
* Niburu, the sister shadow planet set to collide with earth, should surely be detectable by now, but it's not.
* The planets are not actually aligning.
* Although the earth's magnetic field probably will flip, there's a little thing called inertia that will keep the earth spinning.
* Nostradamus said a lot of things.
[Hmm, not particularly convincing. Maybe we should have a party on the Saturday night preceding this date. Just in case.]
The speaker said that Austin is the largest city in the United States (#15) with no planetarium and no science museum. He said in fact all the top fifty cities in the US have planetariums except Austin. Dallas has 13 planetariums. Even Oklahoma City has a good science museum.
He said planetariums are based on a dome shape, which he feels is beautiful and does not need to be disguised, like the one in Midland (Texas) shaped like an oil drum. There's one in Valencia (shaped like a big eye). There's even one on the Queen Mary 2 (cruise ship). So surely Austin could have one.
And we should want one. A study in Houston showed that a planetarium led to a 24% increase in related test scores. Even more importantly, it lead to an 11% increase in the interest in science careers. (A study in England showed a 20% increase in such interest for girls.)
Our speaker grew up in the Netherlands and worked in a planetarium in Amsterdam. When he moved here, he started working to get a planetarium built, though he knew nothing about nonprofits and fund raising. But now he's getting companies to support the idea.
The UT Center for Space Research (old MCC building) has donated office space. There's a proposed design (click on "Austin Planetarium"). There's a proposed location (the little-used parking lot in front of the Bob Bullock Texas History museum). And there's a proposed projector. Right now Goto in Japan and Zeiss in Germany make projectors; these cost about $4 million. A new Japanese company makes $400,000 projectors that are so good that you can use binoculars and even telescopes inside the planetarium to see more. You can guess which one of these is proposed.
If want to help, he recommended the following:
* become a subscriber of The Austin Planetarium Newsletter -- this helps them show interest.
* Become a fan on Facebook.
* Make a donation.
* Ask Torvald to speak at your company or other group.
(I actually sent an e-mail proposing Highland mall instead of the parking lot I actually use when I'm watching IMAX movies at the History museum. And I proposed that in addition to working with the UT College of Education like he mentioned, he also work with the UT College of Natural Sciences which has more money and which actually houses the program to education future science teachers.)
Who knew a planetarium might be in our future? Cool.
Bad News in Chocolate - The Godiva store in Highland Mall is closing on Wednesday, April 7. Prices are now 25% off on everything (40% off on Easter stuff). Indigo Rose says this is the only local Godiva location that serves the icy chocolate drinks. I plan to try to get one last one on Wednesday. The inventory still looked completely full this evening. [Interestingly, their big containers of hot chocolate, which are always $10, everywhere, are suddenly (25% off of) $11.]
The oldest planetarium that is still working (although it's now called an orrery rather than a planetarium) was built in 1774 in the Netherlands. A wool comber built it in his attic. He wanted to base it off a 24-hour clock, but the pendulum required for such a clock was too long to fit in the attic so he had to cut a slot in the floor. Then the pendulum swung right over the bed, between him and his wife, and his wife nixed the idea. So, he switched to an 18-hour clock, which could use a shorter pendulum.
He built this orrery to prove that the forthcoming alignment of the planets was not, in fact, going to mean the end of the world, because our solar system is actually heliocentric rather than earth-centric. It's a model of the solar system with all the planets rotating the sun with the same periods as they do in real life.
Our speaker explained that once again, the world is predicted to end in the near future (12/21/12), and he tried to debunk the evidence, thus:
* Yes, the Mayan calendar ends. Just like ours does every year.
* The so-called lethal alignment happens every year.
* Niburu, the sister shadow planet set to collide with earth, should surely be detectable by now, but it's not.
* The planets are not actually aligning.
* Although the earth's magnetic field probably will flip, there's a little thing called inertia that will keep the earth spinning.
* Nostradamus said a lot of things.
[Hmm, not particularly convincing. Maybe we should have a party on the Saturday night preceding this date. Just in case.]
The speaker said that Austin is the largest city in the United States (#15) with no planetarium and no science museum. He said in fact all the top fifty cities in the US have planetariums except Austin. Dallas has 13 planetariums. Even Oklahoma City has a good science museum.
He said planetariums are based on a dome shape, which he feels is beautiful and does not need to be disguised, like the one in Midland (Texas) shaped like an oil drum. There's one in Valencia (shaped like a big eye). There's even one on the Queen Mary 2 (cruise ship). So surely Austin could have one.
And we should want one. A study in Houston showed that a planetarium led to a 24% increase in related test scores. Even more importantly, it lead to an 11% increase in the interest in science careers. (A study in England showed a 20% increase in such interest for girls.)
Our speaker grew up in the Netherlands and worked in a planetarium in Amsterdam. When he moved here, he started working to get a planetarium built, though he knew nothing about nonprofits and fund raising. But now he's getting companies to support the idea.
The UT Center for Space Research (old MCC building) has donated office space. There's a proposed design (click on "Austin Planetarium"). There's a proposed location (the little-used parking lot in front of the Bob Bullock Texas History museum). And there's a proposed projector. Right now Goto in Japan and Zeiss in Germany make projectors; these cost about $4 million. A new Japanese company makes $400,000 projectors that are so good that you can use binoculars and even telescopes inside the planetarium to see more. You can guess which one of these is proposed.
If want to help, he recommended the following:
* become a subscriber of The Austin Planetarium Newsletter -- this helps them show interest.
* Become a fan on Facebook.
* Make a donation.
* Ask Torvald to speak at your company or other group.
(I actually sent an e-mail proposing Highland mall instead of the parking lot I actually use when I'm watching IMAX movies at the History museum. And I proposed that in addition to working with the UT College of Education like he mentioned, he also work with the UT College of Natural Sciences which has more money and which actually houses the program to education future science teachers.)
Who knew a planetarium might be in our future? Cool.
Bad News in Chocolate - The Godiva store in Highland Mall is closing on Wednesday, April 7. Prices are now 25% off on everything (40% off on Easter stuff). Indigo Rose says this is the only local Godiva location that serves the icy chocolate drinks. I plan to try to get one last one on Wednesday. The inventory still looked completely full this evening. [Interestingly, their big containers of hot chocolate, which are always $10, everywhere, are suddenly (25% off of) $11.]