Queen's Guitarist Gets PhD in Astronomy

Brian May, the guitarist of the British band Queen finally got his doctorate in Astronomy. May was able to successfully defend his 48,000-word dissertation, Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud, at the Imperial College London. He started the doctoral thesis in 1974 but abandoned it due to the band.

Googling the Stars

Google Earth has now the option of showing the night sky. The Google Earth @ Night feature allows users to search for constellations and other heavenly bodies and display them on a sky map.


Via Gizmodo

30 Years of Wow

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the detection of the Wow signal, the strong radio transmission picked up by the Big ear Observatory at the Ohio State University.

The signal - transmitted at 1420 MHz frequency and has lasted for 72 seconds, was strong enough to generate a flurry of speculation that it might have been a first contact with alien intelligent life.

Alas, the source of the signal was never pinpointed again.

Perseids 2007

The Perseids meteor shower should peak today. Expect to see up to 60 meteors per hour zipping from the radiant near the border of Cassiopeia and Perseus.


The initial report by the International Meteor Organization is here.

DIY Mirror Telescope

Here's how to make a telescope using vinyl pipes and commonly available materials.

Instructions in Japanese, via Gizmodo

NASA Doesn't Like the iPhone

NASA decided that the Apple iPhone is not suitable for (business) use by its employees. Instead the space agency will support the Palm Treo 750 and the Blackberry 8800.

...But you can put Smirnoff's on the iPhone's speed-dial too!

via Gizmodo and Information Week

New NASA Patch?

Sums up everything, doesn't it?

It will look nice patching up NASA's tattered reputation.

via Gizmodo