I bought these from the village donkey derby thing.

Great series of articles if, like me, you grew up as an Apollo-child.

From Universe Today:

It’s the handy man’s secret weapon, and has become a must-have item for astronauts, too. While duct tape alone didn’t save the Apollo 13 crew, it certainly would have been difficult for them to have survived without it. Even though the accident which crippled the ship took out the two main oxygen tanks in the Service Module, having enough oxygen really wasn’t an issue for the crew. A big problem was having too much carbon dioxide (CO2), which came from the astronauts’ own exhalations. The Lunar Module had lithium hydroxide canisters to remove the CO2 for two men for two days, but on board were three men trying to survive in this LM lifeboat for four days. However, with a little ingenuity and duct tape, the Apollo Mission Operations Team was able to fit “a square peg in a round hole.”

Read the full piece here.

Apart from anything, this is a gorgeous snap. Despite the crisis, they adopted the useful mantra of ‘if in doubt, take a picture’.

This is the research ‘paper’ I wrote as the final assignment for my Manchester University course: Life in the Universe and SETI.

The assignment brief was that it had to be about 1500 words and be aimed at a broadsheet newspaper / popular science journal type of audience, and be about anything to do with SETI (there was more to it than that, but you get the gist).

ASTR10200 – Assignment 5 – Research Article

Bought these today in a charity shop. Lovely covers.

From the Black Hole book (1973), some chapter first sentences…

Ch. 3 (The Optimists): “Most of us are pessimists in life”.
Ch. 4 (The Black Hole Appears): “None of us wants to die, but death is with us whether we like it or not; sadly we have not yet discovered how to avoid it”.
Ch. 6 (Taming Black Holes): “Black holes are dangerous”.
Ch. 9 (In the Beginning): “The black hole presents an impenetrable mystery to us, if we stay safely outside it”.
Ch. 11 (The Immortals): “We are not alone in the universe”.

Going to be quite a read.

I love this stuff.

I’ve now been offered places on all three astronomy / cosmology courses that I’ve applied for.  That’s what the “60 points” is all about… That’s 60 points towards a degree, should I decided to do that… for which you need 360.

Life the Universe & SETI I’ve already mentioned…  Not I have a place on Exploring The Radio Universe, and on Introduction to Astronomy.  This latter one is the only compulsory one in the degree course, so I’m getting it done now, just in case.  Oh and for the fact that it’s an introduction – better do it at the start.

On a related note, I’ve now categorized 172 galaxies. In so doing, I’ve seen (that is categorized) merging galaxies which I thought was particularly exciting (on my first day so to speak). So exciting, I’ve copied the image below.

It is quite obviously now my galaxy and it’s known as SDSS J130336.87+650026.4

Well, fantastically, I am shaking off the shackles of my earlier ‘self’ (just a bit more change / moving on really) and embarking on what is perhaps where I should have been.  OK, not shaking off any shackles, but simply going after something new.  Never mind what I did then, this is what I’m actually interested in now.

I’ve enrolled with UCLan (Univ Central Lancashire) and Jodrell Bank Observatory (Univ Manchester) for ‘distance learning’ courses.  Sort of an OU (Open University) thing (the OU don’t actually do astronomy / cosmology). Idea is to sign up for some courses; get intermediate qualifications; carry on for six or so years (maybe more) and end up with a degree in Cosmology / Astronomy.  So, I’ve taken the first step (sent in my application!).  

Applicarion process was surpridingly convoluted and I needed to provide much more info that I was expecting.  It doesn’t appear to simply be a ‘if you have cash you can play’ thing (which I’m led to believe the OU is).  I have had to provide a personal statement and copies of my O level, A-level and degree certificates.  Must put some folks (right) off.  

[Death Wish II is on the telly // "Soundtracks" (Can) playing my audio]

Sue suggested that I do a blog specifically for the course(s) – that was an exciting prospect, but including it here makes more sense.  If you hate it, you’ll tell me. Right?

Providing a personal statement for the institutions (I neede one for each) was a bit of a hurdle…  I was going to be a bit cocky, but in the end chose a safe route (didn’t want to jeopardize my application).  End result is very cheesy. Yuk.

My personal statement:  ”I have had a lifelong interest in astronomy and cosmology and it seems now, on reflection that the sciences and arts that I have been captivated by since I was a child have largely been related to space, astronomy and cosmology.

More recently, my deeper interest has been sparked by podcasts such as Slacker Astronomy; Astronomy Cast; The JodCast as well as podcast lectures from the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture series.  I have been fundamentally amazed by what I have learned from these podcasts and have a deep desire to increase my learning through formal study.

I am an artistic scientist at heart and learning and experimenting are two of my core values.

My particular interests are in elements of cosmology such as dark energy; the fate of the universe; the bit just older than what we can currently observe: beyond 700 million years after the Big Bang, and inflation… I have also been involved in the SETI@Home programme since 1999.”