new Astronomical Games: Through a Glass, Lightly

A new article is up now, on the anatomy of a simple refracting telescope.
As always, questions, comments, suggestions welcome.

To find the article, go to

http://astro.isi.edu/games/

Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
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John Steinberg wrote:
1). The Columbo reference was genius but a reference to Helen Mirren's
"Prime Suspect" would have been even greater genius. Relevance,
you might ask? Hey, that's your job not mine.

I guess that's why they pay me the big bucks. Hey wait.

2). Your ant graphic, while reasonably anatomically accurate, renders
the ant with legs that are just too short for his body. That
may strike some as a petty objection, but the Dean has been on my
case about grading of late. I did find the use of the ant
compelling, for as you know, the lenses of the ant are
themselves worthy of a whole new article.

What can I say, I'm an etymologist, not an entomologist. (Well, I'm not
really either, but I'm closer to being one of the former than the latter.)

3). I still await my serial number for The PleiadAtlas, many months
after sending payment for same! What is up with THAT?

Are you serious? I sent one to your human masticates canine address. I
have it in my list of serial numbers. I'm really sincerely sorry--could
you go ahead and send me e-mail so I can respond directly to it and resend
your registration file?

An A- isn't bad considering the new Ivy league mandate to put a cap on
grading, and at least part of the beauty of web publishing is that it's
never too late to give your ant longer legs, and work in the Helen
Mirren anecdote.

To be honest, I greatly admire Helen Mirren as an actor, but I haven't at
all followed the Prime Suspect series.

Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt

John Steinberg wrote:
It's a marvelous series, albeit with some rough patches, but if you
admire her work now, you'll truly appreciate her talent if you can
source the first and second installments. It's a commitment owing to
their length, but in my opinion, some of the best TV of that genre
ever.

I'll see if I can't hunt that down sometime.

Anyway, enjoyed the article and keep up the fine work. Hey, I just
checked, tungreport.com is still available!

Err...no, I don't think so. But thanks very much for the kind words!

Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt

2). Your ant graphic, while reasonably anatomically accurate, renders
the ant with legs that are just too short for his body. That
may strike some as a petty objection, but the Dean has been on my
case about grading of late. I did find the use of the ant
compelling, for as you know, the lenses of the ant are
themselves worthy of a whole new article.

What can I say, I'm an etymologist, not an entomologist. (Well, I'm not
really either, but I'm closer to being one of the former than the latter.)

Either way, using an ant in a discussion of magnifying glasses is perfect!
Little boys, magnifying glasses and ants have always gone together.

;-)

Chuck Taylor
Do you observe the moon?
Try http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lunar-observing/
And the Lunar Picture of the Day http://www.lpod.org/
************************************

CLT wrote:
Either way, using an ant in a discussion of magnifying glasses is perfect!
Little boys, magnifying glasses and ants have always gone together.

Totally! Given the title I chose, I definitely thought about discussing
fried ants, but I couldn't really tie it in. Not cheap enough for me, I
guess.

Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt

John Steinberg wrote:
Totally!

Dude, are you from Callie? That is so rad.

Whoa, you are *so* over. Move on, bud.

My family was so poor we had to eat our ants raw (although we were
given some bug juice to wash them down), but the ant gourmand...

Gourmant?

Where was I? Oh, fried ants would require some frying medium. Extra
virgin olive oil has too low a flash point, as does butter. Fried ants
are best prepared in peanut oil in a quality commercial fryer. Garnish
with daddy long legs and season to taste.

Don't ants exude their own oil? Well, I guess you're right--roasted it
is!

Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt

Brian Tung wrote:
Don't ants exude their own oil? Well, I guess you're right--roasted it
is!

OK, I think I've fixed the "anantomy." Let me know if it's satisfactory.

Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt

John Steinberg wrote:
Ahh, so much better. You've even captured the metasoma in a way that
almost makes me mist up. sniffle

Well, you know, being from Callie, as you so charmingly put it, I aim
for the callipygiant.

I hate to be a bother, but is there any chance you could render the
vectors ant-i-aliased? I just think it would be nice to keep the
thematic [sic] thread consistant.

I tried, but I couldn't get it to look right. I'll have to put it on
my honeydew list.

Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt

John Steinberg wrote:
BTW, Is Callie a pejorative? No offense intended!

No--just not how I'd spell it.

You could email the file to me (along with my reg.) and I could *try*
and make it even more fantastic. Grease it up with some ant oil to
make sure it gets there this time.

I'm playing hooky from work. Does that make me a truant?

Maybe!

Are you sure you want me to e-mail the file? Wouldn't it be easier for
you to fetch it from my web page? Have you received your registration
file yet?

I'm just full of questions.

Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt

John Steinberg wrote:
Yes, no, I don't know! Is it a vector/eps file? If yes, should be just
ducky for mailing.

It's drawn using TGIF, a Unix tool created by a friend of mine. If you
can't take that, I can create an EPS file, sure.

The problem is, you don't seem to be getting anything I'm sending you.
My mail log says your server is accepting it, so I'm not sure what the
problem is.

Have you received your registration file yet?

No! And I'm beginning to think I never will. Do you know that I
personally directed the ironing of those $5 bills? And I even stood by
to make sure "Go Bruins" was spelled correctly and prominently placed.

If you don't get it soon, perhaps I'll let you download it off a secret
page from my web site. Give it a couple of hours...

Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt