Posted 4:24 PM by Angie Schultz

And I Didn't Even Get It a Card!

The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed fifteen years ago today. Two weeks ago the incoming NASA Administrator, Mike Griffin, said that he would reconsider a shuttle repair mission for Hubble, which previous Administrator Sean O'Keefe had decided against.

One of these days -- soon, I hope -- I'll get around to writing a post on why we still need Hubble. A lot of people seem to think that new space telescopes and new technology for ground-based telescopes have rendered Hubble unnecessary, but this is not true.

In the meantime, STScI has released two new Hubble pictures for the anniversary. I'm sorry to say that I'm not really very impressed. One is the familiar Whirlpool Galaxy, which is very nice, but I've seen pictures of it before, including Hubble pictures.

Somewhat more interesting is a new image of one of the pillars in the Eagle Nebula. Now, this is obviously not anything like the famous image of the nebula, so I figured it must be (at least partly) an infrared image. (One of the frustrating things about the way the Hubble images are presented is that it's damned hard to find real information about them. That's especially true when you have to poke around and the site is very slow because ten gazillion people are trying to get to it.)

For example, this copy says that the blue is oxygen and the red is hydrogen. Well, that's helpful. What lines of oxygen and hydrogen? They say that the emission arises from UV radiation, the oxygen is probably [OIII] (5007 A), which in true color would be green) rather than the other likely oxygen line, [OI] (6300 A, red). But what the heck is the hydrogen? I couldn't see any way they could take an H alpha image (which would be the logical hydrogen line to observe) and come up with this new picture.

Well, it turns out that this new image is not of the familiar pillars, but a pillar in a slightly different part of the nebula. This lovely picture shows the region of the latest pillar in the upper left-hand corner. The Hubble image has obviously been rotated about 90 degrees counter-clockwise to the orientation in this ground-based image.

Mmmm, check out that guy's whole site. Beautiful.

(Ah, here, finally, are the Fast Facts, which give the filters used and the correct orientation and scale. I was right, [OIII] and H alpha. Click on the image, and it even shows you what filters were used for what colors. Still don't see where it shows you the position within the nebula. Gee, this information could be less well-hidden.)

Posted 9:13 PM by Angie Schultz

I Dreamed I Saw Chris Hitch Last Night

Well, that didn't take long. "That" is Christopher Hitchens giving one of his patent poisoned obits, this time of the Pope. "What no one else will say about John Paul II." Yeah, yeah, Hitch, we know. You bad.

I remember the day that Christopher Hitchens died. It was two or three days ago. At least, that's the way it was in my dream. Yes, I had a dream about the death of Christopher Hitchens. No, really; if I were making this up, I'd have the dream make some sense.

I dreamt that Hitchens and I lived in the same town, and that he occasionally gave talks at his house, at which fifty or so people might show up. There were a number of regulars. He wasn't the snarling fellow he seems in his columns, but more like a stern schoolmaster, perhaps like Victor Davis Hanson crossed with John Houseman's character from The Paper Chase.

Anyhow, he died. And the next day I got a package from his lawyers. It was book-sized when I began to open it, but like a TARDIS it was bigger on the inside than the outside. The box contained not only books and papers, but strange scrapbooks with pictures of me as a child. (At least, they seemed to at first, but as usual in my dreams, when you try to examine something closely, it changes and eventually fades away. Nothing to see here, move along.)

I was astounded and a little creeped out to be receiving this ephemera from beyond the grave (there was no explanatory note). I mentioned it to a guy I worked with, also a regular at the talks, and he said that, huh, yeah, he'd gotten one too. Funny, that. Well, that was better. At least Hitch wasn't stalking me from the Hereafter. I was touched that Hitchens, a famous author, had prepared these thoughtful little gifts -- bits of his legacy, so to speak -- to distribute to his listeners after his death. My colleague just thought it was weird.

Another colleague, who didn't go to the talks, said she was glad Hitch was dead, because he was a rat bastard, and she hoped someone would be taking him apart PDQ. And this was the general opinion of those who gave a shit.

Anyway, that was my dream. Take it or leave it.

See this post for other examples of Hitchens's gleefully vicious obits.

Inevitable train wreck spotted by Instant Man.