Author: Pradeep

  • Notes 00

    There was an article in the recent ToI talking about the high attrition rate. Might mention it on my space blog soon. But,  this is just to remind me.

  • Hmm….What number is it? 3 or 4??

    the only people to disagree are millionaires    ??

    Affirmation, Savage Garden

  • Going to IAC…and SEDSIC

    I’ve been in a bit of a spot at home. So, going to IAC/SEDSIC was not discussed. Yesterday for the first time I had a talk about going there. Neither positive nor negative. But, a start.

    Asked my principal today about the same – some support from college in terms of attendance, not that I need it though – and he replied that I was either premature (I think he meant immature) or over-enthusiastic.

    Of course, I’m enthusiastic, it’s a chance to meet the people I’ve been having wonderful discussions online. I believe that it has contributed more to the way I look at my life than the people in the real world around me. Hmm…

  • Exam Woes

    I’m still waiting for Sem III results. It’s really bad that it’s taking this long. Read an article yesterday in the papers talking about getting results out within 30-45 days. It’s already somewhere around 70 days – long enough to make me forget what I wrote in my paper. Sigh!

  • My Story

    That storyline that was developing has nowhere else to go. The book tab on the top will remind you what I’m talking about. I cannot write 300 pages of pure romance. Would have to read too many other books to fill in the blanks. :)

    So, I’m going to re-write it all. There is a new story line on the drawing board. I’ll put it in here as soon as I get enough details to complete the picture realistically. That and more coming soon.

  • Hmm…2

    I have been unsubscribing from many blogs…still reading 128..after so many unsubscribing.  Have to work it down to 40-50.

  • I’m now a Zoo Keeper!

    Note: I wrote this on my earlier blog hosted as https://blogs.seds.org/pradeep. I recovered the text from the WayBack Machine. This post appeared on July 11, 2007 as per the timestamp. I’m trying to collect here again all my old writings spread on various blogs.

    I saw today in my feed reader that GalaxyZoo is open to the general public one day before it was supposed to open. More coverage here.

    I registered today..took the test..passed….I’m now a ZooKeeper (self-assigned title)!!

    I always wanted to do this, it’s almost as if someone was reading my mind. 🙂 Register today but you can’t do any work on it today as their circuits are overloaded. Already 🙂 Everything starts with the Big Bang!

    Update1: Here are some blog posts talking about GalaxyZoo –

  • Big Bang and the seconds before it

    Note: I wrote this on my earlier blog hosted as https://blogs.seds.org/pradeep. I recovered the text from the WayBack Machine. This post appeared on July 2, 2007 as per the timestamp. I’m trying to collect here again all my old writings spread on various blogs.

    I’ll just give a small brief description here since the Bad Astronomer has already elaborated. Also, the official news post of the story is here.

    Till now, our mathematics limited our predictions to the slices of seconds ahead of the actual moment of the Big Bang. Now, it seems, Martin Bojowald, an assistant professor of physics at Penn State University has broken through this barrier to predict what happened at the exact moment of the Big Bang and the moments before it. He did this using (and he’s still working on it) what’s called the Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG for short). In-depth details in the links above.

  • Poor man’s guide to Astrophotography

    Note: I wrote this on my earlier blog hosted as https://blogs.seds.org/pradeep. I recovered the text from the WayBack Machine. This post appeared on June 30, 2007 as per the timestamp. I’m trying to collect here again all my old writings spread on various blogs.

    Dr. Suresh Mohan is one of the few Indian astrophotographers work that I have witnessed in the recent past through the astronomyclubsindia mailing list.

    He recently posted an email on a poor man’s guide to astrophotography. Just thought I’d mention it here via a link.The site is also a good resource for more things astrophotography.

    Hope it helps. Hat tip to Dr. Suresh Mohan.

     

     

  • India’s first military satellite and my thoughts

    Note: I wrote this on my earlier blog hosted as https://blogs.seds.org/pradeep. I recovered the text from the WayBack Machine. This post appeared on June 29, 2007 as per the timestamp. I’m trying to collect here again all my old writings spread on various blogs.

    I am not a big fan of the militarization of space and also can’t get to spell it properly. So, I was not too happy when I read this.

    India’s first military satellite – CARTOSAT-2A is going to be launched on the PSLV sometime in August.

    I was so happy that India has been using space for peaceful purposes for so long and despite so many roadblocks put in by the US and Europe. So, it seemed like this was a bit odd. But, not really. What dictates this is basically geo-politics and not the people of our country.

    China and Pakistan seems to be what this satellite would be looking at. Basically. And they’re watching them for our own protection. So, doesn’t really make sense to rant about that.

    The launch of CARTOSAT 2A has been timed to coincide with the scheduled delivery of the country’s first airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft by Israel. So, basically we get the whole range from the ground to the stratosphere. It’s good to keep all the bases covered. Just in case.