Some Preliminary Comments from the first days of PASCOS 2023 Conference at UC Irvine; Using my ChatGPT Study Buddy; New Physics from Gravitational Waves?

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well it is finally time for PASCOS 2023, June 26-30, held at UC Irvine this year.  PASCOS has international speakers in three main areas of study: Particle Physics, String Theory and Cosmology.

First use of Rspec Software for Spectral Analysis; Still need to get a good Type A star spectra to calibrate camera pixels to wavelength

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

This blog post covers the first four images to be processed by Rspec software in a first attempt to calibrate the observed SA-100 spectra camera image and convert the pixels to wavelengths.

Spectroscopy is a fundamental tool to study the universe; Red Shift; Lyman Forests; Stellar Classification, Type and Color; Balmer lines of Hydrogen; Diffraction Gratings and Measurements

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

This week we provide a technical discussion of spectroscopy as one of the fundamental tools of astrophysics and then review how amateurs can use modern diffraction gratings to make wavelength measurements of light from celestial objects.

Looking again at using SA-100 diffraction grating and DSLR for stellar spectroscopy demonstration; when the clouds go away, find a Type A star for calibration

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well this week we are revisiting some spectroscopy work done way back in January 2018 for the purpose of preparing a presentation at the OCA Astrophysics SIG.

Starship launch video shows rubber rocket effect; Digital image distortion effects with rolling shutter vs. global shutter technology

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

We watched the first orbital launch attempt of the SpaceX Starship online.  It didn't make it to orbit, but that story is told elsewhere.  Here we want to discuss the optical illusion displayed in the launch videos where the rocket seemed to be made of rubber and was wildly bending in all sorts of directions.