HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: phillies@bigwpi.WPI.EDU (George D. Phillies)
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.bio,sci.chem,sci.physics
Subject: Teaching Loads?
Date: 6 Jan 1993 18:48:19 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Distribution: na
NNTP-Posting-Host: bigwpi.wpi.edu

I have been asked to generate, preferably yesterday, an estimate 
of actual teaching loads for faculty in the sciences (and 
engineering) and "research-oriented" (i.e., Ph.D.-granting) 
institutions.  Our time machine isn't up and running, but prompt 
EMail answers will be deeply appreciated.  Note that I am looking 
for actual not nominal numbers.  For example, there is one well-
known eastern enginering school at which the nominal load is four 
courses per semester, but you get release time for committees, 
research, advising, etc. until real faculty actually teach 1-2 
courses at a time.  The primary question is how much classroom
teaching is being done.  I will summarize and report my findings
to the net; I'll be happy to leave sources anonymous.

I believe the following questions give the information I need;
please feel free to expand on them:

1) School:

2) Department:

3) Terms/Semesters  in the Regular Academic Year:

4) Courses taught by a faculty member in a year (average):

5) Courses taught at one time by a faculty member (average)
   (This should be the ratio of 3 to 4):

6) Frequency of release time (sabbaticals?  terms released to funded 
   researchers?  terms in which "seminar" is the assigned course?): 

7) Non-course teaching load (e.g. mandatory senior theses?  how many?)

If anyone is aware of systematic data on this, please advise.

George Phillies
Professor of Physics
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
phillies@wpi.wpi.edu
From: kratz@asdsun.larc.nasa.gov (David Kratz)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Observing in southeast Virginia
Date: 5 Jan 1993 20:33:29 GMT
Organization: NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA  USA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: asdsun.larc.nasa.gov

Recently I moved to the Hampton Roads area.  Since I am an avid observational 
astronomer I contacted a number of the local clubs to help me find a reasonably
dark site.  Unfortunately, none of these clubs are into astronomical observing!!!
I tried contacting state parks; however, the only response that I received was:
The parks close at dusk.  So are there any fellow amateur astronomers living in 
southeast Virginia who could help another amateur find a place from which to 
observe?  Thanks in advance.
                            Dave
          Corresponding address: kratz@aquila.larc.nasa.gov

Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: davem@ee.ubc.ca (Dave Michelson)
Subject: Re: JPL Publications
Organization: University of BC, Electrical Engineering
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 21:37:56 GMT

In article <1993Jan5.175655.21872@gdr.bath.ac.uk> masjpf@gdr.bath.ac.uk (J P Fitch) writes:
>I am trying to get copies of some slightly old JPL publications.  We
>were informed that they were available from some outfit called
>Aerospace Information Service of Springfield VA, but a letter
>addressed such was returned as unknown.  Does anyone know the full
>address of Aerospace Information Service, including a ZIP code, of
>know where we can get JPL publication?
>

You probably want the National Technical Information Service (NTIS)
in Springfield, VA.
 
--
Dave Michelson
davem@ee.ubc.ca

Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.physics
From: matmcinn@nuscc.nus.sg (brett mcinnes)
Subject: Re: That Great Pulsar Timing Flame War
Organization: National University of Singapore
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 05:00:05 GMT

lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich) writes:
: 
: 	The Solar System doesn't expand because (among other things)
: it's too small. The Universe expands because the galaxies are flying
: away from each other; this effect can be modeled (yes, modeled) as
: expanding space.                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
:                 Meaning what, exactly?
Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: andromed@cs.dal.ca (Mike Boschat)
Subject: ames.arc down ???
Organization: Math, Stats & CS, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 15:41:27 GMT

 Tried to get the asteriod images after typing cd pub/SPACE/GIF I got the
prompt then typed ls, it said 0 bytes..thus no gif images at all were
listed is this site down ?
 site;   ames.arc.nasa.gov

thanks

						Mike
From: franzis@evax.gdc.com
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: re: SCT vs. Newtonian
Date: 7 Jan 93 14:12:46 GMT
Organization: General DataComm, Middlebury CT


    Jim,

       In the January issue of Sky and Telescope, there is a
       good review and article on the Meade "Star Finder" telescopes.
       I take it those are the ones you are asking about.

			-Patrick Franzis

Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space
From: baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Re: Galileo's antenna
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 17:59:00 GMT

In article <IfG6hqu00XsFRFwEc9@andrew.cmu.edu>, bluelobster+@CMU.EDU (David O Hunt) writes...
>Is there anyway of telling that the hammering is making progress (aside
>from rib release)?

The sun sensor and wobble measurements are the two main indicators.  The
shadow of the antenna falling across the sun sensor is used measure the extent
the antenna is open.  Since the stuck ribs cause the antenna to be
more open on one side than the other (asymmetrically deployed) and the
spacecraft is spinning, a slight wobble exists which can be measured.
Also, when the antenna is fully open, a couple of switches will be activated.
After the first antenna hammering last week, the sun sensor and wobble
measurments indicated a change in the antenna, the first change measured
since the initial antenna deployment attempt in April 1991.  The recent 
sun sensor data indicates that the antenna is "more open", and this is either 
due to one of the three stuck ribs popping loose, 
or increased tension on the antenna is causing it to bend out more.  Several 
more hammering sessions are scheduled this month to keep applying more force 
on the ballscrew to free the stuck ribs.
     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab |
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | Choose a job you love, and
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | you'll never have to work
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     | a day in your life. 

Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: moshier@world.std.com (Stephen L Moshier)
Subject: Re: Equations that give planetary positions
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 05:02:51 GMT

>I recently went through the excercize of translating some of 
>Peter Duffet_Smith's book "Astronomy on your Calculator" (not sure
>of the exact title) for a shareware program I'm writing.  However I'm
>not happy with the results I get (occassionaly see errors as large
>as a degree in declination and at least several minutes RA...).  
>Are the algorithms in the Meeus book a bit better? 

In Meeus' new book the planetary approximations are accurate to a
few arc seconds over a span of some centuries.  The Moon's position
is given to somewhat less accuracy.  I can post a comparison with
the JPL ephemerides if you are interested.  You have to go through
some rather fussy corrections just to make use of positions that
are so accurate!

The best ephemerides for amateur interest might be the ones from
which Meeus derived his tables.  The French VSOP planetary theory
is approximated to better accuracy (excepting the Earth) in
_Planetary Programs and Tables from -4000 to +2800_ by P. Bretagnon
and J.-L. Simon, Willman-Bell Inc 1986.  The lunar theory is
by Michelle Chapront-Touze and Jean Chapront; their book is
_Lunar Tables and Programs from 4000 B.C. to A.D. 8000, Willmann-Bell Inc
1991.  I can also provide comparisons of these with the numerically
integrated positions; but the answer is these two are by far the
best easily-available works.  Both come with floppy discs if you
ask for them when you order the books.  The publisher's phone
number in Richmond, Virginia is 804-320-7016.

Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: adm@phys.canterbury.ac.nz (Andrew McGregor,        rm   ,ext    )
Subject: Re: SCTs and their moveable mirrors.
Reply-To: adm@phys.canterbury.ac.nz
Organization: University of Canterbury
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 20:36:51 GMT

In article 10223@linus.mitre.org, chaloux@mandolin.mitre.org (Dave Chaloux) writes:
>It is a well established result that SCTs which have moveable mirrors for
>focusing are at their best at only one point among their many possible
>positions. Since many things require the mirrors to move in order to
>focus, it is unlikely that Joe Amateur is using the mirror to its best
>capabilities. Different eyepieces, different diagonals, differences in
>distance to the object focused upon, etc. will all change the position
>of the mirror required to focus.
>
>It occurred to me that it might??? be possible to use this fact to advantage.
>Jim's Mobile now sells a focuser for SCTs that works without moving the
>mirror (What an idea!). If positions of the mirror on one side of perfect
>lead to undercorrected images and positions on the other lead to over
>corrected images you could use this to tune you telescope for no
>sperical abberation.
>
The astronomers here have a 1m telescope that uses a C8 for a finder,
and they've done just this, except that when they found the right place
for the mirror, they flooded it's cell with epoxy resin and stuck it in
place! I've never seen what this scope can do myself, but it is reputed
to be very good.


---
Andrew McGregor,
Physics, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
adm@phys.canterbury.ac.nz

Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: andromed@cs.dal.ca (Mike Boschat)
Subject: sci.astro BBS slow ???
Organization: Math, Stats & CS, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 23:03:49 GMT


 Is it just me or is there a problem with people posting on sci.astro ?
any other time there would be something like 19 articles, since about
noon here in Halifax, NS , Canada there has been nothing new...
 anyone else experiencing this possible problem ..?

Thanks...
        
                                        Clear skies

                                        Mike Boschat

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
|    JOHN F. KENNEDY              | " Our problems are man-made, therefore |
|                                 |  they can be solved by man. "          |
|  ASTRONOMICAL  OBSERVATORY      |                                        |
|                                 |                      J.F.K.            |
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: markv@pixar.com (Mark T. VandeWettering)
Subject: Re: polishing, when is enough?
Keywords: ATM, mirror polishing
Organization: Pixar -- Point Richmond, California
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 01:01:51 GMT

jcurtis@seqp4.sequoia.com (John Curtis) writes:

>I'm dragged my 8" mirror out last night (long in the making).
>Did about one hour of polishing using cerium oxide on a 
>opthalmic polishing lap (polishing pads stuck to the original tool
>per a S&T article.)

Interesting.  I was gonna try this in the not too distant future.  

>Things seem to be going well.  The only exception is a small 
>scratch (this long: --- ) which I am choosing to ignore.

*sigh* scratches are indeed annoying, but seldom fatal.

>Total polishing time is just under 4 hours, and the mirror looks
>reasonably bright, but not as bright as a wet mirror.


>When is enough?  Any hints?   I haven't used my Foucault apparatus on
>this guy yet.  I did look at the surface at 30x using a Rat Shack
>hand microscope and was shocked to see a pebbled surface.  This 
>may be underneath the actual top surface of the glass.  The lap 
>did start polishing the whole  surface immediately.

Interesting.  I would be very interested in knowing what the knife edge or
Ronchi patterns where like.  If you can see pebbling on the mirror, my 
guess is that something bad could be happening.  

>Please help me over my novice angst.

Well, if you wanna get over novice angst, you have to just keep
making mirrors until you become an expert :-) As a data point, I
just finished an 8" mirror which I spent about 8 hours of non-figuring
polishing time on (and just an hour or so to figure!).  Texereau
recommends about 15 hours for an 8" mirror, but most people at the
work shop seem to discount this number as overly cautious.  Some
mirrors also seem to polish out quicker than others (probably
because of better or worse lap contact).  The way I check mirrors is to 
aim a bright flashlight (I use a mini maglight) at the surface and see if 
any bright spots which don't move are visible at the edge.  The surface of 
the mirror should be barely visible, reflecting only a small amount of light.

If indeed these pads work as advertised, you may be able to get by with 
only 2-3 hours of polishing.  As I have not tried these yet, I can only 
parrot what was quoted in the Sky and Telescope article you referred to. 
When your mirror is done, please post (or email me) a short description of
how it all worked out.


			Mark (markv@pixar.com)

Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: danube@max.physics.sunysb.edu
Subject: Index for Sky and Telescope
Organization: Institute for the Theoretical Physics
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 20:13:07 GMT

   Hello.  I am wondering if there is an electronic index available for
Sky and Telescope magazine, say back to 1940 perhaps.  I would like a
complete index, though one for the Gleanings for ATM's dept. will keep
me quite busy for a while.   Does anybody know where I can find such a
thing if it exists?
   My fingers are getting kind of tired from flipping through the December
issues.  A computerized index I can just search through with my favorite
editor is best.
   Thanks.
						Danube
Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: jmcvey@boi.hp.com ( John McVey         x3638 )
Subject: Advice wanted on "Copy-scope"
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 16:21:58 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard / Boise, Idaho
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1scd1 PL4

I built a small refractor for my 8-year old using a lens from a copy
machine.  The lens is 280mm f/4.5.  That equates to about a 60mm
effective aperture.

The alt-azimuth mounting turned out real nice with geared slow motions
on both axies.

The images are good but there is some flare.  Has anyone experimented
with which end of the copy lens to face towards the sky.  Is one way
better than the other?

John McVey
jmcvey@hpbslq.boi.hp.com
From: J.JAHN@ABBS.zer.sub.org
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Distribution: world
Subject: Sunspots at 06.01.1993.
Date: 6 Jan 93 18:58:00 +0100
X-Gateway: ZCONNECT AB ABBS.hanse.de [UUCPfZ V3.8a U004]

Sunspots at 06.01.1993., 0 h UT.

No.    Pos.  Cl.  Ar.  Mag. SF  F  M  X
---------------------------------------
7386 04S 14E Cho  300   b
7387 23S 17E Cao  120   b
7388 06S 70W Dao  160   b    3
7391 10S 63E Dao   90   b    2
7393 18S 02E Cro   20   b
7394 17S 20E Bxo   10   b


No optical or x-ray flares yesterday observed.



Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: dnash@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Dave Nash)
Subject: Diffraction question (was Re: obstructed view?)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 00:50:23 GMT
Keywords: telescope refractor reflector

In article <1993Jan12.224443.1547@linus.mitre.org> chaloux@mandolin.mitre.org (Dave Chaloux) writes:

>An images of a star in focus consists of an Airy Disk and diffraction rings
>around that disk. An unobstructed telescope like a refractor can, if it is
>perfectly made put about 84% of the light into the central disk. Any obstruction
>(or under or over correction of the optics) puts more of the light into the
>diffraction rings.

...

>The answer isn't this simple however. Obstructed reflectors of larger diameter
>can be gotten for much less money than equivalent refractors. If the reflector
>is well made, the larger diameter of the mirror can more than make up for the
>loss of the light due to the obstruction. Doug McDonald has said on numerous
>occasions on the Net that given perfect optics, a Reflector of size a and
>with an obstruction of size b will perform as well as a refractor of size
>a - b/2. 

This reminds me of a (possibly naive) question I have on this topic:

Some people use this argument (obstructions causing more light in the
diffraction pattern to be in the outer rings) to argue that small refractors
have an intrinsic advantage over significantly larger reflectors.
Is it possible for a larger, obstructed scope to be largely immune to
this effect (more light in the rings) on the diffraction pattern, when
compared to a smaller, unobstructed telescope, like a refractor?
True, obstructed scopes dump more light into the rings, but the diffraction
pattern of a large scope is so much smaller that this would seem to have no 
real effect -- especially if the larger scope is sufficiently larger that
the diameter of its first diffraction ring is less than that of the Airy
disk alone of the smaller scope.  Is this reasonable?


I'm not an optics jock, so i'll yield to those who are.
-- 
David Nash                  | Gradual Student, Chemistry
                            | University of Illinois (Urbana)
(dnash@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu)    | This .sig is made of 100% recycled electrons.
(nash@aries.scs.uiuc.edu)   | No binary trees were killed to make it.
Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: dierick@brsux0.bro.dec.com (Dierick Dominique)
Subject: Re: Perseid Shower Peak?
Keywords: meteor
Reply-To: dierick@ketje.enet.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Brussels
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 16:40:33 GMT


In article <1993Jan9.020605.1952@seas.gwu.edu>, willson@seas.gwu.edu (Stephen R. Willson) writes:
>Newsgroups: sci.astro
>From: willson@seas.gwu.edu (Stephen R. Willson)
>Subject: Perseid Shower Peak?
>
>When is the Perseid shower supposed to peak this year?  What kind of
>frequency could one expect to see?  The only time I went out to watch a
>shower, I saw about four in one hour.
>
>-- 
>-----------------------+-------------------------------------------------------
> Stephen R. Willson    | A fitting end to a screwy campaign year...
> willson@seas.gwu.edu  | Here to swear in the President of the United States,
> (202) 395-4922        | Larry King!                         -The Miami Herald
>

According to latest estimates it should have a high peak on August 11
at 22h00 UT, where you could expect ( but meteor showers have the annoying
habbit to be a little unpredictable ) for a brief period hundreds of
meteors per hour. If the peak doesn't happen, you should expect about
50 meteors per hour all night long.


Dominique
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space,sci.physics,sci.environment
From: gawne@stsci.edu
Subject: Re: averting doom
Organization: Space Telescope Science Institute
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 17:23:55 GMT

In article <1993Jan6.155212.25052@newshost.lanl.gov>, 
u108502@beta.lanl.gov (Andrew Poutiatine) writes:

> In article <1992Dec30.161445.12236@unocal.com> stgprao@st.unocal.COM 
> (Richard Ottolini) writes:
>>In article <JMC.92Dec29211051@SAIL.Stanford.EDU> jmc@cs.Stanford.EDU writes:
>>>from a U.P. story
>>>
>>>	     WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Life on Earth as we know it will
>>>     come to an end in 1,500 million years and the planet will
>>>     look more like its dusty, volcanic sister Venus in 2,500
>>>     million years, scientists said Wednesday.
>>
>>If we can't model the weather more than 5 days in advance nor agree on
>>climate prediction in 50 years, who would have any confidence in this
>>speculation?
> 
> I believe the above prediction is based not on earth climate and weather
> considerations (for which I must agree predictions of more than a few days
> are not very dependable), but rather on the evolution of the sun.
> 
> I am not an astronomer, but as I recall, theory predicts that stars of our
> sun's size go through a stage in their evolution at the end of their lives
> when they become hotter and expand.  It is this, I believe, that would
> parch the earth, killing life "as we know it."

Our understanding of the Sun is that it won't be at "the end of its life" for
another 4.5 or so *billion* years.  The news article  refers to predictions of
things to come in 1.5 to 2.5 billion years, when the Sun should still be a main
sequence star.

Any star will change slowly during its main sequence lifetime, and in the case
of the Sun and sunlike stars this means becoming slightly hotter and more 
luminous.  The prediction quoted above seems to be saying that this part
of the Sun's main sequence evolution will be sufficient to raise Earth's 
temperature to the point Earth becomes unable to support life.  While I've
no wish to dispute this claim (for now), it has nothing to do with the Sun's
predicted evolution into a red giant star after it leaves the main sequence
"at the end of its life".

-Bill Gawne,  Space Telescope Science Institute
Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: ags@seaman.cc.purdue.edu (Dave Seaman)
Subject: Re: wormholes
Organization: Purdue University
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 15:22:00 GMT

In article <1993Jan4.214341.2329@ccsvax.sfasu.edu>  
f_markwort@ccsvax.sfasu.edu writes:
> 
> OK, we might as well get this over with.  I imagine the net will be  
swim-
> ming with wormhole questions after the new Star Trek episode.  So, what
> are they, are they real, can do travel in space-time using them, and  
more
> importantly, can you survive to tell about it?

Wormholes are not new to the Star Trek universe, having appeared in one of  
the motion pictures (the first one, I think). Wormholes are mathematically  
possible, but there is no particular evidence to suggest that they are  
anything more than that. A wormhole would indeed allow matter to be  
transported between fixed points in space-time. I suppose the chances of  
surviving such a trip are probably comparable to the chances of surviving  
after having your molecules disassembled and reassembled in a transporter  
beam.

--
Dave Seaman
ags@seaman.cc.purdue.edu
Newsgroups: sci.astro,rec.radio.shortwave
From: oler@rho.uleth.ca (Cary Oler)
Subject: Daily Solar Geophysical Data Broadcast for 09 January
Organization: University of Lethbridge
Date: 10 Jan 93 09:14:28 GMT

!!BEGIN!! (1.0) S.T.D. Solar Geophysical Data Broadcast for DAY 009, 01/09/93
10.7 FLUX=128.8  90-AVG=140        SSN=131      BKI=3333 3322  BAI=013
BGND-XRAY=B2.5     FLU1=1.6E+06  FLU10=1.1E+04  PKI=3333 3333  PAI=014
  BOU-DEV=030,036,025,020,036,023,017,013   DEV-AVG=025 NT     SWF=00:000
 XRAY-MAX= B6.2   @ 2157UT    XRAY-MIN= B2.2   @ 1630UT   XRAY-AVG= B3.1
NEUTN-MAX= +003%  @ 1810UT   NEUTN-MIN= -002%  @ 2320UT  NEUTN-AVG= +0.0%
  PCA-MAX= +0.1DB @ 2235UT     PCA-MIN= -0.3DB @ 1120UT    PCA-AVG= -0.0DB
BOUTF-MAX=55426NT @ 0528UT   BOUTF-MIN=55401NT @ 1953UT  BOUTF-AVG=55415NT
GOES7-MAX=P:+113NT@ 2106UT   GOES7-MIN=N:+001NT@ 0001UT  G7-AVG=+074,+028,+010
GOES6-MAX=P:+134NT@ 1910UT   GOES6-MIN=E:-013NT@ 0523UT  G6-AVG=+093,-002,+037
 FLUXFCST=STD:130,125,125;SESC:130,125,125 BAI/PAI-FCST=015,012,010/015,010,010
    KFCST=3343 3333 3333 3322  27DAY-AP=006,007   27DAY-KP=2001 2222 2312 2221
 WARNINGS=
   ALERTS=
!!END-DATA!!
Newsgroups: sci.astro