AstroGee @astrogee-blog - Tumblr Blog

Glorious.

I am, and will ever be, a white-socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer, born under the second law of thermodynamics, steeped in steam tables, in love with free-body diagrams, transformed by Laplace and propelled by compressible flow.

Neil Armstrong

#Neil Armstrong #Quote

thekellyshow

astrogee-blog

3 planets, 3 moons; all rocky.

stephaiko-blog

astrogee-blog

Mmmmm me wantz some.

Second Half of 2012

Hello all,

I am happy to get a chance to write around here. It's been since early February that I wrote something and then some scattered posts here and there. I mean, it definitely seems to me that all the science I posted here in the wee days of 2011 translated into the many different projects I am involved in. But let's get into some talking.

First of all, as I expected, 2012 has been a year to look up. Things have clearly been arranging themselves so the problems that ended up in the disaster of 2010 will finally be solved. If not by the end of 2012 the very least I expect them done the first months of 2013. Of course, arranging themselves involved kicking my ass off to get shit done... but it is needed so I do not have a problem with it. Of course it is not easy to pause my studies for so long... but I've got no choice. Seeing my family being ok is as rewarding as finishing my degree. I am at peace with myself about it. And soon enough I'll be back hitting them books.

In the other hand, the good news is that all the projects where I am involved are running. First of all I am writing on a regular basis for 3 different media.

My writing at ReconoceMX allows me to freely speak about new and old topics in astro engineering and astro science. That's very nice because I can talk about old and new stuff anytime, it basically gives me an infinite topic pool which I appreciate.

Writing for Proyecto40 has been a great experience as well. I started writing for them 6 months ago and having the back up of the name of an important TV channel (at least in Mexico City) has pushed me to be published by two other smaller media. The digital version of the magazine Algarabia with my Daylight Savings Time in Mexico article that was also published in Proyecto40. As well as an invitation to collaborate in Los Aristócratas where I made a small article about Astrophysics.

Finally I started writing in La Ciudad Deportiva, a sports blog, in where I do a small article each other week about the physics in sports. I just started there a month ago but my first article there had so much interest that it got 30,000 hits in four days. That definitely made me proud.

Having all that popular media articles has pushed me to participate in a few events. I was able to be at top of the first astronomical observatory in Mexico for the -Transit of Venus- to complete its primary objective. It was an epic moment for me as well as for the historical place that did not had a telescope for the past 130 years.

I was also invited by the Mexican Astronomical Society to write an article for the relaunch of their magazine -The Universe- in where i wrote about newSpace companies and the future of Space Exploration. That was definitely one of the best moments ever because I was invited to write for a historical society in Mexico and because it was the first time I was published in print media.

What's coming for the second half of 2012

The second half of 2012 keeps promising. For the time being I am enjoying my time in a new project called "Cencia140" in Twitter that basically does more Popular Science in one tweet. So far it's been a big success with well over 1,000 followers in little more than a month.

I was invited, for a second consecutive year, to the National Reunion of Amateur Astronomers of Mexico that is celebrated in the Planetario Alfa in Monterrey. This was a great opportunity for me to get to be known outside Mexico City and being introduced to a completely different environment for me. This year my talk will be about Space Debris, how it's made and how are we planning on taking care of the problem. A very promising and interesting topic for the next few decades.

As for my personal life, my girlfriend will have major surgery in less than a month and even though I am worried I am just expecting the best for her. She deserves to be ok, she is a very strong woman but she needs to be able to go along with her life without that back pain that limits her much. And I'll be there supporting and helping her through her difficulties. If all goes right, we might be having winter vacations in Costa Rica for which I am truly excited.

So, that's my little personal review for 2012. I think it has been a great year and I am looking forward for the second half of this year that is very very promising.

Thank you all for reading.

Love Gee.

#Personal

The Transit of Venus, 2012. Mexico City.

Like many others around the world, this past tuesday, I had the chance to witness the transit of Venus. I missed the 2004 transit so I couldn't miss this once in a lifetime event. And so, as I was preparing to watch the event from my place or maybe go to one of the public events in the city, I had an invitation I could not refuse.

I was invited to go to our 1st National Astronomical Observatory, that was open only for five years and is currently located in the National Museum of History, Chapultepec Castle. The building is always closed to public, as it served no purpose other than being an observation tower when the Castle changed from residency to military base and later to museum. Currently only the watch guards that do flag change are allowed to go up to that historic place.

The NAO was installed in the observation tower of Chapultepec's Castle in 1877 and was intended to be there for a few years until the building in Tacubaya, the 2nd NAO, was ready to receive only astronomers and be a single purpose building. The main objective of the 1st National Observatory was to refine calculations of the distance from Earth to the Sun using the transit of Venus. Mexican astronomers had momentum from the toV in 1874 when their expedition to Yokohama, Japan lead by engineer Covarrubias was extremely successful and was the first expedition to give results to other astronomers around the world.

130 years ago, during the transit of Venus of 1882, our very own first professional astronomers with brand new equipment were at top of the observation tower, in the national observatory, waiting to watch the transit with big expectations from the political class. Unfortunately, the day was cloudy and they were unable to watch a single moment of clarity that day. That pushed the astronomers out of the Castle faster than originally expected.

So, this tuesday, invited by one of the leading astrophotographers in Mexico (that was invited by the Institute of Astronomy from UNAM) we were again in that old vantage point that was used by our very own first astronomers. There we would be away from the general public that would be in the lower levels of the castle and we would be repeating what engineer Angiano (1st Director of the NAO) was doing 130 years ago.

The day started bringing equipment at top of the tower, for the first time in over a century there was astronomical equipment there. The next step was obviously to set the equipment up and do some tests. We had about 5 hours to go, so we were just waiting.

To add a bit of stress, the day got cloudy about 2 pm and it begun raining over us (with our vantage point we realized that it was raining south of the city earlier than that) and it lasted well until 3:30 pm. It looked like the day was about to clear up but even more clouds formed at top of our spot. Things looked like history would repeat itself. By 5:04 the clouds were so thick we couldn't even see the sun through. The people with us were not very positive about it.

In the public display area there were three major conferences where public learned a bit about the transit of Venus and general astronomy. Also, there were all the national media waiting to get feed from other observatories in Mexico, as well as our feed from top of the castle. It did not happen. So people were a bit unhappy, or so I heard since I did not went down the tower at all, I didn't want to miss my sweet spot.

FINALLY about an hour before sunset the skies cleared up and we started recording bits of the transit, a bit too cloudy but we were having some good opportunities. It was all good news and excitation from all the people at top. A few employees and their families, a film crew for small clips and us, less than 20 people at top of the 1st National Astronomical Observatory.

Maybe we won't go in history remembered as an expedition that was able to complete the primary purpose of a building that was lost in history, but I can tell you I won't forget the fact that I was invited to complete a milestone of that building and that now it has served its primary purpose efficiently.

This is definitely an experience I will never forget.

inventfootball

Euro 2012: One month to learn geography

astrogee-blog

Euro2012: One month to learn geography.

Like say, Argentina is not in Europe and Messi will not be playing.

That ad is a massive fail.

Partial Lunar Eclipse as seen from Mexico City.

04-June-2012.

#Mexico DF #Mexico City #Lunar Eclipse #Partial #Astronomy #astrophotography #Collage #Science #Black #Moon #Luna

grand-casa

astrogee-blog

Can I have a living room in my pool? Like this? PLEASE?

fuckyeahspaceexploration-blog

The launch of STS-64.

Makes me drool.

astrogee-blog

This is the shear power of man kind made machine.

BLAST OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Y a ti ¿Dónde te agarro el temblor?

ESTE TEXTO ES REPUBLICADO DE MI COLUMNA EN PROYECTO40 QUE ACTUALMENTE NO ESTA DISPONIBLE.

Esta frase la hemos oído en múltiples ocasiones y aprovechando que hace algunos días tuvimos un temblor relativamente fuerte, 6.8 grados (ahora 7.4), sería bueno explicarles la física detrás de un Terremoto.

Tenemos que entender que hay temblores por causas naturales y otros por la mano del hombre. El temblor más común por causas naturales sucede por los movimientos de las Placas Tectónicas. Estas Placas son las que hacen que se reacomoden los continentes; suban o se hundan islas; se creen nuevas montañas y volcanes. En el caso específico de México, las placas de Norte América; del Pacífico; del Caribe; y, de Cocos, son las responsables de los sismos que sentimos. Otra causa natural sería una erupción volcánica (que de cierta forma también podría ser culpa de las placas tectónicas) y también un impacto meteórico podría causar un temblor. El hombre puede causar pequeños temblores por explosiones y grandes temblores con explosiones nucleares. Un pequeño temblor puede ser producido también por un camión muy pesado saltándose un tope o un bache, seguro han sentido un temblor así.

Ahora que sabemos que lo causa, hay que aprender como se propaga un temblor. La mejor forma de imaginarlo es con la siguiente analogía: Imagínense en la orilla de un lago, tomen una piedra y tírenla al agua ¿Qué sucede? Al golpear la superficie se crean unas ondas que se esparcen por la superficie del lago. Lo mismo sucede con un temblor. Existe un centro donde comienza el temblor, ese lugar se llama hipocentro (no confundir con epicentro, que es el punto en la superficie terrestre sobre el hipocentro) y desde ahí comienza el mismo movimiento de las ondas esparciéndose sobre la superficie terrestre. Hay 2 tipos de ondas en un movimiento telúrico, las del cuerpo (bajo la superficie) y las superficiales. Estas ondas a su vez se dividen en dos cada una. Las ondas de cuerpo son las primeras en generarse y se dividen en onda-P, que generan una serie de compresiones y expansiones; y onda-S, u onda de corte, que empuja hacia los lados en forma de S. Las ondas en la superficie se dividen en Ondas Love, que hacen un movimiento oscilatorio (de un lado a otro); y en Ondas Layleigh que generan un movimiento trepidatorio (de arriba hacia abajo). Claro, no todo en un sismo son ondas, al menos 90% de la energía de un sismo es calor que se disipa dentro y fuera del hipocentro así que ese 10% restante es toda la energía destructiva de las ondas superficiales.

Finalmente hablemos sobre como medimos la intensidad de las ondas sísmicas, su destrucción y liberación de energía. La escala de magnitud mejor conocida en México es la escala de Richter; pero también existen la escala de Magnitud de Momento y la escala de Mercalli. Si en este último temblor dijiste que fue de 6.5 grados en la escala de Richter, cometiste un grave error. Aunque es usado por los medios para difundir la intensidad de los temblores, lo cierto es que la escala de Richter fue originalmente pensada y delimitada para la falla de San Andrés en California por Charles Richter en 1935. Un problema de esta escala es que pasando 7.5 grados los números para la energía liberada no son enteramente correctos,. La escala que se debe utilizar para medir temblores apropiadamente en México (a menos que estemos en Baja California, donde sería correcto usar la escala anterior) y el mundo, es la escala de Magnitud de Momento. Esta escala se completó en 1970, y aunque muy similar a la de Richter, cambia un par de parámetros para poder medir la liberación de energía apropiadamente hasta los 10 grados (que es el máximo de energía liberada; en la historia jamás ha existido un sismo de magnitud mayor a 9.5 que fue en 1960 en Chile). Esta escala es logarítmica, por ende cada grado significa que el temblor será 10 veces más fuerte de lo que es el grado anterior. Finalmente hablemos de la escala de Mercalli, que es una escala que habla de los efectos visibles del movimiento telúrico. Esta escala va del I al XII donde I es un temblor que solo es sentido por instrumentos; VI es fuerte, como el que tuvimos el 10 de Diciembre de 2011, y XI que sería destrucción extrema como Haití en 2010 y finalmente XII que es destrucción cataclísmica en donde absolutamente nada queda de pie, montañas se derrumban y hasta ríos cambian su cause.

Bien, ahora saben lo más básico detrás de un terremoto. Como se crean, que tipo de movimientos hay en un terremoto y como medirlo. Así que la próxima vez que la ciudad se sacuda y escuchen a alguien hablar de la escala de Richter o si es oscilatorio o trepidatorio, sabrán si están bien o mal.

#Temblor #Mexico #Proyecto 40

Busy

Busy is the definition of both January and February 2012. I've got not much of a break around here between work and some of the projects where I've been participating.

Last week I gave a small chat during a conference for a group of executives in the beer retailing sector of Mexico. I was expecting a hard audience but definitely not as hard. I had to talk to a group of people with little or no interest in science and my specific topic was in aeronautics and aerodynamics with a bit of history behind the MC air demonstration team, the Blue Angels. Whereas I expected a few people to have interest I would say that from 90 people present there not more than 15 were truly interested or paying some attention. While the talk was intended to be a little challenging and realistically easy to understand I found truly ugly faces and mean sights. Certainly what I liked the most was the challenge of speaking to a group of uninterested people and trying to catch their attention, which by my standards I failed to do so. But nonetheless, the experience was refreshing and good. I believe that not all the time you will have a positive experience from such work and specially with public less than experienced in the topic. I like this kind of challenges even though I was dissapointed of the final result.

I am hoping to keep in touch more often around here, yet there are lots of projects coming my way. Expect some pictures from time to time.

Regards guys,

Gee.

#Personal #Rant