Nature Nerds of Austin

What's a "Junto"??? -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junto_(club) [1]

What local meetups are currently involved?

- Nature Nerds Austin -- https://www.meetup.com/nature-nerds-of-austin/
- South Austin Makerspace -- https://www.meetup.com/southaustinmakerspace/?eventOrigin=your_groups
- Central Texas Commodore User Group (CTCUG) -- https://www.meetup.com/central-texas-commodore-users-group/
- Austin 3D Printing -- https://www.meetup.com/austin-3dprinting/?eventOrigin=your_groups
- Austin Physics for Fun -- https://www.meetup.com/physics-1/?eventOrigin=your_groups
- Austin FPGA -- https://www.meetup.com/austin-fpga-meetup-group/
- Austin Astronomy -- https://www.meetup.com/austin-astronomy-meetup/
- Austin Arduino and MicroController Meetup -- https://www.meetup.com/austin-web-mobile-electronic-club-for-beginners-experts/?eventOrigin=your_groups

(If you know of other groups interested in participating please get in touch.)

The purpose of this gathering is to build better communication between related meetups, foster community, brainstorm, and have fun!!!

Our default time-table is the morning of the 3rd Saturday of each month. The location will change each month, moving to a different part of Austin each time.

Please post the topics, questions, or other items of interest to you, that you'd like to discuss, in comments below.

Unconferences: A Better Way to Run Meetups (28/30) -- https://psychotechnology.substack.com/p/unconferences-a-better-way-to-run

Hope to you see you there, and don't be afraid to pass the word along :)

[1] BOOK REVIEW: The First Scientific American by Joyce E. Chaplin -- https://valdostadailytimes.com/2018/11/03/book-review-the-first-scientific-american-by-joyce-e-chaplin/

[2] Applied Cryptography (the red cover 2nd edition) -- https://www.schneier.com/books/applied-cryptography/

You do NOT need to sign up for this event. It is a placeholder only. You're welcome to read the comments and follow the links...

Just an FYI that there is no need to join this event unless you want to post a comment (abiding by the guidelines below). In most cases you would subscribe and make a comment and then unsub. The reason??? In a busy week there can be several dozen entries and you get an email for them, that's a lot of email notices.

Nature Nerds of Austin has this to say...

The purpose of this weekly update is to provide a collection point for whitepapers, book notices, videos, and other media that is interesting, groundbreaking, or has other relevance to the exploration of nature, also known as objective reality, and therefore impact on our future. An ancillary goal is to get you to participate in citizen science.

Feel free to respond to entries with your thoughts and supporting references. References should be primary, secondary, or survey papers, journals, or newly published books. Textbooks are acceptable, but are behind the current state of the art and should be used only with regard to clarifying the basic principles or currently accepted theory. In general, other sorts of documentation or media don't qualify as relevant.

References:

Nullius in verba -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullius_in_verba

Citizen Science -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_science
Citizen Science -- https://science.nasa.gov/citizen-science/
Citizen Science: Theory and Practice -- https://theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/
Citizen Science -- https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/citizen-science-article/

Richard Feynman -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman
"Ode to a Flower" -- https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/01/01/ode-to-a-flower-richard-feynman/
Trees Come 'From Out Of The Air,' Said Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman. Really? -- https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/09/25/161753383/trees-come-from-out-of-the-air-says-nobel-laureate-richard-feynman-really
The Character of Physical Laws (Part 1/7) -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3mhkYbznBk
The Feynman Lectures on Physics -- https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/

Outline of Logic -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_logic
List of mathematical logic topics -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mathematical_logic_topics
List of Fallacies -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies
Paraconsistent Logic -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraconsistent_logic

Scientific (or Rational) Skepticism -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_skepticism
Pantheism -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism -- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pantheism/ -- https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=001101905209118093242%3Arsrjvdp2op4&q=+Pantheism

Scientific Method -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method -- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-method/ -- https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=001101905209118093242%3Arsrjvdp2op4&q=+Scientific+Method

Socratic Method -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method
Socratic Questioning -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_questioning

E.O. Wilson -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._O.Wilson
Consilience -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consilience
Consilience (book) -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consilience(book)

Karl Popper -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper -- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/
Verisimilitude -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verisimilitude

The next three links are events that Nature Nerds of Austin presents a couple of times a year and are intended for somebody who has little to no experience with how to find information about a topic and how to focus their efforts for best return. The links are to past events.

How to (seriously) read a scientific paper - Hybrid -- https://www.meetup.com/nature-nerds-of-austin/events/299286968/?eventOrigin=group_calendar

Drinking from the Firehose! - Finding Current Sci-Tech News -- https://www.meetup.com/nature-nerds-of-austin/events/295744322/?eventOrigin=group_calendar

Investigating the Edge - Current Open Problems -- https://www.meetup.com/nature-nerds-of-austin/events/295763604/?eventOrigin=group_calendar

This next link is from an unrelated site that has a great (IMHO) description of the processes for beginners or a refresher for the experienced.

Rondam Ramblings (Blog) - A Clean-Sheet Introduction to the Scientific Method (Multi-part) -- https://blog.rongarret.info/2024/03/a-clean-sheet-introduction-to.html

Please post the topics, questions, or other items of interest to you, that you'd like to discuss, in comments below.

Unconferences: A Better Way to Run Meetups (28/30) -- https://psychotechnology.substack.com/p/unconferences-a-better-way-to-run

You do not need to sign up for this event. It is a placeholder only.

This is a personal challenge activity. If you have questions, need help, or want to organize with other members feel free to post comments below.

The International Meteor Organization has this to say...

The Ursids are often neglected due to the fact it peaks just before Christmas and the rates are much less than the Geminds, which peaks just a week before the Ursids. Observers will normally see 5-10 Ursids per hour during the late morning hours on the date of maximum activity. There have been occasional outbursts when rates have exceeded 25 per hour. These outbursts appear unrelated to the perihelion dates of comet 8P/Tuttle. This shower is strictly a northern hemisphere event as the radiant fails to clear the horizon or does so simultaneously with the start of morning twilight as seen from the southern tropics.In 2024, a half-illuminated moon will be present in the morning sky and will obscure the fainter meteors.

Shower details - Radiant: 14:38 +75.4° - ZHR: 10 - Velocity: 20.5 miles/sec (medium - 33.1km/sec) - Parent Object: 8P/Tuttle

Next Peak - The Ursids will next peak on the Dec 21-22, 2025 night. On this night, the moon will be 3% full.

Nature Nerds of Austin has this to say...

"Where is a good place to see the meteor shower?"

Good question, the darker the better. For the Austin area going either E or W will provide darker skies. I'd suggest looking at a light pollution map to help focus on areas as well.

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/ https://darksitefinder.com/

https://www.cleardarksky.com/maps/lp/large_light_pollution_map.html

https://djlorenz.github.io/astronomy/lp2006/overlay/dark.html

https://www.darkskymap.com/

Because meteor showers are pieces of rock and dust on an orbit that intersects Earth's orbit at some point in time and space the best time to pick as the middle of your observing window is 2am local. This is because of the way the sun, the earth, and the meteor shower interact. From sundown to 2am the light gets progressively darker and after 2am it gets progressively lighter until you hit sunrise.

You'll want a good low sitting chair that has a lot of lean back. You basically want to lay back and just stare at the sky unfocused until you see an event. They can last from very short blips to long streaks lasting several seconds. If you're lucky you'll see an air burst where a large bolide comes apart in a shower, they are extremely rare.

The best binoculars to use for stargazing are 25x70 but smaller ones will work. Larger ones have too much magnification and there is a lot of jitter just from your natural body motion so the image is not stable. Binoculars are not a lot of use for meteor showers.

The two best places to get basic information are IMO and AMS.

IMO Shower Calendar -- https://www.imo.net/resources/calendar/
AMS Shower Calendar -- https://www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/

Austin Astronomical Society (AAS) - They have many activities through the year. Consider becoming a member. -- https://austinastro.org/

You should also use Stellarium to help map out the date/time/and sky position of the expected source of the shower for a given date. BE ADVISED meteor showers are EXTREMELY UNPREDICTABLE. So don't expect to go out there and see something in the first 15 minutes. You could be out there all night and not see anything. Other nights you may get lucky and see a shower that has a high rate.

Stellarium has the ability to turn the screen red so you can keep it live if you have a laptop at your observing site.

Stellarium -- https://stellarium.org/

This is the monthly design status and update meeting. Participation is both in person and online.

Members of Austin Physics for Fun are now involved in the effort. -- https://www.meetup.com/physics-1/

The meeting will be held at a private makerspace, Diogenes. It is located in the same building as the adult club Colette Austin. The door is at the left end of the building, Suite C. Go to the back of the first floor workspace and head upstairs.

Please post the topics, questions, or other items of interest to you, that you'd like to discuss, in comments below.

Unconferences: A Better Way to Run Meetups (28/30) -- https://psychotechnology.substack.com/p/unconferences-a-better-way-to-run

Zoom meeting details will be posted about a half hour before the meeting begins.

HABEX - High Altitude Balloon Experiments

The reference to experiments is two-fold. The first is in regard to the actual balloon construction and flight processes. The second is a reference to the payload and what it does during the flight (e.g. images, environmental measurements, etc.). To be clear, there will be two design processes going on in parallel, the balloon proper and the payload. This initial flight is really focusing on the balloon to get that process pinned down and clearly defined. The initial payload should be simple (e.g. digital camera taking pictures).

One of the primary design considerations will be the use of CanSat techniques in the design and construction process. We may need to build a technology demonstrator for this (i.e. dummy payload) before the actual flight process.

CanSat -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CanSat

Design Process:

Design/Buy > Assemble > Test > Loop (Will it fly?) > Flight Plan

Meeting Sequence:

Pilot - Initial meeting (possibly two) to gauge interest and get first round of participants.

Design - Group responsible for the first four stages of the Design Process. - Multiple meetings.

Pre-Flight - Review process to date and verify readiness - Set the date of launch - Possibly two meetings

Launch - Two teams (Launch and Recovery)

Clean up - Launch team cleans up launch site and transitions to tracking and telemetry

Recovery - Recovery team (possibly several groups) chases the balloon and tries to stay ahead of it.

Post-Flight - Review, analysis, and release of flight report (including experimental results if any).

Flight Plan:

• Pre-Flight
• Schedule
• Assembly
• Launch
• Tracking
• Recovery
• Review/Release Results

Constraints:

• COVID 19
• Budget
• Resources/Tools/Facilities
• Legal (e.g. FAA rules about weight and number of modules)
• People
• Transportation