There aren't many opportunities to link baseball to astronomy, but here's a cool one I found out about this morning from the Universal Hub blog that I check daily (OK, a few times a day).

Tom Guilmette, a cameraman for the local sports network, NESN, used the mount from a computer-controlled Celestron telescope to shoot some time-lapse movies of Fenway Park before and during games of the 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox.

You'll find one here. And another one here. And a third one here. Or, just browse Guilmette's videos on the site.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did, even if you're not a member of Red Sox Nation.

Update: The videos were pulled off the site linked to above on May 1st. Sorry. You can still check out the photographer's website and see some photos of the camera/mount setup.

NASA astronomer and eclipse expert Fred Espenak has let us know that you can get yourself a printed copy of Total Solar Eclipse of 2009 July 22, the official NASA technical publication about this upcoming event. It's filled with details about where, when, and what meteorological conditions to expect along the path of totality that will cross India, China, and the Pacific Ocean.

While the document is available as a PDF file from the Web page for the 2009 eclipse, if you want to be old school and have the 74-page book, all you need to do send Fred a large envelope with the proper postage on it. Details are available at that same link.

This eclipse is a member of Saros 136, in the same family as the "Big One" on July 11, 1991, which I was fortunate enough to see from La Paz, Mexico. It remains the only total solar eclipse I've seen, but it was a great one.

Perhaps you'd like to complete your eclipse-bulletin collection for your home library? Past ones are available too, including the bulletin for this year's total eclipse in August.

Also, if you have NASA's Eclipse Web Site in your bookmarks and haven't been there in a while, note that the URL has changed to "eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov." The old addresses don't work now.

Google Inc. released a new version of Google Earth this week (Version 4.3 Beta) that, of course, has some new features.

It will now display sunlight, so that you can see the dark and illuminated portions of the Earth, as well as make cool vistas when you turn on the 3-D buildings. But the most time-wasting aspect is that it now incorporates the Street View capability from Google Maps — and the images are more detailed. I can almost see in the windows of my house.

On the Google Sky front, telescope-maker Celestron announced yesterday that they will be providing audio clips from their SkyScout Audio Tours. After invoking Sky mode with the Saturn icon, you'll find tours in the Layers menu under Sky Database > Education Center. Currently, the audio clips are very brief identifications of constellations. More to come soon, I presume!

Also new in the Education Center is the Virtual Tourism layer, which is fun to browse. It has a smattering of astronomy related YouTube videos.

One aspect of astronomy that we don't touch upon much in Sky & Telescope is navigation. Using the Sun, Moon, and stars to determine your location on the planet and chart your course was vitally important to early explorers, sailors, and aviators. Now, not so much. Technology has given us the Global Positioning System, which is amazing, providing you have electricity to power your GPS receiver.

If you're interested in this largely overlooked sibling to stargazing, you might be interested in a workshop this June to be held in Mystic, Connecticut. Long-time online acquaintance Frank Reed e-mailed me this week and told me about the weekend conference he is organizing.

"Navigation Weekend," the second such program he's planned, will be held June 6–8 at the planetarium at the historic Mystic Seaport. If you're hot stuff with classical navigation methods, or just have an interesting experience, consider giving a presentation. As Reed notes, "This year we're focusing on longitude by lunar distance observations, as well as the 50th anniversary of the modern Nautical Almanac."

For details see Reed's information page.

I'm not sure I'll head down for the special weekend, but I've been meaning to go back to the Mystic Seaport. I was there once with my grandmother, perhaps 35 years(!) ago. It's been on my list of day-trip places for a while. I wish I was there today — it's Pirate's Day!

Over the weekend I checked out Hulu.com. It's the new video-on-demand service that's a partnership between NBC Universal and Fox.

I was curious if I could access it through the Web browser built into the Playstation 3. That way, I figured, I could watch various shows on demand on my living room TV. (Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot?! Wow, I haven't even thought of that one in decades.) Alas, no dice. It requires the Flash Player 9 plug-in, which the PS3 browser doesn't have — yet.

As I was poking around the shows available on Hulu, I discovered that they have reports from CNET TV. A recent one featured Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope. So if you want to know a little more about this forthcoming product, here's the direct link to the video on Hulu. Otherwise, go to CNET TV and search for it. (Hulu's version is better quality.)

On Sunday, I caught Super Comet: After the Impact on HD Theater, a Discovery Production from last year. I missed the first 15 minutes or so, but I tuned in for the good parts when a big comet strikes the Yucatan and does a good job of wiping out humanity — fireball, tsunami, ash fall, global winter, etc. It's a good show with nice special effects. It has real scientists discussing how they know what would happen, if it ever does again. There were a few "duh" moments, such as once when the screen said "Mauna Lea" instead of "Mauna Kea." It will be on HDT again March 29th at 2 p.m. EDT. It's also available on DVD, so you can get it from Netflix.

And finally, from the Sunday funnies, I couldn't help but find unintentional humor in "The Family Circus." Why, pray tell, are Dolly and Grandma up and fully dressed at about 5:00 in the morning? They didn't seem gussied up enough for Easter sunrise services. Bil Keane got the right orientation for a waning crescent in the Northern Hemisphere (not that this was the actual phase on Sunday), but I don't think he considered what time it would be visible.

As if you didn't need something to take up your time this weekend, as I just found out via the Google Maps Mania blog that Google released a version of Google Sky via a Web interface yesterday, much like Google Maps.

You can display the sky in visible light, infrared, microwave, and more. You can also select from image categories to see what celestial objects look like from orbiting telescopes. If you want the full multimedia experience, listen to an Earth & Sky podcast too.

But, boy, you need to be patient for all the stuff to load. And it seems to get confused if you move around too quickly and change settings. "No imagery" errors were frequent, and to fix the appearance, sometimes you needed to zoom in, not out. And as with Google Earth, the sky still has problems near the poles. Like my reactions to earlier incarnations of Google Sky: it's a good start! It needs some touch-up though.

And durn it all! What a day to forget to bring my iPod touch to work! I want to see how it works on that.

Lawyers can be such a pain. Because of people worrying about name and trademark confusion, Attilla Danko's fabulously useful weather-forecasting tool has officially changed names to Clear Sky Chart. Please make a note of it. You can read the gory details of Danko's decision on his FAQ page.

While it's a shame that he had to be bothered by such machinations, users are barely affected. Because Danko never used "clock" as part of the URL, all the thousands of links in browser bookmarks and on home pages of astronomy clubs will still work.

While it still isn't formally released yet, today Microsoft presented its first general-purpose astronomical software at the prestigiousTED Conference. The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a doozy of a program. It will be a free Internet-based sky-charting program for Windows that's an interesting amalgam of desktop-planetarium, telescope-control, and presentation software.

The developers bristle when anyone compares it to Google Sky, but it is kind of like it. And when Sky was announced last year, it stole some of WWT's still-in-development thunder. I alluded to WWT in my blog and in my Astronomy Online column in the December 2007 issue of S&T, but that was all I could say about it at the time.

WWT has its origins in the "virtual observatory" concept, in which various datasets — stars, object catalogs, and sky surveys at various wavelengths — could be compiled into one enormous mass of astronomical information that astronomers could sift through and display selected portions. WWT sprung up from the foundations of Microsoft's TerraServer, a mapping utility incorporating aerial and satellite imagery that I noted eight years ago.

I first learned about WWT last year after contributing editor Gary Seronik saw developer (and amateur astronomer) Jonathan Fay demonstrate an early version at the Table Mountain Star Party. Over the next few months, Fay and Curtis Wong, the principal researcher for Microsoft's Next Media Research Group, had several conversations with me and Rick Fienberg about the software's potential. We were given an "alpha" version of the software. I haven't used it much, however. At the moment, WWT doesn't play well with the video on my work computer.

Besides being a sky browser that will connect to your telescope, WWT will also make it easy to create "tours." You can incorporate pictures, voice, and sound to make programs like PowerPoint presentations. Clearly this aspect has a lot of potential.

When I read the rumors of the TED announcement, I had hoped that perhaps a beta version of the software was ready. But no... you'll have to wait a little longer before you can play with WWT yourself. Until then, you can get a tad more information from the FAQ at the WWT site and watch this presentation from the TED Conference.

Hmm. I have a few things to catch up on, I guess.

Good news for me is that my cable company (Comcast) now has the Sci-Fi Channel in high definition. And, thank the Lords of Kobol, those at the channel seem to properly understand the issue of aspect ratio. All my friends already know my pet peeve about HD channels not showing programs correctly. Sometimes a show or commercial is stretched or squashed to fit the screen. This is the main reason I haven't been watching The Universe on the History Channel, because I'm tried of round planets and stars looking like eggs and scientists with fat heads.

Anyway, apparently the broadcasters at the Sci-Fi Channel know what they're doing, probably because the channel is owned by NBC Universal. Now Stargate: Atlantis looks better. Can't wait for Battlestar Galactica to resume!

In other personal news, I bought myself an early birthday present two weeks ago: an iPod touch. It's the iPhone without the phone, and it works great. The Wi-Fi capability is very cool. I can receive and send e-mail and use Google Maps. And even though I'm cellphoneless (shocking, isn't it?), I can still use my iPod to contact people via phone by sending them text messages via e-mail.

The iPod's Web browser lets me check Clear Sky Clock and can run some of our interactive observing tools. You can save a bookmark as a touch-screen icon for easy access. I have the Moon phase one as a button on my home screen. Hopefully software developers will write new mini programs soon.

Of course, now that I finally have an MP3 player, I'm using the iPod for iPoddy things, like downloading and listening to podcasts more regularly. I've brought myself up to date with Astronomy Cast and the Onion News Network. I'm eager to find more media to listen to while walking to work, or to watch while eating a meal when out by myself.

Just in case you hadn't noticed, there have been a few changes to SkyandTelescope.com in the past week or so.

I'm sure everyone is relieved that you'll no longer see my photo on the home page. Since I'm the only person writing a stand-alone blog now, it was deemed acceptable to rearrange the home page. If something I write merits wider visibility, it will be included in our News Blog. If it's just something minor, like a YouTube video, you'll find it just in Astronomy Online in our Sky Blogs section, which will go out on the RSS feed and be included in Friday's Weekly Bulletin.

In more significant news, we now have an even dozen interactive observing tools, the Web-browser-capable programs that can aid in your Moon-, planet-, and stargazing. The latest one calculates the position of Neptune's largest moon, Triton.

Finally, the utility that lets you browse our Hobby Q&A section has been revamped. We hope you'll find it more useful.

If you're used to seeing variations of Google Maps on everything from real-estate websites to Wi-Fi hotspot listings, the reason is because Google opened up the software to Google Maps with an API, which means "application programming interface." It allows software developers interact with Google Maps and use it to create new tools.

Recently Google added a star map to the API (similar to the Sky capability to Google Earth) and we now have our first use: Keir Clarke's Star Viewer.

Although basic, it's a start. It has no identifiers on the map (labels, coordinate lines, constellation figures, etc.) other than some boxes that represent details about certain celestial objects, which are listed along the left side of the window. Zoom in on one and click on it to bring up a YouTube movie from the European office for the Hubble Space Telescope.

Just a hint of things to come, I'm sure.

Usually when science and Hollywood meet, science loses. Moviemakers don't let the facts of physics get in the way of trying to craft a compelling story. How wrong movies can be pretty much launched the career of the Bad Astronomer, who has broadened to be science popularizer and all-around skeptic.

On Wednesday evening, science and Hollywood met again at MIT, where physicists Max Tegmark and Edward Farhi talked about the realities of teleportation in regards to the upcoming movie Jumper, which opens on February 14th. Maybe that alone wouldn't draw much of a crowd (well, it might at MIT), but with starring actor Hayden "Darth Vader" Christensen and director Doug Liman also in attendance, then it should get interesting.

The program included a press conference with just the physicists, then a "red carpet" arrival of star and director for the local media, then the main event of showing several scenes from the movie followed by a Q&A period.

The premise of the movie is intriguing: A teenager discovers that he can teleport himself at will. Who wouldn't want to do that?! I loved the novel The Stars My Destination when I read it for a college lit class. Many a time I've been driving through Connecticut and thought back to that book and wish I could instantly teleport me and car the 100 miles from one end of I-84 to the other. I could picture every part of the road in my mind.

To boil down all the science, teleporting one particle has been done. Teleporting a substantial object is theoretically possible, but practically impossible. The physicists gave a very brief summary of how quantum mechanics is involved.

There was a good mix of questions that included ones about moviemaking, acting, and physics — plus a couple of personal ones, of course (someone had to ask Christensen to a party and another to go on a date). Liman looked a little befuddled by the event, but how would he not given that he said he had just finished editing the film?

Unfortunately we didn't get to hear all the discussion and witty comments by the panelists. Acoustics weren't that great in the auditorium so some laugh-generating questions and comments from the peanut gallery weren't heard. And sometimes the panelists made unheard comments while the crowd was laughing. Oh well. It was a fun evening of being part of the Hollywood promotion machine.

On Wednesday, Frank Taylor noted on his Google Earth Blog that "Google Sky" has some new features. Just launch Google Earth, switch over to the Sky mode with the far-right icon on the top toolbar, and explore the new layers.

Sky now had a lot more information on objects from a variety of telescopes, including the Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes. So there are many more icons to click on the sky.

My favorite addition is the new layer for historical sky charts. You can turn on an overlay of ancient constellation figures from Johannes Hevelius's star atlas. Readers of Sky & Telescope and Night Sky are probably familiar with these pictures because we use them frequently.

A second choice in the Historical Star Map layer is a 1792 celestial globe by Jean-Dominique Cassini (see image below), provided by map collector David Rumsey, who has an interesting site about old star maps.



Note that since this layer is from a globe that would be "looking down" on the sky from beyond, when it's mapped so that we're looking out from Earth, the rendition is reversed from the original. Thus all of Cassini's labels are backward.

Finally, I don't think it's a new change in this recent update, but the cursor position reads in R.A. and Dec.

Do you still SETI@home? I do a little. I still have the BOINC program installed in my home computer and it runs in the background while I'm actively at my computer reading blogs or checking my checking account. But when I step away from my computer for an extended period, I put it to sleep, suspending any SETI-related number crunching.

A press release we received late yesterday says that new radio data will be incorporated into the SETI@home analysis bin, and that people are still needed to sift through it all. I guess there have been a lot of people like me who jumped on the bandwagon years ago, but for one reason or another let participation slip.

I'll help, but in these days of being "green" and trying to save energy and money, I'm not keen on leaving my computer running all day long. So, SETI@home will get a mere couple of hours a night out of me. What about the rest of you? Do you leave your computers running all the time?

My PlayStation 3 has the capability of doing such distributed computing with the Folding@home project built in. I haven't signed up because I'm definitely not leaving that game console on 24/7 because that beast can get HOT, clearly sucking up a lot of juice. I probably use the PS3 less than my computer.

On the other hand, SETI@home was one program that I didn't restore when I got my new work computer. I should reinstall it and add another 45 hours a week — if I can find the e-mail with the old login code for "Bob!"

---

Update: Oh well, I guess Bob! will have to stay retired. I can't seem to resurrect him. But, my work computer is back BOINCing again. If you decide to do likewise, there's still an active Sky & Telescope team you can join. It's currently No. 146 of the "Top None Teams" for total processing credits. Woo hoo.

The December 21st issue of Science had a note about a YouTube video that definitely needs wider expsoure.

So go watch.

Like you had better things do to on the last Friday of 2007?