Quick Note For The Weekend

"I have never gone out of fashion. And do you know why? Because I never sought it. When you don't seek it, it's always with you." -Bonnie Tyler

Well folks, it's summer, and that means a lot of things for a lot of people, including for me! So, some fun announcements:

I have an official pre-release poster! Image credit: Quarto Publishing.

My new book, Treknology, is coming out soon and I'm big into preparing for that right now! The design is finalized, I should be getting my first preview copy this coming week, and I've just gotten my tickets to attend the official Star Trek convention in Las Vegas. If you'll be around August 3rd or 4th (the Thursday or Friday), come and see me there!

32 images of the 2016 eclipse were combined in order to produce this composite, showcasing not only the corona and the plasma loops above the photosphere with stars in the background, but also with the Moon's surface illuminated by Earthshine. Image credit: Don Sabers, Ron Royer, Miloslav Druckmuller.

The total solar eclipse is happening, and I am doing everything I can to prepare! On August 9th, those of you in and around Portland, OR, should head on out to the Kiggins Theatre, 1011 Main Street in Vancouver (yes, you have to go to the 'couve!) and check me out, giving a talk on everything you need to know for Science On Tap!

A composite image of a large number of Perseid meteors during the 2007 shower. Image credit: Fred Bruenjeis of http://www.moonglow.net/.

And as exciting as these events are, don't forget about the night sky, too. The Perseid meteor shower is coming, and it promises to be a great one this year for two reasons: because it peaks on the weekend of August 11th, 12th and 13th, and the Moon will be in its waning gibbous phase! This means you'll have about an hour or two of real darkness, after sunset, on Friday and Saturday (and Sunday) nights, when the shower is at its peak, to go out and gaze at the skies before the Moon rises. It should be a great sight regardless of meteors, but with a predicted rate of one or two every minute during the peak, you can expect a much better show than previous years have brought.

The radiant of the Perseids, where you can expect the meteors to originate from. Basically, after sunset, look to the northeast, and up, and enjoy. Image credit: created by me using Stellarium, available free at http://stellarium.org/.

So no comments of the week this week, because even I get to take a quick vacation sometimes. If you need something fun to carry you through until then, please enjoy the following video, which may be the greatest 7 minutes of music ever to appear on YouTube.