The Raving Cartographers

I see, each user has to add it themselves. Just as well, I suppose.

I notice that the pub that I added is in the wrong place by a 100 yards or so. I now not to rely too much on Google maps for directions.

I added a couple places I've been to that are educational. I don't drink socially, and I doubt if I'll ever meet anyone here. And I'm homeless, technically (or addressless, at least), and so if I put a marker every place I ever was, NA would look like a mess of blue balloons.

[ubs]

I wonder how accurately they could predict the point of impact for an Asteroid. And how far in advance they could predict it. And if any of us would ever be on that inside scoop.

ubs or phil, is it possible to add a pop-up image? A link?

[ubs]

oldhippychick wrote

ubs or phil, is it possible to add a pop-up image? A link?

Hi OHC! In the description bubble you can put a link. I don't know about pics.

Edited to add

It seems you can ad pics if you use Picassa. The directions are here.

ubs wrote

I wonder how accurately they could predict the point of impact for an Asteroid. And how far in advance they could predict it. And if any of us would ever be on that inside scoop.

The hit location would be computed quite accurately, and with early-18th century science. Knowing the approximate mass and speed, damage assessments would be pretty accurate. How far in advance? Depends on when you see it. You only need a couple nights' data (depending on its trajectory, maybe a few weeks'), but it's a big sky up there, and even people hunting for comets can't scan all the sky all the time. Laptop programs can do the "blinking" humans used to do--that is, tell you, hey, this little dot here is moving relative to the rest of the sky in images on successive nights. Hubble and Mauna Loa/Chilean/other terrific ground-based telescope images for that section of the sky would immediately be called up for comparison, to get the trajectory.

Even the biggest 20 asteroids, seeable through my medium scope, are hard to pick out knowing exactly where they are (I have a computer program that tells me which they are, along with locations of non-secret unnatural satellites, comets, and much more). So you'd have to be a serious amateur to be the first to see a new asteroid, but by the time it was 18th magnitude or so, a number of amateurs would know. Its magnitude depends on several factors, where it is in relationship to the sun, its albedo, and its shape among them.

Soon after the first discovery (likely by an amateur or a sky survey like Sloane), everyone would know. That's part of the brilliance of the internet, that a thing like that would be in everyone's knowledge immediately. It's impossible to censor every single person who would post RA/dec for it. Every amateur astronomer with a semester of trig would re-calculate the impact point on her own. There's be plenty of bullshit spewed about it, of course, but plenty of accurate info. (I happened to be on line when 17/P Holmes broke apart last autumn, and I was out looking at it within 12 hours of its discovery. That it got discovered so soon is because serious amateurs spend a lot of time looking at stuff like unremarkable faint comets)

But the advance warning could be five years, one year, two days. A nasty bad asteroid or comet could be quite faint until it was right upon us.

You had to ask! I'd babble about astronomy all day long.

[ubs]

oldhippychick wrote

You had to ask! I'd babble about astronomy all day long.

No that's very cool that you know that. Do you tote a telescope around with you?

I was just noticing, like Smelly, that an asteroid hit would require the relocation of an insurmountable number of people. Anything that hit the West Coast would require relocation of all of California, Oregon, Washington AND Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and Colorado.

ubs wrote

No that's very cool that you know that. Do you tote a telescope around with you?

Yup. 8 inch classic Orion-brand Dob (classic in this case means not-motor-driven with computer object locator. I have to actually push it about to aim it and use maps to figure out what I'm looking at). Four eyepieces, one filter, a Barlow. An eight inch mirror means I'm limited to about 15th magnitude objects. By the time I could see the killer asteroid in it, the world would already be in a rioting panic.

Thanks for the link to the instructions. It has been so long since I coded in HTML, I'm struggling with it, (the corn palace really won't stay up there--it's just what I'm practicing with today), and I probably will give up before doing anything useful, but I'll keep fiddling this week.

Can we sticky this, if it isn't already?

[Philboid Studge]

I was thinking the same thing.

Which is why I put it in Comments, Suggestions ... where there are no stickies ...

[nkb]

Hey, Brits.

I apologize, but I think I accidentally deleted one of your markers in London.

[Eva]

stickied for your viewing pleasure.

[Philboid Studge]

oldhippychick wrote

I added a couple places I've been to that are educational. I don't drink socially, and I doubt if I'll ever meet anyone here. And I'm homeless, technically (or addressless, at least), and so if I put a marker every place I ever was, NA would look like a mess of blue balloons.

I didn't think I'd meet anybody either, and now I've been hugged or shaken or stirred by 15 Ravers. I'm not homeless so much as vagrant, so I get around.

Have you seen the sky.kml or Hubbleview layers on the map yet ?

[Philboid Studge]

Any Ravers in or near Salt Lake City (or eastern Utah)?

[Tenspace]

Didn't know about this. Good job, Phil. I added my link.

Remember, if anyone wants to vacation on the Redneck Riviera, let me know; I can get you awesome deals on beachfront condo rentals.