Desperately seeking constellations? Part III

This is the final post on the topic till Thursday. Following advice in the comments, I’ve put up this diagram on the Slooh forum which should have some eager amateur astronomers. I don’t know what the feedback will be like, so I’ve decided to put up the poll here too. If the poll is active then over on the right you should see the an astronomical graffito from Pithekoussai. If you’re familiar with constellations then I’d appreciate it if you could select the most likely constellation from the options given. You’re welcome do discuss what you think it is, but I’d be grateful if you vote before you read the comments as I’d like your opinion, rather than your opinion of someone else’s opinion.

On Thursday morning I’m giving the talk at NAM, and the plan is to hyperlink to this site and the Slooh site to see if there’s an obvious winner. I have a growing feeling it’s going to torpedo my pet theory which might make the concluding comments interesting. Sadly you won’t get to see my embarrassment, but there is a consolation. You’ll be able to see a version on the web from midday Thursday.

Natalie Bennett asked why aren’t academics using things like Skype to create their own podcasts? Clanger got it right in the comments noting that the biggest barrier: “most of all, you need to understand what it is.” I hadn’t paid it any attention because I simply thought of it as telephony and I hate being telephoned. After some investigation I found that for various reasons it can’t happen yet at Leicester. However, we do have a Breeze server which we can use. If you have a Flash plug-in (well over 95% of people do) then you should be able to watch a PowerPoint slide show with me narrating over it.

Depending on feedback there may be more seminars to follow. We try to have monthly seminars for a general science audience which could be recorded as they’re given. I can’t promise anything soon though as I’m the most junior member of the i-sci department (just below the lab mouse) and by the time it’s agreed to produce more it’ll be summer and we’ll all be off on fieldwork.