User talk:Mu301/Archive 2008

featured content
I just wanted to make sure that you know that Observational astronomy is featured content at Portal:Physical Sciences. Please make sure that the description there is coherent. --JWSchmidt 15:43, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

You could be more helpful if...
...you were a Custodian :). I'd be happy to serve as your mentor if you like: seems you're doing a lot of RC patrolling these days, and the tools really do come in handy from time to time. --SB_Johnny | talk 19:45, 1 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I agree. --McCormack 05:31, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Deletions and clean-up
I think it's great you are looking at all these weird pages and marking them for deletion. As part of the deletion process, we need to check what links to these pages and tidy up the links. The links need tidying first, because once the page is deleted, you can't use the "what links here" feature any more. I'm happy to help you with this if you like, but I'm waiting for you to get probationary status - I don't want to take away your chance of practising with those tools! --McCormack 05:31, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Custodianship
I've promoted you to probationary custodian. Good luck with tools. sebmol ? 12:51, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

New Courses?
I wanted to know where I could get information on designing a course on wikiversity, I am a consumer-student-activist who is working on my doctoral thesis in clinical psychology; my rather radical endeavor is to create an alternative behavior-social science called Recovery Psychology; the syllabus for the course that I want to place on wikiversity would be: although mostly just links to other sites and internet resources that I would say constitute a textbook or course materials with explanations of how it relates to the subject at hand...for example an outline like this:


 * What is mental illness? [Sociological]
 * 1) What is social deviance?
 * 2) http://www.geocities.com/tdeddins/deviance.htm
 * 3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deviant_behavior
 * 4) http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/200/intrdev.html
 * 5) What is conformity?
 * 6) 	Stanley Milgram Obedience to Authority about how easy the human mind bends to the will of perceived authority
 * 7) 	Solomon Asch about how people conform to group pressure and change their perceptions and behaviors
 * 8) 	Philip Zimbardo The Stanford Prison about how people fall in to assigned roles
 * 9) 	Jane Elliot: In the Eye of the Storm or A Class Divided about how people are quick to change their perception of others
 * 10) 	See Rosenhan below for a psychosocial lesson on the nature of psychiatric conditions
 * 11) 	Learned Helplessness
 * What is mental illness [Psychological]
 * 1) http://www.mental-health-matters.com/articles/article.php?artID=160
 * Etc, Etc, Etc...

Would that be allowed? Since the subject does not exist as a subject, although my arguementum would say it does exist as a thing with in itself although not yet releized by academics. Of course I would place a disclaimer statement that this an academic pursuit of an activist, but pretty much all the things I point at will be "considered to be authorities" I understand that your subject in astronomy not psychology, but no less you are a qualified academic for advisement (particularly here) --Recovery Psychology 03:03, 11 January 2008 (UTC) I had some of my work tagged as spam by a bot, do you think I should delete it?--Recovery Psychology 00:17, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Machine sound
I am having better results in the Wikimedia media player with this new file: Image:Punchcardsound2.ogg

Venus and Mercury
If you are the one who created the pages Venus and Mercury, I added a ton more information to the pages. --km 21:38, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Meteorology
hi i am an very keen on meteorology and weather forecasting...i have no proffessional degree nor professional knowledge about it; so i am just going to follow lessons...but i have a little bit experience about forecasting using models like gfs... i can share the web sites and some basic details of wether models.

thanks for the current lessons and waiting for other lessons(including forecasting meteorology)...

Image licensing
Hi, Mike. I saw you removed the public domain licence info on an image as a copyright violation. But now we're left with an image which has no licensing at all. So I'm wondering what the next step is ;-) (Delete; contact uploader, etc...)  --McCormack 07:00, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Hi Mike. Aah - your secret weapon is the User:Mu301/todo page! I felt you were up to something that had a system to it somehow, but from the edits I could see, it looked like the "unlicenced images" were just going to vanish into wiki-oblivion. Great stuff, Mike, and thank you for your excellent efforts to make WV a better place. --McCormack 07:02, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Observational astronomy lessons
I can't do it… I don't have the digital camera and a telescope. --km 01:41, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Liquid water on Europa
I could do it if I have the chance… --km 01:42, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Test edit
User:Daanschr says he can't post to your page. This is a test edit to see if I can. --McCormack 12:50, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Commons images
Hi Mike. The images from your to-do list that are already on commons should just be deleted... you should probably also resize on the page any that were uploaded for that reason (I'm still trying to find a help file on image sizing, but may end up just having to import one). I'll pick off a few if you don't have time. --SB_Johnny | talk 10:51, 18 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Oh, here it is: Help:Media Files. --SB_Johnny | talk 10:59, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Sandbox Server
Hi mikeu,

The sandbox server now has shell accounts. I'll setup a subdomain for you -- would mu301.sandboxserver.org do? Drop me a line at draicone at gmail dot com with some basic details of what you intend to do on the server, technical-wise (e.g. setup some PHP scripts, build a bot to upload captured images via SCP etc.).

Also let me know what password you want and what username you were hoping for. Finally, put a unique subject line in and some way for me to identify that it's you; a blank edit to your user page with that subject line will do, I just don't want to start randomly handing out shell accounts.

You'll get your own subdomain running Apache loaded with PHP, Perl and (I think) Ruby, maybe even Python (don't ask me, I don't run the server, I just stand there, look pretty and pay the bills). If you'd like to build a Jabber bot, I can hook you up with an account on the jabber server as well. I haven't really gone through your project much, but if you have any special technical requirements let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Draicone (talk) 11:46, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Europa
I edited the liquid water on Europa page. Thanks for the advise ☺. --km 02:41, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Introduction to computers
I finally got your notes, sorry it took me so long to notice. I am teaching a class, and I am trying to get them to check and document the copyright state of materials. I will pint them towards Commons. Andrew 04:40, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Astrophysics
Sorry, I've been caught up with offline work that I had forgotten to check these pages. I'm hoping to check back periodically. I agree with you about not separating Astronomy into both a School and a Topic. I belive it should be under the School of Physics (joint school). However, I still maintain that Astronomy and Astrophysics should probably be in the same topic page.

I agree that many people may be interested in Astronomy but I'm not sure if wikiversity is supposed to have the scope to cater for high school level and university level. Although, given that astronomy isn't taught at any high school (that I know of), I can see good reason for starting with very basic lessons.

Too many sub-topics on the current Astronomy topic page are 1) redundant and 2) heavily physics based. Could we just merge Astronomy with Astrophysics, kill the redundant place markers (courses/topics) and include a set of pre-university topics/lessons? Well, I know we could but I'm wondering if you or anyone else would agree with that line of logic. :-) Augustus 00:59, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Living on Earth
Hi! Can you please drop me a note, when the story about Ladd Obs. will be made and available online? I want to hear it, but as I know myself, I forget to check for it at radio's website. :) Thx! --Gbaor 06:32, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikimedian Demographics update
Hello Mu301. I'm writing because you requested a reminder about progress on Wikimedian Demographics. For the time being these will be about once per month.

Speaking of reminders, it turns out the template question isn't the most efficient way of coming up with a mailing list. If you want to recieve this message on another of your talk pages (or don't want them at all), please edit the list on Wikimedian Demographics/Reminders.

To update on progress so far, there have been somewhere around 50 respondents over the past month, with more trickling in slowly but steadily. There are 7 major surveys (or 12, depending on how you count them):
 * 1) The basic survey (about your participation in Wikimedia)
 * 2) The "geography" surveys (actually 6 of those, for each inhabited continent)
 * 3) The Operating System survey (still stubby)
 * 4) The Wikipedia survey
 * 5) The Commons survey
 * 6) The US presidential elections survey
 * 7) The sexuality and relationships survey

Only the geography surveys have had any major modifications since being originally posted (more countries were added to those).

Several new surveys have been discussed at Talk:Wikimedian Demographics, as well as other places within Wikiversity. A few that might be ready sometime in February include:
 * A survey about Women in Wikimedia
 * A survey about Wikibooks
 * A survey about Wikiversity
 * A survey about administrative issues (including cross-wiki topics such as CheckUser and "global blocking")
 * A survey about environmental issues
 * A survey about religion
 * A survey about international trade

If you have ideas for more surveys, please share them on Talk:Wikimedian Demographics. Thanks for your participation thus far, and we hope to see you soon! --SB_Johnny | talk 11:59, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

us currency
I don't know why, but I felt like adding pages about the currency of the United States of America. Take a look @ it.


 * 1¢
 * 5¢
 * 10¢
 * 25¢
 * 50¢
 * 100¢
 * $1 bill
 * $2 bill
 * $5 bill
 * $10 bill
 * $20 bill
 * $50 bill
 * $100 bill

Since I am a seventh grader, I go to school five times a week and another school on Saturday's so I have a lot of homework everyday. I don't have time for anything unless I don't have the homework. So that means I wouldn't be able to be doing the experiments on the Observational astronomy page. All I can do for now is to read the page.

-km 12:10, 10 February 2008 (EST)

Wikiversity:Candidates for Custodianship/Mu301 (full custodian)|custodianship
custodianshipThe 5 days period is over now. Did one of the b'cats contact you already about making you full custodian ? Erkan Yilmaz Wikiversity:Chat  18:44, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Welcome to the Bloom Clock!
Bloom Clock Hello, Mu301, and thanks for signing up as a contributor to the Bloom Clock!

To get started, all that you need to do is keep your eyes open for flowers on plants growing outdoors. Then, depending on how well you know plants, you can either try to find the plant using the global keys, or just check the master list where plants are listed by their scientific names.

Assuming you find a log page for the plant you saw, all that you need to do is click [edit] above the list of signatures, and add *~ on a new line below the last signature and above the line that begins with, which will make your signature appear on the profile page.

If you don't find a log page, just add an entry for the plant to the Master List using. Someone can then show you how to create a profile and log page for the plant.

If you don't know the name of the plant you saw, try asking on Bloom Clock/Unknown Plants using the template there. Photographs are very helpful, but if you don't have a digital camera, just give the best description you can and hopefully someone can identify it for you.

After you've logged 10 or more plants as flowering for your location, another bloom clock contributor will help you set up the categories and templates used to construct a key for your region, and try to match up your region to the global keys.

If you have any questions, ideas, or need something explained, please feel free to leave a message on my talk page, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!

(Apologies for the long-belated welcome message... finally got around to writing one!) --SB_Johnny | talk 09:26, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Re:Teaching with Technology
Thanks very much for these links, Mike! I had a very quick look (more deadlines to catch up with) at some of the work of Mark Tribe - some very interesting stuff there. I'd like to talk with him - perhaps a group voice chat session might be in order? Also, I taught a session a few weeks ago on wikis in education, in which I wanted to give an up-close look at Wikipedia, the result of which is at Inside Wikipedia (my slides are on LeMill for the moment). There are some readings in that page that might be relevant to your upcoming sessions - including a nice article on using Wikipedia to develop students' media literacies. In fact, this is something we could easily develop a pretty good course on... Cormaggio talk 13:51, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Re:
I've removed the deletion tag, however though is there a chance if you could tell me what I need to improve the content, or change. Terra Welcome to my talkpage 07:53, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Congratulations
Congratulations on being successfully elected "bureaucrat". --McCormack 08:28, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Username Change
Hi, Is it possible for you to change my username from User:Reedy Boy to User:Reedy, as i am having it changed on the english wikipedia, and want to get the rest of my accounts inline for the single user login

Thanks

Reedy Boy 14:03, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Hello, if you put your request at: Changing username also other bureaucrats see this faster. Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) 14:25, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Done, thanks - Changing_username Reedy Boy 14:41, 23 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Rename is done. --mikeu talk 16:46, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Reedy 17:20, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Licensing
If you'd like some input regarding Wikiversity talk:Licensing policy, I'm probably not the person you want to do it as I'm not intimately familiar with Wikiversity. As for the bot, I can probably be more helpful there. The state of your images (as of when my bot last finished operating) is that the untagged ones are categorized in Category:Images with unknown copyright status, and all uploaders have been notified. If there's something more you'd like done to them, just let me know. Best of luck. – Mike.lifeguard &#124; @en.wb 02:44, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Image:Test file.gif
This is tagged for deletion as Copyrighted material, in the edit summery you've stated that it shouldn't be deleted, as with copyright and other copyright status all images must provide the copyright status so that we know whether it is allowed on this site, if it isn't copyrighted please say so and use the correct tag. Terra 18:57, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

How to use R/Tutorials/Introduction
How to use R/Tutorials/Introduction Looks like I made a bit of mess in terms of losing the trail with that import, sorry. I was semi-conscious at the time of leaving a gap in the editing history, but not quite sure what to do. The content has subsequently been split into different tutorials (loading and plotting), so maybe on this occasion we can live with it. Had I thought through it more, it probably should have been imported to How to use R/Tutorials rather than How to use R/Tutorials/Introduction, then the sub-directory structure would lead to the content. Not sure if its possible to somehow redirect the import for wikibooks history to How to use R/Tutorials. But thankyou, because this learning experience will definitely help for next time. If you have any other thoughts on how this could/should have been done, please let me know. -- Jtneill - Talk 23:57, 11 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks, Mike. I've added a note to explain at the top of each of the subpages which can be shifted to the talk page once the content evolves. Yes, WBs wanted it left there, so they might expand. -- Jtneill - Talk 00:27, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Copyvios in Design for the Environment course
Hi Mike, I'm going through the many copyvios in the Design for the Environment course, and I noticed you added and then a copyvio flag on one image - how come? Cormaggio talk 16:32, 14 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes, thanks - I thought as much. :-) I've created Template:Db-unknowncopyvio - do you think it's redundant with Template:No license?. Cormaggio talk 10:35, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Right - we might do well to draft a page for face to face groups intending to use Wikiversity as a workspace - with copyright issues at the top in bold, blinking text. (Well, ok, we don't need blinking text.. :-)) Cormaggio talk 12:45, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for help with Design for the Environment
Mike, I appreciate your help and that of other custodians with the labeling of the reports with the DFE category. It's the first year that I'm doing this and hope that with time and experience everything will go better. --SRego 18:52, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Flowers?
Hi Mike,

Just wondering if you had blooms to log, and if you plan to keep logging generally. I ask because I'm going to have Mike.lifeguard do a template update within the next day or two, and need to know whether we need an entry field for Rhode Island :). --SB_Johnny | talk 15:58, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

I thought of you today :-)
Was wondering if you saw this show ? Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) PS: Tag a learning project with completion status !! 22:46, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Custodial flag for Remi
ping, Erkan Yilmaz uses the Chat (try) 16:50, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

subst
Hmm...I subst'ed the welcome template, but it had the unintended side effect of crediting me for the initial welcome. Maybe go back and sign your name over mine? Cheers, --HappyCamper 16:13, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Welcome
Hi Mike, thanks for joining the Learning from conflict and incivility project - looking forward to reading more on your narrative. Cormaggio talk 07:41, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

A random mascot
 Hello , we are the Baah and Bahh twins and we'd both like to welcome you to Wikiversity. While you sit back and explore Wikiversity, enjoy some of our fresh goat milk. You can help us learn by creating new learning resources or help us by improving the guided tours and other exploration tools. We look forward to seeing you around. Baaaahbye for now.

-- Jtneill - Talk - c 07:29, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

CheckUser access
Thank you for the heads up. Emesee 01:00, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you
. . . for the welcome! :) Xdenizen 01:12, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

CheckUser on Vandal?
Mike, have you been able to run (or request) a CheckUser on this morning's vandal?

Moulton 15:35, 3 October 2008 (UTC)


 * blocked indef and I believe that all the diffs have been rolled back or reverted. We currently have no local CU, so I will contact SBJ on how to proceed.  --mikeu talk 15:45, 3 October 2008 (UTC)


 * You might want to ask Alison if she thinks this is Grawp, one of the more notorious Uber-Trolls who has been marauding WMF-sponsored projects. —Moulton  16:51, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

American History
Can you delete Topic:History of the Americas and move Topic:American History? Geo.plrd 18:08, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

At commons now
That Florida class is showing up at commons:Commons:Administrators%27_noticeboard now, any help would be appreciated. MBisanz 00:51, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

inappropriate page locks
There's this one, too:   The Jade Knight (d'viser) 09:14, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Sockpuppets
There's this one, too:   The Jade Knight (d'viser) 06:46, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

Your revert
I disagree with your revert:. It is obvious that the added words do not address consensus specifically and only confuse what consensus is not by not being easily precise, which it can be. I rather you discuss such change more than to revert like you did. Dzonatas


 * The section is titled "What consensus isn't" and not "What consensus isn't and may be what it is," which obviously diverts from what it simply is not. That kind of 'diversion' is 'amusing', synonymously. Dzonatas 17:42, 25 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Acknowledge that you don't understand the intention to keep it simple and move everything else that quickly falls out of scope to the amusing section. Maybe it shouldn't be called the amusing section, but you could have made a more productive change than reverting me because you don't understand. Dzonatas 18:37, 25 October 2008 (UTC)


 * You made a lot of criticism towards me:, which was not justified at all. You stated you did not understand, so you could have asked me on my talk page to clarify. I have no problem to admit a mistake if something was not understood and taken the wrong way. You didn't give any chance for that before you reverted. It takes discussion to understand that first. If you still think I have some intent to be uncivil especially without any of your prior attempt at discussion, then may I suggest you take a wiki break. Dzonatas

Poor job
The way you worded your comments took me off guard, as I felt there was no need to use words like "you did a poor job," "you should...," and "border on uncivil." Today I read, "You should take your time and make edit summaries and edits that a reasonable person can understand without confusion." I felt you didn't criticize edit there at all. I hope you didn't mean to make me feel stupid over that comment. A reasonable person would have first talked about it to understand and suggest alternative. You expressed you don't understand. I tried to talk here with you, but you just tell me "you should." Dzonatas 18:11, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

A Unified Account
A unified account would really be nice! I intend to spend a good deal of time on WB getting that book right. Please let me know what information you might need to do this (if any).

Thanks again, for all your help, you've been very helpful.--Jolie 13:05, 27 October 2008 (UTC)


 * what I minute, I think I'm talking to the wrong 'mike'. Its mike.lifeguard I think that can get my setup with a unified account.  my bad. sorry.--Jolie 19:57, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

SUL
Don't worry, all accounts are using the same password and email address. I just decided to wait a while for the bugs to come out. Right now I am working to make sure that I have all accounts renamed. Geo.plrd 15:23, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Discussion on Mike.lifeguard's candidacy
Mu301, I have reverted your closure on the community review on Mike.lifeguard's candidacy, which is very premature, your comment "with near unanimous support" hides the fact that the discussion is clearly unfinished, the last comment being written even in less than 24 hours, with questions not yet answered. You can expect more wikiversians to voice their supports or oppositions as the discussion moves on. As has been said not so long ago, requests for custodial tools are not votes. Hillgentleman | //\\ |Talk 20:59, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

thanks for the astronomical advice, BTW I've done some astronomy too
thank you for your helpful entry on writing to our justification

'mayans forecasting the end of the world based on studying asteroids' is part of the sometimes ridicilous content of the WB book "US History"

by the way, I'm into amateur astronomy, as well. I have a 10" dob and we explore the relatively dark skies of NW Pennsylvania for the deepspace objects; galaxies, nebulas, clusters. I've also become rather interested in some lunar work and have been known to pick through the craters for the interesting stuff; rimae, rupes, and the like.

Is there observational astronomy content of wikiversity; have you ever done a course or a project?

I've spent a good bit of the summer fishing- but the season is passing. I will be ramping up for my favorite yearly ritual; the messier marathon (which like a rainy parade has been ruined year after year; by weather, work, you name it). I like the think tank idea and will lurk around waiting for a good opportunity to contribute.--Jolie 14:25, 23 October 2008 (UTC)


 * No imaging is a little beyond me. I am a pretty manual guy.  thought about a barn-door mount before.  didn't pursue it.  Observations is free and film and mistakes with film are not.  I'll look into your links.  I've played around with variable stars, before. I've also thought it might be cool to look into supernova.  I check out comets when I get the chance.  Their interesting objects and there seems to normally be a few around viewable with a 10" mirror.  We have two right now in the north, correct?  I've also done a little variable star work.  fine discrimination of reference stars is HARD!


 * I've been at times and places a sucker for challenges and have chased some of the tough stuff. stephens quartet is a favorite target.  the crescent nebula in the summer, some of the tougher planetaries, a few palomar globular (though most are beyond me).  the coma cluster and the one in perseus.  there's a long list.


 * Part of what hurt the excitement a little was moving to town. I went from 6+ skies to 5, with a little drive for good skies that still seems far with a telescope in the backseat.  But I'm definitely open for ideas.  I think a course that better explains things up there would be great!
 * --Jolie 15:25, 23 October 2008 (UTC)


 * I've added some content; the sky is awash in comets right now!

todays sky was that beautiful deep blue that has you anticipating some observing. Awesome! we should do so stuff together you and I. Do you like to oberve comets, there's some real neat ones around 17P is back and scwassman is in the late sky with the possiblity of outbursts.--Jolie 16:47, 23 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Hurray! I've accomplished one of my big achievements; to record a globular (or two) in a careful sketch of the Andromeda galaxy.  I've written a page about it here; Globulars_in_M31

The two comets near casseopia are tough under smalltown skies (5th magnitude)! nevertheless I nabbed them and will post observations soon.--Jolie 13:45, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Supernovae
I have stumbled into your supernovae page and I am a little confused; what would one do? do you have a reguarly imaging routine of galaxies. Is it possible to get raw images of current supernovae, make photometric measurements than report the values back? I had heard someone say the manipulating images are actually quite time consuming for many amateurs but I'm not sure I understand how I would make perform that analysis. is photometric software availabe as freeware??

--Jolie 17:48, 23 October 2008 (UTC)
 * hold up, I see some sort of procedure using aladdin in another page. I'm typing faster than I'm searching.

you know If I like doing this, I'm going to want more images :) --Jolie 18:01, 23 October 2008 (UTC)your jan 5 photo of ngc 105 loaded. I tried 'matching stars' and a calibration pane was created.  How do I find out what the value of the marked supernova is??


 * Its time consuming and a little confusing. I'm uncertain whether technique 1 or 2 is for photometric measurements of a local image.--Jolie 18:53, 23 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Yep I'm doing something wrong. Aladdin has got the 2mass and dss image for Ngc 105. I have

Requested course;

Astronomical imaging analysis and reduction (including utilizing online information) I have downloaded aladin. Astronomical calibration is definitely beyond me. --Jolie 21:44, 23 October 2008 (UTC)


 * I love it! Have you performed the calibration and are you planning to report it?
 * I've been remodeling the backyard astronomy page and thinking about new horizons in astronomy; I've been feeling that I need to give variable star work a second chance.--Jolie 12:36, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Backyard Astronomy
Lots of changes in backyard astronomy. I thought it wasn't very good advice for someone interested in doing some astronomy. Intend it to progress from initial experiences, too equiptment advice, to colloration and networking with other amateurs (such as you and I). Drop by and tell me what you think. As in the case of all my writing, I'm not as suncinct as I would like to be. hopefully over time, I'll improve much of my wording.--Jolie 20:00, 28 October 2008 (UTC)
 * aha, so you've undoubtably seen my fitful attempt to improve 'backyard astronomy'. Well, Hopefully I will have time to press on with it.  the last few days haven't seen much time to do anything.
 * But now what shall we do with 'stargazing'?? I'm glossing over with synonyms; when we 'stargaze' we are likely doing backyard astronomy (particularly if we are using a telescope).  While stargazing does seem to be an introductory peice on many different observing experiences outdoors.  it seems to short to do any of its subject justice and too indirect, to help a new or aspiring observer.
 * My efforts at backyard astronomy was to give (what I think) is good advice for beginning and aspiring observers. but somepeople might charge that my peice about 'backyard astronomy' omits that the topic backyard astronomy is about telescopic observation, yet my page advises the new observer to NOT buy a telescope.
 * This is from personal experience. People ruin the hobby, IMHO, by poorly purchased, junk scopes before they know what they are doing.  People are particularly fond of ruining the hobby for kids whom might not have the patience and temperiment for it at all.  the kids would be better visiting a planetarium or science museum.
 * It would be nice to organize the astronomy resources of this website, generally. I like to work on making sure all our resources are 'connected'.  --Jolie 20:12, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Images
really like M15c2. M15 is the one with the planetary, pease1 in it, Isn't it? Your exposure is just about perfect here! Last night was the first Lake effect snow storm of the year. 'Lake effect' is a almost untolerable curse to observing in NW Pennsylvania.--Jolie 11:54, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

Chemistry through astronomy
Following up on yesterday, I talked to my wife about it (and my mother-in-law), and they both really liked the idea, both saying chemistry was a really hard subject to stay interested in, but astrophysics is much more interesting. Like I said, hydrogen is probably the hardest one, but it's simple enough to explain and easy to remember in any case (atomic number 1, valence 1).

I got the idea from this show: http://www.astronomycast.com/astronomy/ep-107-nucleosynthesis-elements-from-stars/

I guess the idea would be to go through how each element is made in the star (avoiding too much of the actual math part of the physics), and then explain why the element behaves as it does according to how it was made and it's structure. A one element per week course would be nice to give people an "intimate feel" for each element, and start picking up the patterns of how they form compound molecules. The basic story could be used for a Wikijunior book, while the wikiversity project could focus more on a question-and-answer approach (updating the wikijunior book when a question/answer seems like it might make a young person even more excited about the element).

One thing I was a bit unsure about (from the show) was how neutrons become protons (or is it the other way around?), but that seems to be a central part of it. There's another ephisode I'm downloading now that's about that.

Thanks again for recommending the podcast... I'm hooked! :-). --SB_Johnny talk 12:36, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

Oh by the way, let me know if you can think of a better name for this... I'd like to develop it through the think tank. --SB_Johnny talk 13:36, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

I'll be interested to see what comes out of this. Nuclear chemistry isn't my specialty but as a chemist and an amateur astronomy, I have a little background.--Jolie 12:39, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Image license
Hi Mikeu! I am tiding up the image ns and I have found some of your pictures, such as this: Image:06rsMU C200701022326.jpg. Could you double licence them GFDLxcc (e.g. CC-SA-BY 3.0)? GFDL is not a free licence for media.--Juan 00:01, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Watching with interest...
Hiya Mike. I've been watching those projects with interest (the NEO one too), but still busy getting things done before the freeze. As far as what I'd like to learn, it's really more about what I can tell 'lil SB about what we see in the sky in the evening or early morning, so mostly planets in relation to the moon.

BTW, the computer I had been using for IRC is in the shop (RAM chip blown). Taking the opportunity (excuse) to live IRC-free for a while :-). --SB_Johnny talk 22:53, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

Busy organizing
Here's what I was thinking. Could you enter some of your information into internet astronomy? I can see that in the past in an effort to drum up projects and activity that you and others looked to astronomical projects that could be entirely done on the internet.

I'm going to generally struggle to define much around imaging/ CCD work, etc. yet this has always been a little more interest here. talk to you later.--Jolie 16:56, 6 November 2008 (UTC)


 * I've been working on some beggining skygazing content. I intend to make a beginners astronomy course out of it. the geist of it, is if, by taking some of my advice- a beginner can learn the constellations and become interested in astronomy.


 * I've watched a lot of beginners waste money on cheap scopes ;)--JoliePA 20:55, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
 * This is now developed enough for an adventerous wikiversity participant to attempt Initial_experiences. feel free to tidy things up, I now things are a little roughly said.--JoliePA 20:48, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

Happy holidays
Have a happy holiday and take care. I hope everything goes well. :) Ottava Rima (talk) 06:14, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

import
Thank you i have already done so. The talk page import is unnecessary70.24.79.253 14:43, 30 December 2008 (UTC)