Cause I can't remember where I filed it last time

Heavens Above for checking out visable comets, satelites etc.
vonstassburg, if it is Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 you were wondering about (don't know if that is the one breaking up), unfortunately it appears to be northern hemisphere and fairly faint (currently 8th magnitude with 6th magnitude being the nominal naked eyeball cut off).
edit: More info and pretty pictures at the Bad Astronomy Blog.

Additional current comet info:
Gary W. Kronk's cometography.com: Current Comets
Weekly Information about Bright Comets

WRT Southern Hemisphere stuff, check Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand. Some of their stuff is a little out of date though. Though the RASNZ conference for 2006 (in New Plymouth) has David Levy as guest speaker (remember Shoemaker-Levy 9?). Also the new director of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). 30th June - 2 July. I wont be making it over but others may be interested.

(no subject)

Yay!!!!! The hot water heating system is making funny gurgling noises and actually starting to radiate heat. This means it is now working. Yay to being warm. The reverse cycle air conditioning can be set to warm the place but once the air temperature outside rises above 15 degrees, it no longer heats. And half the building has to agree to the same setting. But, now the one person around the place who knows how to work the main heating has returned from holiday and there are now happy warm astronomers... as opposed to cantancerous cold ones wandering the coridors in heavy coats and muttering. No more CPU intensive calculations on the laptop just to heat the room up... (OK, I don't think anyone got that desparate).

So, soon I will ditch the extra wool jersey and open the window to moderate the temperature.... but until then... bask...

Who, me, leaning up against the heater and falling asleep while reading journal articles?

Model M5L20000ngc_857 has proven itself to be insufficiently different to M4L20000ngc to solve the solar abundance problem (she just ain't supposed to be that metal rich). Time to play with HV11303 instead.

Birthday card 2006

For years Mum has been sending electronic birthday etc cards with cool medieval images. This years one is no exception, except before I could even send the querry, she sent the details from where she got the image. I think she has gotten used to my pestering for sources and references...:)
( Thumbnail sized picture behind here )