Fermi unidentified sources

The Fermi LAT collaboration has released a new skymap with more than 3 months of statistics. In the press release from NASA they point out a couple of unidentified sources as some of the most interesting ones in their point source catalog. One of them, 0FGL J1813.5-1248, is said not be have been seen by previous missions but after a quick search in Simbad, an existent gamma source is really close to the coordinates, take a look here

NEUTEL09

A great workshop on Neutrino Telescope is taking place at Venice, I was hoping to go but I didn’t have time (nor funding!) so I’m comforting myself with the excellent follow-up of the conference that Tomasso Dorigo is doing. Check out his blog and the webpage of the workshop.

The Galileoscope

What better way to celebrate Galileo’s first astronomical observations than using a telescope similar to the one that belonged to the great man? That’s the idea in the minds of the people behind the Galileoscope, the newly launched IYA2009 cornerstone project which features a cool 50 mm refractor that can be assembled easily and can be used to reveal the details of the moon’s craters, the rings of Saturn or the moons of Jupiter, just in the same way that Galileo did.

Although the original “galileoscope” is safely kept in a Tuscan museum, the IYA2009 model is just as priceless, as it can be used to open up the skies to virtually hundreds of thousands of people who have never enjoyed the pleasures of looking at the heavenly bodies through a telescope. And this all goes for the bargain price of $15 each, I might get one for myself!. Take a look at this video of the Moon shot with a galileoscope

Comet Lulin

Comet Lulin is becoming brighter and could even be visible to the unaided eye during the course of this week, when its brightness is expected to peak. I’ve been trying to take a look at it using binoculars with varying success, mainly due to poor weather conditions close to the Argentine Andes. The comet is now moving very fast wrt the stellar background, so even short time-lapse movies show its motion. Take a look at this nice video I found in youtube:

For a finder chart take a look here.

EDIT: I was able to take a look at the comet yesterday night through my binoculars and it actually was a good display. The tail and the anti-tail are easily visible and the proximity to Saturn offered a good setting. Of course, to the ones that remember McNaught (or even Hyakutake or Hale-Bopp) this comet would look a bit dull, but it is a very nice comet anyway, the thing is that we’re getting too lucky lately!!.

Welcome!

OK, so this is my first post. I’ll try to keep this blog updated with information on the field of astroparticle physics and other (not so) related topics, and if you think that this field won’t change you, don’t forget about this:

Enjoy!