I’ll be doing another live video chat starting at 3:00 p.m. Mountain Time (21:00 UT) on Sunday May 18 (barring my dumb dog lacerating herself again). If you look below and see/hear me whining about my camera not working correctly, then you’re good. I urge you to go to the UStream page, though, so you can participate in the chat room (or find/use an IRC client you like; the server is chat1.ustream.tv and the room is #bad-astronomy). If you want to change your nickname there, type "/nick Maffeo Barberini" (or whatever) in the text field.

The live video chat has to be postponed today until 4:00 Mountain time; my dog Canis Minor had a small injury that required stitches, and I’m not sure I’ll be back from the vet in time to start the chat at 3:00. It’s possible it won’t go off at all today if it takes longer to get her than expected. I’ll have an update soon. But just in case, below is the info you need to participate, as usual.

If you look below and see/hear me jawing about astronomy or Doctor Who, then you’re good. I urge you to go to the UStream page, though, so you can participate in the chat room (or find/use an IRC client you like; the channel is chat1.ustream.tv and the room is #bad-astronomy). If you want to change your nickname there, type "/nick David Tennant" (or whatever) in the text field.

Note: THIS HAS BEEN POSTPONED AN HOUR.

I’ll be doing another live video chat starting at 3:00 p.m. Mountain Time (21:00 UT) on Sunday May 11. If you look below and see/hear me jawing about astronomy or Doctor Who, then you’re good. I urge you to go to the UStream page, though, so you can participate in the chat room (or find/use an IRC client you like; the channel is chat1.ustream.tv and the room is #bad-astronomy). If you want to change your nickname there, type "/nick David Tennant" (or whatever) in the text field.

During the live video chat on Sunday, I was asked a good question: why don’t nebulae, gas clouds in space, dissipate? What holds them together?

Here’s my answer:

The basic answer is: gravity. The clouds aren’t like clouds on Earth, or balloons filled with air; nebulae are immense objects with vast amounts of mass. Their own gravity holds them together, and can even cause them to collapse and form stars. And wouldn’t you know it, this goes against claims made by creationists that stars can’t form from gas clouds, so I included that as well in the video.

The images in the video, if you’re curious, are of the Orion Nebula (seen here too), very young stars forming in the Orion Nebula, and an artist’s drawing of a young planetary system still forming.

My live video live chat starts at 3:00 p.m. Mountain Time (21:00 UT) today (Sunday May 4). If you look below and see my big head, then you’re good. I urge you to go to the UStream page, though, so you can participate in the chat room. If you want to change your nickname there, type "/nick Catherine Tate" (or whatever) in the text field.

One thing that amazes me about Boulder is the capricious weather. April 30 was very warm, and after an 8 km bike ride I was exhausted and sweaty. The next day… well, see for yourself.

I do so love it here. When I left Maryland in 2000 to move to California, it was 22 Fahrenheit outside with piles of snow everywhere. Besides a light dusting the first winter there, I don’t think I ever saw snow in California and I certainly didn’t miss it. It’s nice to be able to enjoy it again, even if this May Day snowfall is probably it for six month or more.

And hey, this is my 50th video uploaded to YouTube! Cool. Literally.

I’ll be doing another live video live chat starting at 3:00 p.m. Mountain Time (21:00 UT) on Sunday May 4. I’ve been having some troubles of late with it, so I’m doing some fooling around with the software, but things should be working by Sunday. Check back here on on the blog Sunday shortly before 15:00 MT and I should have things working.

And have some questions ready!