A Protocol for Evaluating Lighting Practices and Light Pollution in Coastal Locations

Light pollution around the world is rising due to increased use of artificial light and poor lighting practices. To promote better lighting practices in Puerto Rico, our team developed a program to measure light levels and evaluate lighting practices in coastal regions. This program was applied in one coastal community. Our findings were used to provide recommendations to educate community members and promote voluntary cooperation with current lighting regulations

Camera Shake Removal With Multiple Images Via Weighted Fourier Burst Accumulation

Blur introduced in an image from camera shake is mostly due to the 3D rotation of the camera. This results in a blur kernel which is non uniform throughout the image. Hence each image in the burst is blurred differently. Various experiments were done to find the deblurred image either with single image or with multiple image. In this paper we analyze multiple image approaches, which capture and combine multiple frames in order to make deblurring more robust and tractable. If the photographer takes many images known as burst, we show that a clear and sharp image can be obtained by combining these multiple images. Also for this work the blurring kernel is unknown (blind) and also it is not found. The methodology used here is Fourier Burst Accumulation which performs a weighted average in Fourier Domain where the weights depend on Fourier spectrum magnitude. In simple words the method can be generalized as Align and Average procedure. Experiments with real camera data and extensive comparisons, show that the proposed burst accumulation algorithm achieves results faster

Mary Somerville and Margaret Huggins: a collaborative voice at the embryonic stages of nineteenth-century astronomical specializations

"This dissertation investigates the authorial presence of two practitioners at the embryonic stages of two specializations in nineteenth-century astronomical research. Mary Somerville used prismatic analysis to separate solar rays and Margaret Huggins applied photography to spectrum analysis. How these scientific persons wrote about their experiments and outcomes in scientific papers will be assessed. My work will demonstrate that both Somerville and Huggins wrote most effectively in a collaborative voice although they wrote for different audiences. Their voices linked their own work with that of their peers as spectrum analysis provided a more ""intimate"" way to look at the stars.

Activities in planetary geology for the physical and earth sciences

A users guide for teaching activities in planetary geology, and for physical and earth sciences is presented. The following topics are discussed: cratering; aeolian processes; planetary atmospheres, in particular the Coriolis Effect and storm systems; photogeologic mapping of other planets, Moon provinces and stratigraphy, planets in stereo, land form mapping of Moon, Mercury and Mars, and geologic features of Mars

Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society, Vol. 76, No. 1

Editor\u27s Note (Curtiss Hoffman) Testing the Stockpiling and Field Stone Clearing Pile Theories (Mary E. Gage) Evidence of a Native American Solar Observatory on Sunset Hill in Gloucester, Massachusetts (Mary Ellen Lepionka and Mark Carlotto) The Restorative Hand and Mind of William S. Fowler (William E. Moody

Left Radicalism and the Milky Way: Connecting the Scientific and Socialist Virtues of Anton Pannekoek

Anton Pannekoek (1873–60) was both an influential Marxist and an innovative astronomer. This paper will analyze the various innovative methods that he developed to represent the visual aspect of the Milky Way and the statistical distribution of stars in the galaxy through a framework of epistemic virtues. Doing so will not only emphasize the unique aspects of his astronomical research, but also reveal its connections to his left radical brand of Marxism. A crucial feature of Pannekoek’s astronomical method was the active role ascribed to astronomers. They were expected to use their intuitive ability to organize data according to the appearance of the Milky Way, even as they had to avoid the influence of personal experience and theoretical presuppositions about the shape of the system. With this method, Pannekoek produced results that went against the Kapteyn Universe and instead made him the first astronomer in the Netherlands to find supporting evidence for Harlow Shapley's extended galaxy. After exploring Pannekoek’s Marxist philosophy, it is argued that both his astronomical method and his interpretation of historical materialism can be seen as strategies developed to make optical use of his particular conception of the human mind

Measuring the stars and observing the less visible: Australia’s participation in the Astrographic Catalogue and Carte du Ciel

Australia’s 1887 decision to participate in a major international astronomical project to produce an Astrographic (Star) Catalogue and Carte du Ciel (Chart of the Sky) ultimately involved Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth observatories. Participation in this project promised to bring international recognition of Australia’s capability in astronomy and access to the latest photographic technology and methods, within a network comprised of leading astronomers and observatories from around the globe. This was not a straightforward process; obtaining the resources required to successfully participate was fraught in terms of seeking support from governments that did not necessarily understand the significance of the projects, the lack of an appropriately trained workforce, and the sheer volume of work to catalogue the star-rich sky of the Southern Hemisphere. The challenges of participating in major and extensive international projects, during a period when astronomy within Australia wavered between state and federal control, were enormous. The techniques and technologies were not consolidated and often difficult to obtain, due to the impact of two world wars. Recessions and a major depression, along with colonial attitudes to science, made the resources required for progress at times unaffordable within meagre State Observatory budgets. The participating observatories have been examined through archival research to reveal not only the significance of this star catalogue to the development of astronomy in Australia, but the momentous and unacknowledged contribution made by women in its production. I have investigated the participation of seven women in the projects through in-depth interviews and primary sources, including log books of star positions and magnitudes and observation log books not previously recognised as their work. This thesis reveals the Astrographic Catalogue as pivotal to the introduction of women into paid astronomical work in Australia.«br /» The Astrographic Catalogue and Carte du Ciel are interrogated as products of colonialist ambitions to chart territory. Actor–network theory, centres of calculation and circulation models developed by sociology of science theorists, including Bruno Latour and Michel Callon, have been applied to analyse the control over the participating state observatories by colonial astronomy networks. My research has uncovered evidence of the interference of the Colonial Secretaries and Astronomers Royal, and the sometimes catastrophic impact of economic, social and political upheavals. This thesis argues that modernist ideals of automation and global standardisation provided momentum for the techniques of observation to change, and the eye of the astronomer was replaced by the eye of the human star measurer, predominantly women, who became the new point of contention at which individual variation occurred. I reveal that the involvement of women in Australia on the Astrographic Catalogue and Carte du Ciel was of greater significance than previously recognised; in addition, whilst they were restricted due to their gender, these women had agency in the scientific practice, workplace behaviour and employment conditions within the observatory. Furthermore, the creation of sex-specific roles in astronomy developed through the labour requirements of the large data sets for the Astrographic Catalogue, and the historical invisibility of women’s work in science, have had contemporary consequences for the status and participation of women in astronomy

HISTORY OF THE OBSERVATORY AS AN INSTITUTION: FROM MARAGHA TO MOUNT WILSON

The astronomical observatory has existed since ancient times and has served a number of public causes—religious, astrological, practical, and, more recently, scientific. In this thesis, I show how the observatory underwent three major transitions, beginning with its “institutionalization” in the thirteenth century, with the founding of the Maragha Observatory. I discuss how the Maragha observatory (located in the northwestern part of Persia) became a model for future observatories, including the Mount Wilson Observatory. The Maragha Observatory produced a revolutionary school of thought known as the “Maragha School.” This school marked a sharp departure from Ptolemaic Greek astronomy. I argue that Copernicus should be seen as belonging to this school as its last and most known follower. The observatory went through a second transition with the introduction of the telescope. The telescope opened new channels of inquiry. Galileo’s observations of our moon\u27s surface, sunspots, the moons of Jupiter, and the phases of Venus, started a race to improve the telescope in order to obtain ever higher resolution images. The third transition occurred when astronomers became concerned with questions having little or no practical use. This era, which began in the nineteenth century and extends into our own time, was defined by the quest for pure knowledge. It occurred as a result of major improvements in instrumentation and with development of spectroscopy, which gave birth to the field of astrophysics