Scioly.org

asdfqwerzzz2 wrote:I noticed a change from this year's rules from last years that I think has gone relatively unnoticed. At the bottom of the rules it states that the event is sponsored by NASA Astrophysics Division opposed to last year which stated the event was sponsored by Chandra. However, they still list Chandra, AAVSO, and APOD as recommended resources. Have the sponsors actually changed? Or do they just list a single sponsor every year? Hopefully they didn't actually have a sponsor change, as that may affect the national test format.

I don't know if it's a sponsor change or wording change, but I do believe the main two people that write nats astro will still write it. If it did manage to change, it would probably be to some past competitors that have helped write for it before (there have been various). Basically, I would not worry too much.

syo_astro wrote:

asdfqwerzzz2 wrote:I noticed a change from this year's rules from last years that I think has gone relatively unnoticed. At the bottom of the rules it states that the event is sponsored by NASA Astrophysics Division opposed to last year which stated the event was sponsored by Chandra. However, they still list Chandra, AAVSO, and APOD as recommended resources. Have the sponsors actually changed? Or do they just list a single sponsor every year? Hopefully they didn't actually have a sponsor change, as that may affect the national test format.

I don't know if it's a sponsor change or wording change, but I do believe the main two people that write nats astro will still write it. If it did manage to change, it would probably be to some past competitors that have helped write for it before (there have been various). Basically, I would not worry too much.

It is just an internal restructuring among Chandra/NASA. Donna Young, the Astro NES, headed up education at Chandra. That group has moved to NASA.

rfscoach wrote:

syo_astro wrote:

asdfqwerzzz2 wrote:I noticed a change from this year's rules from last years that I think has gone relatively unnoticed. At the bottom of the rules it states that the event is sponsored by NASA Astrophysics Division opposed to last year which stated the event was sponsored by Chandra. However, they still list Chandra, AAVSO, and APOD as recommended resources. Have the sponsors actually changed? Or do they just list a single sponsor every year? Hopefully they didn't actually have a sponsor change, as that may affect the national test format.

I don't know if it's a sponsor change or wording change, but I do believe the main two people that write nats astro will still write it. If it did manage to change, it would probably be to some past competitors that have helped write for it before (there have been various). Basically, I would not worry too much.

It is just an internal restructuring among Chandra/NASA. Donna Young, the Astro NES, headed up education at Chandra. That group has moved to NASA.

So will this have no obvious changes to the astronomy event? I mentioned this previously in the thread, but will resources still be posted to the AAVSO/Chandra websites such as the webinars/sample regional tests?

asdfqwerzzz2 wrote: So will this have no obvious changes to the astronomy event? I mentioned this previously in the thread, but will resources still be posted to the AAVSO/Chandra websites such as the webinars/sample regional tests?

Like I said, it really shouldn't. You should also check the soinc.org page, as they update that sometimes too with such related material for people that don't directly know about the other sites. If they don't do AAVSO/Chandra, I'm sure there'll be a post here, and a note about it on the soinc.org Astro page.

I ordered Exoplanets from Sara Seager, and it's a little over the level of high school science olympiad. I think I'll rely on other sources now.

raxu wrote:I ordered Exoplanets from Sara Seager, and it's a little over the level of high school science olympiad. I think I'll rely on other sources now.

Heh, I actually met her...fun times getting neat guest speakers. But yeah, I believe the textbook discussion has been explained a bit at least for this year's topic (summary: they can be eh because of how modern the topic is). I'd imagine from her talk and how she's relatively well-known probably the textbook is pretty good, but I don't have it/haven't read into exoplanet textbooks. But as said before, there are multiple sources online that should keep you covered for sure. And if you have trouble with, say, planetary equilibrium temperature, we can all try rederiving that and explaining it again like last year...

Where can I find specific information about the 17 DSO? Although I've been in this event once I really don't know where to find good information about them.

raxu wrote:Where can I find specific information about the 17 DSO? Although I've been in this event once I really don't know where to find good information about them.

I've just been using the internet, which generally works alright for me, but I'm new to this event this year.

Unome wrote:

raxu wrote:Where can I find specific information about the 17 DSO? Although I've been in this event once I really don't know where to find good information about them.

I've just been using the internet, which generally works alright for me, but I'm new to this event this year.

^^same here

The [wiki]Astronomy/DSOs[/wiki] page has the locations of the objects completely different from what I've found; is it okay if I change them?