Entomologists have relied on butterfly and moth specimens gathered by amateurs since the 1800s, but the decline of the hobby and a shift to photography could make conservation research more difficult Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2266881-decline-of-butterfly-collecting-hobby-threatens-conservation-research/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Tag: amateurs
Citizen astronomers reshape asteroids from their backyard
There are nearly one million catalogued asteroids, but we don’t know much about many of them. Now Unistellar and its scientific partner, the SETI Institute, can count on a network of nearly 3,000 amateurs capable of observing thousands of asteroids and providing an estimate of their size and shape. With mobile stations located in Asia, North America and Europe, the Unistellar…
The Uncertain Future of Ham Radio
Julianne Pepitone from IEEE Spectrum writes about the uncertain future of ham radio. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt: Will the amateur airwaves fall silent? Since the dawn of radio, amateur operators — hams — have transmitted on tenaciously guarded slices of spectrum. Electronic engineering has benefited tremendously from their activity, from the level of the individual engineer to the entire…
When is the next Great Comet?
There’s a nice binocular comet – Comet NEOWISE – in the early morning sky now. Some experienced observers are catching it with the eye alone. It’s nice … but not great. When will we see our next Great Comet? Source: https://earthsky.org/space/northern-hemisphere-overdue-for-a-great-comet…
Lost World Revealed By Human, Neanderthal Relics Washed Up On North Sea Beaches
sciencehabit writes: Most days, Willy van Wingerden spends a few free hours walking by the sea not far from the Dutch town of Monster. Here, the cheerful nurse has plucked more than 500 ancient artifacts from the broad, windswept beach known as the Zandmotor, or “sand engine.” She has found Neanderthal tools made of river cobbles, bone fishhooks, and human remains…
See a faint star cluster near bright Sirius
Sirius is easy to find. It’s the sky’s brightest star. If you have binoculars and a dark location, look near it for the star cluster M41. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/fuzzy-object-near-star-sirius-is-a-star-cluster…
Calling radio amateurs: Help find OPS-SAT!
Calling all radio amateurs! ESA is challenging anyone with amateur radio equipment to catch the first signals from OPS-SAT, ESA’s brand new space software laboratory. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-12-radio-amateurs-ops-sat.html…