I got my Astronomy textbook this week! I got mine used from an Amazon seller for cheap-cheap, so I didn't expect to get the software with it, but I did - and the EULA sticker is even still intact. The professor doesn't require it, but planetarium software is always cool to have...
Looking through the pages I found a disturbing little blurb in the sidebar, though. The book says that many people have trouble with the difference between the terms "galaxy" and "solar system." Really? Though, I guess that follows from the mindset where the U.S. is the only important part of the earth and the earth is the only important part of the galaxy. Forget heliocentric, we may never get past self-centric...
On a slightly-but-not-really related note, the family went to Kennedy Space Center again this past Monday. My beloved and I took my younger sister there for her first visit to Florida. We took the Up Close tour again, and got to see some very nifty stuff. As we approached the VAB the tour guide noticed that they were starting to move the shuttle's external fuel tank across the road from storage to the VAB. The doors of the building were open and we could see and snap pictures of the pale orange giant. It was lying horizontally and we could just see the end of it as they prepared to move it. Then, later, as we were returning from the launch pads to actually stop at the VAB we got there just in time to see them pulling the last half of the tank into the VAB itself. We got some great pictures of the nose cone and about half of it sticking out of the wide open VAB doors. Most cool! The driver parked as quickly as he could and we all dashed off of the bus and down the grass strip to get as close as the fencing would allow to watch the tank disappear into the darkness... Hopefully my beloved will transfer the vacation photos to me soon so that I may post some of those here.
At the end of the Up Close tour they drop everyone off at the Saturn V center, which I highly recommend seeing - I think that the free bus tour goes there as well. The Saturn V museum is probably one of the best things at KSC. Then, from there you can take a short bus ride to the facility where they assemble the pieces of the International Space Station for a ride up on the shuttles. (This was the first time we were able to go there... when we went at Christmas time, the place was empty and all the workers had gone for Christmas break.) Anyway, you can tour some mock-ups of the ISS modules and then go up to an overlook and watch the real peoples working on the real things. There were about 6 to 8 of the modules in view and a few people in clean suits running around some of them. It was just amazing to think that you were getting a look at something that would soon be orbiting our planet.
I finally got registered for my Intro to Astronomy and Lab classes today - woot! Classes begin at UCF and SCC on August 25th, so only three short weeks of sweet freedom left... but that's okay, because I'm very excited now to finally be able to start on my Astronomy minor for real.
I'm slightly worried about what the teacher will be like. He doesn't fare well on Rate My Professor, but I'm going to chalk that up to students who take astronomy for an "easy" science credit, but wind up with a passionate science geek for a teacher. Some of the comments made the guy sound like your basic nerd, and man do I love nerds... so hopefully it will all be fine.
Hmmm... maybe it's about time to break into the "Gravitation" chapter that we skipped in Physics I class.
I can't wait!
