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Science Forum Index » Astro - Amateur Forum » Astronomy magazines latest slip up...
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| Terry A. Haimann... |
 Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 8:06 am |
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On page 21, article "Binocular Telescope snaps first image"
First sentence:
And the lucky galaxy is ... NGC 2770, a spiral star city some 102 light
years away ...
102 light years away would put it in our galaxy wouldn't it? I checked
and found a reference on the Internet that places it 81 million light
years away. It would help if the editors of Astronomy Magazine actually
knew a little astronomy. |
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| Brian Tung... |
| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 9:00 am |
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Terry A. Haimann wrote:
Quote: And the lucky galaxy is ... NGC 2770, a spiral star city some 102 light
years away ...
102 light years away would put it in our galaxy wouldn't it? I checked
and found a reference on the Internet that places it 81 million light
years away. It would help if the editors of Astronomy Magazine actually
knew a little astronomy.
I'm sure they know plenty of astronomy. They just missed one; who among
us hasn't?
--
Brian Tung <brian at (no spam) aero.org>
NOTE: Below addresses changing soon...
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.html |
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| Quadibloc... |
| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 1:51 pm |
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On May 4, 1:00 pm, br... at (no spam) aero.org (Brian Tung) wrote:
Quote: Terry A. Haimann wrote:
And the lucky galaxy is ... NGC 2770, a spiral star city some 102 light
years away ...
102 light years away would put it in our galaxy wouldn't it? I checked
and found a reference on the Internet that places it 81 million light
years away. It would help if the editors of Astronomy Magazine actually
knew a little astronomy.
I'm sure they know plenty of astronomy. They just missed one; who among
us hasn't?
Anyone can make a small typographical error, it is true. But this
particular kind of error is somewhat implausible; at least someone
there must not be familiar enough with astronomy for that error not to
have jumped right out at them.
John Savard |
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| Davoud... |
| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 6:04 pm |
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Terry A. Haimann:
Quote: On page 21, article "Binocular Telescope snaps first image"
First sentence:
And the lucky galaxy is ... NGC 2770, a spiral star city some 102 light
years away ...
102 light years away would put it in our galaxy wouldn't it? I checked
and found a reference on the Internet that places it 81 million light
years away. It would help if the editors of Astronomy Magazine actually
knew a little astronomy.
You take a tiny error (the error isn't measured in LY, but as an error
in the representation of a single number) and from that you derive that
the editors of Astronomy Magazine know nothing about astronomy? You
think that they listed the value as 102 light years because that's what
they believed it to be, right?
I can offer you a job at a _very_ high salary; I have been searching
for years for someone who has never made even a miniscule error in
her/his life. That's you, right? Otherwise you wouldn't be so quick to
criticize a miniscule error on someone else's (it may not have been an
editory, BTW) part.
Davoud
--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com |
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| Chris L Peterson... |
| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 7:08 pm |
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On Sun, 4 May 2008 16:51:03 -0700 (PDT), Quadibloc <jsavard at (no spam) ecn.ab.ca>
wrote:
Quote: Anyone can make a small typographical error, it is true. But this
particular kind of error is somewhat implausible; at least someone
there must not be familiar enough with astronomy for that error not to
have jumped right out at them.
It didn't jump out at me. That's because I'm familiar enough with the
scale of distances involved that I actually read it as "102 million
light years". Even with Rich's prompting, I had to read it twice to
catch the missing "million".
This is a very common type of editing/proofreading error, and it occurs
when the editor knows _too_ much about the subject.
_________________________________________________
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com |
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| Martin R. Howell... |
| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 7:35 pm |
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Terry A. Haimann wrote:
Quote: On page 21, article "Binocular Telescope snaps first image"
First sentence:
And the lucky galaxy is ... NGC 2770, a spiral star city some 102 light
years away ...
102 light years away would put it in our galaxy wouldn't it? I checked
and found a reference on the Internet that places it 81 million light
years away. It would help if the editors of Astronomy Magazine actually
knew a little astronomy.
Uh, people make mistakes. Shouldn't you have used "magazine's?" Did I
leave out a comma? <g>
--
Martin R. Howell
Moderated sci.astro.amateur
www.moderatedsciastroamateur.com |
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| William Hamblen... |
| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 10:16 pm |
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On Sun, 4 May 2008 16:51:03 -0700 (PDT), Quadibloc <jsavard at (no spam) ecn.ab.ca>
wrote:
Quote: On May 4, 1:00 pm, br... at (no spam) aero.org (Brian Tung) wrote:
Terry A. Haimann wrote:
And the lucky galaxy is ... NGC 2770, a spiral star city some 102 light
years away ...
102 light years away would put it in our galaxy wouldn't it? I checked
and found a reference on the Internet that places it 81 million light
years away. It would help if the editors of Astronomy Magazine actually
knew a little astronomy.
I'm sure they know plenty of astronomy. They just missed one; who among
us hasn't?
Anyone can make a small typographical error, it is true. But this
particular kind of error is somewhat implausible; at least someone
there must not be familiar enough with astronomy for that error not to
have jumped right out at them.
The press release from the University of Arizona gave the distance to
NGC 2770 as 102 million light years.
http://uanews.org/node/18632
Obviously the Astronomy editorial staff dropped the "million" when
they wrote their news item.
The news items in Astronomy and Sky and Telescope are based mostly on
press releases from universities and other research organizations.
Sometimes the copy gets screwed up. Everybody knows how easy it is to
see what you expect to see instead of what actually is on the page.
Bud |
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| jerry warner... |
| Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 11:40 pm |
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"Terry A. Haimann" wrote:
Quote: On page 21, article "Binocular Telescope snaps first image"
First sentence:
And the lucky galaxy is ... NGC 2770, a spiral star city some 102 light
years away ...
102 light years away would put it in our galaxy wouldn't it? I checked
and found a reference on the Internet that places it 81 million light
years away. It would help if the editors of Astronomy Magazine actually
knew a little astronomy.
As seen from the left you are a traitor, from the right an
anarchist, from management's view a criminal to be jailed,
and from God's point of view: no underwear!
You cannot win.
hee hee |
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