We.. The Indians..

We.. The Indians.. 11 people represent our country in a game of cricket.. They are the "chosen" one !!

Mr. Sachin Tendulkar - Greatest batsman ever..
Mr. Virender Sehawag - Highest score made by an Indian in Test Cricket
Mr. Saurav Ganguly - Holds the Indian captaincy record for the most Test victories.
Mr. Rahul Dravid - Highest test batting average of any Indian batsman in history
Mr. Yuvaraj Singh - Best fielder currently on the team.
Mr. Mahendra Singh Dhoni - Ranked second in the official ICC cricket rankings for batsmen in limited over internationals
Mr. Harbhajan Singh - First Indian bowler to take a hat trick in Test cricket
Mr. Ajit Agarkar - World record for the fastest 50 wickets in One-day international cricket.

..and remaining 3 bla bla guys..

These 11 Indian idols lost miserably to Sri Lanka today and thrown out of WC 2007.

Their records show that they are THE best ones in India... then.. what happened???

Mr. Sachin Tendulkar - The richest cricketer ever.. can't spare much time through advertisements.. Greatest batsman really don't need any practice.. Any way looks like it was his last world cup.. Bye bye !!

Mr. Virendra Sehwag - "Nawab of Najafgarh, Delhi".. Looks like he is busy with his restaurant "Sehwag Favourites".. really can not spare time for practice.. Lost his form but "Dravid Zindabaad" motto has saved his seat in Indian team !!

Mr. Saurav Ganguly - He just made a comeback.. how can we blame him? "Prince" takes a while to settle !!

Mr. Yuvaraj Singh - Either busy doing affairs with "Kim Sharma".. or "Xbox360" advts for Microsoft.

Mr. Mahendra Singh Dhoni - Because of his shoulder length hairs or because of tinted glasses, he really can not see the ball.. how can we blame him?

Mr. Harbhajan Singh - "Sardaar".. Indian team selected him for his best "bowling" record against SriLanka as compared to "Anil Kumble".. but "Sardaar" didn't understand his role in the team !! Instead of taking wickets, he put up sixes in the batting...

Mr. Ajit Agarkar - I still don't understand how he gets selected every time.. probably for his looks..

Can't we choose 11 players out of billion people that can really show India's potential? Nope.. Its not possible...

Star Gazing 2007-03-10

I went for star gazing at Tierra Del Sol (TDS) on Saturday with San Diego Astronomy Association group. They have their own observatory with 22 inch optical telescope. TDS is an hour drive from SD and the site is excellent. You can catch Mag 7 stars easily with naked eye.

My main objective this time was to do some binocular astronomy, like observing Messier objects. I had list of 16 objects to locate within 3 hrs (thats pretty lame objective for pros.. but for beginners like me its okay :)). Bob & Ravi were also with me and they didn't know much abt stars. So we had good beginner's session with fundas and then with constellations.

Best part of the star party was...

- Saturn from 22 inch. Bob said that it was like a textbook image of Saturn. Rings were just fabulous. 4 of its satellites were clearly visible !!

- Watching M41 open cluster in Canis Major and M36-37-38 open clusters in Auriga through binoculars was fun. I tried to locate these objects from SD multiple times and it was frustrating. But at TDS, I got them within a minute.. I was damn happy :) !! Infact for M36-37-38, I first observed them through binocs and then checked their relative-locations in sky-chart.. and it was perfect. It was indeed (a small scale) achievement for me. I am sure that now I can find them from SD also.

After 3 hrs, whole thing got ruined because of cloud cover and winds. We were planning to wait till moon rise @ 12:34 and then observing moon through 22inch would have been fun.. but gusty winds were just unbearable !!

Overall, I located 10 messier objects out of 16. Others were lost because of the cloud cover... bad luck.. bad day for star gazing !!

Any way, my Nikon 10x50 binoc, which I ordered last week, is on the way.. I should get it tomorrow.. Feeling excited !!

Faster Than Light...

Ever thought about moving faster than light? ..Or.. do you know "anything" that can travel faster than light?

The speed of light "c" is 300,000 Km/s in vacuum. In any other medium, light's speed is always less than "c". Anything with "mass" can not travel at speed of light. These are universal truth or basic assumptions in physics.. on which whole "physics" is based..

But NEC researchers have made a breakthrough where they got "something" moving faster than light.. Any guess on what that "something" is ?... :)... the light itself.. These guys made the light break its own record :) They have developed new type of "medium".. a special "vapor".. that can make light travel 310 times faster..

Unbelievable.. and they did it in year 2000 only.. Hmm.. wasn't aware abt it before.. here is the press release.

Actually.. While reading abt "Faster Than Light", I also came across some interesting experiments. There are "things" that can really travel faster than light.. both in "absolute" terms and "relative" terms.. From this article,

Think about how fast a shadow can move. If you project a shadow of your finger using a nearby lamp onto a far away wall and then wag your finger, the shadow will move much faster than your finger. If your finger moves parallel to the wall, the speed will be multiplied by a factor D/d where d is the distance from the lamp to your finger and D is the distance from the lamp to the wall. It can actually be much faster than this if the wall is at some oblique angle. If the wall is very far away the movement of the shadow will be delayed because of the time it takes light to get there but its speed is still amplified by the same ratio. The speed of a shadow is therefore not restricted to be less than the speed of light.

Others things which can go faster than the speed of light include the spot of a laser which is pointed at the surface of the moon. Given that the distance to the moon is 385,000 km try working out the speed of the spot if you wave the laser at a gentle speed.

Stand up in a clear space and spin round. It is not too difficult to turn at one revolution each two seconds. Suppose the moon is on the horizon. How fast is it spinning round your head? It is about 385,000 km away so the answer is 1.21 million km/s, which is more than four times the speed of light! It sounds ridiculous to say that the moon is going round your head when really it is you who is turning, but according to general relativity all co-ordinate systems are equally valid including revolving ones. So isn't the moon going faster than the speed of light? This is quite difficult to account for.

These are all examples of things which can go faster than light, but these are not physical entities.. They don't have "mass". It is not possible to send "information" faster than light on a shadow or light spot.. so "FTL communication" is not possible in this way...

Binocs..

Finally... I ordered binoculars for star gazing. Nikon Action Extreme 10x50.

Till this point, I was surviving on cheap binocs from walmart or target.. Also, it was a headache justifying the price for astro binocs and thats why till now I didn't buy anything and survived on bushnell 10x50. But now I am really tired with the quality of these cheap binocs and decided to go to next level..

Obviously there are hundreds of good astro binocs avalable.. but more you explore, more you will get confused. OpticsPlanet website is surely a good resource and their discussion forums are awesome. After a long research, I made up my mind with Nikon 10x50 Action Ex. I hope it will serve me well.

Planning for a Messier Marathon soon.. Want to join in :) ?

Osama...

Don't get confused with "Bin Laden".. I am talking about 2004 Golden Globe - Best Foreign Film Award Winner movie Osama.

Movie depicts Taliban regime and shows oddities, extremities in their behavior & teachings.. It is shown through eyes of an 12 year old girl. Just to have daily bread for her family, she has to work.. and for that she has to change into a "boy". The whole movie is her fight for survival in a "extremist male driven society".

The movie is realistic, practical and in turn pessimistic. Obviously there is a glimpse of hope at every turn, but finally it doesn't last long with reality.
Its a first movie directed fully in Afghanistan and is written through personal experiences. The direction of the movie, cinematography and acting of a 12 year old girl is just too good...

When I saw hindi movie "Kabul Express" i.e. bollywood's depiction of post Taliban regime, I was really disappointed.. Its surely a "bakawaas".. But "Osama" movie deserves its golden globe award.

I know very few of you will watch this movie, but at-least check out the movie trailer on yahoo.