Astronomy C

[Unome]

Would external flash drives be allowed in this event? 2.d states that information should be stored so that is offline, therefore I would think so. There was also a rules clarification last year that allowed it, but it has since been deleted.

If a supervisor does not allow it, it might take a long time to be able to clear space and actually transfer the files, time which I may not have. In this case, is it safe to try to debate with the supervisor?

Of course, the safest option would be to manually copy the files right before competition, but considering the size, I would heavily prefer not to.

What do you recommend?

The safest solution is to compress your files and transfer them ahead of time.

[syo_astro]

Would external flash drives be allowed in this event? 2.d states that information should be stored so that is offline, therefore I would think so. There was also a rules clarification last year that allowed it, but it has since been deleted.

If a supervisor does not allow it, it might take a long time to be able to clear space and actually transfer the files, time which I may not have. In this case, is it safe to try to debate with the supervisor?

Of course, the safest option would be to manually copy the files right before competition, but considering the size, I would heavily prefer not to.

What do you recommend?

The safest solution is to compress your files and transfer them ahead of time.

Indeed, but I think what you're looking for is a clarification? Definitely try submitting one regardless (nothing official can be stated here, which is what you'd need if you wanted to argue an ES).

[PM2017]

Would external flash drives be allowed in this event? 2.d states that information should be stored so that is offline, therefore I would think so. There was also a rules clarification last year that allowed it, but it has since been deleted.

If a supervisor does not allow it, it might take a long time to be able to clear space and actually transfer the files, time which I may not have. In this case, is it safe to try to debate with the supervisor?

Of course, the safest option would be to manually copy the files right before competition, but considering the size, I would heavily prefer not to.

What do you recommend?

The safest solution is to compress your files and transfer them ahead of time.

Indeed, but I think what you're looking for is a clarification? Definitely try submitting one regardless (nothing official can be stated here, which is what you'd need if you wanted to argue an ES).

Yes, I think you should do that, especially since last year they released an FAQ clarifying that we could, in fact, use flash drives.

[Adi1008]

Hi all,

dkarkada and I ran Astronomy together at this weekend's UT Invitational. In case any of you are interested, here's the test and the key, which can also be found on his beautiful website.

I am personally quite happy with how the scores turned out and I think that we were able to have a good mix of easy, medium, and difficult questions. Several teams scored extremely highly on the matching/MC sections (perfect scores or near perfect scores), while the FR section towards the end appeared to separate the teams pretty well. In terms of actual numbers:

Maximum possible score: 181
Mean: 82.4
Standard Deviation: 32.3
Sample Size: 19

As always, if you notice any mistakes or have any questions about the test or key, please let us know! And if you are going to the MIT Invitational and doing Astronomy, we'll see you there!

Note (10/30/18): Name pointed out an error in the key for question 43. This has been fixed and the key online has been updated!

[pb5754]

Just wondering... do you guys save websites/files on your computer as HTML or PDF files?

[CrayolaCrayon]

Just wondering... do you guys save websites/files on your computer as HTML or PDF files?

That sounds like a nice idea <_<

[PM2017]

Just wondering... do you guys save websites/files on your computer as HTML or PDF files?

PDF, but thats only a last resort. Websites (often, not always) have lots of fluff in them, so I try to extract the info and turn it into notes rather than look at entire websites.

[Adi1008]

Just wondering... do you guys save websites/files on your computer as HTML or PDF files?

PDF, but thats only a last resort. Websites (often, not always) have lots of fluff in them, so I try to extract the info and turn it into notes rather than look at entire websites.

This is pretty similar to what my partners and I did for DSO information notes. If I didn't have any time at all, I'd save webpages as PDFs and merge them all into one massive document. Generally, however, I'd add all the important information from each website to my normal notes and copy/paste, reformat, and highlight the original article for good measure. That way, I have a "condensed" portion for each DSO, and an "everything" section in case I'm looking for something obscure.

[Simulacrum]

Remember that Ctrl+F is always your friend when it comes to DSOs. Still, it's recommended to make things easier on yourself by condensing all of the relevant information that you find on articles and websites.

[Simulacrum]

If you guys don't mind me taking this conversation to more technical areas, there are a few inconsistencies regarding DSO's that I'd like to bring up.

ESO 137-001, for example, has a different constellation depending on the source.

[*]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESO_137-001
[*]http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2014/eso137/

Chandra says Norma while Wikipedia says Triangulum Australe.


In addition, I've also had some difficulties determining the mass for IC 10.

[*]https://arxiv.org/pdf/1708.03634.pdf
[*]https://arxiv.org/pdf/1611.08611.pdf

The first source is a paper that I found online describing the SFR and abundance of WR stars in IC 10. It cites the mass of IC 10 as 7.5 x 10^7 M☉ (2012)

The second source is the paper mentioned in the Chandra article for IC 10. It cites the mass of IC 10 as 2 x 10^7 M☉ (1997).


Any suggestions for what to do?