The BCS Can Bite My Longhorn Ass

It's not just the BCS, but the way the Big 12 tiebreaker works. Here's a comment from the Austin American-Statesman:

Oklahoma is fortunate to reside in the Big 12. It is one of five leagues that is broken up into divisions – and it's the only league whose tiebreaker system would've ended up with the Sooners as the champion.

ACC: Texas (fifth tiebreaker)
Overall record for non-division teams (Texas wins; Longhorns opponents are 21-15, OU's and Tech's are 20-16)

Big 12: Oklahoma (fifth tiebreaker)
Team with top BCS ranking (No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Texas, No. 7 Texas Tech)

Conference USA: Texas (sixth tiebreaker)
Records against cross-division opponents in descending order of finish (Texas wins; Longhorns defeated North champ Missouri)

Mid-American: Texas (fourth tiebreaker)
Cross-division opponents in rank order (Texas wins; beat North champ Missouri)

SEC: Texas (sixth tiebreaker)
Team with highest BCS, unless second tied team is ranked within five or fewer places of highest ranked team. In this case, head to head of winner of top two is the representative. (Oklahoma is No. 2, Texas is No. 3, Texas Tech is No. 7; Texas beat Oklahoma)

Stars Fading Over Austin

Our local NPR affiliate did a story about light pollution in Austin.

My Day at Work

It's funny 'cuz it's true!

ISS, Second Attempt

This was an amazing pass. I set the exposure way back on the camera, and used the hand controller to control the scope. My best results came when I'd get just ahead of the station, stop, and let it fly through the FOV--about nine or ten frames at 60 frames per second!

I don't know what's what in this shot, except that those are solar panels to the left. This is a 150% enlargement.

Whining

How you can tell that your computer is kaput and you have to go to the Apple Store instead of setting up and making astro images:

ISS, First Attempt

OK, I learned a few lessons. The International Space Station is bright; I'll need to reduce the exposure even more. Second, people with tremors like me shouldn't attempt to hand-track the telescope to follow the station. I didn't have too much trouble getting it in frame, but nearly every exposure was streaked by motion blur, even at 60 frames-per-second.

We're supposed to have another good pass Wednesday, I'll give it another go then.

10" LX200 @ f/6.3, DMK21AF04 @ 60 fps