Booberfish.com » Toronto http://www.booberfish.com From physics to philosophy Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:37:18 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 The light and dark of a panoramic view http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2009/08/the-light-and-dark-of-a-panoramic-view/ http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2009/08/the-light-and-dark-of-a-panoramic-view/#comments Mon, 17 Aug 2009 02:31:24 +0000 GP http://www.booberfish.com/?p=892 About two weeks ago I moved into a new apartment. Up out of a dank basement to the 9th floor of a modest high-rise with far from modest balconies. I put it at about 180 to 200 square feet. My roommate and I have considered putting our living room set out there. For such a great location, on the cusp of downtown Toronto, the view is fantastic, unobstructed by neighbouring high-rises, looking out over acres and acres of residential tree-lined streets.

As an astronomer, I was eager to find out what the night sky was like. There’s little hope for any observing in downtown Toronto to begin with, but I thought with this view away from the downtown core there might be a chance of seeing a thing or two with my very meager 2 inch refracter. Unfortunately, (1) after sunset the western sky remains quite bright, and (2), this is still downtown Toronto. I can barely make out the bowl of the Big Dipper.

On top of this, the northwest sky in the evening is about as boring as it gets right now. While I did make out the binary pair Mizar and Alcor, what I really want to see is either Saturn or Jupiter, but I have yet to even figure out when either of those may make an appearance in just the right direction.

What I really need is a rooftop penthouse and a nice big 12 incher.

That’s what she said.

]]> http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2009/08/the-light-and-dark-of-a-panoramic-view/feed/ 0 Google Maps Geometry Challenge http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2009/06/google-maps-geometry-challenge/ http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2009/06/google-maps-geometry-challenge/#comments Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:40:42 +0000 GP http://www.booberfish.com/?p=876 Remember those math questions in trigonometry and geometry about calculating the heights of trees and lengths of shadows and so on? Here’s one for you:

CN Tower casting a shadow on downtown Toronto

I saw this picture on Google Maps and wondered how much information you could get from it. We know the CN Tower is 553.33 metres tall (with the SkyPod at 447 m), and located at coordinates 43.476667 N, 79.3875 W.

Questions:

  • How high is the sun in the sky?
  • What time was the photo taken?
  • What are the coordinates of the satellite that took the photo?
  • Others…?

Yes more information is required, but nothing you can’t look up or make a reasonable guess at. At least I don’t think so. I wonder if anybody will notice if I work out this geometry for my summer project instead of exoplanet orbit geometry like I’m supposed to. Are there other big landmarks we could do this for?

]]> http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2009/06/google-maps-geometry-challenge/feed/ 0 IYA Graffiti http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2009/05/iya-graffiti/ http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2009/05/iya-graffiti/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 02:36:38 +0000 GP http://www.booberfish.com/?p=833 I like to imagine that this is an example of Toronto’s graffiti artists marking the International Year of Astronomy.

IYA inspired graffiti

]]> http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2009/05/iya-graffiti/feed/ 0 The Apartment Hunter’s Prayer http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2009/05/the-apartment-hunters-prayer/ http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2009/05/the-apartment-hunters-prayer/#comments Fri, 01 May 2009 15:38:27 +0000 GP http://www.booberfish.com/?p=852 Our apartment who art in the Annex
Lower be thy price
Thy kitchen come
Thy will be done on Earth as it is in my imagination
Give us this day our daily bread
And secure us our bicycles
As we don’t forgive those who thieve against us
And lead us not into dim rooms
But deliver us from basements
For thine is the kingdom
And the hydro and the laundry
For ever and ever
Included

]]> http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2009/05/the-apartment-hunters-prayer/feed/ 0 Best Institute http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2009/02/ http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2009/02/#comments Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:59:02 +0000 GP http://www.booberfish.com/?p=782

I know a university campus can be a bit of an ivory tower, but this is just a little presumptuous, don’t you think?

]]> http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2009/02/feed/ 0 Hello Neighbourhood http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2008/09/hello-neighbourhood/ http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2008/09/hello-neighbourhood/#comments Sun, 21 Sep 2008 02:26:55 +0000 GP http://www.booberfish.com/?p=771 I’ve lived in Toronto for about three weeks now. Someone asked me today if the city has welcomed me, if I like it so far.

My answer is basically… maybe?

On about the second or third day here, the rowing season started. That means that almost without exception, I’ve been on a steady schedule of waking up at 4:30 AM every day, which forces a bedtime around 8 PM. By the time you add in the time I spend at school, pretty much all I can say I’ve seen of Toronto has been the Astrophysics department, the boat club, and a few restaurants we’ve gone to for lunch.

Today and tomorrow are the first real days off I’ve had since that first rowing practice at the beginning of the month. Since I’ve not yet developed a social life in this town, tonight I went to get groceries, and discovered that I actually live in a very happening little neighbourhood. It actually reminded me a lot of St-Laurent, or St-Denis, although more compact. There were lots of people walking around, all the restaurant patios were filled, and even the little ice cream shop next door had a crowd out front. You miss these things when your bedtime is on par with your average 12 year old.

All of this has been just around the corner and I never even knew it! I wonder if it’ll still be there in November.

]]> http://www.booberfish.com/blog/2008/09/hello-neighbourhood/feed/ 0