[F.W.] A comet of cooperation

[[Image: Lulin-Sky-Survey/ck07n030_20070711.png|500|Comet Lulin at discovery, the truth is here...]] 

Earlier this month a newspaper reported a discovery by professional star-gazer Lin Chi-sheng of the Lulin Observatory in Nantou, Taiwan. Lin had discovered (Comet) C/2007-N3 -- a massive lump of ice and rock "kilometers" in diameter. On Feb. 27, 2009, the comet is scheduled for a near earth fly-by, getting as close as 60 million kilometers away from our planet and becoming visible to the unaided human eye. The newspaper went on to claim that this discovery was the first such find by local astronomers -- and that Taiwan is now "on the map" in the global astronomical community.

We salute Lin Chi-sheng and congratulate the entire team at the Lulin Observatory in the central county of Nantou on the discovery of the "Lulin Comet." The patience and devotion required for thousands upon thousands of hours of sky-watching -- mostly without reward -- is highly commendable. But, it would be nice if we gave full credit where credit is due.

Many in Taiwan cheered the news of a local find. The tone of the report and even the headline of the newspaper article were filled with nationalist sentiment, "Local Star-Gazer Discovers Comet," it declared. But buried a bit toward the back of the report came a surprising detail: the find would not have happened without the aid of Taiwan's arch-rival mainland China.

Astronomers from China and Taiwan have increased collaboration in recent years. Since many observatories in China do not possess as high-powered telescopes as we have in Taiwan, Chinese astronomers do their part in a deal of cooperation by selecting areas of the sky for the Nantou-based Lulin Observatory to watch and photograph. Lin himself actually told reporters it was Chinese participants who first detected the "Lulin Comet" and a smaller near-earth asteroid (NEA) in the photographs.

The highlight of this story is one of successful collaboration. For once, Taiwan and China set aside their half-century old political dispute and worked together to actually assist humankind. This wonderful story of cooperation, however, was mainly lost in the self-congratulatory tone of the local media.

Instead of trumpeting the help of the Chinese, some local papers buried the China connection at the end of the article and did not include this info in headlines or decks. It would seem disingenuous for the Taiwan reports to label the find as "local" when the reality is that without major Chinese help, the discovery would never have been made.

A mature person working on a problem welcomes all whose ideas contribute to a solution, and upon finding one, dishes out praise accordingly and unstintingly. So should it be with mature nations. As the planet shrinks ever smaller under the effects of globalization, cooperation and collaboration will become the watchwords of the future, not individualism or jingoism. Taiwan's media should endeavor to praise cooperation and refrain from downplaying the contributions of others.

-- China Post, August 1st, http://www.chinapost.com.tw/editorial/2007/08/02/116720/A-comet.htm

Well, there will be always the right persons and the heaven who know the truth, an interesting story always have some odd things. Comet of Politic may be a better name than Comet Lulin. Those are not important, personally, I'm happy to see they call me "astronomer" ;-)

MPT终于封顶!

  暑假有两大项目:MPT和7Timer!。暑假开始时的如意算盘是一个月搞定一个项目,看来这个时间表也未免自我高估了一点。被誉为“鹿林巡天未来中流砥柱”项目的Minor Planet Tracker,单是前期开发就耗费了5个星期时间,还不包括接下来的总装测试…… 不过完成了一部分总是好的。MPT最困难的组件是OCD,耗费了一个半星期才完成研发,主要是那些个轨道实在太难算了,数学上丢三落四又是我的“优良传统”,结果磕磕碰碰了半天,最后发现的问题一般是忘记乘以二或者函数名称搞混了之类的低级错误。

  MPT使得巡天处理技术达到了所谓“国际先进水平”。我最津津乐道的还是这个程序的一些有趣功能:NEO概率自动提示、实时轨道分类示意,以及九宫格式的图像比对盒等等。不过,MPT可能还需要一个星期的总装测试才能正式投入使用,现在我可以开始研发新版本的7Timer!。

[[Image: Other/20070803.png|500|MPT Alpha版RB组件图]]