[QUOTE=fivemack;449070]I asked a gravitational-wave physicist about this; the problem is that gravitational waves have an inverse-linear rather than inverse-square law to their propagation, and so even very near the source the amount of strain is so small that even the tenth-power dependency of temperature with density for fusion at the hearts of stars doesn't amplify it to anything significant.

(a strain of 100 microns per parsec at 400 megaparsecs is one kilometre per parsec at 40 parsecs, and one kilometre per parsec is five millimetres per astronomical unit)[/QUOTE]

Nice - thanks for providing some actual numbers to 'weak perturbation' argument.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;449032]Nature[/QUOTE]
Following your link, and a link inside. This is a nice/optimistic [URL="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v540/n7633/full/540339a.html"]pleading for the future[/URL]...

[URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-38329846"]The mind boggles[/URL] ...

Some US scientists are concerned that [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38322594"]future access to tax-payer funded data might be discontinued[/URL].

Sounds like a possibility for a (global) citizen response to store that data outside the reach of the US gummint.

Tempted to contact some people in the US and ask what I can do to help. If enough people offer enough gigabytes on their systems the panic would be averted.

[URL="http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/12/the-brain-has-more-than-one-multitasking-mode/"]The brain has more than one multitasking mode[/URL]

[URL="http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-two-friends-who-changed-how-we-think-about-how-we-think"]THE TWO FRIENDS WHO CHANGED HOW WE THINK ABOUT HOW WE THINK[/URL]

[URL="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161206111715.htm"]Researchers uncover how hippocampus influences future thinking[/URL]

[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/01/science/periodic-table-new-elements.html?smid=tw-nytimesscience&smtyp=cur&_r=1"]Four New Names Officially Added to the Periodic Table of Elements[/URL]

[URL="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/us-cia-maps-strategy-foreign-policy-display/"]See the Historic Maps Declassified by the CIA[/URL]

[URL="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/12/feathered-dinosaur-tail-amber-theropod-myanmar-burma-cretaceous/"]First Dinosaur Tail Found Preserved in Amber[/URL]

[URL="https://www.quantamagazine.org/20161129-verlinde-gravity-dark-matter/"]The Case Against Dark Matter[/URL]

[URL="https://www.quantamagazine.org/20161201-how-life-makes-light-bioluminescence/"]In the Deep, Clues to How Life Makes Light[/URL]

[URL="http://www.popsci.com/single-dose-magic-mushrooms-eases-depression-in-cancer-patients"]MAGIC MUSHROOMS HELP CANCER PATIENTS DEAL WITH DEPRESSION[/URL]

[URL="https://aeon.co/ideas/final-decision-why-the-brain-keeps-on-changing-its-mind"]Final decision? Why the brain keeps on changing its mind[/URL]

[URL="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161130141049.htm"]What makes Bach sound like Bach? New dataset teaches algorithms classical music[/URL]

[URL="http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/18121761/the-true-story-nintendo-most-coveted-game"]How did a boring Nintendo game from 1987 become the most coveted cartridge ever? It's a bit of a mystery[/URL]

[URL="http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/catholics-built-secret-astronomical-features-into-churches-to-help-save-souls"]Why Catholics Built Secret Astronomical Features Into Churches to Help Save Souls[/URL]

[URL="http://gizmodo.com/researchers-just-created-the-most-amazing-lip-reading-s-1788748163"]Researchers Just Created the Most Amazing Lip-Reading Software[/URL]

[URL="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602946/do-your-family-members-have-a-right-to-your-genetic-code/?utm_campaign=internal&utm_medium=homepage&utm_source=features_1"]Do Your Family Members Have a Right to Your Genetic Code?[/URL]

[URL="http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/with-every-splashdown-nasa-embraces-the-legacy-of-gus-grissom/"]Gus Grissom taught NASA a hard lesson: “You can hurt yourself in the ocean”[/URL]

[URL="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/strange-case-george-washingtons-disappearing-sash-180961105/"]The Strange Case of George Washington’s Disappearing Sash[/URL]

[URL="http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/the-relationship-between-physical-activity-and-brain-function/education"]The relationship between physical activity and brain function[/URL]

[url]http://www.nature.com/news/nature-s-10-1.21157[/url]

..I hope that the cure for global warming is not a nuclear winter...

[url]http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/12/behold-the-greatest-spirographs-in-the-world/[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;449866][URL]http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/12/behold-the-greatest-spirographs-in-the-world/[/URL][/QUOTE]
My first thought when I saw the lead picture in the article was that it was about the greatest crop circles in the world. Just a visual impression.

Red Nova predicted in Cygnus around 2022
 

[url]https://www.newscientist.com/article/2110005-double-star-may-light-up-the-sky-as-rare-red-nova-in-six-years/[/url]

As a result of a binary star merger, this could shine as as second magnitude star in Cygnus around the year 2022.2 +/- 0.6. At 1700 lightyears, this system is currently at 12th magnitude.

I knew Larry Molnar when he was a professor of astronomy when I was a graduate student at the University of Iowa.

I wonder if some serious amateurs will set up a network of equipment scattered around the planet, sort of a distributed recording project, such that there are scopes continuously monitoring that star whenever its not in the sun's glare. With enough scopes in enough different locations, there's bound to be one or more with clear skies at any given time. Tough to devote a bunch of equipment for years to one star, but you'd end up with a really complete light curve for this type of nova.

Norm

[QUOTE=Spherical Cow;450752]I wonder if some serious amateurs will set up a network of equipment scattered around the planet, sort of a distributed recording project, such that there are scopes continuously monitoring that star whenever its not in the sun's glare. With enough scopes in enough different locations, there's bound to be one or more with clear skies at any given time. Tough to devote a bunch of equipment for years to one star, but you'd end up with a really complete light curve for this type of nova.

Norm[/QUOTE]It's easy to see stars in broad daylight as long as you're prepared to live with a few restrictions, the principal of which is that you need to know where to look and that photometric precision is likely to be poor.

A good many years ago now Venus occulted sigma Sgr, which has a V magnitude of 2.1. The event took place mid-afternoon in Oxford; the objects were at fairly low altitude and quite invisible to the naked eye. Venus was easy to see in a 50mm finder and the star very easy indeed in a 20cm Mak-Cas telescope with a moderate power eyepiece. Unfortunately the occultation was itself occulted by clouds but the view shortly afterwards was quite impressive!

I suspect that a 20-50cm telescope fitted with a sky chopper and a phase sensitive detector (i.e. standard mid-IR technology) should easily see mag-6 objects and possibly fainter. A raw CCD with its IR sensitivity would probably help. Finding suitable comparison stars shouldn't be too impossible with a well aligned mount.