Bloomingstars.com - Emmanuele Sordini 's astronomy and computing homepage - Hot News category

Eclipse / Eclisse / Finsternis / Έκλειψη !

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:04:00 GMT

Uno, due, tre... e quattro! Come il numero di eclissi che ho osservato nella mia vita: questa volta è stato il turno della Siberia. Come vedrete, è stato tutt'altro che facile, ma alla fine quello che conta è avercela fatta ed aver inanellato un successo il cui ricordo rimarrà a lungo. >>> Cliccate qui per il resoconto completo in Italiano! <<<

One, two, three... and four! Four as the number of eclipses I've observed so far in my life: this one took place in Siberia. As you'll see, it's been no easy task, but at the end of the day what really counts is that it turned out to be a great success, whose memories will last for a long time. >>> Click here for the full report in English! <<<

Two Astronomy Articles

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 08:18:00 GMT

It's been quite a while since I last posted something astronomy related; plus, I haven't been updating my image gallery for a year, and now I have a huge backlog of pictures. I would like to rengineer my gallery engine, since FTP-based management with JAlbum (which is a very cool product, by the way) has become a real pain in the butt. But 'nuff said, let's go back to the real stuff:

Report on the total lunar eclipse of March 3rd, 2007: click here
Report on Saturn's occultation of May 22nd, 2007: click here

Both articles are in English. As usual, enjoy and let me know. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated!

Jazoon '07: here we come!

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:47:00 GMT

As usual, time is passing by at a very fast pace. Only a few days are left until next Sunday, June 24th 2007, the opening day of Jazoon '07, the newborn European Industry Conference on Java and related topics, which will take place in Zurich, Switzerland, until Thursday 28th. Jazoon brings together experts and professional users of Java and open source technologies from all over Europe.

I will be featured as a speaker together with my long-time friend Fabrizio Giudici in a number of presentations and demos. Here is the detailed program:

Technical Presentation: Parallel Computing Scenarios and the new challenges for the Software Architect. Scheduled on Thursday, 2007-06-28, 11:50 - 12:30, Arena 8
Software demo: blueMarine - a desktop app for the open source photographic workflow. Scheduled twice: Tuesday, 2007-06-26, 12:00 - 12:50, Arena 2; Thursday, 2007-06-28, 14:00 - 14:50, Arena 1.
BOF (Together with Moritz Petersen): Towards a "unified community" for Java imaging developers. Expected to take place anytime from 19:00 until 22:00 on Tuesday 26th (detailed schedule yet to be defined by Jazoon staff).

My participation in Jazoon stems from a presentation Fabrizio Giudici and I gave at JavaPolis 2006, on the relationship between Java and Parallel computing and its wealth of potential applications in a wide range of different fields; back then, we discussed a case study application to astronomical imagery. The picture has since changed (and expanded) quite a lot. Here's why:

Fabrizio's blueMarine, an open-source application for digital photo workflow, has since grown more mature and more stable. blueMarine is entirely based on the NetBeans platform, and a beta release is expected soon.
My project Pleiades a Java open-source tool for advanced image processing meant to run in a distributed computing environment, has been stabilized. Also, an ad-hoc plugin (probably the first one ever developed by somebody other than its own author) has been written to integrate Pleiades into blueMarine.
Sun has made available its Grid Computing facility to 24 countries worldwide
Last but not least, the Java platform has undergone major performance improvements in many respects, including rich-client GUI applications and image processing. Furthermore, there is a wide selection of Java-based image processing-dedicated toolkits out there. So, we feel like it's about time to do something about the community of graphic Java developers: how about trying to join all our efforts into one integrated community? Our "experimental" BOF @Jazoon tries to answer these questions. Everyone interested in the topic is welcome to drop by and join the discussion.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that I will also be "carrying the flag" on behalf of my local JUG (JUG Genova).

See you all @Jazoon '07 in Zurich, then!