Subject: [DPS Members] DPS Mailing #09-17: Brief pre-meeting notes Issue 09-17, October 1st 2009 +-----------------------------CONTENTS--------------------------------+ 1) "Reporters" Wanted for the DPS Meeting 2) Hartmann Travel Fund Donations 3) Editorial: Graphics Quality in DPS Presentations 4) Upcoming Meetings +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ 1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1 "REPORTERS" WANTED FOR THE DPS MEETING Emily Lakdawalla from the Planetary Society can't make it to DPS this year, but is looking for people who will be there who might be willing to send her some notes about interesting presentations that she can post in her blog (http://planetary.org/blog/). She suspects there are probably a lot of people who will be going who will be writing short updates anyway for their friends on Facebook and Twitter -- she'd love to be able to gather such content into a central location to inform people about the science being presented at the meeting. She's not looking for exhaustive notes; focused material on one or two presentations of interest is better. Things may be "interesting" because they are breaking news, but are also interesting if someone's come up with an unusual method of solving a problem, or if there's progress on explaining a puzzling observation, or if someone digs into really old data, or if results come from international cooperation, or if it can be illustrated with particularly pretty pictures. Contact Emily directly (emily.lakdawalla@planetary.org) if you are interested in helping her out. 2---------2---------2---------2---------2---------2---------2---------2 HARTMANN TRAVEL FUND DONATIONS Please consider donations to the Hartmann Travel Fund to help students attend future DPS meetings. You can donate when you register on-site for the DPS meeting, or online through the AAS web site. See http://dps.aas.org/meetings/travel_grant 3---------3---------3---------3---------3---------3---------3---------3 EDITORIAL- GRAPHICS QUALITY IN DPS PRESENTATIONS If you're giving an oral presentation at DPS next week, here are a few humble suggestions for making sure your audience gets the most out of your talk: * Don't use a complex image as a slide background- it's distracting and reduces legibility. * Don't show bright green (or worse, yellow) lines on a white background. They may be much more visible on your computer monitor than when projected. * Similarly, don't show pure blue lines on a black background * Beware 1-pixel wide lines and fonts * Be sure plot axis labels are large and clear enough, particularly if they are from a published figure. Consider overwriting axis labels with new ones in a larger font if necessary. Thanks! John Spencer 4---------4---------4---------4---------4---------4---------4---------4 UPCOMING MEETINGS 1) Bridging the Gap to Space: Lightweight Science Payloads on High Altitude, Long Duration Balloons and Airships. Boulder, CO, Oct 26-28, 2009. See http://www.boulder.swri.edu/LCANS09 Registration Deadline: October 15th The workshop focus includes * Discussions of new and upcoming long duration stratospheric research platforms, including super-pressure balloons and airships. * Technologies for lighweight high-altitude telescopes. * Technologies for 0.1" pointing and tracking from a balloon-borne telescope to enable diffraction-limited performance from the stratosphere. Contacts for more information: Eliot Young (Southwest Research Institute) 303-546-6807 efy@boulder.swri.edu Robert Fesen (Dartmouth University) 603-646-2949 robert.fesen@dartmouth.edu +---------------------------------------------------------------------+