Hi *******,
I'm determined to do whatever it takes to find out the spin axes of 947 Monterosa and 1717 Arlon. I have the mathematical skills necessary, to estimate the spin axes from the lightcurve data, if I can get those data in an accessible form, preferably a form that won't require me to make a trip to the computer department at Iowa State Univ. to get them to help me "crack open the files". Since I'll probably end up typing the numbers into a BASIC program, smoothed data, smoothed in some reasonable or standard way at your discretion, might be handier for me than raw data (so I will have a more manageable data entry job).
The library at Iowa State Univ. has most of the journal articles describing the mathematical techniques developed over the years, for estimating spin axes. I've found that the basic methods are not too complicated. I don't want any software. I write my own computer programs, so I know how the numbers are crunched.
I'm irate that the Associate Director of the IAU Minor Planet Center "brushed me off", stating that the IAU Minor Planet Center "does not deal with lightcurves", which required supreme arrogance on his part, since he undoubtedly realized that I had emailed him through the very same IAU Minor Planet Center homepage which lists "Lightcurves" as one of their departments. His arrogance is surpassed only by that of the several European professors all of whom totally ignored my inquiries about their lightcurve data.
I'm concerned not about something that happens every 600 million years as in the Hollywood thriller, "2012", but rather about a much more moderate but nonetheless lethal event that happens every 6000 yrs: only 100 human lifetimes and therefore, a priori, not too unlikely. Gravity was not understood quantitatively until 400 yrs ago, and pulsars weren't discovered until 40 yrs ago. So, it's undeniable that new kinds of objects and forces remain to be discovered (note to theorists: see, inter alia, the ideas of Robert Turner of England, published on Dr. Van Flandern's messageboard). Objects and forces first reveal themselves through the kinds of "coincidences" I'm discovering, just as Newton's law of gravity first revealed itself through the "coincidence" discovered by Kepler, that all the orbits just happen to be ellipses.
Apparently the excellent Soviet agronomist, Prof. Vavilov, was an honest and courteous man whose only failing was that he lacked the knowhow or the courage to confront Soviet leaders sufficiently, to break through their psychological "denial" about the chaotic situation in the USSR, a situation in which farmers were:
A. Shot because they were capitalist "Kulaks"
B. Had their draft animals confiscated
C. Had their food confiscated so that they were too weak to go into the fields
D. Had their crop confiscated by "police" yelling "Politburo Diktat" who then allowed it to rot by the side of the railway, under heavy guard, waiting for boxcars that never came
To some extent, Prof. Vavilov's failure to speak loudly enough (What was he afraid of, that they'd kill him? They killed him anyway.) was his undoing, when he was scapegoated for the Russian famines and punished by starving him to death in prison.
Modern professional or tax-funded astronomers, even the most virtuous ones, now are in the position of Prof. Vavilov. To survive the coming disaster and its chaotic aftermath, astronomers must choose perception not prejudice, unity not union cards, truth not turf.
Sincerely,
Joseph C. Keller, M. D.
B. A., Harvard, cumlaude, Mathematics, 1977
