The Sperling Files: FFNs, LBBs, and LBMs

Norman Sperling

(c) 2002 Norman Sperling. Excerpted with permission from "What Your Astronomy Textbook Won't Tell You" (ISBN 0-913399-04-3).

FFNs

When novices start to use their first telescope, they look at the sky's major showpieces, such as the Messier nebulæ, clusters and galaxies. They're big and bright enough to show up in binoculars, and a beginner's telescope shows detail in many of them. In the background lurk many more faint objects.

Experienced sky watchers buy bigger and better telescopes, seeing ever-richer detail in more and more nebulæ, clusters and galaxies. But always, in the background, there are even more objects, too small and faint to make out. Some irreverent amateur astronomers in San Jose call those background objects “Faint Fuzzy Nothings” – FFNs.

FFNs continue in the background as seen by big, professional telescopes, too. Look at a picture of a galaxy in your textbook. In the background you can often notice dim smudges. Each of those is a galaxy, too, but so much farther away that you can't make out as much detail. A 3-meter-wide telescope shows magnificent detail in objects that amateurs can barely glimpse – and in the background lurk uncountable thousands of more FFNs. A 6-meter telescope shows detail in those, and in the background, even more FFNs. A 10-meter telescope reveals detail in those objects . . . and in the background, there are ever more FFNs. No telescope has ever been made that didn't find more FFNs in the background.

LBBs

One day when I was visiting my brother, a bird-watcher, I noticed his log of sightings. Almost every entry included “LBB.” He told me that LBB stands for “little brown bird.” They are so common, so small, and so similar, that they're not worth examining to see which common species each one belongs to. They flock all over, they're usually there, and they're not the big or pretty or rare birds that bird-watchers prize.

LBMs

The university's mycological society hosted a meeting about LBMs. Mycologists study fungi, and I didn't have to attend to figure out that “LBM” stands for “little brown mushroom.” LBMs are so common, so small, and so similar, that they're not worth examining to see which common species each one belongs to. They're not the big or pretty or rare mushrooms that fungus-hunters prize.

There's more! In prospecting, ignore LGRs: “Little Grey Rocks.” In wildflowers, ignore DYCs: “Darned Yellow Composite” flowers that fill meadows. Among stars, ignore MV red dwarves. Among meteorites, ignore L6 “ordinary” chondrites. Among galaxies, ignore dE dwarf ellipticals. In archaeology, ignore undecorated body shards (they don't have initials, but ignore them anyway). In entomology, ignore midges.

The same principle applies outside of science. In coin collecting, ignore small copper coins. In stamp collecting, ignore definitives. In antiquarian books, ignore textbooks. And in the serious study of literature, ignore science fiction.

This happens a lot in science. Beginners learn all the kinds of phenomena in the field, and quickly concentrate on certain ones, all but ignoring certain others. Sometimes practicality forces the distinction: some are available, others are too difficult to study. Often, though, it's about what's fashionable to study.

Technology advances at such a furious pace these days that it may be worth looking anew at common background items, using the latest devices. Most people don't pay attention to them. You just might recognize something interesting that no one noticed before.

Norm Sperling is editor of The Journal of Irreproducible Results. Previously he was assistant editor of Sky & Telescope magazine and Science Editor at AltaVista.com. Norm teaches astronomy in universities around San Francisco, wrote the new book "What Your Astronomy Textbook Won't Tell You," and co-designed Edmund Scientific's Astroscan telescope.