Entry # 1: astronomy, space exploration, spotting and identifying satellites:
Topic: Spotting Satellites:
Required ingredients: Clear view of the sky within c. 2+ hours of sunset or sunrise; as little moon and street lighting as possible; clarity such that at least 5 of the Pleiades ("Seven Sisters") are clearly visible. Watch for a steadily moving light, from 3rd magnitude to -1 in brightness. (The closer to the sunset/rise horizon, the brighter they appear). Eliminate aircraft: Ignore blinking or colored lights, and those that shift course. Also: Satellites NEVER move west; to launch them in that direction requires extra thrust, to overcome the speed of the Earth's rotation. One technique for rapidly spotting "small" or "slow" satellites among stars of similar brightness is to scan "in trios": View the stars in groups of three, the closer to each other the better. Any satellite, however slow moving, will instantly become obvious.
Identifying Satellites: NASA has a super website for tracking and identifying satellites, from the Space shuttle (when up), down to small communications satellites put up by various countries and companies: J-Track Click on J-Track 3D to see the hundreds of low-orbit satellites, and zoom out for all those in geo-synchronous orbit.
Topic: Space Exploration:
Since the Cassini vehicle orbiting Saturn releases the Huygens probe on Christmas Day, two sites are likely to be newsworthy for the next month:
The NASA/JPL "Cassini-Huygens home page is at: NASA The ESA (who built the Huygens probe) has an excellent site at: ESA
Topic: Astronomy On-line:
Big news currently is the new Celestia website: Celestia The site is AWESOME in its range and scope: Explore our solar system, move around the Milky Way galaxy, or beyond. I read that you can follow Cassini-Huygens' path from launch through orbital insertion around Saturn (and lots more)! Well, having saved the cosmos from untruth, injustice, and the un-American Way for today, I'll shut up, and clear the net for others. Bill of Cudjoe.
Entry # 2: A neat website for tracking near Earth asteroids, courtesy of NASA:
Near Earth Objects
Now you can win the office pool as to whether this will be the year another mountain slams into our little planet, once again cleaning the slate (of us, this time) and shifting the course of evolution. This website explains "NEO"s ("near Earth objects"), tells how many we've identified (a small but steadily growing number), how many potential NEOs are believed to be out there (several gazillion), how the risk assessment is calculated, why there's not much we can do about them (yet). Best of all, orbital paths can be viewed, so your prediction will hit the mark in the aforementioned office pool. (Demand the prize in cash - checks may not have time to clear.)
Entry # 3: Keeping pet chameleons outdoors:
I live in the Florida Keys, which is a completely frost-free environment. This induced me to try keeping veiled chameleons (Chamaeleo calyptratus) as outdoor specimens. My reasoning was that our climate is a moderated version of their native environment, the wadis of Yemen and southern Saudi Arabia. (In fact, in France they are popularly called the "Yemeni chameleon"). Wadis, like the lower Florida Keys, have scrubby, dry native vegetation, and a marked difference between wet and dry season weather. Unlike the Keys, they experience some freezing temperatures in winter, and reach the low 100s F. in summer. We fall between those extremes, and have abundant sunshine all year. I researched calyptratus on Google, finding abundant information (including that they're the easiest chameleons to keep, so a good choice for novices.) They are also highly solitary as adults, especially the males. I keep them in circular wire mesh individual cages, each mounted on a several gallon container holding a hibiscus plant. This setting assures full sun, yet constantly available shade. I water them daily by sprinkling drinking water over the tops of the bushes, simulating a brief shower. (I suspect this may not be altogether necessary, as they lap accumulated dew from leaves in the wadis, but I prefer to take no chances.) If the cage is fine enough mesh, I simply place a few gut-loaded crickets at a time in the cage; if not, I give them half-hour (or more) individual feeding sessions in a large aquarium (my "cricket farm"). Letting them warm up in direct sun for an hour or so seems to assure good appetite. So far, so good. They are growing well, and exhibit the full range of behaviors expected in this species. I've read that the Jacksoni chameleon (Chamaeleo jacksoni) is now considered an invasive pest in Hawaii. The irony is, it does not do well here: being from tropical mountain forests, they require a substantial drop in temperature each night after sunset. (Good luck finding that in Florida's lowland summers!) I'd be interested in hearing from hobbyists who've successfully kept various chameleon species as outdoor specimens. My guess is that the lower sunbelt in the U.S. offers more opportunity for this than is currently well known.
Entry # 4: A good source of meteorites.
I don't routinely do "endorsements", but where it's both merited and of potential value to blog fans of this site's topics, I'll certainly do so. Here's one: Catch A Falling Star
I've used this source for a number of years to purchase specimen meteorites, especially small Sikhote-Alin iron-nickel meteorites from Siberia. (These make interesting and striking pendants.) The sites' selection, prices, and service are excellent, but it's the information I value most. There's quite an education in meteorites to be had, just clicking on the different categories presented on the home page. The Sikhote-Alin meteorites, for example, fell in broad daylight in the S-A Mountains of eastern Siberia on Feb. 12, 1947. An artist, P.I. Medvedev, witnessed the event, and painted a "portrait" of the fireball falling near his village. Thousands of fragments were showered on the mountain forest.
Among the esoterica presented is the fact that collecting is complicated by four facts:
(1) the region is blanketed with ice and snow in the winter,
(2) the Russian goverment, understandably, limits collecting,
(3) the ticks are ferocious in the summer forest, but you probably wouldn't wory about them, since
(4) summer's also the Siberian tiger's mating season, and they're VERY grumpy!
Entry # 5
Topic: Einstein at Home (or: How I discovered gravity waves with my screensaver).
Here's a great opportunity to assist in fundamental research in physics, cosmology, and even Einstein's Theory of Relativity: Einstein At Home Gravitational waves were predicted by Albert Einstein nearly a century ago, but have thus far eluded detection. Warps in time and space may be a pesky commonplace on "Star Trek", but our own technology has been too primitive to confirm their existence. Now that's changing! You can contribute the idle time of your personal computer to this crucial research by downloading a free screensaver-based program. Your computer will receive and analyze data, then report findings back to the gravitational wave observatories. Your computing time will be combined with a vast (hopefully!) world-wide network of volunteers, yielding enormous computational powers. In return, you get a cool screensaver of the rotating celestial sphere, highlighting the segment of the cosmos you are currently examining.
Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence at home (SETI at Home) is the prototype distributed data network system. It's been around for a few years, and has a huge global volunteer network. I participated for quite some time, and find it educational and entertaining: "Will this bizarre 3-D graph emerging on my screen right now be THE BIG ONE?" There are personal profiles contributed by volunteers in Russia, France, Africa, Japan, Australia, etc., and the opportunity to network with each of them. To download, go to: SETI at Home The home page is available at the bottom of that website.
Entry # 6
Topic: Veiled chameleons.
After some months, my experiment with keeping this species outdoors is progressing. I built a large "habitat", 4' deep X 8' wide X 8' high, of wood framing and metal window screen. (Prolific, highly inquisitive raccoons in our native hammock ruled out fiberglass screen - they rip through it like tissue paper.) I sodded the base with St. Augustine grass, and set several potted large hibiscus and a small mulberry tree inside, as shelter and food sources. A solar water fountain assured a source of moving water, critical for chameleons. My son's iguana seems to do well there, and requires only a few carrot shavings, to assure adequate vitamin A. Crickets are released into the habitat weekly for the chameleons. Happily, a female v. chameleon has been sharing the loft with my large male. I presume they're reasonably happy with the arrangement, since they don't fight, and have been caught together in VERY romantic moments. I anticipate eggs this fall.
Entry # 7
Topic: Naked eye viewing of the planet Uranus. For the rest of this year, and well into 2006, the planet Uranus will be visible without binoculars or a telescope. All you need is (1) VERY dark skies away from urban light pollution, and (2) the ability to find the constellation Aquarius. This article from Sky and Telescope magazine gives the details on Uranus' position, as well as that of Neptune (which ALWAYS requires a telescope, though not necessarily a powerful one): Sky and Telescope
The problem is knowing how to find the constellation Aquarius. I determined from star charts that it's east of Sagittarius, and somewhat strung out east-west. I also determined that the bright star Fomalhaut is below the constellation, and might serve as a locator. Unfortunately, our normally pristine Florida Keys skies have had three complications this summer: Hurricane Dennis, Hurricane Kristina, and, most recently, Hurricane Rita. These brushed past us with minor damage, but the resulting cloud cover and high-level haze have eliminated most serious star gazing for the time being. Skies will clear here reasonably soon, but that still leaves the problem of finding Aquarius. If any of you out there have a trick for doing this, PLEASE email me (link "here" at bottom of page). I'll try it out and report the results in this blog (you, of course, will receive full credit and all the priveleges that go therewith).
Uranus was never identified as a planet by the ancients, since it's at best faint, and often not visible at all for long stretches of time. British astronomer Friedrich Herschel discovered it in 1781, and named it for King George III. We weren't on the best of terms with this particular monarch, and so preferred the title "Herschel's Planet". After Herschel died, the name was formally settled on as Uranus, the Greek sky god (and modern Greek word for "sky").
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