Venus and Mercury will be huddling close together for the next couple of weeks. Venus, the "evening star," is quite low in the west shortly after sunset. Fainter Mercury is a little to its lower right.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Can Science Explain Heaven?
Scientists try to explain near-death experiences.
There are those who believe that science will eventually explain everything—including our enduring belief in heaven. The thesis here is very simple: heaven is not a real place, or even a process or a supernatural event. It's something that happens in your brain as you die.
I first encountered this idea as I was researching my new book, Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination With the Afterlife. I was having lunch with my friend and colleague Christopher Dickey, who told me that his father, the writer James Dickey, had a fantasy of heaven in which all of his closest friends were sitting around a swimming pool, chatting. "There was nothing special about the pool itself," wrote Chris in Summer of Deliverance: A Memoir of Father and Son. "Nobody walked on the water. And he never told me who the friends were ... But what he took away from the dream was a sense of contentment, of being at ease with himself and the world, as if he had gotten a preview of heaven. He called that place 'The Happy Swimming Pool.' " Chris believes that everything we think we know about heaven happens in the moments before death. After that, there's nothing.
Science cannot definitively proof or disprove Chris's theory, but some scientists are willing to take guesses. And these guesses are based, in part, on a growing body of research around near-death experience (NDE). According to a 2000 article in The Lancet, between 9 and 18 percent of people who have been demonstrably near death report having had such an experience. And surveys of NDE accounts show great similarities in the details. People who have had NDEs describe—like some religious visionaries—a tunnel, a light, a gate, or a door, a sense of being out of the body, meeting people they know or have heard about, finding themselves in the presence of God, and then returning, changed.
Andrew Newberg is an associate professor in the radiology department at the University of Pennsylvania who has made his reputation studying the brain scans of religious people (nuns and monks) who have ecstatic experiences as they meditate. He believes the "tunnel" and "light" phenomena can be explained easily. As your eyesight fades, you lose the peripheral areas first, he hypothesizes. "That's why you'd have a tunnel sensation." If you see a bright light, that could be the central part of the visual system shutting down last.
Newberg puts forward the following scenario, which, he emphasizes, is guesswork. When people die, two parts of the brain, which usually work in opposition to each other, act cooperatively. The sympathetic nervous system—a web of nerves and neurons running through the spinal cord and spread to virtually every organ in the body—is responsible for arousal and excitement. It gets you ready for action. The parasympathetic system—with which the sympathetic system is entwined—calms you down and rejuvenates you. In life, the turning on of one system prompts the shutting down of the other. The sympathetic nervous system kicks in when a car cuts you off on the highway; the parasympathetic system is in charge as you're falling asleep. But in the brains of people reporting mystical experiences—and, perhaps, in death—both systems are fully "on," giving a person the sensation both of slowing down, being "out of body," and of seeing things vividly, including memories of important people and past events. Does Newberg believe, then, that visions of heaven are merely chemical-neurological events? He laughs nervously. "I don't know." He laughs again. "It's, um … I don't think we have enough evidence to say."
Since at least the 1980s, scientists have theorized that NDEs occur as a kind of physiological self-defense mechanism. In order to guard against damage during trauma, the brain releases protective chemicals that also happen to trigger intense hallucinations. This theory gained traction after scientists realized that virtually all the features of an NDE—a sense of moving through a tunnel, and "out of body" feeling, spiritual awe, visual hallucinations, and intense memories—can be reproduced with a stiff dose of ketamine, a horse tranquilizer frequently used as a party drug. In 2000, a psychiatrist named Karl Jansen wrote a book, Ketamine: Dreams and Realities, in which he interviewed a number of recreational users. One of them, who called himself K.U., describes one of his drug trips this way: "I came out into a golden Light. I rose into the Light and found myself having an unspoken interchange with the Light, which I believed to be God." Dante said it better, but the vision is astonishingly the same.
source....
There are those who believe that science will eventually explain everything—including our enduring belief in heaven. The thesis here is very simple: heaven is not a real place, or even a process or a supernatural event. It's something that happens in your brain as you die.
I first encountered this idea as I was researching my new book, Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination With the Afterlife. I was having lunch with my friend and colleague Christopher Dickey, who told me that his father, the writer James Dickey, had a fantasy of heaven in which all of his closest friends were sitting around a swimming pool, chatting. "There was nothing special about the pool itself," wrote Chris in Summer of Deliverance: A Memoir of Father and Son. "Nobody walked on the water. And he never told me who the friends were ... But what he took away from the dream was a sense of contentment, of being at ease with himself and the world, as if he had gotten a preview of heaven. He called that place 'The Happy Swimming Pool.' " Chris believes that everything we think we know about heaven happens in the moments before death. After that, there's nothing.
Science cannot definitively proof or disprove Chris's theory, but some scientists are willing to take guesses. And these guesses are based, in part, on a growing body of research around near-death experience (NDE). According to a 2000 article in The Lancet, between 9 and 18 percent of people who have been demonstrably near death report having had such an experience. And surveys of NDE accounts show great similarities in the details. People who have had NDEs describe—like some religious visionaries—a tunnel, a light, a gate, or a door, a sense of being out of the body, meeting people they know or have heard about, finding themselves in the presence of God, and then returning, changed.
Andrew Newberg is an associate professor in the radiology department at the University of Pennsylvania who has made his reputation studying the brain scans of religious people (nuns and monks) who have ecstatic experiences as they meditate. He believes the "tunnel" and "light" phenomena can be explained easily. As your eyesight fades, you lose the peripheral areas first, he hypothesizes. "That's why you'd have a tunnel sensation." If you see a bright light, that could be the central part of the visual system shutting down last.
Newberg puts forward the following scenario, which, he emphasizes, is guesswork. When people die, two parts of the brain, which usually work in opposition to each other, act cooperatively. The sympathetic nervous system—a web of nerves and neurons running through the spinal cord and spread to virtually every organ in the body—is responsible for arousal and excitement. It gets you ready for action. The parasympathetic system—with which the sympathetic system is entwined—calms you down and rejuvenates you. In life, the turning on of one system prompts the shutting down of the other. The sympathetic nervous system kicks in when a car cuts you off on the highway; the parasympathetic system is in charge as you're falling asleep. But in the brains of people reporting mystical experiences—and, perhaps, in death—both systems are fully "on," giving a person the sensation both of slowing down, being "out of body," and of seeing things vividly, including memories of important people and past events. Does Newberg believe, then, that visions of heaven are merely chemical-neurological events? He laughs nervously. "I don't know." He laughs again. "It's, um … I don't think we have enough evidence to say."
Since at least the 1980s, scientists have theorized that NDEs occur as a kind of physiological self-defense mechanism. In order to guard against damage during trauma, the brain releases protective chemicals that also happen to trigger intense hallucinations. This theory gained traction after scientists realized that virtually all the features of an NDE—a sense of moving through a tunnel, and "out of body" feeling, spiritual awe, visual hallucinations, and intense memories—can be reproduced with a stiff dose of ketamine, a horse tranquilizer frequently used as a party drug. In 2000, a psychiatrist named Karl Jansen wrote a book, Ketamine: Dreams and Realities, in which he interviewed a number of recreational users. One of them, who called himself K.U., describes one of his drug trips this way: "I came out into a golden Light. I rose into the Light and found myself having an unspoken interchange with the Light, which I believed to be God." Dante said it better, but the vision is astonishingly the same.
source....
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Moon and Saturn
The bright Moon keeps company with a bright planet the next couple of nights. They are in good view in the east by 8 or 9 o'clock. The planet Saturn stands to the left or lower left of the Moon tonight, and looks like a bright golden star.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
a beautiful grouping
The Moon, the planet Mars, and the twins of Gemini form a beautiful grouping the next couple of nights. Tonight, Mars is to the left of the Moon as darkness falls, with Gemini's twins -- the stars Pollux and Castor -- above them.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Sunday, March 21, 2010
The planet Saturn
The planet Saturn is putting on a good show this month. It lines up opposite the Sun, so it rises at sunset and remains in view all night. It is at its brightest, too. The golden planet outshines all but a handful of other planets and stars.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Spring In The Necedah National Wildlife Refuge
Prerecorded 3/14/10:
It was a great day for a ride! First time we hit 60° since the beginning of November.
The Yellow River has some water in it today! There is a bridge up ahead, but we won't be going any farther this time. Rough road or not, I'll have to take the sign's word for it.
Look at Mrs. posing for the picture!
Camping, boating, fishing, all at the same time! A recipe for the perfect vacation.
Mud.
Scenery break.
Bigfoot! Where are you? Not here, not today.
Saw the first robin today and the pussy willows are blooming.
Nice.
No ice.
Ridin' the wave. The camera was swaying slightly because I had it attached to a post that had water rushing around it. I guess the post was a little loose.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
ISS Tonight
21 Mar -1.8 19:35:30 WNW 34
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Saturday, March 20, 2010
EQUINOX SKY SHOW
Northern Spring begins today. To celebrate the occasion, Nature is putting on an equinox sky show. Look west after sunset for a close encounter between the crescent Moon and the Pleiades star cluster (Seven Sisters). It's a beautiful view, and a nice way to experience the equal night.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
State Parks, trails and forests offer variety of new and traditional activities
Wisconsin state parks are gearing up for another summer season which park managers anticipate will be busy. A number of new and updated facilities and programs will greet park and trail users in 2010 including an entirely new campground at Harrington Beach State Park, additional new campsites at Willow River State Park, more sites equipped with electric hookups across the state and all new activities for the Wisconsin Explorer program for kids.
“Wisconsin state parks attracted nearly 14 million visitors in 2009,” said Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Secretary Matt Frank. “State Park System properties are great destinations and activity centers for families seeking healthy outdoor recreation opportunities.”
Wisconsin has more than 4,600 campsites available in state parks, forests and recreation areas offering camping in a variety of habitats from deep forest to unglaciated hill and valley with spectacular overlooks. Many campsites are reservable.
Camp site reservations are continuing to trend upward and were up close to 2 percent through the end of February compared to 2009 according to parks officials. 2009 reservations saw an increase of 6.6 percent over 2008. The number of campsites is expected to grow again in 2011 when an all new campground will be ready for visitors at Governor Thompson State Park.
Trails
Wisconsin state parks offer more than 3,000 miles of recreational trails for hiking, biking, horseback riding and other activities. Mountain bikers visiting the Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest will want to check out new trails on this unit of the forest and horseback riders will find improved roads, an improved campsite and shower building and renovated stables. Bikers visiting Blue Mound State Park will also find a new feature for riders, a bike camping site just off the Military Ridge State Trail.
Other completed trail projects include reopening of two washout-resistant trails in Wyalusing State Park. The two trails were washed out by floods in the spring of 2007. And, ATV riders can look forward to rebuilt trails in Richard Bong State Recreation Area opening in June 2010.
Get Outdoors Wisconsin DNR
State parks are a popular family-friendly recreational opportunity within easy reach of nearly all Wisconsin citizens. In addition to traditional activities such as camping, picnicking, hiking and swimming, the Get Outdoors Wisconsin program is entering its third year with programs that encourage kids and families to explore the natural environment offered by a park and the nature near their home. Many park properties will also offer guided hikes, explorations and skills demonstrations through the season as part of the Get Outdoors Wisconsin program. Information on events and activities is available online.
The Wisconsin State Park System lists 104 properties including 48 state parks, eight southern forests, six recreational areas and 42 trails. Additional properties open to the public for recreation include northern state forests such as Northern Highland-American Legion, Brule River, Flambeau River, Black River, and Governor Knowles.
Other things to do, other places to visit
The DNR maintains a searchable database of properties including wildlife areas, boat launches, shore fishing access points and state natural areas and a unique automobile based statewide nature trail, the Great Wisconsin Birding and Nature Trail, which highlights easily accessible high-quality nature viewing locations
“Wisconsin offers literally hundreds of public properties featuring a wide range of land and water-based outdoor recreation,” says Dan Schuller, Director of State Parks and Recreation. “There is something for almost every kind of outdoor adventure from newer activities such as geocaching to traditional pastimes like camping, hiking and picnics. If you visit one of our properties please let staff know) your thoughts. We value visitor feedback as we continually work to improve our facilities.”
Nationally, state parks provide a tremendous economic benefit to area communities estimated at $20 billion. Approximately 6,000 state park units attracted more than 725 million visits in 2009.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Wisconsin State Parks (608) 266-2181
source....
“Wisconsin state parks attracted nearly 14 million visitors in 2009,” said Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Secretary Matt Frank. “State Park System properties are great destinations and activity centers for families seeking healthy outdoor recreation opportunities.”
Wisconsin has more than 4,600 campsites available in state parks, forests and recreation areas offering camping in a variety of habitats from deep forest to unglaciated hill and valley with spectacular overlooks. Many campsites are reservable.
Camp site reservations are continuing to trend upward and were up close to 2 percent through the end of February compared to 2009 according to parks officials. 2009 reservations saw an increase of 6.6 percent over 2008. The number of campsites is expected to grow again in 2011 when an all new campground will be ready for visitors at Governor Thompson State Park.
Trails
Wisconsin state parks offer more than 3,000 miles of recreational trails for hiking, biking, horseback riding and other activities. Mountain bikers visiting the Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest will want to check out new trails on this unit of the forest and horseback riders will find improved roads, an improved campsite and shower building and renovated stables. Bikers visiting Blue Mound State Park will also find a new feature for riders, a bike camping site just off the Military Ridge State Trail.
Other completed trail projects include reopening of two washout-resistant trails in Wyalusing State Park. The two trails were washed out by floods in the spring of 2007. And, ATV riders can look forward to rebuilt trails in Richard Bong State Recreation Area opening in June 2010.
Get Outdoors Wisconsin DNR
State parks are a popular family-friendly recreational opportunity within easy reach of nearly all Wisconsin citizens. In addition to traditional activities such as camping, picnicking, hiking and swimming, the Get Outdoors Wisconsin program is entering its third year with programs that encourage kids and families to explore the natural environment offered by a park and the nature near their home. Many park properties will also offer guided hikes, explorations and skills demonstrations through the season as part of the Get Outdoors Wisconsin program. Information on events and activities is available online.
The Wisconsin State Park System lists 104 properties including 48 state parks, eight southern forests, six recreational areas and 42 trails. Additional properties open to the public for recreation include northern state forests such as Northern Highland-American Legion, Brule River, Flambeau River, Black River, and Governor Knowles.
Other things to do, other places to visit
The DNR maintains a searchable database of properties including wildlife areas, boat launches, shore fishing access points and state natural areas and a unique automobile based statewide nature trail, the Great Wisconsin Birding and Nature Trail, which highlights easily accessible high-quality nature viewing locations
“Wisconsin offers literally hundreds of public properties featuring a wide range of land and water-based outdoor recreation,” says Dan Schuller, Director of State Parks and Recreation. “There is something for almost every kind of outdoor adventure from newer activities such as geocaching to traditional pastimes like camping, hiking and picnics. If you visit one of our properties please let staff know) your thoughts. We value visitor feedback as we continually work to improve our facilities.”
Nationally, state parks provide a tremendous economic benefit to area communities estimated at $20 billion. Approximately 6,000 state park units attracted more than 725 million visits in 2009.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Wisconsin State Parks (608) 266-2181
source....
Friday, March 19, 2010
ISS Tonight
19 Mar -2.1 20:21:20 WNW 35
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
MOOOOO!
Prerecorded 3/9/10:
The cows are happy that some of the snow is melting and now they have a place to run. Not that they run very often anyway!
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
The cows are happy that some of the snow is melting and now they have a place to run. Not that they run very often anyway!
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Spring
Spring arrives in the northern hemisphere tomorrow, at a moment known as the vernal equinox. This is the point at which the Sun crosses the equator heading from south to north. In many ancient societies, the equinox marked the beginning of a new year.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Thursday, March 18, 2010
ISS Tonight
18 Mar -3.4 19:56:22 NW 73
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
WI Dells Officer Accidently Shoots Own Hand
A Wisconsin Dells police officer is being treated at a hospital after accidentally shooting himself in the hand, according to the Sauk County Sheriff's Department.
Sauk Co. Deputy Chip Meister said the weapon discharged while the Wisconsin Dells officer was putting it away in his home Monday evening.
Meister said the officer was shot in the finger tips.
Sauk Co. deputies will investigate the case.
Meister said the officer has limited term employment with the Wisconsin Dells Police Department.
source....
Sauk Co. Deputy Chip Meister said the weapon discharged while the Wisconsin Dells officer was putting it away in his home Monday evening.
Meister said the officer was shot in the finger tips.
Sauk Co. deputies will investigate the case.
Meister said the officer has limited term employment with the Wisconsin Dells Police Department.
source....
ISS Tonight - Twice
17 Mar -2.2 19:31:38 NW 31
&
17 Mar -1.5 21:06:48 WNW 30
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
&
17 Mar -1.5 21:06:48 WNW 30
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
The planet Venus
The planet Venus is slowly returning to prominence. It is quite low in the west at sunset, and sets in early evening. Look for it a little to the left or upper left of the Moon as darkness falls tonight, and well below the Moon tomorrow evening.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
ISS Tonight
16 Mar -3.3 20:41:58 NW 68
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Monday, March 15, 2010
ISS Tonight
15 Mar -2.1 20:17:24 NW 30
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
New Moon
The Moon is "new" at 4:01 p.m. CDT as it crosses the imaginary line between Earth and Sun. It is lost from sight in the Sun's glare, but should return to view on Wednesday evening as a thin crescent low in the west shortly after sunset.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Sunday, March 14, 2010
zodiacal light
A pale pyramid of light sometimes rises from the western horizon on moonless March evenings. It's called the zodiacal light because it is found in the zodiac. This glow is caused by sunlight reflecting off of microscopic dust grains in space.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Exposed Church
You might call it an act of God. A severe drought in Venezuela has exposed a church—pictured in 2008 (left) and on February 21, 2010—that had been inundated when a hydroelectric dam was built in 1985.
The 82-foot-tall (25-meter-tall) church and the Andean town of Potosi were flooded to establish the Uribante-Caparo water reservoir to power the plant, which is currently operating at just 7 percent of its capacity, according to the Reuters service.
The church is now an ominous symbol of energy shortages in the country, which gets around 68 percent of its power from hydroelectricity, Reuters reported. The droughts spurred Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to declare an energy emergency in February.
source....
Friday, March 12, 2010
prominent star clusters
The two closest and most prominent star clusters are high in the west at nightfall. The Hyades looks like a downward-pointing letter V, with a bright orange star at one point. The dipper-shaped Pleiades is to the right of the Hyades.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Phobos Flyby Success
Mars Express encountered Phobos last night, smoothly skimming past at just 67 km, the closest any manmade object has ever approached Mars’ enigmatic moon. The data collected could help unlock the origin of not just Phobos but other ‘second generation’ moons.
Something is not right about Phobos. It looks like a solid object but previous flybys have shown that it is not dense enough to be solid all the way through. Instead, it must be 25-35% porous. This has led planetary scientists to believe that it is little more than a ‘rubble pile’ circling Mars. Such a rubble pile would be composed of blocks both large and small resting together, with possibly large spaces between them where they do not fit easily together.
Last night’s flyby was close enough to give scientists their most exquisite data yet about the gravitational field of Phobos. Mars Express locked onto the radio signal from Earth at around 21:20 CET (20:20 UT). The radio frequency oscillators on the ground are 100 000 times more stable than those on the spacecraft, so for this experiment, which required the best precision possible, the signal was sent up to Mars Express and then returned by the spacecraft to the ground.
The radio waves travel at the speed of light and took 6 minutes 34 seconds to travel from Earth to the spacecraft last night. So the round trip time was 13 minutes 8 seconds. Once the signal was received back at Earth, it was clearly strong and good. So strong that radio amateurs were also able to lock onto the signal, although their equipment would not be able to detect the subtle variations induced by the gravity of Phobos.
Now that the data are all collected, the analysis can begin.First will be an estimate of the density variation across the moon. This will tell scientists just how much of Phobos’ interior is likely to be composed of voids.
“Phobos is probably a second-generation Solar System object,” says Martin Pätzold, Universitat Koln, Cologne, Germany, and Principal Investigator of the Mars Radio Science (MaRS) experiment. Second generation means that it coalesced in orbit after Mars formed, rather than forming concurrently out of the same birth cloud as the Red Planet. There are other moons around other planets where this is thought to have been the case too, such as Amalthea around Jupiter.
Whatever the precise origin, Phobos will eventually crumble back into this disrupted state. It is gradually spiralling towards Mars and will eventually be pulled apart. “It came from debris, it will return to debris,” says Pätzold. In the meantime, it is there to be studied and explored.
Last night’s flyby was just one of a campaign of 12 Mars Express flybys taking place in February and March 2010. For the previous two, the radar was working, attempting to probe beneath the surface of the moon, looking for reflections from structures inside. In the coming flybys, the Mars Express camera will take over, providing high resolution pictures of the moon’s surface.
source....
Something is not right about Phobos. It looks like a solid object but previous flybys have shown that it is not dense enough to be solid all the way through. Instead, it must be 25-35% porous. This has led planetary scientists to believe that it is little more than a ‘rubble pile’ circling Mars. Such a rubble pile would be composed of blocks both large and small resting together, with possibly large spaces between them where they do not fit easily together.
Last night’s flyby was close enough to give scientists their most exquisite data yet about the gravitational field of Phobos. Mars Express locked onto the radio signal from Earth at around 21:20 CET (20:20 UT). The radio frequency oscillators on the ground are 100 000 times more stable than those on the spacecraft, so for this experiment, which required the best precision possible, the signal was sent up to Mars Express and then returned by the spacecraft to the ground.
The radio waves travel at the speed of light and took 6 minutes 34 seconds to travel from Earth to the spacecraft last night. So the round trip time was 13 minutes 8 seconds. Once the signal was received back at Earth, it was clearly strong and good. So strong that radio amateurs were also able to lock onto the signal, although their equipment would not be able to detect the subtle variations induced by the gravity of Phobos.
Now that the data are all collected, the analysis can begin.First will be an estimate of the density variation across the moon. This will tell scientists just how much of Phobos’ interior is likely to be composed of voids.
“Phobos is probably a second-generation Solar System object,” says Martin Pätzold, Universitat Koln, Cologne, Germany, and Principal Investigator of the Mars Radio Science (MaRS) experiment. Second generation means that it coalesced in orbit after Mars formed, rather than forming concurrently out of the same birth cloud as the Red Planet. There are other moons around other planets where this is thought to have been the case too, such as Amalthea around Jupiter.
Whatever the precise origin, Phobos will eventually crumble back into this disrupted state. It is gradually spiralling towards Mars and will eventually be pulled apart. “It came from debris, it will return to debris,” says Pätzold. In the meantime, it is there to be studied and explored.
Last night’s flyby was just one of a campaign of 12 Mars Express flybys taking place in February and March 2010. For the previous two, the radar was working, attempting to probe beneath the surface of the moon, looking for reflections from structures inside. In the coming flybys, the Mars Express camera will take over, providing high resolution pictures of the moon’s surface.
source....
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Sunny Spring Day
This has been prerecorded, 3/6/10:
Here comes the Sun!
Goldie soaking it in.
Snoopy also soaking it in.
I liked the color of this airplane.
A special treat today, two airplane pictures! I liked this one because it was either much bigger than most, or it was lower than most.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
ISS Tonight
9 Mar -1.8 18:22:08 W 31
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Spring Is Coming
This was prerecorded 3/5/10:
Today's target.
All cut up.
All split, thanks to my prize-winning splitter.
There is still a lot of snow, but it's melting fast!
Practicing for the National Splitting Championship Circuit.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Monday, March 8, 2010
Nice Day For A Walk
This has been prerecorded, 3/3/2010:
Pee Wee!
My bicycle shed is still snowed in. It will be a few days yet, before I can open the doors.
Today's airplane picture.
Well, dogs, it's just a little jackpine.
Here is my 'park bench' with a little snow on it yet.
These two were out for a walk at the same time we were.
Snoopy could hear this little guy hollering at us, but she couldn't see him. Poor old Goldie couldn't hear him or see him.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Sunday, March 7, 2010
ISS Tonight
7 Mar -1.8 19:07:29 W 32
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
A Late Winter Walk
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Saturday, March 6, 2010
ISS Tonight
6 Mar -3.2 18:42:07 WSW 77
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
A Short History of Life on Mars
The idea of “Men from Mars” has been with us for more than a century now, thanks to writers like H.G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs. And movies like “Mars Attacks” and “War of the Worlds” are good fun. But what’s the real story of the search for life on Mars? Today we tell the tale of the search for life on the Red Planet…
In the 17th and 18th centuries, early telescopic astronomers glimpsed polar caps– much like Earth’s– that grew and shrank with the Martian seasons. The Martian day turned out to be about the same length as Earth’s. The axial tilt was similar to Earth, too, which meant Mars has seasons much as we do. And those strange dark surface markings… were they water? Or vegetation?
Then in the mid-1800’s, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli claimed to see long, thin lines on the surface of Mars. He called them canals, and he mapped them meticulously.
American astronomer Percival Lowell saw the canals too and loudly claimed they were irrigation structures built by an advanced Martian civilization. Inspired by Lowell’s claim, H.G. Wells wrote “War of the Worlds”, which has been re-purposed into radio events and movies over the decades. The possibility of “Men from Mars” stoked the imagination of science fiction writers and readers through the first half of the 20th century.
But as telescopes improved, few other astronomers could see the canals which were– correctly– dismissed as an optical illusion. Some denounced Lowell as a crank. And the existence of life on Mars remained tantalizing, but unproven.
Then, in 1965, space probes were dispatched to Mars to get a better view.
In 1965, the Mariner 4 space probe flew past Mars and snapped 22 black-and-white images of a tiny part of the Martian surface. The images showed craters– big ones– which suggested Mars was more like our moon than the Earth. So no Martian forests, or canals, or cities. The New York Times wrote a feature article declaring Mars “a dead world”. Later, Mariners 6 and 7 showed more craters, and many planetary scientists gave up hope of finding life on Mars.
But one scientist thought this conclusion was premature. Carl Sagan, along with a few colleagues, suggested the coverage and resolution of the early Mariner images were too poor to confirm the absence of life.
Then NASA sent Mariner 9.
In 1971, this probe became the first to orbit Mars. At first, the images showed only the white polar caps and a featureless surface. That’s because the probe arrived during a planet-wide dust storm which lasted weeks. As the dust cleared, the images revealed a startling display of surface features including immense volcanoes, canyons, and river beds that suggested the one-time presence of liquid water. The atmospheric pressure on Mars is too low to sustain liquid water now. But where did the water go? Underground? Frozen in the polar caps? If so, maybe there was still hope to find life elsewhere on the planet. The chase for life on Mars was on again.
Five years later, NASA landed the two Viking probes on the surface of Mars. They sent back thousands of pictures of a dry, rusty, rocky surface. And they grabbed samples of the Martian soil and conducted on-site chemistry experiments to look for the telltale signs of life.
The results?
At first, they looked promising. But after a little thought, most scientists concluded there was no definitive evidence for life on the surface of Mars.
Sadly, other surface probes since Viking, right up to the current Phoenix Lander, have found no evidence for life. No palm trees or hubcaps, no bacteria or organic molecules. More missions are planned in the coming years, including the European ExoMars mission which will dig two meters into the surface to look for signatures of life.
One more strange thing…
In 1984, a meteorite was found in Antarctica. Scientists were certain the meteorite came from Mars. It was likely knocked of by a volcanic eruption or asteroid impact, and its chemical composition was the same as the surface of Mars. In 1996, a group of scientists suggested they found fossilized evidence of bacteria in this Martian meteorite. But these results have been in dispute on and off ever since; no strong conclusions one way or the other have been declared. Though late last year, the same scientists concluded once again that this meteorite contains evidence of life on Mars.
So no one’s found clear-cut evidence of life on Mars, but we’ve only examined a tiny part of the surface. Upcoming missions may yet lead to the most startling scientific conclusion ever made… that life exists somewhere other than Earth.
source....
In the 17th and 18th centuries, early telescopic astronomers glimpsed polar caps– much like Earth’s– that grew and shrank with the Martian seasons. The Martian day turned out to be about the same length as Earth’s. The axial tilt was similar to Earth, too, which meant Mars has seasons much as we do. And those strange dark surface markings… were they water? Or vegetation?
Then in the mid-1800’s, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli claimed to see long, thin lines on the surface of Mars. He called them canals, and he mapped them meticulously.
American astronomer Percival Lowell saw the canals too and loudly claimed they were irrigation structures built by an advanced Martian civilization. Inspired by Lowell’s claim, H.G. Wells wrote “War of the Worlds”, which has been re-purposed into radio events and movies over the decades. The possibility of “Men from Mars” stoked the imagination of science fiction writers and readers through the first half of the 20th century.
But as telescopes improved, few other astronomers could see the canals which were– correctly– dismissed as an optical illusion. Some denounced Lowell as a crank. And the existence of life on Mars remained tantalizing, but unproven.
Then, in 1965, space probes were dispatched to Mars to get a better view.
In 1965, the Mariner 4 space probe flew past Mars and snapped 22 black-and-white images of a tiny part of the Martian surface. The images showed craters– big ones– which suggested Mars was more like our moon than the Earth. So no Martian forests, or canals, or cities. The New York Times wrote a feature article declaring Mars “a dead world”. Later, Mariners 6 and 7 showed more craters, and many planetary scientists gave up hope of finding life on Mars.
But one scientist thought this conclusion was premature. Carl Sagan, along with a few colleagues, suggested the coverage and resolution of the early Mariner images were too poor to confirm the absence of life.
Then NASA sent Mariner 9.
In 1971, this probe became the first to orbit Mars. At first, the images showed only the white polar caps and a featureless surface. That’s because the probe arrived during a planet-wide dust storm which lasted weeks. As the dust cleared, the images revealed a startling display of surface features including immense volcanoes, canyons, and river beds that suggested the one-time presence of liquid water. The atmospheric pressure on Mars is too low to sustain liquid water now. But where did the water go? Underground? Frozen in the polar caps? If so, maybe there was still hope to find life elsewhere on the planet. The chase for life on Mars was on again.
Five years later, NASA landed the two Viking probes on the surface of Mars. They sent back thousands of pictures of a dry, rusty, rocky surface. And they grabbed samples of the Martian soil and conducted on-site chemistry experiments to look for the telltale signs of life.
The results?
At first, they looked promising. But after a little thought, most scientists concluded there was no definitive evidence for life on the surface of Mars.
Sadly, other surface probes since Viking, right up to the current Phoenix Lander, have found no evidence for life. No palm trees or hubcaps, no bacteria or organic molecules. More missions are planned in the coming years, including the European ExoMars mission which will dig two meters into the surface to look for signatures of life.
One more strange thing…
In 1984, a meteorite was found in Antarctica. Scientists were certain the meteorite came from Mars. It was likely knocked of by a volcanic eruption or asteroid impact, and its chemical composition was the same as the surface of Mars. In 1996, a group of scientists suggested they found fossilized evidence of bacteria in this Martian meteorite. But these results have been in dispute on and off ever since; no strong conclusions one way or the other have been declared. Though late last year, the same scientists concluded once again that this meteorite contains evidence of life on Mars.
So no one’s found clear-cut evidence of life on Mars, but we’ve only examined a tiny part of the surface. Upcoming missions may yet lead to the most startling scientific conclusion ever made… that life exists somewhere other than Earth.
source....
Friday, March 5, 2010
Canadian Researcher Snaps Sasquatch in Vancouver
A Canadian researcher managed to take a picture of the face of the legendary hairy giant – the mascot of the Winter Olympic Games 2010.
Randy Brisson, a well-known Canadian cryptozoologist, shared hot information with his Russian colleagues. The researcher sent a photograph of the North American Bigfoot to Igor Burtsev and Dmitry Bayanov, the directors of the International Center for Hominology. The Canadian took the picture of the creature in Vancouver, the capital of Winter Games 2010.
Brisson assured his Russian colleagues that it was a photo of the legendary Bigfoot, or Sasquatch. The popularity of the mythical creature has won it the honor to become a symbol and a mascot of Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Mr. Brisson’s photo may mean that the mascots ramble somewhere in the woods of the Olympic city.
The Canadian cryptozoologist said that he had seen a Sasquatch peeking out from behind a huge stub in the woods near Pitt Lake. The spot, where the creature was supposedly photographed, is quite far from sports objects.
Randy and his son Ray found big tracks on the snow along a hauling road. The footprints were quite big – it was obvious that they had been left by an adult creature. There were smaller footprints found nearby too.
The toes on the feet of both the adult and the youngster were pathologically angled to one side. The researcher claimed that the creatures were breeding since he had found the footprints of both a parent and a baby.
Mr. Brisson also said in his message to the Russian researchers that he and his son decided not to trace the couple because the creatures, when trying to escape, were throwing rocks at them.
The story may sound very strange, but Burtsev and Bayanov said that they had never exposed the Canadian of any falsifications in their studies of the unknown.
source....
ISS Tonight - Twice
5 Mar -2.4 18:17:22 SSW 33
&
5 Mar -1.4 19:52:34 W 30
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
&
5 Mar -1.4 19:52:34 W 30
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Thursday, March 4, 2010
No Lie! Your Facebook Profile Is the Real You
“On the Internet,” one dog tells another in a classic New Yorker cartoon, “nobody knows you’re a dog.”
The internet is notorious for its digital dens of deception. But on Facebook, what you see tends to be what you get — at least in one study of tailless, two-legged young adults.
College-age users of Facebook in the United States and a similar social networking site in Germany typically present accurate versions of their personalities in online profiles, says psychologist Mitja Back of Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. People use online social networking sites to express who they really are rather than idealized versions of themselves, Back and his colleagues conclude in an upcoming Psychological Science.
“Online social networks are so popular and so likely to reveal people’s actual personalities because they allow for social interactions that feel real in many ways,” Back says.
Back’s team administered personality inventories that evaluated 133 U.S. Facebook users and 103 Germans who used a comparable social-networking site. Inventories focused on the extent to which volunteers endorsed ratings of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional instability and openness to new experiences.
The subjects — who ranged in age from 17 to 22 — took the inventory twice, first with instructions to describe their actual personalities and then to portray idealized versions of themselves.
Then, undergraduate research assistants — nine in the United States and 10 in Germany — rated volunteers’ personalities after looking at their online profiles. Those ratings matched volunteers’ actual personality descriptions better than their idealized ones, especially for extraversion and openness.
Facebook is so true to life, Back claims, that encountering a person there for the first time generally results in a more accurate personality appraisal than meeting face to face, going by the results of previous studies.
Adriana Manago, a psychology graduate student at UCLA, calls the new findings “compelling” but incomplete. College students on Facebook and other online social networks often augment what they regard as their best personal qualities, Manago holds. In her view, these characteristics aren’t plumbed by broad personality measures like the ones measured in Back’s study. And students’ actual personality descriptions may have included enhancements of their real characteristics, thus inflating the correlation between observers’ ratings and students’ real personalities, Manago notes.
“Online profiles showcase an enhanced reflection of who the user really is,” Manago proposes. In a 2008 study, she and her colleagues found that 23 college students sometimes used another online social networking site, MySpace, to enhance their images, say by Photoshopping acne out of a picture or posting a video of themselves driving a sports car at high speeds.
Still, the new findings make sense, remarks psychologist Sandra Calvert of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She emphasizes that social-networking sites have fostered a new type of communication among teens and young adults, in which one person can create personal content that gets broadcast to a multitude of friends.
In a 2009 study of Facebook use among 92 college students, Calvert’s team found that young women reported a whopping average of 401 online friends, while young men reported an average of 269.
source....
The internet is notorious for its digital dens of deception. But on Facebook, what you see tends to be what you get — at least in one study of tailless, two-legged young adults.
College-age users of Facebook in the United States and a similar social networking site in Germany typically present accurate versions of their personalities in online profiles, says psychologist Mitja Back of Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. People use online social networking sites to express who they really are rather than idealized versions of themselves, Back and his colleagues conclude in an upcoming Psychological Science.
“Online social networks are so popular and so likely to reveal people’s actual personalities because they allow for social interactions that feel real in many ways,” Back says.
Back’s team administered personality inventories that evaluated 133 U.S. Facebook users and 103 Germans who used a comparable social-networking site. Inventories focused on the extent to which volunteers endorsed ratings of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional instability and openness to new experiences.
The subjects — who ranged in age from 17 to 22 — took the inventory twice, first with instructions to describe their actual personalities and then to portray idealized versions of themselves.
Then, undergraduate research assistants — nine in the United States and 10 in Germany — rated volunteers’ personalities after looking at their online profiles. Those ratings matched volunteers’ actual personality descriptions better than their idealized ones, especially for extraversion and openness.
Facebook is so true to life, Back claims, that encountering a person there for the first time generally results in a more accurate personality appraisal than meeting face to face, going by the results of previous studies.
Adriana Manago, a psychology graduate student at UCLA, calls the new findings “compelling” but incomplete. College students on Facebook and other online social networks often augment what they regard as their best personal qualities, Manago holds. In her view, these characteristics aren’t plumbed by broad personality measures like the ones measured in Back’s study. And students’ actual personality descriptions may have included enhancements of their real characteristics, thus inflating the correlation between observers’ ratings and students’ real personalities, Manago notes.
“Online profiles showcase an enhanced reflection of who the user really is,” Manago proposes. In a 2008 study, she and her colleagues found that 23 college students sometimes used another online social networking site, MySpace, to enhance their images, say by Photoshopping acne out of a picture or posting a video of themselves driving a sports car at high speeds.
Still, the new findings make sense, remarks psychologist Sandra Calvert of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She emphasizes that social-networking sites have fostered a new type of communication among teens and young adults, in which one person can create personal content that gets broadcast to a multitude of friends.
In a 2009 study of Facebook use among 92 college students, Calvert’s team found that young women reported a whopping average of 401 online friends, while young men reported an average of 269.
source....
ISS Tonight
4 Mar -3.4 19:25:36 WSW 85
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
ISS Tonight
3 Mar -2.4 19:01:10 SSW 30
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
My Splitter Is Super!
The following has been prerecorded, 2/26/10:
Yesterday, when I cut and split wood, the crust on the snow was softening and I broke through almost to my waist a couple of times. I only hauled one load up because I wanted to give my pants time to dry by the stove before milking the cows. I had more wood cut and split than I thought, as it took me most of my time today to finish hauling it up. Although, as far as hauling capacity goes, sometimes my little sled feels more like a wheelbarrow. I can't wait until the snow melts and I can start using my normal trailer again. Won't be long. I spied a little bit of mud and water on the south side of one of the pine plantations.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Yesterday, when I cut and split wood, the crust on the snow was softening and I broke through almost to my waist a couple of times. I only hauled one load up because I wanted to give my pants time to dry by the stove before milking the cows. I had more wood cut and split than I thought, as it took me most of my time today to finish hauling it up. Although, as far as hauling capacity goes, sometimes my little sled feels more like a wheelbarrow. I can't wait until the snow melts and I can start using my normal trailer again. Won't be long. I spied a little bit of mud and water on the south side of one of the pine plantations.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Asshole California Legislators Create ‘Cuss Free Week’
There are just certain situations in which proper emotions can’t be conveyed without swearing. When you’re at the gym and accidentally drop a dumbbell on your foot, for example, would anyone scream out, “DARN” ?
Another scenario that makes me want to conjure every inappropriate word known to man is the fact that California legislators – whose inability to set aside partisanship on virtually every issue has left the state paralyzed and on the brink of bankruptcy – decided to finally come together, only in support of a mind-numbingly stupid idea.
The California Assembly passed a ceremonial resolution this morning designating the first week of March “Cuss Free Week,” reports the San Jose Mercury News. The Senate is expected to follow suit.
Assembly member Anthony Portantino, D-La Canada/Flintridge, thinks that every citizen of California should behave as if you were visiting grandma. ”When we’re at our grandmother’s house,” said Portantino, “we have respect and decorum.”
But Portantino and other members of the Legislature are apparently forgetting that things inside the halls of government – let alone outside – aren’t always so clean and conservative. Remember that coded message Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent to Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, in which the letters in each line at the left hand margin spelled out “F-U-C-K Y-O-U” ?
A spokesman for Ammiano said at the time, “You certainly have to have a sense of humor in politics.” Well, if the Assembly has anything to do with it, the first week of March is sure to be devoid of humor. And passion.
So, since it’s still the end of February, let me say this now while I still can: California legislators need to stop acting like Miss Manners, and start getting some fucking work done.
source....
Another scenario that makes me want to conjure every inappropriate word known to man is the fact that California legislators – whose inability to set aside partisanship on virtually every issue has left the state paralyzed and on the brink of bankruptcy – decided to finally come together, only in support of a mind-numbingly stupid idea.
The California Assembly passed a ceremonial resolution this morning designating the first week of March “Cuss Free Week,” reports the San Jose Mercury News. The Senate is expected to follow suit.
Assembly member Anthony Portantino, D-La Canada/Flintridge, thinks that every citizen of California should behave as if you were visiting grandma. ”When we’re at our grandmother’s house,” said Portantino, “we have respect and decorum.”
But Portantino and other members of the Legislature are apparently forgetting that things inside the halls of government – let alone outside – aren’t always so clean and conservative. Remember that coded message Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent to Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, in which the letters in each line at the left hand margin spelled out “F-U-C-K Y-O-U” ?
A spokesman for Ammiano said at the time, “You certainly have to have a sense of humor in politics.” Well, if the Assembly has anything to do with it, the first week of March is sure to be devoid of humor. And passion.
So, since it’s still the end of February, let me say this now while I still can: California legislators need to stop acting like Miss Manners, and start getting some fucking work done.
source....
Monday, March 1, 2010
ME!
A big gasbag keeps company with the Moon tonight. ME! Well, not that gasbag, it's really the planet Saturn, which consists mainly of hydrogen and helium, rises to the left of the Moon around 8 p.m. It looks like a bright golden star.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
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