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Monthly Archives: August 2006
Well the proposed definition of A PLANET has been modified by the IAU. The new definition demotes Pluto and leaves us with only eight Planets in our Solar System.
Here’s the definition they settled on:
- It orbits the sun.
- It’s round. More technically, it “has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape.”
- It “has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.” Basically, it dominates its part of space.
Personally? I like it!
As you are probably aware, the Quarry at Dinosaur National Monument has closed. The building has become unstable and unsafe. It shelters a rock face that is full of exposed fossils and is a marvelous place to visit. It saddens me that this has happened to a special place.
Yesterday I noticed that Red Hot Mama had logged of couple of my Geocaches on or near the Monument. Here is what she wrote in the log:
Well, I found Paul’s Derrier, and I think he is mooning the sky although I walked a ways away in another direction and thought he could be mooning
Split Mountain. I hope I’m right. I am one of Earl Douglass’ two Granddaughters, down visiting the monument and talking with people about the closing of the Quarry visitor center. Thanks for the cache. Mary Douglass Madison
To which I replied:
First of all you are correct, he couldn’t be mooning a nice person like you.
I hope you have some influence in getting the ball rolling to reopen the
quarry. It is truly a national treasure and what your grandfather did for
us all is wonderful. It’s great to have someone to express my appreciation
to - for Earl Douglass’ efforts - that is.
I suppose you’ve been to two Douglass family graves not far from the
Visitor’s Center parking lot.
I’ve spent a lot of time up Orchid Draw over the years am aware that that is
the property of your family. I hope I haven’t been considered a trespasser
on those jaunts. I just find it such a lovely, quiet, secluded place.
Assuming you don’t mind, let me thank you for sharing such a special place.
Happy Caching,
Candleman
To which she replied:
Dear Myke,
Thank you so much for your sentiments. There are not many people who know about the two graves. Fernando Douglass was our Grandfather’s Father, and Nettie Douglass was his old maid sister. They have the date of her death wrong. The graves were there for years with the original old engraved wooden grave markers, and they were also very low to the ground so went unnoticed in the sage brush. The Park Service at one time offered to have the graves moved wherever we wanted but our father wanted them to stay there. As the wood was deteriorating Dad talked them into replacing the markers with the present ones. When they did it they got Nettie’s date of death wrong and we have asked them to correct it to 1923. I am now 71 and my sister is 68 and we have spent a great deal of time up Orchid Draw over the years. It was the family summer home. The original old log home itself was burned to the ground in the 50s or 60s, can’t remember exactly, so the lower parking lot could be built. My father fumed for years over that, but as it was no longer our family’s property there was nothing we could do. We met with Mary Riser, the new Superintendant, and she has a pretty good plan she took before Senator Hatch this week. If she can make no head way we will lead a political campaign and anything else we can do to be sure at least the quarry itself is preserved and protected, and still available to the public. Right now the building is unsafe as it was literally built on the “shifting sands” of the Morrison Formation, not too wise without anchoring it to bedrock or something more stable. My sister and I are in the process of trying to publish a book about Grandfather based mostly on his diaries and our Father’s commentaries on the diaries. Boy, sorry I have carried on with our whole life story here. You are welcome to explore Orchid Draw as long as you do no harm, and I am sure you will respect the property. Thanks for communicating with me.
Mary Douglass Madison
There are sure some neat folks in this old world. I sure hope we are successful and reopening the quarry in the not too distant future.
This week the International Astronomical Union (IAU) is meeting in Prague. Top on their agenda is the question of the definition of a Planet.
Some say Pluto is a planet and others say it is not. If it is, then 2003 UB313(Xena) ought to be because it is slightly larger than Pluto.
The IAU has assigned a committee to write a definition for what a planet actually is. Something that, surprisingly, has not been done before. Here is what they’ve come up with.
Planet: a planet is any object that orbits a star, is neither a star itself nor the moon of another planet, and contains enough matter that gravity forces it into a nearly round shape.
I, like it! If the IAU accept the definition then we’ll have 12 planets in our solar system. It is interesting that under the new plan, Charon, regarded as Pluto’s moon since its 1978 discovery, becomes a planet itself. Charon is so large relative to Pluto that the pair’s center of mass lies between the two worlds. For this reason, astronomers frequently refer to Pluto and its outsize satellite as a “double planet.” If approved, the new definition would formalize this idea.
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope recently composed this wonderful shot of M42. The Orion Nebula is the central “star” in Orion’s Belt and before long we’ll enjoy another long winter of viewing my favorite constellation. I enjoy it best in September because it is so majestic as it rises in the East just after full darkness falls.
We’ll never see it like this because the eye cannot gather light over time like a camera can. And this one was shot with infra-red as well. (It took Spitzer 10000 exposures to compose this image!) Nevertheless, unlike, many deep sky objects M42 is breathtaking with only a pair of binoculars. When I’m looking at the Orion Nebula, I’m looking at light that departed for earth 1450 years ago! That alone amazes me.
See more from Al’s Gallery.
This is just an example of what you’ll find at Seamless Pictures.
I drive for a living and listen to lots of books on tape and CD. I remember one day I had been listening to Barbara Kingsolver’s Poisonwood Bible when I got back to the Center. Someone there asked me, “How were things in Bonanza?” To whick I replied, “Bonanza? I’ve been to Africa!”
This little pictures so beautifully depicts why I so love books.
I’d like to hear about your favorites among the Seamless Pictures. Sorry Booklogged, I probably took your’s.
You’ve heard of OnStar? How about this new safety service, BlondeStar!
Discover all you can see during these warm August nights at Tonight’s Sky.
In late July, Tom, Clark and I observed the Ring Nebula (shown here), which is in the constellation Lyra, through Clark’s telescope.
I am a binocular man myself. I enjoy lying on my back and learning the constellations and gazing at the sky with my binocs. Even with a telescope the ring nebula wasn’t much more than a smudge. I like finding such objects and coming home for a look at a hubble photo. Photos always produce a finer view because they can lengthen the time of exposure, a trick the eye can’t do.
One helpful hint to using binoculars is to take a companion. Once you’ve identified something you want to view through the binocs have your companion point a lazer at that object. This way you can easily identify what you are seeing with the magnification.
This is a must for all sports fans. This is World Cup at it’s best! By the way is was produced by Monte Python.
1. Avoid alliteration. Always.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They’re old hat.)
4. Employ the vernacular.
5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
7. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
8. Contractions aren’t necessary.
9. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
10. One should never generalize.
11. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”
12. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
13. Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.
14. Be more or less specific.
15. Understatement is always best.
16. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
17. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
18. The passive voice is to be avoided.
19. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
20. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
21. Who needs rhetorical questions?
22. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
Eye Halve a Spelling Chequer
Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rarely ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect in it’s weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.
by: Anon
