Waveform

LOL, I remember reading an article several years ago about 'Araneidan' species were' fed LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide) to see if there was any difference in web building. Obviously, this was done in the late sixties. Evidently they (spiders) metabolized the LSD in the same way we do. The web's were quite interesting. The geometry's did not resemble a spider's web in any shape or forum. <h3 class="r"> </h3><h3 class="r"> </h3>

I think spiders are cool. We have some rather large one's here. The species is 'Wolf Spider'. Here is a pix I caught of one. He was looking directly at me. Note his eyes (all eight). He stood there for about 2 seconds before beating a hasty retreat. Most larger spiders are more afraid of you that you are of them. I'm not posting this to make anyone feel creepy. Just to show the pretty mottled coloration. Some spiders are quite beautiful.

I think there are two things on the go here. The great impending catastrophe of 2012. The Mayan calendar thing, which for the want of a better term is absolutely nuts. The other event would be the Apopis asteroid pass. This one is not from the nutter society. Apopis is a 300-meter-wide asteroid. On April 13 2029 will pass by extremely close to us, as asteroids go. In fact it's track will actually be closer to us then our geosynchronous satellites. It will pass between the satellites orbit and us. Should be a bright as a 3rd or 2nd magnitude star. This 2029 close pass will slightly alter the orbit of the asteroid. This will determine what events will unfold in 2036. LOL, April 13 2029 will be a Friday.....

Hi trebor, Yup, absolutely right, Canada does not go anywhere the UK goes. However, remember the aura is an interaction of 'solar disturbances' with the earth's magnetic field. The earth's magnetic field is a function of the iron and displacement of the earth's interior. The magnetic north pole is not a constant but a variable. Over the period of several years the magnetic north can travel several hundreds of kilometers, thus varying the location of aura. I have the same problem as you. I live close to 45̊N, but observation of aura can greatly vary. Thing is, what you see or don't see in aura is more attuned to several hundred kilometer under the earth than several hundred kilometers above. Also, as frogesque pointed out, if the topography of the Eastern seaboard may be endowed with a higher ferrous mineral quantity (which I am not sure of) it would certainly account for then anomaly. One last thing, Canada extends (or so they think) geographically to > 80̊ N. This puts it in league with Greenland and higher than Iceland. Regardless, it would be nice to see more aura for here and you guys in the UK.

I'm not so sure that aural activity is and better over Canada at the same latitude. Remember the Earth has a ~ 23° tilt. The solar disturbance will not target the exact North pole. This is not a 'circular' pattern. Also the earth rotates 'under' those graphic displays. So, if you observe them at, let's say 1:00pm local time as opposed to 3:00am local time the whole observing time will be biased or skewed. It's just one of those things where the observance of local time will seem to appear to favor or not favor a certain event. Just a thought. :lol:

Finally got a chance to read the site. Thanks for the interesting post.

Hi Bryan, Had to dig up some corroborates of the WOW signal. I knew the region it came from but not right down to the pinpoint. Anyway, the WOW signal originated at RA 19h 23m 22s. Dec -27° 03" 20'. Epoch 1950.0 This puts it in the constellation Sagittarius just at the end of the 'tea pot handle'. Keplar will be looking at a larger region of the sky. They have it divided up into squares. More or less boarding RA 20h 00 00 to RA 18h 00 00, Dec +30° 00 to Dec +50° 00. This puts it to the left of Vega in the constellation Lyra and to the right of constellation Cygnus. So there is quite a difference in the locations. I think they may have chosen that part of the sky because it has quite a few star the same class as our sun. Also they are able to pack something like 100,000 stars into look at, in that area. Looking into Sagittarius is looking toward the center of the galaxy. Probably not the best choice for something of this nature. LOL, would have been sort of neat though if the WOW event had happened in the area.

Certainly keeping my fingers crossed this gets up OK, and functions well for the time frame. It could well provide some accurate numbers to plug into the Drake Equation. We might actually get some kind of 'handle' on the numbers of earth like planets that orbit in the 'Goldie Locks' zone of their stars (suns). If all goes well this could provide to be quite interesting over the next several years.

No, it just will pass very close.

On the night of March 1st (2nd UTC) we will have a small asteroid pass by us very close. At this point it looks like .00030 lunar distances. Sort of neat to see something like this once in awhile although this is calling it kind of close. Unfortunately, (or better still most fortunately) it is small enough it will probably not be visible to the unaided eye. If it was big enough to be readily seen it may have a posed much bigger problems..... LOL, things like this put everything in perspective. Sort of show us once in a while where we are on the 'pecking' order.

I observed Lulin early Friday morning. The conditions were not ideal with a very slight haze. I got in less than a minute with the binoculars (10X50). It was probably magnitude 5.5, it was primarily Grey in color. I did not note any green. But then this could have been due to the hazing. When I was finished with the binos, I used the 10 inch Dob scope. I was surprised the quality did not improve that much. Again probably due to the atmospheric transparency. However, it is still very much worth try to observe it. Especially if one has dark skies. If we get better weather during the week I will try for a photo or CCD. But the weather looks real iffy as of now. I'll attach a sky chart of Lulins position in proximity to Saturn for tomorrow night (Feb 24). Just right of Saturn, designated with a red cross, center screen. View is to the South, time is 21:00 hrs from the UK. It's really starting to 'pick-up' velocity now and changes position night to night .

Yes, this should be very interesting over the next three years. Evidently it will be looking at 100,000 stars. It also has quite a sensitive CCD for measuring light levels of stars.

Hi Debs, Theses thing can be quite unpredictable at times. I noticed the area here is quite right now. However, here is a link to NRC that has information specific to 'local' areas. Check here when you hear or suspect there may be aural activity. I find the site quite accurate. LOL, hope you guys on the other side of the Bay have clearer skies than over here. NRC Link..

A neat anaglyph of Redoubt for anyone who still has those old red and green 3D glasses. Link

Hi Gray-Wolf, I was aware and had read some stuff on cosmic ray interaction in the upper atmosphere. I was not aware though there was a cyclic nature to it. Quite interesting. As for cosmic rays they are generated in deep space and some very distant galaxies. They come into being from pulsars, neutron stars, black holes and quasars. It requires extremely large amounts of energy to produce them. For instance when matter spins into the accretion disk of a black hole it's velocity increases. As it gets closer to the event horizon it has acquired so much energy it starts to emit x-rays and gamma rays. Cosmic rays emit from the same sort of deal. They are highly energetic in nature being 10 GeV (10 x 10^9 eV) at the low end of energy .( eV being electron volts) Subdivided, of this are extreme-energy cosmic rays and ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. These can have energies in excess of 10^21 eV. Cosmic radiation can be deflected by magnetic fields in space although the can hit the earth from any conceivable 'direction'. The sun also emits cosmic rays but because of the solar 'make-up' they are not as energetic. They also tend to follow the 11 year solar cycle. Description of an eV. 'This only barely scratches the surface of the subject, cosmic radiation. '

LOL, good for the 10:22GMT time frame. Makes it easier for me to catch it.

Yes, apparently some of the media on this side of the ocean have been reporting water trickling down the side of Redoubt. Link Could be interesting in the next several days. I have a Lehman Seismometer at my place. However, I am on the Canadian East coast. I have absolutely no expectations of 'seeing' any of the Redoubt activity. Damn! will just have to rely on the web and media.

I think there is / was a certain amount of controversy on the Sirius B thing. The other train of thought being that the stories were introduced to the Dogon by exposure to western culture and missionaries in the middle 1800s. Evidently there is an article by W. Van Beck in _Current Anthropology_, vol. 32, pp.139-167, 1991 dealing with this and putting it under logical scrutiny, showing a multitude of flaws in the extraterrestrial idea. I have not read it,thus have no comment on it. I do have a generalized comment though. A lot of authors that write these type of stories are in the business of selling books. Factual good science is the least on their minds. In fact that is the least thing they want. UFOs, pyramid power, perpetual energy, Bermuda Triangle, Abominable Snowmen, etc make money for these people. They in some cases put money via tourism into town coffers. I suppose to a certain extent this is OK, although I say that with a certain degree of reluctance. I know I sound like an old fart. Although, I do have an open mind.. However, quoting from Harold T. Stone "I try to keep an open mind, but not so open that my brains fall out."

Yes, we are right on the fringe here. If you are referring to inter dimension as in M theory then the dimensions are probably exceedingly small. Not totally sure here, but I think there is some thought even less that the Planck length. The other dimensional thing would also be involved in M theory. Other universes or 'branes'. If they exist they could be very close but almost absolutely separated from us. Nothing could transverse between them not even information. Perhaps a slight chance gravity could interact but that's it. Planck Lenght

You could be right. I certainly would not argue your premise here, but the probabilities I think would be very small. We would have to find a totally different law in physics that some how could supersede the ones that now govern us, and yet not break them. Sort of like the gravitational law. If you climb to to top of a very tall building and jump, neglecting drag and all that stuff, the G constant says you will fall 32.2 ft the first second, the next second you will fall 64.4ft, and so on until you hit terminal velocity. This can not be changed. If there was some way you could get in and miraculously change this, the instant you did (as strange as it sound) the whole universe would become unstable. All these laws work; gravity, conservation of energy, thermodynamics, motion, Electrostatic Laws,etc. If they didn't or if they could be broken, we simply would not be here. And some of these are the laws that would prevent long interstellar (at least considering our life spans). You mentioned long distanced over relatively short time. That is sort of possible now, if we could get enough velocity. If we could hit +90% the speed of light, time dilation would start to make a difference.It would at least make a 'relative' difference between us traveling and the place we left. Who knows, in the future some obscure thing may be found to work around all this. I very much doubt it, but then......

Good points Essan. My personal thing is I can not believe in UFO,s as alien craft. I can believe in them as military testing in such things as pulse engines, silent helicopters, advanced fighters, natural phenomenon in which there is a huge amount of things that can be mistake, last but not least just plain old lies and hoaxes. When it comes to alien ‘visitors’ the physics and science just does not hold it up. Or at lest the known science. The distances and energy are just so so great. I know there are wormhole theories black holes and such. This things are great in book and ideas, but in the actual world the reality falls apart. A craft goes into a black hole and that’s it. The thing is gone for good. Nothing gets out of a black hole with perhaps the exception of Hawking radiation. Wormholes if they can be created at all would be extremely unstable to anything larger than sub atomic particles. These problems would be absolutely tremendous for us, and they would be equally tremendous for a civilization 5000 years ahead of us. They could manipulate and use energy much more efficient that us. But the large problems would still be there. The same thing exists with time travel. It looks like at this point in time (excuse the pun) it is virtually impossible. About the best that can be done is time dilation. I guess it’s not so much that a very advanced civilization could not harness enough energy to travel in time. It’s just that time itself will not permit it. However, all this does not by any means exclude other life in the universe. I absolutely expect there is other life ‘out there’ and no doubt some of it quite intelligent. As for UFO’s I have seen them twice. On both occasions after I spent a fair amount time on trying to get an explanation, I tracked down both reasons. They were not aliens. One turned out to be a helicopter where it should not have been, the other a flight of military aerobatic planes at high altitude flying at night. This was very convincing, in fact I suspect if I found some of the others that seen them that parictular night, explained what they were. I very much think they would not believe me. The only thing to this date at even remotely point to extraterrestrials was the WOW signal. Even that is extremely ambitious. It occurred in 1977 at the Ohio State University. They were doing some SETI work. They ‘picked up’ a signal that was outside the parameters of randomness. The signal did not last long. They searched for it many nights after in the same sky position, however it never returned. There is a possibility it could have been a atmospheric disturbance, perhaps a slight chance of a earthly interference, and yet a very slight chance still exists, it may have come from something light years away. Perhaps some day in the future we will find out. I have been an amateur astronomer for many years and have seen / heard a few strange things at the business end of a telescope or radio, but never an alien. LOL, however be assured if I ever do I’ll be blabbing it all over the place. 37 testicles! Holy catfish! :lol: :lol:

LOL, Yup, I know where you are coming from.

I tend to agree here. The distances are just too great. The closest star to us excluding the sun is Proxima Centaurus at 4.22 light years. Another way to look at it. Take the Hercules Globular Cluster. There are well over 100,000 stars in the cluster. If by some fantastic chance there was one star that had a planet harboring some sort of life it is 25,000 light years away from here. That is 25,000 years at the speed of light 'c' which is slightly over 186,000 mph / 1,079,252,848 kph. Thing is, nothing having mass can travel at the speed of light. The energy required to push anything to the speed of light becomes infinite. Simply can't be done. Good old E=MC^2 throws a wrench into the works. Time dilation could help, however it does not have an appreciable effect until close to light speed. Even if there is other life out there it would be a monumental task to travel between even the nearest stars in this Galaxy. Just to travel from one side of this Galaxy to the other would require 100,000 years at light speed. The nearest Galaxy to us (Andromeda) would require 2,500,000 years at light speed. There are other things such as dimensions and wormholes that have been talked about, but again there are tremendous problems here also. Point being even if there were much more advanced societies somewhere out there, they still have to obey the same laws of the universe as us. I some how have a problem with something that could beat the physics and actually get here and then crash..............I don't think so. The other thing is to imagine a planet that took 500 years of its Gross planetary output to get enough energy to make even a very near interstellar trip. Finally get to another planet, only to get out and stomp some poor farmers corn field into weird shapes, grab a few cows and mutilate them just for good measure, then as a going away gig terrorize some local inhabitants by inserting anal probes. All I can say, must be some fun planet.

Yikes, I have never seen too many lunar phase dials. I think the problem with these is the period of the lunar cycle. It would be difficult to make a dial that would remain accurate for any length of time without time input. You can get watches with lunar cycles, which tend to be a bit expensive. I think if it was me, and I wanted something for my backpack I would simple look at a small calendar with lunar phases on it. The other alternative would be a book. The RASC (Royal Astronomical Society of Canada) sells the 'Observers Handbook'. Undoubtedly the best of it's kind in the world. It has a day by day lunar phase description for the year. It also notes anything in particular noticeable. It has a host of other information. Not sure on this bit I think the price range is around £21.00 to GB

Went down to about -30°C here last night. There was very little wind thankfully. I lit a fire off in the wood stove as a little boost. Still looking like we may get out of this Arctic air early next week. I know one thing for certain, if for some reason or another I took the notion to move up North, this has certainly cured me of that affliction. Damn! that is cold.... The seagulls had to push start the crows to get them going this morning.....