Category: Space


Sun Dog

On Saturday there was a sun dog reported in the morning rrsulting in a heavy frost on Sunday morning and a higher ceiling withj brighter sunny weather after a week of mostly cloudy and noted by locals as ” cold for the end of April.”

Sun dogs are commonly caused by the refraction of light from plate-shaped hexagonalice crystals either in high and cold cirrus or cirrostratus clouds or, during very cold weather, drifting in the air at low levels, in which case they are called diamond dust.[4] The crystals act as prisms, bending the light rays passing through them with a minimum deflection of 22°. As the crystals gently float downwards with their large hexagonal faces almost horizontal, sunlight is refracted horizontally, and sun dogs are seen to the left and right of the Sun. Larger plates wobble more, and thus produce taller sundogs.[5]

Sun dogs are red-colored at the side nearest the Sun; farther out the colors grade through oranges to blue. However, the colors overlap considerably and so are muted, never pure or saturated.[6] The colors of the sun dog finally merge into the white of the parhelic circle (if the latter is visible).[7]

The same plate shaped ice crystals that cause sun dogs are also responsible for the colourful circumzenithal arc, meaning that these two types of halo tend to co-occur.[8] The latter is often missed by viewers, however, since it is located more or less directly overhead. Another halo variety often seen together with sun dogs is the 22° halo, which forms a ring at roughly the same angular distance from the sun as the sun dogs, thus appearing to interconnect them. As the Sun rises higher, however, the rays passing through the plate crystals are increasingly skewed from the horizontal plane, causing their angle of deviation to increase and the sun dogs to move farther from the 22° halo, while staying at the same elevation.[9]

It is possible to predict the forms of sun dogs as would be seen on other planets and moons. Mars might have sun dogs formed by both water-ice and CO2-ice. On the giant gas planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — other crystals form the clouds of ammonia, methane, and other substances that can produce halos with four or more sun dogs.[10] Source wikipedia

A lunar halo was seen in January and pictures of it are in the header  video
( Best Regards) of this page.

On this day: April 28th2001

Dennis Tito becomes the world first space tourist.

My Dinner with Stephen Hawkings

 

My Dinner with Stephen Hawkings:

Dr. Don McLeod local patron of the arts and owner of many ex public buildings including the old public library now the  Culture club on Granite avenue is inviting people to come and hear his talk on what he got from a dinner with Stephen Hawkings.

The evening at the Culture Club starts at 7 PM  on October 16th and will have a recounting of the conversation including black holes, creation of the universe discussed last month.

The Merritt Culture Club is the home of the local say so society ant is at 2058 Granite avenue in Merritt BC Canada.

Say So Expression Society: Come read poetry, sing a song, or speak your mind at the Say So Expression Society! $20 for a year’s membership. For more info call (250) 315-5673

Doctor Mcleods talk on thursday is a free, public service , talk FCFS.

Today in history: October 14th 1947

The speed of sound is broken for the first time by Chuck Yeager in the Bell X 1 rocket powered aircraft.

Royal Astronomical Society, Okanagan observatory. The Astronomical society has a free observatory open Friday’s on the way to Big White ski resort outside Kelowna. they report that they started with a long term lease for a dollar and have put 300 thousand more to convert the old gravel pit into a viewing platform. At a recent presentaion in Merritt, they showed an interested crowd the heavens from the local Public Library parking lot. The equipment they have on site is more powerful and they offer it free on Fridays. http://www.okanaganobservatory.ca/

The Okanagan Observatory hosts free public observing nights every Friday. The Okanagan Observatory is exactly 4 kms up Big White Rd from Hwy 33. That makes it only 35 kms from Rutland Rd. We will be pointing out the Milky Way and constellations with special astronomical laser pointers as we tour the night sky. Club members will have their telescopes on hand and be using the observatory 25 inch telescope to show off celestial wonders such as the Moon, planets, comets, dying stars, stellar nurseries, globular clusters, open clusters and galaxies.

Today in history: October 10th 1967 The outer space treaty come into effect after being signed by over 60 countries.

Mars observer

Have a great day, we are on holidays, for a week, please enjoy the day in history untill we return.

Have a great day, we are on holidays, for a week, please enjoy the day in history untill we return.

Today in history: August 21 1993

Nasa loses contact with the Mars observer spacecraft.

Voyager 2

 

Have a great day, we are on holidays, for a week, please enjoy the day in history untill we return.

Have a great day, we are on holidays, for a week, please enjoy the day in history untill we return.

Today in history: August 20th 1977

The voyager program, voyager 2 is launched by Nasa.