The Reflector: January 2010 · on the new club displays that graced the Astronomy on the Hill...

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Newsletter of the Peterborough Astronomical Association The Reflector Volume 14 • Issue 6 June 2015 ISSN 1712-4425 peterboroughastronomy.com twitter.com/PtbAstronomical G oing up into space is the best way to view the uni- verse, eliminating all the distortionary effects of weather, clouds, temperature variations and the atmosphere’s airflow all in one swoop. It’s also the best way, so long as you’re up at high enough altitudes, to view an entire 50 percent of Earth all at once. And if you place your observatory at just the right location, you can observe the same hemisphere of Earth continuously, tracking the changes and behavior of our atmosphere for many years. The trick, believe it or not, was worked out by Kepler some 400 years ago! The same scientist who discovered that planets orbit the sun in ellipses also figured out the relationship between how distant an object needs to be from a much more massive one in order to have a certain orbital period. All you need to know is the period and dis- tance of one satellite for any given body, and you can figure out the necessary distance to have any de- sired period. Luckily for us, planet Earth has a natural satellite — the Moon — and just from that infor- mation, we can figure out how distant an artificial satellite would need to be to have an orbital period that exactly matches the length of a day and the rotational speed of Earth. For our world, that means ETHAN SEIGEL Image credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, of the first image ever obtained from a GOES satellite. This image was taken from over 22,000 miles (35,000 km) above the Earth’s surface on October 25, 1975. an orbital distance of 42,164 km (26,199 miles) from Earth’s center, or 35,786 km (22,236 miles) above mean sea level. We call that orbit geosynchro- nous or geostationary, meaning that a satellite at that distance always remains above the exact same location on our world. Other effects — like solar wind, radiation pressure and the Moon—require onboard thrusters to maintain the satellite’s precisely desired position above any given point on Earth’s surface. While geostation- The “G” in GOES Is What Makes It Go See “GOES” on page 16

Transcript of The Reflector: January 2010 · on the new club displays that graced the Astronomy on the Hill...

Page 1: The Reflector: January 2010 · on the new club displays that graced the Astronomy on the Hill weekend. Rick Stankiewicz reports on the Hill weekend itself. Dallas Kitchen sent in

Newsletter of the Peterborough Astronomical AssociationThe ReflectorVolume 14 • Issue 6

June 2015ISSN 1712-4425peterboroughastronomy.comtwitter.com/PtbAstronomical

Going up into space is the best way to view the uni-verse, eliminating all the

distortionary effects of weather, clouds, temperature variations and the atmosphere’s airflow all in one swoop. It’s also the best way, so long as you’re up at high enough altitudes, to view an entire 50 percent of Earth all at once. And if you place your observatory at just the right location, you can observe the same hemisphere of Earth continuously, tracking the changes and behavior of our atmosphere for many years.

The trick, believe it or not, was worked out by Kepler some 400 years ago! The same scientist who discovered that planets orbit the sun in ellipses also figured out the relationship between how distant an object needs to be from a much more massive one in order to have a certain orbital period. All you need to know is the period and dis-tance of one satellite for any given body, and you can figure out the necessary distance to have any de-sired period. Luckily for us, planet Earth has a natural satellite — the Moon — and just from that infor-mation, we can figure out how distant an artificial satellite would need to be to have an orbital period that exactly matches the length of a day and the rotational speed of Earth. For our world, that means

Ethan SEigEl

Image credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, of the first image ever obtained from a GOES satellite. This image was taken from over 22,000 miles (35,000 km) above the Earth’s surface on October 25, 1975.

an orbital distance of 42,164 km (26,199 miles) from Earth’s center, or 35,786 km (22,236 miles) above mean sea level.

We call that orbit geosynchro-nous or geostationary, meaning that a satellite at that distance always remains above the exact

same location on our world. Other effects — like solar wind, radiation pressure and the Moon—require onboard thrusters to maintain the satellite’s precisely desired position above any given point on Earth’s surface. While geostation-

The “G” in GOES Is What Makes It Go

See “GOES” on page 16

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President’s Message

The Reflector is a publication of the Peterborough Astronomi-cal Association (P.A.A.) Founded in 1970, the P.A.A. is your local group for astronomy in Peterborough and the Kawarthas.

The Reflector

www.peterboroughastronomy.com • [email protected] Phone: 705.292.0729Club Mailing AddressRodger Forsyth, PresidentPeterborough Astronomical Association536 Robinson Road RR #1Peterborough, ON K9J 6X2

May Flowers and Good Weather

Summer Send-off

A stronomy on the Hill” was for the most part another very successful event. We got some great press Sat-

urday night with a silhouetted Phil appear-ing in the Peterborough Examiner and eight more photos on their website. There was good viewing and an estimated 200+ people arrived on the hill. Sunday was a bit of a fizzle with a poor turnout but we did have another great display by Dean Shewring and a kids craft organized by Kristina, Rob and Adam Flindall. The Sun co-operated with a fair number of sunspots.

The paa was requested to set up tele-scopes in Isabel Morris Park Lakefield at the Scout Ship. Cubs and leaders enjoyed some great viewing with the cubs getting their Astronomy Badge. A write-up is in-cluded in this issue.

June is our last meeting before our sum-mer break. Meetings are discontinued

The month of June heralds Summer and the possibilities of wonderful stargazing. As we hope for clear

skies and break from meetings we also take a hiatus from the club newsletter.

So without further ado lets introduce this month’s reading. We have reports from Rodger Forsyth about the Lakefield scouts viewing session. Dean Shewring reports on the new club displays that graced the Astronomy on the Hill weekend. Rick Stankiewicz reports on the Hill weekend itself. Dallas Kitchen sent in some photos of his visit to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. He promised us an article but I figure we’ll let it go this time. John Crossen previews the viewing highlights for June and July.

And we would be amiss to not promote Asteroid Day on June 30. Rick Stankiewicz

until September but this does not mean the end of activities for the paa. Our monthly observing sessions will continue and in August we will be back “on the hill” for the Perseids meteor shower and back out to Emily Park to dazzle the campers. Keep checking the website, e-mail reminders will be sent out as well.

Don’t forget the President’s Star-B-Q and viewing on June 20th. Please reply to the email that was sent out to allow suffi-cient time for planning. We’ve had very few responses so far however we do request a reply by June 13th.

I wish everyone a safe and fun filled sum-mer with lots of clear skies. Keep observing and we’ll see you in September if not before.

Rodger Forsyth PAA President

gives us the details of this interesting day of celebration.

So, away we go to a great summer. We hope to see you at our next public event, the Perseid Meteor Shower viewing on Armour Hill.

Phillip Chee Editor, The Reflector

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RodgER FoRSyth

The peterborough Astronomi-cal Association(paa) was asked to set up telescopes at the Scout Ship in

Lakefield’s Isabel Morris Park to provide a learning opportunity for cubs to help with their Astronomy Badge. Boyd Wood, Paul Ward, Sean Dunne and I took up the chal-lenge. I addressed the group before the viewing got underway. One item discussed was the Dawn Mission and mission cards were handed out. The group also received paa brochures and business cards.

Photo by Sean Dunne

As things got underway the excitement started. We had three telescopes set up and all were “on the Moon” at the beginning. The wow factor was rampant, the group went from one scope to another.

Most started with Sean, moved on to Boyd then to me.

PAA Assists Lakefield Cubs

Paul arrived a bit later and set up with binoculars and a tripod.

Group photos by Rodger Forsyth

As the evening progressed things got even better. Jupiter was only 6° directly above the Moon. The Cubs and leaders enjoyed the cloud bands and the four Jovian moons. Venus was available for viewing as well, then later in the evening Saturn made its appearance and the wow factor went up another notch.

This was a very successful outing and I received the following email from the leader that asked for our help.

“Thank you again for assisting us on Saturday...a good night and now have 5 happy Cubs who completed their astron-omy badge. If you send me a photo and some information I will hopefully be able to get it in the Herald.

Carol”

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continued on next page

dEan ShEwRing

H ave you ever wondered where and how we get our displays and to what use we put them?

During the past several years, the paa has taken part in putting together a one-week exhibit to place in the large wall lobby display case at the Peterborough Public Library. About three months in advance, members are requested to provide materials on a theme approved by the executive. The display is generally designed by myself, with input from other executive members. Then several of us go down on the designated day and time (Monday, just after 12 noon) to install the exhibit. Though only in place for a week, that’s generally enough time to attract much interest by the hundreds of people who pass through the library each day. This exhibit has been timed to run one or two weeks prior to our Astronomy on the Hill in May, and is used to help publicize this event.

Material is often drawn from the library exhibit for use to make up display boards for use in the Fine portable at the Peterbor-ough Museum for Astronomy on the Hill on the Sunday. In the immediate past, we have put together displays for special screenings and guest lectures at Trent University and for other events. We also have an ongoing campaign to combat light pollution, for which we have two display boards currently in stock. We’ve also added a couple of out-door signs to notify the public of our activi-ties. All of this has added to our flexibility to promote the paa.

Our stocks of displays had become depleted due to too many of the current display boards having “one-off” subject mat-ter, such the “Year of the Comet” or “Year of Astronomy”, lacking current relevance. So, four new display boards were created from the material used in “Our Changing Solar

The PAA on Display

Photo by Dean Shewring

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Planet Mars: Can it sustain life as we know? The Frank Hancock Award Winners, Madison Earle and Madyson Graham, pose with their project. Photo by Sean Dunne.

Award Presentations. PAA President, Roger Forsyth, presents the Frank Hancock Award to Madison Earle and Madyson Graham (top) and a one year PAA Family Membership to runner up Gabriel Sikma (bottom). Pho-tos by Rick Stankiewicz.

When it Comes to Moons, Jupiter Outshines Them All

System” library exhibit. Additionally, Rick Stankiewicz provided his new philatelic dis-play on the Hubble Telescope to augment our Astronomy on the Hill exhibition. The new displays are as follows:• OurChangingSolarSystem

A truncated version of the library exhibit, the display board features an accurate pro-portioned view of the objects in our solar system, including important moons, aster-oids, dwarf planets and Kuiper Belt objects. This display is enhanced by an article by John Crossen on the Rosetta Mission and two photos (a four-planet conjunction and the transit of Venus) by Rick Stankiewicz.

• DawnMission The NASA mission shows findings from asteroid Vesta and the mystery of the bright spots on dwarf planet Ceres, with photos by Sean Dunne and Rick Stankiewicz depicting Ceres and Vesta in the night sky.

• NewHorizonsMission Launched in 2006, this outer solar system mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt pres-ents the initial photos of dwarf planet Pluto and its five moons as it approaches rendez-vous in mid-July. An article by John Crossen on the unusual objects to be found in our solar system is part of this display.

• AstronomyPostageStamps Depicting a 2012 British issue of six stamps

continued from previous pagecelebrating solar system missions to the Sun, Venus, Mars, a comet, Saturn and Titan.

• TheHubbleSpaceTelescope1990-2015 The ongoing story of the first great space telescope told in postage stamps from around the world.

We still have several active displays in stock, including “Auroras: Night Sky Won-ders”, an older large panel on “Auroras”, “Light Pollution”, three double-sided panels showing Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope deep space wonders, several cfht posters and a panel on space objects. So, we should have sufficient stock of displays, as long as we update the new missions displays, to use for the next couple of years. But who knows what tomorrow might bring?

Should we add a permanent or ongo-ing astro-photography display, now that so many of our members have added this talent to our hobby? Should we be looking at preparing special displays or including some of our current displays at talks during our monthly meetings? Do we need to have a permanent indoor banner for events? Can we find even more uses for the displays we have — and will create in the future? The sky’s the limit!

Photo by Rick Stankiewicz

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Rick StankiEwicz

continued on next page

Astronomy-on-the-Hill 2015Another Successful Year!

The 8th Annual “Astronomy-on-the-Hill” with the Peterborough As-tronomical Association, was another

successful event this year. The weather on both days was some of the best we have ever had for this event. The local media contin-ued to give us some amazing coverage too. Reporters from The Examiner showed up both days and Peterborough SNAPD maga-zine was there too. On the evening of May 16th hundreds of people were up at Ash-burnham Memorial Park (Armour Hill) to see the wonders of the night sky with the paa and its dedicated members. Our free public event was a hit with people of all ages as they were shown Venus, Jupiter (and four of its 67 moons) and even Saturn, later in the evening. Young and old alike lined up at all six of the telescopes and binoculars that were set-up for this purpose. For those

that stayed later in the evening, they were treated to Comet Lovejoy and some nebulas and star clusters. There were even some weak iridium flares for those that were pay-ing attention.

This weekend’s event wrapped up on the afternoon of May 17th at the Peterborough Museum and Archives grounds. Dozens of people showed up to see the Sun through six specially-filtered telescopes that were able to show numerous sunspots on our closest star. Some of these spots were the size of planet Earth! Brett Hardy’s refractor actually showed people Venus and Jupiter in broad daylight. This is not something the public get to see every day.

If this was not enough, there were beauti-fully informative displays themed around “Our Changing Solar System”, in the Peter-

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All photos by Rick Stankiewicz.

borough Museum and Archives, Fine Por-table. These were crafted by Dean Shewring and manned by John Cameron. In the Fleming Portable, there were space-related children’s crafts and activities, as many kids created their own solar systems. This brain-child of Kristina Flindall was executed with the help of her family (Rob and Adam).

The day finished with free draws for a number of special astronomy related prizes, including a donated and signed copy of Ter-ence Dickinson’s famous book NightWatch. It was a great weekend of out of this world experiences for the people of Peterborough, thanks to the members of the paa. Thanks to all who showed up and played any role this weekend, it helps make our events the successes they are.

continued from previous page

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PHOTO GALLERY

PAA Member VisitsNational Air and Space Museum

Hi Roger,Dallas Kitchen here, I am a member of the PAA. I was unable to make the last meeting of the PAA as I was away on holiday. I was in Washington DC and went to the National Air & Space Museum. I took a few photos while I was there. Not sure if anyone would be interested but I thought Id send the photos to you to disperse to all the members as I don’t have everyone’s email address to send to all at once.

I have attached some of them to this E-mail and will send a second Email with a couple more photos. There are six in total.Regards,Dallas Kitchen

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Jupiter will be leaving the night sky soon, so give it a gander. Simple hand-held binoculars will bring it close enough to see its moons and ever-changing weather bands. I recommend 7×50 or 10×50 models for Jupiter and any type of beginner-level stargazing.

What’s up? You Better Be to Catch June’s Eye-candy

Warm summer nights are an aphrodisiac for stargazers. Suddenly hundreds of armchair

astronomers are seduced out to the night skies. Armed with binoculars, telescopes and star charts they assemble at dark sky locations, far from city light pollution.

This June, you can hitch a ticket for a multi-planet voyage. At dusk Venus and Jupiter will be a close pairing in the western sky. Meanwhile Saturn will be low in the southeast and rising slowly to optimum viewing level around midnight. A pair of 7×50 binoculars will capture Jupiter’s moons and a small telescope at 30× is all that’s required for you to marvel at Saturn’s rings.

John cRoSSEnMoonatics will enjoy a Full Moon on June

1. Again all you need is a pair of 7×50 binoc-ulars or a small telescope to amaze yourself with the lunar detail. In fact you can identi-fy some of the major details with the naked eye. A Moon chart can help you with this.

What is called the First Quarter Moon is the best phase for observing. That’s because the Moon is lit from an angle and the shad-ows the mountains and craters cast high-lights them for a stunning view.

This June New Moon (no Moon) arrives on the 16th. First Quarter will be on June 24th. Third Quarter will greet nighthawks on June 9th.

While we’re talking Moon phases, the New Moon favours constellation cadets and deep sky observing. With no moon glow to

See “Thermacell” on page 15

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John cRoSSEn

Summer Stargazing Nightshot. Learn about and look through a variety of telescopes at anyone of the star par-ties across Canada. These are family events which usually feature guest speakers, displays, camping, a banquet and all the answers to your astronomical questions. Image courtesy Alan Dyer.

The Milky Way is Back

July kicks off with a Full Moon on Canada Day. Seven days later the Last Quarter Moon rises in the wee hours

of the morning. On July 15 constellation crazies and deep sky observers will rejoice in the dark, New-Moon sky. Plus the Moon-less sky on the 15th will make the gorgeous summer Milky Way stand out beautifully the dark background.

The occasion will also allow stargazers to drink in the sight of our galactic home at a reasonable hour — say 11:00 p.m. As is usual for stargazing, a dark rural site, free and far from any light is the best way to see the night sky’s treasures. And treasures there are.

With the Milky Way’s rising come two star cluster and nebulae sprinkled constel-lations — Scorpius and Sagittarius. Scorpi-us, the Scorpion, is the stomping ground of

the globular clusters M4 and M80. Plus two open star clusters, M6 and M7 are thrown in to sweeten the deal. All are visible in a pair of hand-held 7×50 binoculars.

Next door, to the left, is Sagittarius. Often referred to as the Teapot, this constel-lation is supposed to represent a half horse, half man with a bow and arrow. I wish the ancient Romans hadn’t drunk so much wine when they were organizing the constella-tions. I sure can’t see it.

Sagittarius is where we Northern Hemi-sphere stargazers see the Milky Way begin. It emerges from the spout of “the Teapot” and climbs from the south arcing across the sky, then down to the northern horizon. As you begin in the lower regions of Sagittari-us you will discover the spectacular globular star cluster known as M22. Move up a bit and you’ll come to the Lagoon Nebula, M8 and the Trifid Nebula, M20. Both are im-

See “Sagittarius” on page 15

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Asteroid DayRick StankiEwicz

Jne 30th is a special day, it’s Asteroid Day! You may not have heard of it yet, but let me explain. Asteroid Day was officially launched on December 3, 2014 and is a global movement to make the citizens of our planet aware of the dangers that asteroids pose

to Earth and what can be done to protect ourselves and future generations from their threat. This effort is being supported and promoted by over 100 famous astronauts, scien-tists, technologists and musicians from around the world including Jim Lovell, Alexei Le-onov and Chris Hadfield, Richard Dawkins, Brian Cox, Carolyn Shoemaker, Bill Nye (The Science Guy), Dr. Brian May (guitarist of Queen) and Peter Gabriel, to name a few.

Asteroid Day is being held on the anniversary of the 1908 Tunguska (Siberia) blast that was the largest asteroid to impact Earth in recent history. I made reference to Asteroid Day in my March (Vol.13 No.3) article on Ceres. The purpose is not to fear monger, but to educate and gain support to increase research and efforts to protect our planet from a danger that has proven to be real. As an example, no one saw the meteor coming that ex-ploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia on February 15, 2013, until it was too late, but it certainly was a wake-up call from outer space! The odds were about 100 million to one that it would have happen, but it still happened. This cause is bigger than any one country or nation, so it is really good to see citizens of the world uniting to support this effort. The hope is that Asteroid Day will garner support for a 100-fold increase in international efforts and commitments to deal with detecting, monitoring and handling potential threats from asteroids. Why not join the effort, learn more and spread the word, I am. For more about Asteroid Day see: www.asteroidday.org

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Chances of a Life-friendly Planet Nearby are Unfriendly

John cRoSSEn

I frequently read about new plan-etary systems discovered orbiting other stars in our solar system. Most are cov-

ered competently and quietly by astronomy and science publications.

But sometimes the more-public media turn up the volume and trumpets: “Earth 2 discovered” or pose the leading question “Could we live on this newly-discovered planet?” Scientists and journalists are both guilty of these over-zealous, headlines de-signed to sell papers or attract attention to increase a funding grant. So who’s right?

A recent study by the University of Ari-zona says a cautious “no” to any Earth-like planets within a dozen light years of us.

As an example we have 5 planets orbiting a star called Tau Ceti in the constellation Cetus. By cosmic standards Tau Ceti is a next door neighbour — just 11.9 light years away. In round numbers a single light year is equal to 10 billion kilometres. Multiply that by 11.9 and you come up with 119 billion kilometres. That’s almost a dozen times the

distance across our home galaxy, the Milky Way.

With today’s rockets it will take millions upon millions of years to get Tau Ceti. It’s going to take a revolution in propulsion technology to get there in even a single life time. But let’s zoom in a little closer and take a look at the planets dancing around Tau Ceti.

The Five are known as Tau Ceti b, Tau Ceti c, Tau Ceti d, Tau Ceti e, and Tau Ceti f. Tau Ceti b, c, and d are too close to their home star to be habitable — just like Mercu-ry and Venus in our own solar system. But with a generous helping of luck Tau Ceti e and f might just be life-friendly.

The most likely candidate is Tau Ceti f. It appears to be within what is called the habitable zone, not too far or too close to Tau Ceti. Earth is in this “goldilocks zone” as it orbits our Sun. Another perk of being in the habitable zone is the fact that water remains in its liquid form.

Due to their high magnesium-to-silicon ratio, “it is possible that the mineralogical makeup of planets around Tau Ceti could be very different from that of Earth,” according to mineral physicist Sang-Heon Shim, of Arizona State University.

See “Tau Ceti” on page 15

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The Sky this MonthMercury is well placed in the morn-ing from the 9th to the 30th. Greatest elongation west (22°) on the 24th. Infe-rior conjunction on the 31st.Venus is in the evening sky and reach-es greatest elongation east (45°) on the 6th. Closing in on Jupiter and reaches a mininum separation of 0.3° on the 30th.Mars not visible. In conjunction with the Sun on the 14th.Jupiter is low in the western evening sky and moves from Cancer into Leo on the 9th. Sets after midnight. See Venus above.Saturn is visible most of the night. Retrograding in Libra.Summer Solstice arrives at 12:38 PM on the 21st.

Moon PhasesFull Moon 12:19 PM June 2Last Quarter 1:42 PM June 9New Moon 10:05 AM June 16First Quarter 7:03 AM June 24

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Vo l 1 4 • I s sue no. 6 • June 20 15 • 1 5 The Reflectorcontinued from page 11continued from page 10SagittariusThermacellmense clouds of gas and dust where new stars are born. From a really dark site they are naked eye targets. But to bring them to life, reach for your binoculars. Farther up the Milky Way you’ll come to two more star clusters, M11 and M26. M11 is also known as the Wild Duck cluster, but once again it’s a stretch for the unassisted brain to visualize.

If you’re just starting out in stargazing and this is already over your head, I highly recommend that you buy a copy of Terence Dickinson’s NightWatch. It will help you find all the night sky objects I’m talking about. It is one of the best stargazing guides I have ever read and will help eliminate any cos-mic confusion you may have. Amazon sells it for as low as $20 or you can toddle over to the nearest big box book bin and drive home with a copy for just over $30 — tax in. If that’s too steep, pick up a copy of SkyNews for about $6.

Summer is one of my favourite seasons for stargazing. The selection of viewing tar-gets is unequalled. The weather is astron-omer-friendly. And there are a host of star parties you can visit across Canada. Here in the Kawarthas the Fall ‘N’ Stars gathering is one of the best. Google Fall ‘N’ Stars - RASC - Bellville for all the details.

contend with, the stars are easier to see. Leo, the Lion will be crawling into his lair in the west shortly after dusk. Virgo will scamper along behind him while Ophiuchus (oh-fee-you-cuss) climbs the south eastern sky. The bright star Arcturus will be high up in the southern sky and the Big Dipper will be standing on the tip of its cup by around 10 o’clock in the northwest.

One thing no one looks forward to as summer arrives is the flying armada of mosquitoes. These critters can turn a night of stargazing into a festival of Bohemian slap dancing. But instead of becoming a walking, scratching ad for Calamine Lotion pick up on a new product called Thermacell.

It uses butane to heat up a chemical-impregnated mat. The chemical is allethrin which is a copy of a natural insecticide, pyrethin, found in chrysanthemum flowers.

The heated mat gives off vapours that keep the flying blood suckers away from you and your friends. On a calm night it works in an area about 15 feet in diameter. So if you’re a mosquito magnet, Thermacell can make you a lot less attractive.

Unfortunately Tau Ceti f has only resided in the habitable zone of its home star for less than a billion years. So even if it can support life astronomers may have a hard time finding any “biosignatures” or signs of life in its atmosphere.

Also, Tau Ceti f is 6.6 times the mass of Earth. So whatever you weigh now, multi-ply it by 6.6. Chances are you couldn’t even stand up or walk on Tau Ceti f. The Olym-pics would be reduced to crawling and fall-ing events until humans evolved into much more muscular beings.

Tau Ceti e stretches the bounds of the goldilocks zone to their maximum, perhaps beyond. It is 4.4 times the mass of the Earth, so once again you’ll need a heavy-duty, motor-powered cart to get from here to there in. Plus it’s on the very fringe of the habitable zone. Tau Ceti e receives 1.7 times the solar radiation as does the Earth, so bring that Sun Block 35 if you visit.

continued from page 13Tau Ceti

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ArticlesSubmissions for The Reflector must be received by the date listed below. E-mail submissions are preferred (Microsoft Word, OpenDoc, ASCII and most common graphic formats are accept-able). If your article contains photso or graphics, please provide a separate file for each. Typed or hand-written submissions are acceptable pro-vided they are legible (and not too long.) Copy-righted materials will not be published without written permission from the copyright holder. Submissions may be edited for grammar, brev-ity, or clarity. Submissions will be published at the editor’s sole discretion. Depending on the volume of submissions, some articles may be published at a later date. Please submit any ar-ticles, thoughts, or ideas to:[email protected]

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Meetings The Peterborough Astronomical Association meets every first Friday of each month, except July and August, at the Peter-borough Zoo Guest Services and Rotary Educa-tion Centre (inside the main entrance at the north end of the Zoo) at 7 p.m. P.A.A. general annoucements will begin each meeting with the guest speaker starting at 7:30 p.m.

continued from page 1GOESary satellites have been in use since 1963, it was only in 1974 that the Synchronous Meteorological Satellite (sms) program be-gan to monitor Earth’s weather with them, growing into the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (goes) program the next year. For 40 years now, goes satel-lites have monitored the Earth’s weather continuously, with a total of 16 satellites having been launched as part of the pro-gram. To the delight of nasa (and Ghost-busters) fans everywhere, goes-r series will launch in 2016, with thrice the spectral information, four times the spatial resolu-tion and five times the coverage speed of its predecessors, with many other improved capabilities. Yet it’s the simplicity of gravity and the geostationary “G” in goes that gives us the power to observe our hemisphere all at once, continuously, and for as long as we like!