Chinese spacecraft passes

China launched Shenzou VII with three taikonauts aboard. The mission is expected to last a few days, or about 70 hours. Although this is the third space flight for the Chinese Space Agency, an interesting aspect of this flight is that they plan on a space walk. Zhai Zhigang is a 42 year old fighter pilot and will perform the walk either Friday or Saturday. The spacewalk will be a first for China.

Lucklily, in West Virginia, I will stand a pretty good chance at spotting the capsule as it passes over. Here is a list of passes for my area in as derived from Heavens-above.com:

Date	Mag	Starts			Max. altitude			Ends
		Time	Alt.	Az.	Time	Alt.	Az.	Time	Alt.	Az.
25 Sep	4.3	19:39:13	10	WNW	19:41:52	33	N	19:44:30	10	ENE
25 Sep	5.4	21:14:58	10	WNW	21:16:20	24	NW	21:16:20	24	NW
26 Sep	4.0	19:58:59	10	WNW	20:01:40	36	N	20:03:48	14	ENE
26 Sep	6.5	21:34:35	10	WNW	21:34:58	13	WNW	21:34:58	13	WNW
27 Sep	3.3	20:18:36	10	WNW	20:21:25	53	NNE	20:22:27	32	ENE
28 Sep	3.0	20:38:13	10	WNW	20:41:04	73	SSW	20:41:10	72	S
29 Sep	3.4	19:22:15	10	WNW	19:25:03	53	NNE	19:27:52	10	E
29 Sep	5.0	20:58:04	10	W	20:59:58	25	SW	20:59:58	25	SW
30 Sep	3.1	19:41:52	10	WNW	19:44:43	74	SSW	19:47:33	10	ESE
1 Oct	4.7	20:01:42	10	W	20:04:13	28	SSW	20:06:41	10	SSE
2 Oct	6.1	20:22:36	10	WSW	20:23:36	11	SW	20:24:34	10	SSW
4 Oct	6.4	19:26:14	10	WSW	19:27:14	11	SW	19:28:13	10	SSW

It looks like each pass will take place during the evening hours. The times will change as the Chinese are expected to adjust their orbit, but I think it should be pretty close.

September Equinox and New Sunspot

In the northern hemisphere the vernal equinox occurred occurred at 1544 UTC (11:44 EDT). This marks the exact time the sun crosses the equator. From here until late December the sun will continue to get lower in the sky with each passing day, marking the beginning of fall.

On this same date a new sunspot has appeared. The sunspot has been identified to belong to the new solar cycle 24. The spot is made up of two locations, each about the size of the earth. Over the next couple of days it will traverse across the face of the sun.

LHC Crash and Burns

Looks like the Large Hadron Super Collider is going to be down for 2 months. So, the world gets a few months reprieve from the possibility of blowing up. Well, maybe it was the hand of God that crossed a few wires between a pair of magnets that caused the collider shut down. Then again, with a machine so complex and expensive as the LHC, some breakdowns where bound to happen at some point. Apparently, this is a fairly common occurence on colliders, but since the LHC operates at or near absolute zero, there is more complexity to the problem.

Tips for watching the Leonid Meteor Showers

One of my favorite meteor showers of the year are the Leonids. These shower typically peak on or about November 17th.

The Leonids are my favorite because in 2001 my wife and I saw the most amazing meteor shower we have ever seen. The showers peak every 33 years. In 2001, on a whim, my wife step out of bed at 2:30 AM in the morning and looked out the picture window in our bedroom, and shouted, "There's one! and Another!, and Another!." They just kept on coming! I quickly jumped up and we went out and saw them coming in at a rate of 500 or 600 per hour. We literally we seeing them about every second or two. Word got around our neighborhood, because we heard people talking all around our house.

So, I will be getting up the night of November 17th to watch the Leonids once again. Unfortunately, a moon rises in the late evening. The moonlight has a drastic effect in washing out the number of meteors you can see.

To view the Leonids for 2008, make sure you can find a dark spot, outside of the glow of city lights. This is very important. If there are ANY lights around, even from your neighbor's house, it will make viewing the Leonids very difficult.

Since it is November, bugs will not be a big problem. But, it will be colder than you are used to, so be sure to bring an extra jacket. Expect dew to form, which will make the ground wet. So bring along a blanket that will keep you from getting damp.

When the moon comes up, it will be up to you whether you want to stick around. You can stay, but you may find it a little difficult to keep viewing the streaks coming across the sky.

Ike Wipes Out Geraldo Rivera

OK, just having fun here. I saw on Fox News that Geraldo got wiped out buy a piece of debris while covering Hurricane Ike in Galveston. Whether you lover or hate him, you gotta love his sense of humor about the whole fiasco!



Imagine if this happened to Charles Gibson!

Hurricane Ike homes in on Houston and Galveston

Another hurricane is set to strike the gulf coast. This time along the Texas coastline. This is a Texas sized storm, pretty large by hurricane standards. Yet it is still only rated as a category 2 on the Staffer-Simpson scale. The wind field is pretty large. Usually the strongest winds are located in close proximity to the hurricane eye-wall. However with Hurricane Ike, tropical storm force winds extend out 250 miles from the center. This will lead to a pretty big waves and a big storm surge. The Saffir-Simpson Scale is used to rate a hurricane's intensity. It provides an estimate of the type of property damage you can expect when the storm passes over. The ratings run from 1 through five and here they are:

Category 1- Winds 74-95 mph (64-82 kt or 119-153 km/hr). Storm surge generally 4-5 ft above normal.

Category 2- Winds 96-110 mph (83-95 kt or 154-177 km/hr). Storm surge generally 6-8 feet above normal.

Category 3 - Winds 111-130 mph (96-113 kt or 178-209 km/hr). Storm surge generally 9-12 ft above normal.

Category 4- Winds 131-155 mph (114-135 kt or 210-249 km/hr). Storm surge generally 13-18 ft above normal.

Category 5- Winds greater than 155 mph (135 kt or 249 km/hr). Storm surge generally greater than 18 ft above normal.

The storm surge is going to be the main problem with this storm. According to the latest forecasts, the surge could be up to 20 feet above normal, which places it in the Category 5 area as far as the surge is concerned. That could change as the storm nears the coast over the next 24 hours. If you look at the path above, note that after Hurricane Ike makes landfall the remnants will pass close to West Virginia. Looks like we are going to get some rain next week. Even though I like clear skies for viewing the sky at night, it is getting a little bit dry. The forests and the plants could use a little bit of water.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Doomsday Device Is ON!

It's official: The Large Hadron Collider has been switched on and the world is still here. This is the world's largest atom smasher located along the border between France and Switzerland. It is sometimes called the "Doomsday Device." This is because some critics believe that with this device, scientists will have the ability to create a anti-matter, and possibly even a black hole, which would devour the earth. There have even been lawsuits filed to try to stop the project. From news reports that I have read, it looks like it will take a few weeks for the more serious experiments to begin. They will start colliding protons and particles in about six to eight weeks. So, we still have a few months to party on. Be sure to voice your opinion on the side poll. With the LHC blow up the world?

September Persieds Fireball Outburst

SpaceWeather.com reports that there was a fireball outburst early on the morning of September 9th. These fireballs were visible across most of the eastern seaboard. Here in West Virginia, we had fireworks in the sky of a different sort. There were pretty hefty thunderstorms passing through. I was awoken at 5 am by several claps of thunder and heavy rain.

Skies have cleared a little bit tonight, thus I will head out and see if there is a chance for catching any more of these fireballs. Their rate of appearance is not very frequent, so one must be very patient.

Hannah Sprints up the East Coast

I woke up this morning with a dying tropical storm just to my east. It looks like none of the outer bands of Hannah are going to reach us. But there were thick clouds and fog this morning. I did not see much of the night sky.

Yesterday, while out for my morning run, it was pretty dry and clear. A little bit odd for early September in West Virginia. Thus there were many stars to view. Saw nothing unusual, except a deer almost ran into me when it sprinted off the hill along to road less than a foot in front of me. It scared the bejeezus out of me!

Mooncake Festival

The Chinese holiday known as the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on September 14th this year. During this time of year a popular pastry served are known as mooncakes. Mooncakes have a thin pastry crust with a thick paste-like filling, usually made from egg yolks and lotus seed paste. They can have different flavors of paste as well. My favorite are the tea flavored ones, and a wedge of this pastry is a perfect compliment to a cup of green tea.

The Mid-Autumn Festival occurs on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. This is usually right at the full moon that occurs during mid September to early October.

If you happen to have an Asian grocery nearby, you should be able to pick up a package or two of mooncakes that are already pre-made. During this upcoming full moon, make yourself a little green tea, cut a few wedges of mooncake, invite a few friends over and grab a lawn chair, and enjoy a nice evening under the moonlight.