8-7-10

Solar maximum... a time of sunspots, solar flares, auroras, and the occasional life-impacting solar storm. Lovely, right?

What is solar maximum?
First of all, I'm not an expert. Just saying.

The Sun goes through 11 year cycles. Like I said above, there is increased sunspot activity, and the Sun is the most active at this time.

The last solar maximum happened when I was three... so this is the first one I'll be able to experience one and actually remember it! It will happen a whole bunch of other times in my lifetime, but... hooray for firsts!

I've been browsing YouTube for cool videos of the Sun... preferably with Star Wars music in the background. But I didn't find anything. And as my computer and I aren't good enough to make our own video, I'm going to present to you two videos: one is the actual video, the other is the music you should listen to. The music makes all the difference, as you'll see in a minute.

Link number one: Sun Activity
NOTE: You have to mute the music on this link. Unless you want to listen to it; it's just not dramatic enough...

Link number two- open this in a different tab: Star Wars- Duel of the Fates
Do NOT mute this one. Go back to the other video and watch it with this music.

...Cool, right? Kinda intimating. "Witness the power of this fully operational ball of plasma!"

And just to make things better, NASA expects this to be 30% to 50% stronger than our last one. See here. Yowch. Most expect it to be at the height of solar maximum by 2012. Hm. But just look at the Sun now. It's already pretty active, and some sunspots pose a threat for solar flares.

7-20-10

There was an earthquake.

First, let us clarify one thing: I am not giving away the exact location of this earthquake as this is a public post that anyone can read. I'm sure you can make an educated guess or look it up if you really wanted to.

For the record, I felt the earthquake.
For the record, President Obama did not.

See, an earthquake occurred recently on the East Coast of the United States. Earthquakes that you can actually feel are not common, but they're not... uncommon, especially around here. The East U.S. is in the middle of a continental tectonic plate aptly named the North American Plate. The rock in that area is old. Yes, very, very old. In addition, the rock around here makes seismic waves (earthquake waves, basically) travel better. The earthquake was a magnitude 3.6, and it traveled farther than you might expect.

Now, the burning question(s) I read/heard about:

1) Is this the beginning of DISASTER!!!!!!????
Answer: I can't be sure, but my instincts tell me no.

2) But... we're in the middle of a plate! Right?
Answer: Yeah... and the U.S Geological survey doesn't even know what fault caused the earthquake, so... who knows what's up with the rock?

3) Is it related to the capping of the oil well in the Gulf?
Answer: Lemme guess... you all read that on the Internet. The answer is no.

-----
Ah, the East Coast. We are awesome, but we're not exactly earthquake aware. This is what some people thought the early morning earthquake was:
-A big truck
-A dream
-A plane crash
-The dog...?
-A school explosion
-Underground explosion
-A helicopter
-Construction work

Yeah... what went through my mind? "It's not an earthquake."

-----The experience------
And now, I record my ~thrilling~ eyewitness account of this trembler.

I wake up on my side facing the window. I can't see over the window so I'm left staring at a wall. It's awfully puzzling. "Whoa, it's shaking... big truck... no, not big truck. Why is my bedframe shaking? I'm kicking it... no, I'm not. Earthquake? Naw. Earthquake? Naw. Dream."
I get up; my parents didn't feel the earthquake, so I went back to sleep.
Later that morning I am woken up and informed that it was an earthquake. I felt like a kid on Christmas.

Heh, so that's what happened. Nice to know our rocks are (mostly... hopefully) stress free.

7-16-10

Sigh, busy summer. How time flies. (or does it? Does it fly like an arrow or a hawk that just goes in circles? I'm referring to the model with the pizza-- excluding two slices. But you'd have to bend space yourself to do that, and I'm not quite sure if the pizza being a circle was representing what I think it was.)

Anyway, in case you didn't know, there was a solar eclipse a few days ago. It was in the south Pacific, so no one in the US saw it.

The south Pacific... is beautiful, really. Here are some pictures:

http://spaceweather.com/eclipses/gallery_11jul10_page3.htm?PHPSESSID=79vgjj5fv7ajq95ocq6ga8kgk1

Here's hoping that link works; if not let me know and I'll fix it. My personal favorite is the very first one. Isn't that amazing? Nice corona there.

Let's see... as far as satellite tracking goes... the International Space Station has been spotted twice. Both times it was seen with a magnitude below -2. Not bad. I really liked how it was red lower on the horizon because of all the atmosphere. Then you could watch it get bigger and brighter and then fade on the opposite horizon. Fascinating.

Currently unsure of what to do, as the bridge project was put off until I can find better working space; stepped on the Lego model at night; ow. Looking at Sloan Digital Sky Survey projects and contemplating... thinking... I shall have to choose one later.

I was awake for that earthquake we experienced this morning. I'm still gathering some information before I post about it, so I'll try to post as soon as possible. Thanks for reading!

6.27.20

Finally, another ISS sighting! And this time I was the first to spot it. Unfortunately, I mistook it for a plane at first.

Magnitude of -3. Just about as bright as Venus. This time I couldn't chase it up the street. I had to carefully job backwards along the edge of my yard to watch it poke in and out of clouds and trees. It was going really fast. I was able to watch it about two minutes total.

6-22-10

It's not what it seems! No, I did not abandon this blog for a simpler, lazier summer lifestyle. I simply got preoccupied... sleeping a lot. I did manage to clean my room.

Haven't brought the telescope out yet this summer, but we did manage to spot a satellite. Magnitude .9; north west I think.

Next project: During the school year we had to build a bridge out of balsa wood and glue that could support a brick. Well, my partner and I did so, but I wasn't too pleased with the outcome. I mean, it held the brick. But I figured I'd go to the craft store and get some good glue and balsa wood and try again! It's going to be an I-beam, but if I have spare wood I may attempt some other designs. Pictures, blue print, notes, etc. will all be posted.

5-31-10

11:10 last night marked the first attempt to find the mysterious US Air Force space plane X-37B. We finally got a satellite tracker for my Mom's ipod, which was actually really helpful.

On May 30th it had a dim magnitude of 3.5. You were supposed to be able to see it in the west... but the maximum elevation was only 34 degrees.

My Dad thought he saw something, but we lost it.

Then my Dad saw something else, but it was closer to the east. We think it was another satellite. It was extremely dim.

5-1-10

Hi, everyone. Thanks for reading. I should probably mention that I won't be posting again until the summer. School keeps me really busy. See ya in June~