Solstice, Oh Happy Day of the Year

December 21st, 2010 Thomasso

It is finally here, the shortest day, and the longest night of the year, and now the longer days are a coming.

This is going to be a action packed day. Once I’m done with work, I’m off with my friends.

Even though the day looks very miserable, it did show promise this morning when the sky cleared up for a brief moment and allowed the sun to shine. But now as the day progresses, it is probably, more than likely, going to rain, continuously. But that will not dampen our celebrations.

Today is also the last official day of the Fall Semester at Kwnatlen. Yes, there are some who are still writing exams. I feel so sorry for them because the time off starts tomorrow. Most of us were fished our exams two weeks ago, and some, even earlier because of having in class exams. Oh, well, I’m finished, I did my time with it, and I’m not going to rub it in for the next generation of students goring through the bowls of Kwantlen. I wish them good luck and happy times.

Tonight I meet up with some of my old classmates. I am looking forward to that very much. I miss the old gang. We did a lot. We shared a lot. We survived it together. You just don’t throw that kind of friendship out to easily, no matter how far apart our lives will go in our separate carers.

I know, I’m sounding kind of mushy right now. Just a minute…

OK, that’s better.

I’m still waiting on my grades. I thought by today I would have them, but I guess my profs were heavily loaded up with marking. Hopefully by tonight I’ll know where I stand. Fingers crossed. I’m so nervous and excite at the same time!

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Solstice Eve and Lunar Eclipse

December 20th, 2010 Thomasso

Tomorrow will be the Winter Solstice, and added to that event will be a total lunar eclipse to add to the excitement. In the afternoon I will be joining some friends for our annual Solstice gathering, to celebrate the astrological event, and enjoy the festive atmosphere. Last year I met up with about twenty friends from the Surrey campus, and we toasted the event while watching the Sun set that day. We may do that again this year.

The main reason we use the Solstice as the annual date to gather is that it falls right before everyone is getting their time off from work, so it kinda acts like a prelude to meeting friends before you head off to meet with your families. Two years ago we had one crackpot who had to be hauled off by police because he was so drunk. Actually, there were a number of them who thought it was a drinking event. That kind of wreck it, but we continued on.

I’m hoping to meet a lot of friends from my classes this turn around. Now that I graduate, I will not see most of them ever again. So, this will be my last chance to say good bye and farewell to them before the graduation ceremonies and we go our separate ways.

Tonight the Earth’s shadow will block out the Sun for 72 minutes of totality, just after midnight, officially kicking off the Winter Solstice. From start to finish, the Lunar eclipse will last about three hours. One of the problems with living in the Pacific North Coast, and this time of year, is that usually the weather is very bad. Tonight will be no exception as weather warnings and heavy overcast skies are on the weather menu for tonight.

So, I guess tonight is “Solstice Eve.” Enjoy!

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Summer’s End

September 22nd, 2010 Thomasso

I was just getting to know summer. Now there is just a few measly hours left until it is no longer. I missed it!

Even though another summer will come along in less than nine months, I feel like I got ripped off because I never fully enjoyed this season that I am in now.

Around 8:30 tonight, mathematically, the official end will be marked. Then after that we will mark in the new season, fall, and will the days grow shorter and the nights will be longer.

Even my sleep patterns are changing. I found myself having problems getting to bed over the last couple of nights. And getting out of bed, well, that was equally challenging as I really felt like hitting the “snooze” button a couple of times in a row this morning.

One big change that I have noticed as compared to previous starts to fall are the colours of the leaves on the trees. Usually you can spot the odd tree dawning the fall colours. But t this year, we have been hit with a warmer, dryer summer, a kind of more extreme season than our normal mix of weather for this time of year, so I think the trees are trying to take advantage of the exceptional weather. This is what I have noticed.

Bye bye summer. I wish I spent more with you, enjoying every moment that I could. Hey, there is next year, and I will spend more time with you then! Mark my words. 

ADDED:

Well, it is now official, it is now fall.

There is a really cool Full Moon out that looks just absolutely awesome, and the stars so bright that it is like you can reach out and touch them. Though still warm out, you can feel the cold in the air. It is completely night out now, 9:00pm, and only the croaking of the frogs can be heard.

Tomorrow that weather report says rain in the forecast. I think was are now back to normal, as the old joke about weather goes.

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Rain On, Rain On

September 6th, 2010 Thomasso

There are less than twenty-three hours left of freedom before I head back to classes. I was really hoping that today would be a great day, but the weather held everything back. With the cold and damp weather came the gloomy attitudes and low self-esteem that makes conjuring up fun activities almost impossible.

Today I was invited to a Labour day BBQ, sponsored by the Labour Federation of British Columbia, but I decided not to go becuase of the weather. I was told through Twitter from my friends that half of the activities were cancelled, and the rest were moved indoors so seating was limited. I had set aside most of today for that event.

Tonight I was invited to a stargazer party and told to bring my telescope and binoculars. I love these parties becuase you get to meet great people who have a shared love for astronomy, and you can see the latest gadgetry used by astronomers. It does not look promising for a really great stargazer party. The clouds are really socked in, and the drizzle will make being outside very unpleasant. Stargazing indoors just does not cut it–if you know what I mean.

I guess all I can do today is work on stuff around the house. Cleaning is what I have been doing most of this morning. I may fix a minor plumbing problem I got, but that may require taking a trip down to the hardware store for some parts. I really do not want to spend a whole lot of money right now.

The most disgusting thing I saw on the net today was the news story about Indonesian Two Year Old boy who quit smoking. Ya, a two year old boy smoking! I have heard of messed up parents and weird cultures before, but letting a kid smoke before the age of two, that has taken “dumb” to new levels?

Well, back to cleaning and working around the place. Enjoy what is left of the long weekend!

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This is the Day of Renewal: The Winter Solstice.

December 21st, 2009 Thomasso

It occurred around 9:45am this morning local time, and the darkness was very noticeable, but as the drizzle coated everything wet, spirits were high becuase this is the day of renewal: the winter Solstice. I pay special attention to this day because of its significance as a turning point in the year. I should also point out that I am not a religious person, but a person of reality who looks beyond fiction to see what is really there – and I see the magic of the universe in physics. The Earth has a tilt of 23.5 degrees on a elliptical orbit, with an orbital eccentricity of 0.017, which means that we get four extra days of summer compared to the Southern hemisphere, and our winters are equally shorter. Because of this tilling effect along the celestial equator, we get the seasons.

The significance of today is that from here on in the days will gradually get longer. For us who live in the Northern climates, this is a good thing becuase knowing that the cold and drizzly weather will be gone in about three months makes the hope and happiness of a new beginning something tangible to hold onto while it pours buckets outside, or a dump of snow occurs.

I remember asking my father why, if winter started on December 21, how come winter didn’t start when the days actually started getting shorter instead of now when the cycle was half over? He was unable to actuality answer this question, but he gave it a shot.  He said, “Bureaucracy – when they were hashing out the calendar and fitting in all the days and months, trying to make everyone happy, other countries were getting cold weather later than the countries closer to the equator, so they compromised.” he said. For a very long time I bought that story. I was corrected in my beliefs during a high school science lesson on time and the seasons, when the teacher used a fancy model of the Solar System with a light bulb for the Sun that showed physically what was going on. Seeing the process in a model made the difference in fully understanding what was going on and how it all worked.

Of course, the reason for winter starting on the solstice is something called seasonal drag. Two things happen when the Earth tilts away from the Sun. First, the rays from the Sun slowly start to cover more surface area of the Earth, and as a result the energy is spread out wider on the ground. Second, it takes time for the atmosphere and surface temperatures to cool down as the heat is retained and releases slowly. So the really cold days do not start until the days start getting longer. The great news is, March is not that far away!

Happy Solstice! The days are getting longer!

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Overcoming Fear and Seeing the True Universe for the Very the First Time.

December 18th, 2009 Thomasso

It was sixteen weeks ago that I took up the challenge of doing a hard-based third year science course, the last of my science requirement in my degree program, and back then I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I embarked on Astro Physics. The fourteen week long course took me on some very wild rides as I fumbled with my scientific calculator, and gawked at the streams of formulas with enough Greek letters to make a bowl of soup with, and it made me ponder the true extent of our universe.

Last night I wrote my final for that class. At the end of the 3 hour exam, which I managed to complete before the required time period was up, I got my list of overall marks from the professor. I was elated with joy when she said that my final mark may hinged between a B or an A, depending on the outcome of my final exam. (I was happy that it was not the difference between a C or a B.) I remembered how hard the mid-term was. I squeaked in a borderline B+/A- in the mid-term, after putting a lot of hours repetitiously memorising the 150 pages of texts for that exam. The big blow to the chest was that the final exam was accumulative, meaning that it covered everything from day one till the final moment of the last class. I had to work harder for it!

I remember sitting in the class, dumbfounded, when we were given our Math labs. Physics has a dual whammy with it, in that it deals with theory and Math all in one, and they are inter twined. You can not happily wonder through the course with just the theory and not take in any of the Math components–you would never be able to answer any of the questions, or get full marks for them. So seeing numbers, huge numbers, written in scientific notation like this, scared the pants off me. But once I figured out to enter them into the calculator, and properly understand them, then the wheels started to turn for me.

I was hard on myself. I only saw the people in the class that were getting all of the questions. I did not see that the class mean was only 67 percent, or that a quarter of the class was very close to fail mark of 60 percent, depending on what benchmark you use from what degree program you are in. I made sure that I allowed myself several hours per week going over the notes, textbook and labs.  Disappointment came from the labs becuase of the level of Math that was involved. One lab, I got 7 out of 30 marks becuase of not moving the decimal point far enough to the right when converting measurements when calculating Mass into Solar Units. In another lab I was given only fifty percent becuase my line on the graph was “sketched in” as opposed to a nice thin line drawn in. My graph making skills lacked in the Physics department. On top of that, I saw one student hand in a computer generated graph, and the prof accepted it–”hey I could have done that!”

Oh, I guess I should explain what the four numbers mean eh? Well, the first two are part of the world of Physics known as Physical Constants, the first is the speed of light measured in metres per second, and the next one is the mass, in kilograms, of a electron. The next two are are Astronomical Constants, AU, or Astronomical Unit which equals the distance form the Earth to the Sun in kilometres, and last one is the mass of the Earth in kilograms.

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Yes, It’s the Big Day: Halloween Is Here!

October 31st, 2009 Thomasso

It’s going to be a great night for the night of the dead, and all those kiddies, and big kids too, dressed up in costumes who are going to go out on the annual candy feast, the dead better watch out! And don’t let me forget that for the older kids, this is the night when the trick is worth more than the the treat. heh heh heh. The night will be almost perfect. Halloween this year is on a Saturday, so staying up late, parting with no regrets, is almost a certainty.  Also, the moon phase will be almost full, at 95 percent waxing gibbous, at 13 days old. The temperature for tonight in the Fraser Valley will be up to  a warm 12C, which is quite comfortable when wearing a heavy costume.

Added Around 7:30pm:

I walked around town for a few hours mainly to watch the various fireworks shows that were going on, but there was nothing big. There were lots of people walking around though. Only a few were dressed in costumes but mostly the average age group that I saw were the thirty somethings walking to the various house parties. A least they are not driving.

Interestingly I did not see one C.O.P. on the roads? Could it be that we are a well behaved society, or is it the silence before the storm? Stay tuned.

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The All Powerful Sun: What is in Time?

September 27th, 2009 Thomasso

We are doing a really nifty lab experiment in physics this week. We are asked to find out how far off we are from the start of our time-zone, and to calculate this by using basic mathematical formulas by only using the sun and some basic tools. We are asked to use a nail, paper and a flat surface on a sunny day, oh and of course, a clock because time is very important for this experiment.

The first part of the experiment is to generate the data in the field. I first found a good spot that had little shade, where the sun was shinning during the period of high noon. Where I live, I do not have a very good Southern view, so there was going to be some problems during the experiment. Once I found the spot, I set up my table and put a nail through it, or in this case, a piece of metal rod through one of the cracks that was already in the table, and poked the paper over the nail. The nail was going to be my “Sun Dial,” and the paper was going to be the area in which I was going to record the shadows with.

During the experiment I was to record the position of the shadow in ten minute intervals. Starting a 11:30am, or 10:30 am Standard Time, and then running until 2:00pm, or 1:00pm Standard Time was because of Day Light Savings Time, and making sure that somewhere during this time period I would hit high noon, which would be the real 12:00pm instead of the start of the time-zone I live in.

There was a point during the experiment when I hit the shadow of the largest tree around my home. It hit right at the highest point of the sky, right at the most critical part of the experiment. There was just enough of a shadow cast by the metal nail on the paper to give me a reference point to mark off with. There was a little bit of a fudge factor here.

Once completed, and 2:00pm came by, I packed up everything in moved it inside so I could start measuring the dots from the hole in the paper. This is was sort of an interesting point during the experiment because I would have thought that the dots would have made a crescent pattern rather than a straight line on the paper. Once I started graphic it out I realized what was going on. I notice how the Sun raced across the sky, and how the distance of the shadow changed, even though the distance of the Sun changed in the sky during the day travelling from East to West. This made sense explaining the dots looking like a straight line across the paper.

Next, are my results.

What I have found out as a result of this experiment is that “high noon” is really 12:50pm Daylight Savings Time where I live, in Fort Langley, BC. This means that I am ten minutes off from when my time-zone says it is night noon. The blue line on the chart above is the distance of the shadow compared to the time of day it was taken, so the lowest point on the line (curve) is the highest point of the Sun in the sky–my high-noon.

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Half and Half With Happy Neighbours

September 21st, 2009 Thomasso

First, tomorrow is the Equinox, or the final day of summer and the first day of Autumn, around 2:18pm, September 22, 2009. Normally it falls on the 21 of September, but this year it is a day late. Well, really it is not late, that is the way our calendar works. Our calendar has a lot of bugs in it, so keeping events on track and uniformed is unfortunately impossible to do with it.

Tomorrow, me and some friends will have a little get-together, as we always do, to celebrating the passage of the seasons. I consider these moments true events without the hype and commercialism that most other celebrations go. We have debated this to death, and for better of worse, keeping it away from the mainstream is the better way to go. We try and attend right at the time that it occurs, but sometimes that can be difficult for some as it is either during the dead of night or during work times. For us keener’s, taking time off from work to celebrate it is just one way we keep it going.

This started for me back about 13 years ago when me and a couple of old high school buddies, who were all amateur astronomy buffs, realized that in order to really appreciate the seasons and the start of the new year, December 21 should be the day that we do it.  We managed to keep it going ever since then. One buddy, Richard, even goes so far as to bring his spouse along, so now it has become a family event for swapping stories and having a few drinks, or in my case a good excuse to have a coffee with the old boys. Only a couple of us get together for the other three events, Fall and Spring equinox and the Summer solstice.

Last Saturday I reached the milestone of reaching 10 installations of the operating system Ubuntu-Linux within my neighbourhood. That is “out with the old, in with the new.” Old, meaning Microsoft in this case.

In every case of installing the new operating system it was due to users not willing to pay for the upgrades, and for the most part, their PC machines were old and slow compared to current standards, so the Window$ system would not work properly. There is sort of a consumer dilemma when it comes to buying a computer, that is, when you fork out up to and over a thousand dollars, you expect it to work for more than a year before you need to throw more money at it.  So spending a $150.00 for an entirely new upgraded operating system is a good deterrent for anyone to continue to go along with the scam. And I do mean scam.

“It is hard to justify paying for something that gives me advertising, limited usage and viruses galore—there must be a better way?” my friend Kim said.

When I introduced them to the open source systems, they are stunned. It is like they never heard the word “Free” before. It is through word of mouth that they find out that such a world exists.  And oddly, when they get frustrated with it, or they need some help and get mad, I tell them they could always go back to what they had before, they flat out respond with a “NO—Fix it!”

Special Note: Thanks Diane for catching those errors for me and bringing them to my attention. I hang my head in shame, and guilty as charged.

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A Round and A Round, I Hate Things That Spin

September 20th, 2009 Thomasso

This is funny. I have to do this assignment  in my science class where we must take sky observations of the stars and draw them onto a piece of paper. This has several problems. I finally gave up and went back inside, and will probably guess the rest the observation part.

My first problem was figuring out how to orientate the paper, drawing it on the hood of my truck, to get the orientation of the sky above me correct. I fixed that by just standing and facing Northward then looking up and drawing all the stars I could. But looking further South became a problem as I needed to lay down on the grown to look behind me South word, but that made drawing more difficult because I no flat surface to draw on then.

My second problem was repeating this “look up and gaze” and “look down and draw” several times, always double checking to see if everything was in proportion to the sky. This is where I ran into some serious trouble with vertigo. The gaze-look routine soon started making me sick, and I had to sit down inside my truck to settle things down.

The next thing that happen was the construction site across from me has out door lighting, but halfway through my exercise they turned on their high powered flood lights that lit the building and all the mist around me up. That took away any chances of good quality star gazing for tonight. I think if I had asked them to turn off the lights they would have probably tazered me to death. Security at construction sites are a big deal these days.

Well, at least I got most of the exercise done. The Math I probably have 90 percent completed now, and the observations are 75 complete too. I still have to go outside because we have to observe and record how much the sky has rotated in a one hour period, and note which direction the stars moved, either clockwise, or counter clockwise.

One last observation: Looks like summer is almost over! I forgot the equinox is just hours away. It is getting cooler out there now.

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