The Class-less Class

[Wanderin]

I live by my mentor's quote:

"Be good and you will be lonesome." Mark Twain

Roger

Haha ... Mark Twain is one of my favorites too.

[IYQ]

It's sunny and no wind so far today so it might make is up into the 50's today after a 24 degree night. I'm all for that. I got a good start this morning. I've already taken my laundry to the laundry and got a tank of LP. I'll wait a while for the walk though it still feels a little cold out there at the present 42 degrees. Roger I like the Mark Twain Quote it's much better than my stock quotes that seem to only have on direction now, DOWN just like the temperature has been. Steve must have slipped out of the chain that Carol had around his neck. All the pillaging and ransacking he's been doing lately. Or maybe he's just taking too many Steves and doing a lot of dreaming.

 

TID BITS:

Mars is a very small planet. It's the second smallest in the solar system and is only about half the diameter of the earth. But it has the tallest mountain in the solar system and the Deepest and longest canyon. Mars is only 4212 miles in diameter compared to earth's 7926 miles which is about 53.3% and it only has 11% of the mass the earth has. It's gravity is about 38% of what earth has. The Volcano Olympus Mons is over 15miles high and with a diameter of 370 miles. That's 3 times as high as Mt Everest. The Valles Marineris is 2500 miles long, 370 miles wide and 4 miles deep. Grand Canyon in AZ is only about a tenth as long and about a fifth as deep. Valles Marineris extends a quarter of the way around the planet. Golly what a gully. There is no liquid surface water but they have found water ice just recently. The average temperature is -81 degrees F. (that makes me feel alot better about Deming.) Mars has 2 small moons that look pretty lumpy because they are too small to have sufficient gravity to pull them into a good sphere. The atmosphere of Mars is 95.4% carbon dioxide and practicly no Oxygen. The wind blows all the time and at times raises a dust cloud that covers the whole planet. The red soil is very high in iron and is red because of the rusted iron particles. You know I don't think I'll try to sell any real estate on Mars. It may no be very profitable.

[Roger & Lynn]

 

 

TID BITS:

Mars is a very small planet. It's the second smallest in the solar system and is only about half the diameter of the earth. But it has the tallest mountain in the solar system and the Deepest and longest canyon. Mars is only 4212 miles in diameter compared to earth's 7926 miles which is about 53.3% and it only has 11% of the mass the earth has. It's gravity is about 38% of what earth has. The Volcano Olympus Mons is over 15miles high and with a diameter of 370 miles. That's 3 times as high as Mt Everest. The Valles Marineris is 2500 miles long, 370 miles wide and 4 miles deep. Grand Canyon in AZ is only about a tenth as long and about a fifth as deep. Valles Marineris extends a quarter of the way around the planet. Golly what a gully. There is no liquid surface water but they have found water ice just recently. The average temperature is -81 degrees F. (that makes me feel alot better about Deming.) Mars has 2 small moons that look pretty lumpy because they are too small to have sufficient gravity to pull them into a good sphere. The atmosphere of Mars is 95.4% carbon dioxide and practicly no Oxygen. The wind blows all the time and at times raises a dust cloud that covers the whole planet. The red soil is very high in iron and is red because of the rusted iron particles. You know I don't think I'll try to sell any real estate on Mars. It may no be very profitable.

That would be one rough place to tow a rig Lee! Can we see any of these features with that scope of yours? It would very cool to spot that hill and hole!

Roger

[IYQ]

That would be one rough place to tow a rig Lee! Can we see any of these features with that scope of yours? It would very cool to spot that hill and hole!

Roger

Nope but you may ask NASA to use the Hubble telescope. My 8 inch scope can usually resolve the polar cap and occasionally see a dust storm but that's about it. The canyon might be. Seen with about a 20 inch objective (lens or mirror) If you decide to take the beaver. Watch out for the dust dunes.they're all over the place

[Roger & Lynn]

Nope but you may ask NASA to use the Hubble telescope. My 8 inch scope can usually resolve the polar cap and occasionally see a dust storm but that's about it. The canyon might be. Seen with about a 20 inch objective (lens or mirror) If you decide to take the beaver. Watch out for the dust dunes.they're all over the place

I'll be glad if the Beaver makes it to Q! Don't worry Lee, I'll push it there if I have to!!

Roger

[IYQ]

A pretty nice day today considering how cold it's been. I got LP gas this morning and took my laundry to the laundry in town. Then came back to the ranch and got a little work done them zoomed back to town for lunch. I ordered chicken fingers and got chicken that had been fried in batter then cut up in bite size pieces. Boy was it salty. I'll pay for that tomorrow morning. I hope my soaring blood pressure don't put a hole in my roof. I had to go back to town the third time to pick up my laundry. Somewhere in that mess I did get my walk in and that was pleasant. I don't have much to do to get ready now so I think I'll make it in time for Q. I'm looking at the 16th or 17th to leave here. I have a long Tid Bit today so I'll excuse you if you just pass it by.

 

TID BITS:

Try a little experiment. Hold your finger about 8 or 10 inches from you face and look across the tip of it to an object or mark on the wall across the room. Now close one eye and note where you finger looks like it is pointing at the wall. The without moving your head or finger close the open eye and open the other. Note again where the finger looks like its pointing. Note how far apart the two positions were. Now hold your finger out at arm’s length and do the experiment again. Note that the distance the finger appeared to move on the wall is much less than before. This is called parallax and is how Astronomers tell how far it is to a star that nothing has ever been to. They look at the star in January and note the angle they had their telescope at while looking at the star. Then they do the same thing in July 6 months later. Using Trigonometry they can find the length of any side of a triangle if they know the length of one side and two of the angles. Well in six months the world has completed one half of its orbit and is on the other side of the sun. So earth is 93 million miles from the sun so they know the distance of one side of a triangle is 2 Astronomical units or 2 times 93 million miles. They also know the angle that the telescope was pointed when they looked at the star in both settings. Walla, they now can determine the distance to the star and construct a rulers so to speak to associate other stars at different distances and tell the distance by the angle the telescopes have to move between the two setting. Smaller angles mean the star is farther away and visa versa. The unit of measure they use is called a parsec , which stands for Parallax Arc Second. One Parsec is about 18.8 Trillion miles. This method doesn’t work very well for stars that are Millions of light years away because the arc is so small they can’t measure it. For that they use a Variable Star. From the pulsing light they can tell the actual magnitude (brightness) of the star then compare it to the apparent magnitude (what you see from earth) Light dims as it travels so they can figure the distance it traveled by how much it dimmed getting here. And a third way is to use the Doppler effect and measure the red shift. All electromagnetic waves which include everything from sound through visible light to X-ray radio waves and even Gamma rays, They travel through space in evenly spaced waves . If you are moving toward the source of those waves the time it take between waves will shorten and if you are traveling away from the source the wave will appear to be farther apart and have more time between waves. This changes the frequency of the wave. If it’s visible light a higher frequency will change color toward the blue end of the spectrum. If the frequency lowers, the light would change color toward the Red end of the spectrum. Bingo we can make a new ruler by how much it changes over time by measuring the red shift while the world is zooming around the sun toward or away from the star in question. Don’t ask me for the math on that one. I can’t even balance my check book.

Edited January 6, 2015 by IYQ

[readytoride]

 

We do! A fish bat! I will expound on that later.

Thanks to all who offered bats - sure we can find a use for them ---- look forward to the Expounding on the fish Bat !!

[Roger & Lynn]

TID BITS:

Try a little experiment. Hold your finger about 8 or 10 inches from you face and look across the tip of it to an object or mark on the wall across the room. Now close one eye and note where you finger looks like it is pointing at the wall. The without moving your head or finger close the open eye and open the other. Note again where the finger looks like its pointing. Note how far apart the two positions were. Now hold your finger out at arm’s length and do the experiment again. Note that the distance the finger appeared to move on the wall is much less than before. This is called parallax and is how Astronomers tell how far it is to a star that nothing has ever been to. They look at the star in January and note the angle they had their telescope at while looking at the star. Then they do the same thing in July 6 months later. Using Trigonometry they can find the length of any side of a triangle if they know the length of one side and two of the angles. Well in six months the world has completed one half of its orbit and is on the other side of the sun. So earth is 93 million miles from the sun so they know the distance of one side of a triangle is 2 Astronomical units or 2 times 93 million miles. They also know the angle that the telescope was pointed when they looked at the star in both settings. Walla, they now can determine the distance to the star and construct a rulers so to speak to associate other stars at different distances and tell the distance by the angle the telescopes have to move between the two setting. Smaller angles mean the star is farther away and visa versa. The unit of measure they use is called a parsec , which stands for Parallax Arc Second. One Parsec is about 18.8 Trillion miles. This method doesn’t work very well for stars that are Millions of light years away because the arc is so small they can’t measure it. For that they use a Variable Star. From the pulsing light they can tell the actual magnitude (brightness) of the star then compare it to the apparent magnitude (what you see from earth) Light dims as it travels so they can figure the distance it traveled by how much it dimmed getting here. And a third way is to use the Doppler effect and measure the red shift. All electromagnetic waves which include everything from sound through visible light to X-ray radio waves and even Gamma rays, They travel through space in evenly spaced waves . If you are moving toward the source of those waves the time it take between waves will shorten and if you are traveling away from the source the wave will appear to be farther apart and have more time between waves. This changes the frequency of the wave. If it’s visible light a higher frequency will change color toward the blue end of the spectrum. If the frequency lowers, the light would change color toward the Red end of the spectrum. Bingo we can make a new ruler by how much it changes over time by measuring the red shift while the world is zooming around the sun toward or away from the star in question. Don’t ask me for the math on that one. I can’t even balance my check book.

Impressive Lee...I think I followed that but, still above my head...pun intended! I used to apply a lot of Trig in my mapping job but, didn't know that it had an application with astronomy! The more you learn the more you realize how little you know!

Roger

[palamine]

Took our friends Jack and Bianca and had a nice visit at Ogilby Road with Dianne and Tom and Tina and Jeff. Steve and Carol (and maybe Roger and Lynn) are going to come for visit here at Pilot Knob. Jim and Sandie are expected to arrive on Thursday.

 

Isn't it wonderful! First morning in about 6 weeks that we didn't wake up to a freezing house. No heater last night either. I intend to get some sun today.

[Sandie & Jim]

Toni - not sure if it'll be Thursday or Friday. Save a spot for us.

[readytoride]

I forgot about those mimosas. Those were really good. Heck, I'd rather do that than the Limoncello! Sangria can be good on Italian night. I'll load up some orange juice and some champagne for those early morning pajama get togethers around the fire. However, wasn't that a "ladies" event? I think we'll also make a visit to Costco and bring some of the breakfast rolls to dip in the mimosas! Well, not really to dip. Maybe we can add little umbrellas to our mimosas this year!

yippee, get to shop for new PJ's ....? Think we can get Paul or Roger to build the fire for us? Any other early riser fire builders?

[weaverworks]

I will build a fire for you hotties anyday!

[Roger & Lynn]

yippee, get to shop for new PJ's ....? Think we can get Paul or Roger to build the fire for us? Any other early riser fire builders?

 

I will build a fire for you hotties anyday!

Same here Paul....heck, I'm up at 4:00 anyway and I used to play at being a Boy Scout!

Roger

[sandsys]

I was a Boy Scout, too.

 

Linda

[IYQ]

A couple of very good friends that I haven't seen for a while came in today. This evening I took them to dinner at the truck stop and we sat there and talked for about 2 hours. It sure was good meeting up with them again. Today I'm over joyed I get to complain about the heat. It's got up to 66 degrees. A regular heat wave. I hope that weather stays around for a while until I get tired of complaining about the heat because I'm very much over tired about complaining about the cold.

 

TID BITS:

There are two different kinds of day or time in general. Solar time and Sidereal time. Solar time is based on the position of the sun. Sidereal time is based on the position of the stars. Solar time is a system made by man and has a few flaws that cause problems for Astronomers. We think of the length of time in a day as 24 hours or one complete revolution of the earth on it’s axis but one complete revolution of the earth is only 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds. Solar time is defined as the time it takes the sun to travel from the meridian (a line stretching from the horizon directly over head to the other horizon.) back to the meridian. However as the earth turns is also is traveling in a circle around the sun so when it finishes one complete turn the sun isn’t quiet back to the meridian so it must turn just a little bit more to finish getting the sun back to the same point in the sky making it take 24 hours. The Stars are on a different schedule being much farther away after one complete 360 degree turn of earth, the stars look to be right back where they were the previous day but it only take 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds to do it. That is why the stars that rise in the east at a particular time will rise 4 minutes earlier each consecutive night and why the constellations change during each season making different constellations in the sky each evening in the summer as there where in the winter, spring or fall. A solar year is 365.25 days long that is why we have to add an additional day every 4 years to keep from having to plant potatoes in January.

[Wanderin]

yippee, get to shop for new PJ's ....? Think we can get Paul or Roger to build the fire for us? Any other early riser fire builders?

I volunteer to sample some of those mimosas just to be sure I have the right ingredients before we get there. Hopefully, there will be some ingredients left over.

[Roger & Lynn]

I volunteer to sample some of those mimosas just to be sure I have the right ingredients before we get there. Hopefully, there will be some ingredients left over.

Better safe than sorry Jeri!

Roger

[palamine]

Toni - not sure if it'll be Thursday or Friday. Save a spot for us.

 

Friends Jack and Bianca who a currently in front of us are leaving this morning. We will park our truck there to save it for you guys.

[palamine]

We had a fun day yesterday playing Scrabble with our friends from our other life and visiting with Steve and Carol. Steve pointed out that I had not moved our peg. I worked on it this morning. Because we are actually in California and not Arizona, getting the right location was difficult. I got out the GPS, got the co-ordinates and the peg jumped all the way to Hensheng, China. I had one heck of a time getting it unstuck and moving it across the ocean. It's fine now. We have actually counted the power poles along the road so anyone else that wants to find us, it's 13 power poles from the LTVA sign.

[Roger & Lynn]

We had a fun day yesterday playing Scrabble with our friends from our other life and visiting with Steve and Carol. Steve pointed out that I had not moved our peg. I worked on it this morning. Because we are actually in California and not Arizona, getting the right location was difficult. I got out the GPS, got the co-ordinates and the peg jumped all the way to Hensheng, China. I had one heck of a time getting it unstuck and moving it across the ocean. It's fine now. We have actually counted the power poles along the road so anyone else that wants to find us, it's 13 power poles from the LTVA sign.

D & T, put a negative sign in front of your longitude...I learned that the hard way too.

Roger

[Onthego]

We had a fun day yesterday playing Scrabble with our friends from our other life and visiting with Steve and Carol. Steve pointed out that I had not moved our peg. I worked on it this morning. Because we are actually in California and not Arizona, getting the right location was difficult. I got out the GPS, got the co-ordinates and the peg jumped all the way to Hensheng, China. I had one heck of a time getting it unstuck and moving it across the ocean. It's fine now. We have actually counted the power poles along the road so anyone else that wants to find us, it's 13 power poles from the LTVA sign.

Toni I think your pin is on the wrong side of I-8. Aren't you on the south side?

 

Jeff

[palamine]

D & T, put a negative sign in front of your longitude...I learned that the hard way too.

Roger

 

Got it. Helped a lot with satellite.

[IYQ]

A beautiful day today but that is all going to end tomorrow. The Nat'l Weather service has issued a winter storm warning for tonight with freezing rain, snow and whatever else it can throw at us for tonight and tomorrow morning. I knew they were just teasing us with the two days of warm weather. There should be a law against that. I did a lot of running around this morning but none of it for myself. Just helping people that don't have transportation. So tomorrow I'll start getting some running around done for myself. I'm trying to get everything up to date before I leave for Q.

 

TID BITS:

Mercury the smallest planet and the closest to the sun. It spins on it's axis 3 time for every Two orbits around the sun. Making its Day two Mercury years long or 176 earth days long. The temperature at it's equator soars to a whopping 806 F degrees at it's noon and drops to a frigid -292 F degrees at night. That's hot enough to melt lead in the day and liquefy air at night.

[Roger & Lynn]

Went to the Yuma Testing Grounds yesterday and had to wait about an hour for them to do a background check on us and others. Do I look like a terrorist? Don't answer that! Apparently, those priors were not discovered or were expunged...LOL! Still, a very interesting place to visit. Overheard a guard say that they've heightened security about a week ago...should I be worried?!!

 

TID BITS:

Got an email space station alert yesterday but, slight cloud cover and all these dang city lights prevented that.

 

Roger

[Wanderin]

Overheard a guard say that they've heightened security about a week ago...should I be worried?!!

 

 

 

Roger

Maybe.

 

Went shopping today. I have the champagne, little umbrellas and triple sec for the morning pajama parties for the ladies. Now all I need is some orange juice and coffee cake. I think we'll wait until we're ready to hit the road before I pick those items up. Hopefully, I'll have some champagne left by the time we head towards to Quartzsite. I think those bottles have a tendency to leak.