Cumberland-Times Sky Columns
January 2006

January 1 - THE CHALLENGE OF TEACHING
January 8 - 1ST WINTER SNOW FALL
January 15 - MOONLIT EVENINGS
January 22 - COSMIC GUIDES
January 29 - ALDRIN'S MARS PLAN

January 1 - THE CHALLENGE OF TEACHING
One of the most important topics in our country is the quality of U.S. public education. It sometimes degerates into a 'blame game' with statements such as "The students aren't trying; There are a lot of bad teachers; The parents are expecting the schools to teach manners as well as the 3 R's; Let's pass out vouchers for private schools; My child is not getting the individual attention he/she needs". These statements create more angry feelings than insight into public education.

Teaching is one of the most noble professions. It is not highly compensated compared to law, medicine or engineering. But teaching is absolutely essential to educate our young generation in thinking, reading, writing and mathematics. But there is much teaching by parents, also in churches and other places of worship and by health care providers that is also vital. So more than half of the adult population is involved in teaching each week.

Then how can we get the attention of our younger people and even adults when they often seem uninterested in learning? There is a powerful and negative influence on our students and ourselves that's seldom mentioned in the education debates. It is our modern American culture. I know some readers will be muttering to themselves, "If you don't like America, move somewhere else!" Our modern American culture has spread overseas as well! It is the Made To Order mentality that is repeated many times in our commercials and in our convenience store lifestyles. You don't have to plan ahead, you can always get on your cell phone or the internet and get what you want, regardless of the time of day or where you are. Cell phones are crucial for emergency personnel, sales personnel and executives; cell phones are now a status symbol among many so they have instant access to their friends and families at what ever time.

Another aspect of our culture is the 'blame game' displayed on our political television programs and in our fascination with law and order programs on the four big television channels. Television loves to portray all important people as either being right and wrong - regardless of the issue. The television and radio hosts seldom acknowledge there is a gray area in between (gray meaning that both sides have some good points and bad points). If someone being interviewed states the grayness of an issue, they are accused of not being decisive. Refusing to join one or the other camps is regarded as being weak. Realizing that most issues are complex isn't as easy to defend as supporting one side without reservation.

Our Law and Order programs on television, most with very good scripting and acting also reinforces the mentality that nearly everyone falls into two camps, good and bad. We feel good when the bad people get caught and the good people decisive. Refusing to join one or the other camps is regarded as being weak. Realizing that most issues are complex isn't as easy to defend as supporting one side without reservation.

How can we combat these negative attitudes that decondition many against learning? Reading a newspaper is a good first step. Becoming acquainted with the facts, rather than the cliches is crucial. The Cumberland Times-News has articles and news for many interests. If nothing else, each student should read the comics. The sports, ads and local news are also important. Newspaper news stories are not as apt to be twisted and slanted than what is spoken on radio or shown on television. The Cumberland Times-News has a number of interesting columns by doctors, gardeners, personal advisors and even astrologers (read for fun but don't take too seriously). There are some very provocative letters to the editor, that may turn you off but also may inspire you to think, talk or answer back.

January 8 - 1ST WINTER SNOW FALL
Most of us had to get out our snow shovels on the morning of December 9th when we had an 8 inch snow fall in the Tri-State area. How you ever wondered how much snow fell? Or how much did all that snow weighed? It's time for another back of the envelope calculation, where we will consider Allegany County with its area of 425 square miles. (If you live in another county, go to your local library for information on your own county's area. If this isn't convenient, use Since 8 inches is 8/12 = 2/3 = 0.67 feet, then we must multiply the snow height by our county's area in square feet to get the cubic feet of snow in that first big snow fall. So the cubic feet of snow would be 11.8 billion square feet times 0.67 feet = 7.90 billion cubic feet of snow. For every person in the county (about 75,000) there would be 7.90 billion cubic feet/75,000 people = 105,000 or about 100,000 cubic feet. This snow per person would have the volume of several large barns or a very big home!

How much would all this snow weigh? There is a rule that 10 inches of snow when melted down has the same amount of water as 1 inch of rain. (Some snow is very fine and contains more water per inch while some snow is coarse and contains less water per inch.) Eight inches of snow fall corresponds to a rainfall of 0.8 inches. 0.8 inches is the same as 0.8/12 = 0.0667 feet.

So in our first big snowfall, the total amount of water that fell on Allegany County was 11.8 billion square feet x 0.0667 feet = 787 million square feet of water. Since pure water has a weight of 62.4 pounds per cubic feet, we must multiply the cubic feet of water by 62.4 lbs/cubic feet to get total water weight. So 787 million cubic feet x 62.4 lbs/cubic feet = 49 billion pounds of water! Since there are 2200 pounds in a ton, the snow that fell had a weight of 49 billion pounds/2200 pounds/ton = 22.3 million tons! On a per person basis, this snow tonnage would be 22.3 million/75,000 people = 297 or about 300 tons per person!

January 15 - MOONLIT EVENINGS
Our moon goes around the Earth every 27 days; our companion also rotates in this same time. Just as the Earth, the moon has a sunlit half and a dark half. The moon's lighted shape we see also depends on the position of the sun (which slowly drifts 1 degree eastward per day along its path among the stars); so it takes about 2.5 more days for the moon to finish its complete phase cycle (lasting 29.5 days). The moon's cycle starts with the moon being lined up with sun (invisible for about 2 days), then growing in the evening sky (visible for 12 days), reaching full phase (1 day), shrinking in the morning sky (visible for 12 days) and then back to alignment with the sun (out of view for about 2 days). In early calendars, each month started with the first sighting of the moon in the evening sky and alternated between 29 and 30 days. About every third year, an extra month had to be added to the calendar to keep the years in line with the seasons. (This extra month was considered unlucky, so few people signed contracts, got married, etc. during this time.)

Here are some interesting details for the moon for each month of 2006.

January 2006 - The moon was full last Friday evening, the 13th then appearing near the head stars of Gemini. Each night since, the moon has risen about an hour later. By next Sunday, January 22nd, the moon won't be rising till after midnight. On January 30th and 31st, the moon will reappear as a slender crescent low in the west as it begins to get dark.

February 2006 - On February 4th, the evening moon appears 1/2 full and at its best for viewing craters and mountain ranges with binoculars. Full moon occurs on the evening of February 12th, then appearing in the hook of Leo. In a week, the moon can only be seen in the morning sky, rising after midnight. As in January, the last two days of February has a slender crescent moon low in the western dusk.

March 2006 - On March 6th, the evening moon is 1/2 full. The moon grows to full on the evening of March 14th. By March 20th, the moon won't be rising till after midnight. The moon on March 28th and 29th appears as a slender crescent low in the western dusk.

April 2006 - On April 4th, the evening moon appears 1/2 full. April's full moon is on the 13th, causing Easter to be the next Sunday, April 16th. The moon can be seen only one evening after Easter and then swings into the morning sky. The moon will appear as a slender crescent low in the western dusk on April 28-30.

May 2006 - On May 4th, the moon appears 1/2 full in the evening sky near the planet Saturn. The moon grows to full on the evening of May 12th, then appearing in Libra. After May 15th, the moon is a morning object. The moon returns to the western dusk as a slender crescent after May 26th.

June 2006 - June 3rd has an evening half full moon. The full moon of the evening of June 11th is the lowest full moon of the year, staying in view less than 9 hours. After June 14th, the evening sky is moonless. After June 25th, the moon reappears low in the western dusk.

July 2006 - July 2nd features a 1/2 full evening moon. The moon is full on July 10th. In mid July, the moon moves into the morning sky. After July 26th, the
moon returns to the evening sky.

August 2006 - August opens with a 1/2 full evening moon, growing to full on the evening of August 8th. After August 15th, the moon rises after midnight. After August 25th, the moon returns to the evening sky, growing to 1/2 full on August 31st.

September 2006 - The evening moon is full on September 7th. After September 13th, the moon rises after midnight. After September 24th, the moon returns to the evening sky, growing to 1/2 full on September 28th.

October 2006 - The full moon of October 6th is the Harvest Moon, providing extra evening moonlight the following four evenings. After October 13th, the moon rises after midnight. After October 23rd, the moon returns to the evening sky, growing to 1/2 full on October 29th.

November 2006 - The Hunter's full moon is on the evening of November 4th, appearing near the head of Aries. As October's Harvest Moon, the Hunters' Moon offers extra evening moonlight the following four evenings. After November 12th, the moon rises after midnight. The moon returns to the evening in the last week of November, growing to 1/2 full on November 27th.

December 2006 - The full moon of December 4th is in the star group Taurus. After December 11th, the moon rises after midnight. The moon returns to the evening sky on December 21st, growing to 1/2 full on December 26th.

January 22 - COSMIC GUIDES
Now that our brilliant winter evening stars are on display, let's consider some new books about our universe. An exiting book is Dana Berry's "An Intimate Guide to the Cosmos", the first of a new series by Smithsonian. This book is a delightful collection of insights about the planets, the stars and galaxies. There are many images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope as well as excellent illustrations of cosmic events, including the formation of our moon, the comet clouds about our solar system, the collision of our galaxy with the Andromeda galaxy, the Virgo Supercluster (we are part of it), the Great Attractor (towards which our galaxy is being drawn) and cosmological membranes. Through reading this book, I learned that primitive microbes have been found under two miles of glacial ice at Lake Vostok in Antarctica. These organisms exist well below freezing; they are called oligotrophes, stationary and waiting for scarce nutrients to pass by. Some scientists believe that such organisms may live throughout the Earth's crust. Perhaps half of all living organisms may live underground. This kind of organism may live in the deep oceans of Jupiter's moon Europa and below the surface of Mars. "Intimate Guide to the Cosmos" was published in 2004 by Smithsonian Books and has ISBN 1-58834-182-8.

"Universe: A Journey from Earth to the Edge of the Cosmos" by Nicholas Cheetham is a series of over 100 breath taking images that take us from the Earth to a Cosmic Bacground Radiation Map that shows the universe at a distance of 13.4 billion light years! Each image is supplied with its distance (from Earth) and a few explanatory sentences. My favorite images from "Universe" include Mars's Valles Marineris (our neighbor planet's huge crustal chasm), Saturn's moon Phoebe, the Ant Nebula (gas cloud), the Red Spider Nebula, Gomez's Hamburger (another nebula!), V838 Monocerotis (a nebula created by a dying star), N49 (a neutron star with a magnetic field a thousand trillion times that of Earth) and the Antennae Galaxies. This book was published in China in 2005 by Smith-Davies and has ISBN 1 905204 00 0.

The most comprehensive guide is "Universe", published in 2005 by Dorling Kindersley with General Editor Martin Rees, Britain's Astronomer Royal. This book opens with a brief tour of the universe from the planets, to the stars, then galaxies and to the limits of space and time. The next section is the Introduction, a visually rich overview of space science, including the history of our understanding of the universe, phenomena we see in the sky and the history of human and unmanned exploration of space. The middle section is Guide to the Universe, which proceeds from the solar system, the variety of stars and the univere on the grandest scale. The last Section is The Night Sky, a very useful display of star maps, telescopic objects seen each month of the year.
" Universe" is the best single book about our universe to take to a desert island. "Universe" has ISBN 0-7566-1364-7.

January 29 - ALDRIN'S MARS PLAN
Buzz Aldrin was Neil Armstrong's partner on the Apollo 11 landing on the moon in 1969. Aldrin has a Ph.D. in Orbital Mechanics from MIT; he has an ingeneous plan to greatly reduce the amount of energy and expense to carry humans from Earth to Mars. My reference is the December 2005 issue of Popular Mechanics. If your library doesn't have this issue, try a internet search engine and use key words like "Cycler" or "Buzz Aldrin" to find information.

NASA's present strategy to reach Mars is to build a polar lunar base where much frozen water exists. This water can be broken down electrically into hydrogen and oxygen, key fuels for chemical rockets. NASA also is hoping to land some robotic chemical plants on Mars surface to extract oxygen from the thin Martian air and/or extract frozen water from below Mars' surface. In this way, there would be fuel for the rockets as well as oxygen for the astronauts. The Martian chemical bases would be where the astronauts would land for their long stay on Mars. NASA's present plan is to assemble a huge interplanetary rocket in Earth orbit (similar in size to the huge Saturn rocket used by Apollo) which would first escape Earth's gravity and then blast off for Mars. The flight to Mars would take 6-8 months using an elliptical path that leaves Earth's orbit and then passes near Mars. The Mars craft (lower half jettisoned after burn out) would then place itself in orbit about Mars. Then a smaller crew vehicle would descend to the Martian surface. Until the orbiting manuever, the crew would have been weightless. For over a year, the explorers would be on Mars surface, until the two planets were aligned for a return mission. The crew vehicle would leave Mars surface, link up with Mars craft and transfer the crew from the Mars lander, which would be left behind. Then begins another lengthy flight back to Earth. The crew would return to the Earth orbiting space station from which they departed, about two and a half years earlier.

The cost of these Mars missions would be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Sustaining a manned presence on Mars would be a continuing large expense due to the large vehicles needed for travel. It is also risky due to the very long duration of weightlessness prior to landing on Mars. It's not clear how quickly our astronauts would adjust to Mars' gravity from a long weightless flight.

Aldrin proposes two additional spacecraft, that could operate again and again to carry humans to and from Mars. The Cycler travels around an orbit that takes it both to Mars and Earth every 26 months. Once inserted into a solar orbit, the Cycler will use the gravitational pull of both the Earth and Mars to reach its desired orbit. The Mars crew docks with the Cycler for a 5 month trip to Mars. The Cycler has 3 components (a Crew Habitat, a nuclear reactor, and docking port) that spin so as to simulate the same gravity as the surface of Mars. For the return flight, there is a Semi-Cycler that also goes between Mars and the Earth. The Semi-Cycler uses aerobraking to put itself into Martian orbit, awaiting a crew that will return to Earth. The Semi-Cycler would have to be refueled from Martian sources for each mission it takes back to Earth. The Semi-Cycler would take 8 months to return the crew to near the Earth, where they would aerobrake (using heat shields and parachutes, just like the Apollo missions) to return to Earth. Aldrin's plan utilizes the CEV (crew excursion vehicle) that is being developed to replace the Space Shuttle. I can't relate all the details in this column, so I refer my readers to either Popular Mechanics or the internet.