Science Fun

My weekly geocaching adventures for this week included two finds and one ‘did-not-find’, although I do plan on returning to the one that I did not find as I only had the coordinates and was not even sure what I was looking for (I left the paper at home).

The first cache was a week ago today, and while it was doing a light mist, the cache was in a park and I did not have to go on a long hike to locate it. The park has some stone sculptures and a circular rock formation that resemble the Stonehedge (see this site for information on what the Stonehedge is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge. We also have one in the USA and it is located in NH, visit here: http://www.stonehengeusa.com). The cache was a quick find and it was located in the wall of the circular formation – a container a bit longer than a pill bottle.

The second cache for the week was on Tuesday, a short walk from where I work – called, Tunnel Vision. This was a quick find, but it is difficult to get this cache as it is located adjacent to a college campus. This week the college was closed, so I thought it was good opportunity to nab this one before the students returned for Summer school on June 1st. Happy Cacheing!

Here we are at the end of another week and it has been an interesting week in the weather department, with the first half of the week being sunny and the last half being rainy and cool. Here is the round-up of stats for this week.

Saturday was a mostly sunny day with the high around 72F and the low was 50F – a great start to the Memorial Day weekend. Sunday was a mix of clouds and sun with a spot shower here and there that gave us a 0.08 inch total accumulation of rain. We had another high of 72F and a low of 51F.

Happy Memorial Day! Monday was a bright and sunny day that was great for all of the Memorial Day parades and outdoor bar-b-queues. Third day in a row with a high of 72 and we had a morning low of 49F. Tuesday was a bit cooler with a high of 63F and the morning low dipped to a chilly 37F. The day was sunny, with the exception of the late afternoon as the high clouds began to filter in as a storm approached.

Wednesday brought in the rain with it starting in the early morning hours and continuing right on through the day – a total of 0.77 inches of rain was accumulated. High for the day was 51F and the low was 41F. Thursday continued the rainy pattern with showers and mist all day, a total of 0.10 inches fell today. High was 47F and the low was 44F – not much temperature variation for the day.

Friday started out showery, however as the day went on, you could see the sun trying to get out, although it never did make it. The day remained cloudy and was slightly warmer with a high of 56F and a low of 42F. Total rainfall for today was 0.08 inches. Saturday turned out to be partly sunny with a temperature of 70F for the high. Isolated spot showers were still hanging around some areas. How was your weather?

Well, here we are again with another post in the Apollo Spacecraft series. This week we will look at a small, but very important piece of equipment, the Instrument Unit. This small ring, located at the top of the third stage and before the Lunar Module Adaptor was jammed packed with electronic doo dads that kept the spacecraft on track during the launch and Earth orbit maneuvers.

The cylinder was only 36 inches high and had a diameter of 260 inches. It was constructed of an aluminum alloy honey comb structure with channel grooved aluminum upper and lower rings, which allowed the assembly to be inserted above the third stage. The whole assembly had to be strong enough to carry the weight of the top portion of the spacecraft. The unit was manufactured in three 120 degree sections and was partitioned into 24 individual number sections where equipment packages were located.

The Instrument Unit contains the guidance system used by the Saturn V rocket. Some of the electronics contained within the unit are a digital computer, analog flight computer, emergency detection system, inertial guidance platform, control accelerometers and control gyros. Other systems contained within the unit are environment control, thermal conditioning system, preflight air purge, gas bearing supply, hazardous gas detection system, emergency communications system and radio control systems.

The Instrument Unit has many important components and subsystems that played a great roll in the early stages of the flight. In the coming weeks we will review some of these components in more detail. This ring of equipment, the Instrument Unit, was the heart of the Apollo rocket booster system. Join us next week as we explore the inner workings of the Guidance and Control. Material for this article from NASA history and Apollo space program.

You would think by this time in the calendar that winter weather would be history. Well, on this day in 1947, a storm produced heavy snow across Wisconsin with 10 inches reported in Gay Mills. While the storm downed power lines and damaged fruit and other trees, there were no serious accidents..

The storm was followed by the coldest weather of the month for the high plains regions and the Missouri Valley. Williston, North Dakota reported 21F for the morning low on May 28th, and the next morning Cheyenne, Wyoming reported in at 16F for the low. Weather stats from This Day in Weather History.

Our word for this week is ‘Alexandrite’! Alexandrite is a mineral that appears to be different colors depending upon whether it is viewed in artificial light or in natural light. Alexandrite appears red when viewed by candle light and it appears blue to green when viewed under a fluorescent light.

The name ‘Alexandrite’ comes from when it was founded, which was on the birthday of the Russian Czar, Alexander II and it is named in his honor. Alexandrite is mined in Russia, Brazil, Burma, Ceylon, and Rhodesia. Laboratory produced alexandrite is common and is sold as natural alexandrite.

Some stones react to light in a fashion like alexandrite and this is known as the ‘Alexandrite Effect’ – a phenomena in which a stone appears different colors depending upon the light in which it is viewed. Garnet and Sapphire are two stones that exhibit this phenomenon. From Enchanted Learning science dictionary.

In the world of theater, major productions of stage classics have many rehearsals, run-throughs, checks and technicals so that when the show hits the stage on opening day, it is a successful event. NASA ran rehearsals for one of the biggest productions it ever ran and the Apollo 10 flight was the dress rehearsal for the main event.

On this day in history, May 26, 1969, NASA concluded an eight day rehearsal for placing man on the moon. Apollo 10 returned to Earth after the final dress rehearsal in preparation for the Apollo 11 flight.

One of the important tasks that were checked out was the undocking, flight of the Lunar Module to within eight miles of the lunar surface and the re-docking of the Lunar Module to the Command Module. Apollo 10 astronauts were Thomas P. Stafford, John W. Young, and Eugene Cernan.