Science Fun

Every now and then in the geocaching routine, I come across one of those caches where it is multiple puzzles and steps to complete the thing, as well as multiple visits to hunt the thing at the final location.

Capital Commons was one of these multi-adventure caches that started about a month ago. The first part of the cache required a visit to the New Hampshire State House campus (the seat of NH government). Just the immense granite structure was impressive and worth the visit. This is one of the oldest state houses in the country where the government still meets and performs its daily tasks.

The cache required visiting different monuments and placards around the campus to get numbers to make up the coordinates. This state is rich in history and there is quite a lesson of history by reading each of the monuments and placards. This part of the cache took two visits.

Upon rounding up the numbers at the State House campus and assembling the coordinates – it was off for the drive across town to the cache location – a park. This little park in a residential neighborhood was busy when we arrived, so we just did a casual walk around to get our bearings as to where the cache might be. That was it for the day and it was back to work.

The following week, we returned to continue our search. After multiple searches and dodging the eyes of the muggles, we were finally able to locate what we thought was the cache – it however, ended up not being the cache. Time ran out and it was back to work. We were determined the next time and when we returned a week later with a ‘hint’ in our hands (and an empty park), we set about the task to capture this cache and complete this adventure.

I much prefer the caches that are out in the woods – you don’t have to worry so much about the muggle activity and what folks might think when they see you prowling around looking for the cache. The first part of the cache was great – a good history lesson, they could have found a better place to hide the final cache in an area that had less traffic – let’s see how long this cache will remain.

We are now in the midst of the Atlantic Hurricane season, which runs from June 1st through November 30th. So far, it has been relatively quiet for hurricane activity, although there has been an increase in moisture / rain in the northeast.

However, in 2005, it was not a quiet day for hurricanes as it was on this day in 2005 that Hurricane Katrina made its SECOND appearance in the U.S. On July 28th, it packed winds of 175 MPH and was located about 225 miles SSE of the Mississipppi River. At 4:00 PM on the 28th, the National Hurricane Center issued a bulletin that warned of Gulf Coast storm surge to 28′ and that “Some levees in the Greater New Orleans Area could be overtopped”.

On July 29th, Katrina came ashore as a category 3 storm near Buras, LA. It had sustained winds of 125MPH and at New Orleans Lakefront Airport, sustained winds were reported in at 69 with gusts to over 80MPH. The Lousina / Missippi death toll from Katrina was greater than 1,300 and most of these fatalities were from storm surge and flooding.

Welcome to New England where the weather is in a constant state of change – if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute! We are serving up hurricane sandwiches this week. Sunny summer days in the middle of rainy hurricane weekends. Last weekend, it was Bill and this weekend it is Danny.

A week ago, we got 3.55 inches of rain from the bands of Hurricane Bill, some areas got up to five inches of rain. The day was mostly cloudy with a high of 79F and the low was 61F. The rains came in and lasted for just under four hours. Sunday turned out to be a partly sunny day with spotty showers, total accumulation was 0.06 inches and the day had a high of 78F.

Monday, back to work (and back to school for some kids) and the sun came out to play. High for the day was 77F and the low was 63F. Tuesday continued the sunny pattern wth a high of 77F and the low was 59F. Wednesday was the third day in the row for a high of 77F and the low was 63F

Thursday was a partly cloudy day with a high of 68F and the low was 51F. Friday started out with sun and as the day progressed, it began to cloud up. High for Friday was 68F and the low was 58F. Along about 7:45 PM, the first rains of Danny arrived and by midnight, there was 0.42 inches of rain. Saturday – wind and rain! How much rain did you get? Is it still summer for you or has it started to cool down?

Welcome to the 26th installment in our series on rocketry and the development of America’s space program. We have had a large concentration on the Apollo spacecraft and we are about finished with the construction of the might Apollo Saturn vehicle. This week, we look at the third stage.

The third stage of the spacecraft was built by the Douglas Aircraft Company at its facility in Huntington Beach, California. The stage measures 58 feet 7 inches tall and is 21 feet 8 inches in diameter. One J-2 engine powers the stage and it uses the same fueling mix as the second stage. Two tanks for the propellant make up the bulk of this stage and the tanks are separated by a common bulkhead in the central part of the assembly.

The third stage weighed in at 25,000 pounds dry and 262,000 pounds when it was fueled. This stage performed two duties during the mission. It was first fired for 2 minutes following the second stage cut off and separation, this place the Apollo spacecraft into Earth orbit. The second firing was a six minute burn to take the spacecraft from Earth orbit and to trans-lunar injection.

In the next post, we will have a look at the engines that powered this mighty beast!

On this day in History, an aviation first took place – August 27, 1939. The world’s first jet plane, the German Heinkel HE-178, makes its maiden flight in northern Germany, piloted by Flight Captain Erich Warsitz.

The plane reached a speed of 375 miles per hour. The invention of the jet is credited to two men who worked independently and whose nations were bitter enemies in World War II. Sir Frank Whittle of England received the first patent for a turbojet engine in January 1930. He was also the first to successfully test a jet engine on a laboratory rig in April 1937.

Doctor Hans Van Ohain, who had been working on the concept of a jet engine since 1933, was the first to get his invention into the air, despite not having achieved a successful laboratory test until five months after Whittle. Historical information from This Day in History and the History Channel.

It is fitting that in 2009, the International Year of Astronomy, that we celebrate the 400th anniversary of the telescope. On August 25, 1609, Galileo introduced the telescope and began stargazing in Padua, Italy. “Galileo Galilei was the first modern scientist, and when he looked at the sky in 1609, his telescope changed everything – the way we view the universe, and our place in it and ourselves” – Ed Krupp, Director of the Griffith Observatory.

In 1609 following the introduction of the telescope, Galileo worked and made some very important astronomical discoveries. He saw the Moon, the Milky Way, and four of the 13 satellites of Jupiter, with one of them being Ganimede. He confirmed the Sun-centered theory of Copernicus and on March 12, 1610, he published the findings of his studies in the publication “Sidereus Nuncius”.

Gailileo’s first telescope was only eight- powered, which was smaller than the hobby scopes you might buy in the department stores. This first scope lead Galileo on an extraordinary voyage of the heavens as he discovered the phases of Venus, enjoyed the highlands and ‘seas’ of the moon, and inspired us all to look upward and to discover and enjoy the universe around us.

Here are a few ‘did you knows’ to enjoy about Gailileo. He became blind by the age of 74 and probably never looked at the sun directly. He observed Neptune in 1612, but thought it was a distant star. Galileo also observed Saturn’s rings, but to him, they appeared as two separate bodies attached to the planet. Galileo tried to measure the speed of light by placing observers with lanterns about a quarter mile apart, he was unsuccessful with this event, however, he did make the first working thermometer, although it was not very accurate.

Thanks to Bob over at Blackholes and astrostuff for introducing me to the Galileoscope, which prompted me to do some fun research for this post and to order up one of these do-it-yourself telescope kits. For a very reasonable price of $20 plus shipping, you can have a fun scope to enjoy the heavens. You will learn about the ‘innards’ of a telescope as well as the fundamentals of optics and magnification as you assemble your scope.

I work at Northeast Delta Dental, and in early October, we celebrate National Customer Service Week. This year our theme is ‘space’, and we are teaming up with our neighbor, the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center for a fun filled week on learning good Customer Service skills and having fun. As we tie in the theme of space and astronomy, I hope to introduce the Galileo scope to both organizations, maybe as prizes for some of the Customer Service Week games and contests, but also for the Discovery Center to display and offer through their science store.

Learn more about Galileo and 400 years of the telescope by ordering the PBS video below. Material for this article from solar-center.stanford.edu/galileo/ and from Wikipedia.