Comet Elenin

Comet Elenin

Now that summer is winding down – last weekend of Errant Loon Lodge visitors and several days of clouds and minimal rain – we’ll be more earnest in updating the blog.  Hot on the horizon will be Comet Elenin. 

First the science stuff. Discovered December 10, 2010, Comet Elenin showed up as a very faint “speck” of fuzzy haze detected on a CCD image acquired by Leonid Elenin of Moscow, by utilizing a remotely controlled telescope.

In astrometrical terms, the comet was around magnitude 19 when it made its appearance through the 18 inch reflecting telescope. During the month of September 2011, the comet should become bright enough to be an easy target for backyard astronomers in North America.

Elenin is a long-period comet, which means it has a rather large orbit. It comes in from a vast distance, swings around the Sun and heads back out to the depths of the solar system – a round trip lasting over 10,000 years. During its current trip it will pass by Earth on October 16, coming as close as 35 million km (22 million miles).

An time lapse gadget of the orbit of Elenin is posted at http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=C%2F2010%20X1;orb=1;cad=1;cov=0;log=0#phys_par

“The bottom line is this: Comet C/2010 X1 Elenin is coming, and it will pass by Earth at an extremely safe distance – 100 times the distance from Earth to the Moon. It will not be changing direction between now and then, it will not exert any gravitational effect on Earth, its magnetic field is nonexistent and there are no Star Destroyers cruising in its wake. The biggest effect it will have on Earth is what we are able to learn about it as it passes – after all, it is a visitor from the far reaches of our solar system and we won’t be seeing it again for a very, very long time.”

http://www.universetoday.com/86421/comet-elenin-just-passing-by/

There’s a Utube video of the comet from New Zealand where the comet is visible now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foXuw6HEkG4&feature=player_embedded

Other stuff.  The internet is full of catastrophic predictions related to Elenin arrival.  One collector of “stuff” on the comet is this blog http://en.wordpress.com/tag/comet-elenin/

However, don’t spend too much time on this.  There are other things to do.

I'm just hoping to get a good view between the clouds and the trees.

August – Just Another Beautiful Month

August – Just Another Beautiful Month

The calendar page was turned and a fine weather for August showed up.  There is much to do on the mountain at these times.  And we get plenty of visitors and/or cabin owners who also find this is a good time.  We call cabin owners visitors whether they hail from Portland, or east coast, or even from foreign countries.  So our roads are congested by our standards, we avoid local restaurants on busy nights, and don’t see our friends out and about much (and they don’t see us).  Locals tell us that during their morning hikes they are seeing more families with little kids (up to rug rat age) camping near the rivers.  This is a good sign, I think.

But not all is sunshine, camping, and hiking.  We actually have real cultural events up here.

For instance on Monday night, Garth Stein (from Seattle) and author of The Art of Racing in the Rain stopped by for a reading and book signing at the Wy’east Book Shoppe.  Mr. Stein’s visit was scheduled on short notice but a whole litany of literary locals heard about it through the grapevine.  He also came up here to experience climbing a tall tree – as an experience which will help him write his next book.  He told it better than I’m doing.  It was a wonderful event and I even bought two signed books. 

Monday was the 1^st of the month and that is significant because it’s when our local, monthly newspaper is published.  And advance notice of our local events are usually printed in there.  For this month I counted over 50 events.  Just to give you a flavor of the variety of cultural events we enjoy here:

Aug 13 – the annual Steiner cabin tour.  Henry Steiner was a craftsman known for building rustic cabins nearly 100 years ago around Mount Hood.  I don’t know anyone local who goes on this tour, but I’m sure it could be interesting as I have designed floor plans on paper with little squares using pencil and rulers. 

Aug 16-21 – Government Camp Blacksmith Week.  According to the Mt. Times the Western States Blacksmith Conference is being held in Government Camp this year.  There will be some events for the public as well.  I’m not sure why I mentioned this.  I rarely go to Government Camp at all, and especially not this time of the year.  And you’ll notice they were smart enough to avoid the big relay event the following week.

Aug 20 – Great Annual Brightwood Tavern Slug Races.  The games begin at 2pm and proceeds go to the Hoodland Women’s Club.  I understand the event will not be televised this year.  We’ll have to wait for the videos.

Aug 26 – the annual Hood to Coast relay race, which is accurately billed as the “Mother of All Relays”.  This is really a big deal.  The 200 mile race starts at Timberline Lodge (Mt. Hood) and ends at Seaside (on the Oregon Coast).  Last year they raised $500,000 for the American Cancer Society.  I told you it was a big deal.  One of the improvements for this year is an increase of honey buckets to 502.  This event is so huge that the only time I end up seeing it is when I forget it’s happening and go out to Hwy 26 by mistake. 

Just another beautiful month with lots of stuff for visitors to do and me to be wary of.

Catching Up

Catching Up

Summer finally arrived last month.  We have three sets of visitors to our "Errant Loon Lodge" so far and we took a week to visit Missoula, Montana (road trip!).

In between the garden has been taking some time.  And we are starting to enjoy some harvesting for the effort.  The salad greens have been doing really well and some of the plants our looking a bit tired.  So I'll be planting some new seeds while there is time for them to come up.  The peas decided to produce after all.  There is a small bowl in the fridge now.  We tasted the fava beans today but it's still a bit early.  Our rhubarb continues to produce and a new batch of rhubarb sauce will be in the works soon.  The blueberries are late to ripen and our new plants have a few to ripen.  The strawberries are going good and the small space will contribute to breakfast tomorrow.  The greenhouse cucumbers are flowering and I'll see how this experiment goes.  It was 97 in the greenhouse today.  But the cukes seem to like it just fine.  Our beans hare climbing and I expect to see some protein pretty soon.  The tomato plants (those that are left) have a few green specimens and we have some hope.  I dug up some potatoes today and looking forward to some summer potato salad.

Had a wonderful time at our local bookstore (Wy'east Book Shoppe and Art Gallery) tonight with Garth Stein making a visit.  He is the author of The Art of Racing in the Rain and two other novels, How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets and Raven Stole the Moon.  I got a couple of signed books for gifts.

Some stories of interest have passed through and around the laptop and some may make some good postings.  No reason to post about the debt ceiling/budget fiasco.  No reason to post about the revived DB Cooper saga.  No reason to post about our local sports teams.  No rain to post about.  Everything is just perfect.