Uncategorized Archives ~ Page 2 of 11 ~ From The Stratosphere

Solar Eclipse Fever? Mark your calendar for 2024

By hsrivney | August 22, 2017

Total Eclipse of Sun and Corona Photo by Fred Espenak, 1999

Once in a lifetime solar eclipse? Maybe not.

Nature’s rarest celestial spectacle, a total solar eclipse. Now that you’ve seen it on television and heard the awe of the spectators, you wish you’d been able to work it out. For a variety of reasons I was content to see a 72% eclipse from my home in Las Vegas, alas, for the single hour that would have been needed to watch, it rained. And it really rained, like big, black, storm cloud rain.

Rain might not seem such a big deal to most, but we have sun about 350 days a year here. It’s why I have a 10.5K solar array on my roof, why my bath towels are kind of stiff from drying on the clothesline six months of the year, and why I expected that in this valley my odds (no obvious Vegas pun intended here) of visibility were about 34:1 in favor of sun. In fact, even with rain, at some point the sun will appear even on those days. And, I was right. The clouds cleared around noon, well past the entire event in the southwest part of the country.

Solar eclipse of 1979

So the last chance I had was in 1979. I will tell you, without too many age revealing details, I happened to be on a school campus at the time, sometime around 8:15. I used the pinhole method, a hole in a paper cast upon another sheet of paper. My classmates thought I was nuts for even caring. I was probably the only person that day who bothered, or cared, that in the sky above us something extraordinary was occurring, in real time, and that tiny little grey crescent, as it changed from fat to thin to fat and whole again, in the past had confirmed Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, in 1919.

And as sad as that experience might sound, I’ve never forgotten it. I’ve been nerdy since before they invented the term, and I’m not surprised to find myself writing scientific fiction stories, hoping to instill the same feelings of amazement and cosmic unity in my readers as I embrace. I call this a natural worldview. Only a handful of humans have ventured beyond our stratosphere, and only as far as our moon.

The speed of light is 186,000+ miles per second (300,000 km/sec), or 6.71×10⁸per hour. I seared that number into my brain prepping for a science club contest between high schools. A photon of light can circle the Earth 7.5 times in one second. Light travels between the moon and Earth in less than two seconds. It takes light 8 minutes to get from our sun to Earth. My point is, space is big, and that’s an understatement.

Next total solar eclipse in United States — Texas to Maine 2024

April 8th, 2024, we have another coast to coast total eclipse, but instead of west to east, it will be south to north, more or less.

annular solar eclipse 2023 — Oregon to Gulf of Mexico

An annular eclipse, where instead of the corona you see a ring of fire, will occur shortly before that, on October 14th, 2023.

It works like this: the Sun is 400 times +- larger than the moon. It is also 400 times farther away from the moon than the moon is to Earth. For a deeper explanation, go read this Popular Science blog. No sense in reinventing the wheel here. And since the moon moves away from Earth a few centimeters each year, before another billion years pass, a total solar eclipse will be a thing of the past. Of course, none of us will be here to lament the demise. We are on the planet, conscious, sentient, intelligent, at the best time since life began.

I wrote about humans on another planet experiencing a solar eclipse, not a total eclipse, but one in which three moons converge to cast their shadows and block out the star, Beta Hydri, and this defining moment in their lives brings a new beginning and hope as they patiently await rescue on a planet that, like Nature here, doesn’t care for the life forms; they simply must use their brains to stay alive, and the solar powered escape pods are pretty helpful, too. If you want to check that book out, just pop over here and you can find it on Smashwords or Amazon as an eBook, or in paperback if you prefer. Paradox: The Alien Genome, the first novel of the Captain Jackson Adventures series.

novel alien genome — Five Star Rated, Paradox: The Alien Genome

Until the next worthy news item, wear your sunscreen. Those UV rays are Naughty Nature at her most wicked!

We’re over the Hot Hump – NOT

By hsrivney | July 30, 2017

It sounds worse in Fahrenheit

110 F is just too hot. I’m not complaining, much, when I think of Houston and it’s climate change woes, but I was wrong to say the weird heat was over when I wrote this last month. It’s one of the worst years for heat records ever. I hope that those who deny climate change will take a look at Houston. As if New Orleans wasn’t bad enough a decade ago, century-class droughts, record heat, glaciers melting… truly, this is a sign that we need to change our old ways at the same time we embrace new technologies. August has been full of contradictions.

I don’t think it’s going to be enough to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, although that is a critical factor. Humans will need to look at social issues and personal living habits. North America uses more resources per person than any other nation or continent. We use more gasoline, run more air conditioners, throw away more garbage, and waste water and food at a criminal level.

Carrying Capacity – it’s not hot in Alaksa

Or is it? It’s hot enough in Greenland to melt glaciers. The United States is home to about 5% of the Earth’s population but uses 20+% of the world’s resources. Try to imagine if all other nations, people, were to consume and waste at American levels. In a very short time, regardless of the source of our electricity generation, we would still experience shortages of critical resources – water, food, a reasonable standard of living.

And neither can human behavior be legislated, although sometimes it helps – seat belts in cars, paying for plastic bags, financial incentives for reducing energy use. It’s still not enough. Most of us live in the cities and suburban communities where we can’t have so much as a chicken in our back yard to give us a few eggs and some fertilizer for our tomatoes grown in patio pots. It’s these small efforts than can lead to big change. And they can be simple, easy, and require very little change in everyday life.

A Challenge

Reduce your water waste by one gallon a day – 30 seconds less showering or shutting off the water when you brush your teeth.

Plant a food plant – an herb on your kitchen counter, a cherry tomato, or a fruit tree

Turn off the light when you leave the room – better yet, keep them off and open the window blind for natural light.

And below is what I wrote last month, apparently more with a hopeful heart than a critical mind. Be wise, be safe, be happy.

Oh, yes, the worst of the heat has passed in Las Vegas. That means the Star Trek Convention next week will be pleasant. Those of us who have actual wool twill uniforms, field jackets as part of our costumes, or show up in prostheses such as Borg, Tellaxian, Vulcan, Andorian (my personal favorite), Orion (wait – they won’t overheat in their costumes), Ferrengi – you get the idea, will not swelter making our way from the parking lot of the Rio to the Convention Hall.

Desert Mummy — Don’t worry, it’s a dry heat, they said.

Dressed as Janeway two years ago, I thought I was going to pass out several times from the heat. How did the actors stand it under the hot set lights hour after hour? 24th Century Trek uniforms gave me a new appreciation for the rigors needed to make our favorite shows! Cosplay takes on an entirely new meaning when it’s 105 F outside. I know you’d all love to see me in my Janeway persona here, but my image files were misplaced when I adopted a new laptop this year. I’ll find it eventually.

Science Fiction –

one of my favorite subjects. Living in Las Vegas we are subject to temperature extremes. From the coolest night to the hottest day, it would not be unheard of to range more than 100 F (17 on a January night, 117 on a July day) but fortunately that hasn’t actually happened in the same 12 month period. I believe 90 F difference, however, is expected. To that point, it is easy to imagine environments that wouldn’t necessarily be hospitable to human life. This explains why virtually all aliens that come to Earth end up in Nevada, including those from the World of Roddenberry.

Shatner, Bakula, Stewart, Mulgrew, Brooks — Left to Right, Shatner, Bakula, Stewart, Mulgrew, and Brooks as Kirk, Archer, Picard, Janeway, and Sisko.

If you’re a Trekker, you may want to subscribe to the blog here and get updates, not only about Trek, but about the real world of astronomy, astrophysics, and aerospace. I’ll tell you when a new book is about to come out, too. If you would be interested in being a beta reader, please get in contact with me (go the Contact Me tab at the far top right).

I hope I may run into you at the Con this year – I’ll be around the last day, so if you’ll be there, send me a note and we’ll meet up for a cuppa Earl Grey or Coffee as you like!

See You Out There! H S Rivney

Migrating, Stand By

By hsrivney | June 14, 2017

Followers, I’ll be migrating to a new platform in the next couple of weeks so please be patient for more fun science stuff, space adventures, incredible insight and a campaign for several bottles of extra strength aspirin.

What was your first Sci Fi novel?

By hsrivney | May 29, 2017

Or did you 3944447 watch Star Trek, Star Wars, Battle Star Galactica, Space: 1999? What introduced you to the wonders of science, and fiction?

My first exposure was Robert Heinlein’s novel “Orphans of the Sky”. By high school the SBS stories had become to easy, and although I liked them, I needed more meat in a story if I was going to spend my time with it.

Investigating the stuff from my parents’ bookshelves, I decided murder mysteries were too macabre and science fiction was hopeful, or at least futuristic. And I took to it. Mutants, secret and restricted zones, a generation ship on its way to Alpha Centauri, a discovery worth risking your life for. It’s currently a 75 year old story and hasn’t lost any appeal over the years.

5captains

A best friend also introduced me to her passion – Star Trek, which took a little longer to warm up to, but not long. And then Star Wars came along with a gaggle of other television shows and movies in the science fiction genre.

I remember where I was when the first space shuttle landed, STS-01. I, and many other readers, were in the public library, watching the event on a large television – probably a 32″ CRT mounted in the wall above the check out desk, where, we signed a small card, had the book rubber stamped with a date, and were expected to return it on time without an email reminder. Yeah, I’ve been around a while.

I even worked in a library, and frankly, I enjoyed it. The quiet, the books at your fingertips, pushing the cart and refiling by the Dewey Decimal, which I think has followed the CRT into oblivion. But I digress., waxing nostalgic over the “way it was” when now I use a computer on my coffee table that has as much power as all the computers of the space shuttle and mission control combined. I have a global library at my fingertips, in seconds, and my writing is part of that colossal container of information and entertainment.

So remember what sparked your curiosity, what did it for you? It’s a rhetorical question, for your mind only. The Mercury 7? Apollo 11? The Enterprise? Mir? Images from Hubble? Skylab? Beating the USSR to our moon? Kennedy’s declaration for the 1960s? Darth Vader? So many of these cultural icons in our civilization must have a meaning, a statement about humans, that curiosity will drive us where humans have never gone, and we will never stop reaching for the stars.

A New Novel: Symbiosis

By hsrivney | May 17, 2017

I’ve been busy. While Captain and Rianya Jackson were in voluntary exile on Enceladus, one of Saturn’s loyal moons, hiding Zalara from Earth’s medical community, I documented their next adventure in space.

Captain Thomas Jackson and his crew tackle a pandemic of Yersinia pestis, more commonly known as The Black Death, The Plague, or Bubonic Plague. Their new, faster ship must pick up the science team left on Beta Hydri IV, but on the way they have another mission to complete.

Trio

Time travel is the crux of this adventure – not of our intrepid friends but someone from the future, who went to the past, and ended up on the wrong planet, in the wrong time, stuck in between where he’d come from and where he was trying to go. Mostly human, the secret they find in his pocket, and in his DNA, could ruin everything in the Jacksons’ lives.

TZalara

Antibiotic resistance is the lesson for the inhabitants of Eta Cassiopeia’s fifth planet, affectionately called Cinco by the crew. The hairy, matriarchal Kiians play an important role, as do our favorite aliens, the green pirates of the Orion Arm, the Pegasi, specifically, Jackson’s old thorn, Dukvita.

It should come as no surprise that what started as a routine mission takes a catastrophic turn putting not only the lives of the Cinconians suffering from The Plague, but the S. S. Maria Mitchell’s entire crew, in dire jeopardy. Captain Jackson is desperate to find a way to work with three alien species, a deadly pandemic, and a puzzling time traveler to accomplish his missions but the odds are against his success when he is held hostage on the planet, the plague breaks out on the ship, and quantum date readings make no sense whatsoever.

Buy Symbiosis At Amazon

A Trio of Super-Earths (artist's impression) — Eta Cassiopeia and her children

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