It was just discovered last Friday. By then it was already inside Earth’s orbit. That is both crazy & wild! These days, with so many eyes — many automated — we tend to spot comets way, way, way out, before they even get as close as Jupiter. So, this was very unexpected.
It is NOT a sungrazer — which are MY favorites. But, it gets PRETTY close to the Sun at perihelion.
Folks are HOPING that we might get quite the SHOW. (See below) That would be quite the BONUS.
That ‘LiveScience‘ article from a few days ago totally floored me. That statement is SO BLATANTLY WRONG. Amazing. I guess these ‘publications’ don’t have editors.
Just stagers I that anybody, with a modicum of scientific background, could even THINK that 71 years is a long orbital period for a comet. WOW. Just defies credulity. Even Neptune, which is in our Solar System, has an orbital period of 164.8 years.
Amazing. I feel bad for those that read this WITHOUT realizing that it is pure garbage.
Our ancestors, much wiser than we like to give them credit, had it RIGHT. SPOT ON. The ‘Winter Solstice‘ is the day to REVEL. The day to celebrate. The Winter Solstice marks DAYS GETTING LONGER. Tells you that there is HOPE. Light at the end of the tunnel. Summer is coming.
Not so the bloody Summer Solstice. Damn. Days start getting shorter as of tomorrow!
Few will ever appreciate how much I detest the bloody Summer Solstice. Easily my least favorite day of the year.
That people think that it signals the start of the Summer is so, so, so STUPID. It does NOT signal the start of the Summer — stupid! It signals the start of the Winter!
Does days get longer as of the Summer Solstice?
They bloody well don’t. They start getting shorter, & do so fast.
The bloody Summer Solstice tells you — IF you are SMART — that Winter is coming & it is coming FAST.
Wise up. The Summer Solstice is a terrible day. Nothing to celebrate. Mourn. Mourn. Mourn the Summer Solstice.
Mourn the Solstice, start getting ready for Winter.
Click to ENLARGE. Watchface on the ‘Garmin’ ‘Epix 2‘ that I have on my wrist 24×7. This is the MINIMUM amount of data I need on a watchface. Minimum. Most I can cram in, alas.
As you can see from the chart above sunsets were happening around 4:11pm!
That was 144 days ago — i.e., 4 months, 3 weeks …
We have gained nearly 170 minutes of daylight! 170 minutes. 2 hours 50 minutes.
It will continue to get better. We have ANOTHER 30 minutes to go! Around the ‘Summer Solstice‘ in about 5 weeks sunsets will be at 8:30pm. Wow. THEN COMES WINTER. I kid you not. After the Summer Solstice it is all downhill –heading pell mell into winter. So enjoy, rejoice, soak it in.
I am posting this at 8:28pm & we still have some twilight. Wow. How wonderful.
I post on Facebookfirst as that is what I have been instructed to do. But, I also want to make sure that you have visibility too. Well, now you have. SMILE.
Here is the text from the Facebook post, just in case:
Thursday, April 13, 2023 Laconia Rotary Club meeting @ the Belknap Mill. It was a packed (16 club members) & ebullient – thanks to a tremendously upbeat & uplifting presentation by Bob Bolduc of the eponymous ‘Bolduc Park’ (https://www.bolducpark.com/). It was quite the program (infinitely better than last week’s). Bob rocked. Bolduc Park has been providing stellar service to NH kids, especially the disadvantaged. I don’t have the words, space or the time to go into details — so please check their Website. It was an honor to listen to Bob talking about all the great things that have happened in & around the Park. Bob was accompanied by his wife & the Park’s Director of Marketing, Gail, who also did a short, but punchy presentation. Paula did another update on the motorcycle raffle & Nick assured us that it is ‘OK’ for us members to by tickets for family members. Gary Dionne, the CEO (where the ‘E’ stands for ‘entertainment’), yet again (at his own expense) provided 4 scratch tickets to augment the raffle. The Sgt. At Arms won the raffle (& since Warren was AWOL none was brave enough to question the legality of that). The CEO also won one of his own scratch tickets – but he didn’t tell us if he won any big bucks. There were a LOT of happy $$$s. Paula, yet again, had won an award & a lot of kids & grandkids (as expected by the Club) had excelled in various endeavors. The ‘New Guy’ (whose name I can never recall) did a happy $1 for some pagan holiday, BUT also noted that it was Chief Warren’s 50th Wedding Anniversary. He, however, did NOT part with a $1! Instead, he submitted an IOU … which will, someday, makes its way to Warren. Good meeting. Bolduc Park is looking for volunteers. Check out the pictures.
I post on Facebook first as that is what I have been instructed to do. But, I also want to make sure that you have visibility too. Well, now you have. SMILE.
Here is the text from the Facebook post, just in case:
Laconia Rotary Club weekly meeting, Thursday, April 6, 2023 (at the historic Mill). It was well well attended. At least 16 club members, & one august guest, a Commercial Loan Officer from ‘Meredith Village Saving Bank’ (MVSB). Haven’t seen this many of us at a meeting in many a week — especially given that we had no external guest speaker. The presentation if you could call it that was some ad hoc, provocative ‘comments’ from one of our (supposed) club members. He is new. I always have trouble with his name. It is not, alas, ‘local’. We keep on calling him the ‘new guy’. That was him. He talked about Fat Buddhas, meditation & something to do with reincarnation. There was also some talk about ‘Deadbeat dads’! From what I could see he caused some consternation when he started talking about some mischief he used to get up with monkeys! Hhhmm. But, it was a good meeting. People seem to leave with a smile on their face. The CEOE, Gary Dionne was MIA. John Irving won the raffle & pulled an ACE. He got some money & appeared to be happy though I think that Chief Warren Clement is still holding onto all of the IOUs & adding 8% a week usury to them. So, that was that. I wish I knew the name of that guy who did the presentation. Never mind. I just hope his monkey is OK.
I am doing these for a Facebook audience, so it made sense to do it directly there rather than doing it on this blog & then putting a link to it on Facebook. Many on Facebook (as some of you may know) cannot deal with that!
But, I realized that for posterity I should have these posts on this blog too. Hence this post.
You can also find these posts on the ‘Laconia Rotary‘ Facebook page. OK?
Note that daylight is NOT exactly 12 hours! If anything we get closer to 12 hours 3 days earlier. There is a reason for that. It is our latitude above the equator. If we were closer to the equator it would have been closer to 12 hours. See this explanation in Time-and-Date.
Click to ENLARGE. To remind you what it is all about. From ‘Wikipedia’.
Spring Festival Gala Chinese style.
As has been my custom for years let me also please share at least ONE alluring ‘Allegory of Spring‘.
Click to ENLARGE. [I have been accused, often, of being too laid-back during presentations. But, when you have done as many as I have, it is but second nature. Just muscle memory.]Click image to access the ‘Laconia Rotary’ Facebook post.
This was a short, 20-minute presentation (which went on for a bit longer). This video is not of the live presentation. It was ‘taped’ (& you should be glad of that).
Instead, this is my PowerPoint presentation made into a YouTube video set to music. It is just under 2.5 minutes. So, not too painful to watch.
This is NOT one of my full-blown, 1-hour (+) comet presentations. It was meant to be short, quick & with an emphasis on C/2022 E3 (ZTF). So, please don’t take this as one of my usual, in-depth comet presentations. I will, now that I have done this, make one of those too. OK?
Click to ENLARGE. From the EXCELLENT ‘The Sky Live‘ (such a wonderful resource).
Click to ENLARGE. The title slide of my C/2022 E3 (ZTF) PowerPoint presentation.
I went out TWICE tonight — about 4.5 hours apart. The first was around 7:30pm. I drove 4-miles to the top of a hill to get above the treeline. Took a pair of BIG, powerful 17×70 binoculars with me. I spent about 30 minutes scanning the general area. Nothing.
Then went out again around midnight. Was out for about 40 minutes. Used a second pair of binoculars — not as powerful. Checked the sky map multiple times. I was looking in the right area. Couldn’t miss the moon & Mars. But, still nothing. It was bitterly cold. Might try again tomorrow night.
