Watch the pre-dawn skies whenever it's clear for the next two weeks. There is a new comet named Lulin currently inbound. It's orbit nearly matches the plane of the ecliptic, meaning it's aligned with Earth and the other planets, but it's traveling in the opposite direction.
The comet will be closest to Earth on February 24 and will be at opposition (opposite the Sun) on February 25. That should be while the moon is new, so the skies should be as dark as possible, and excellent for viewing a comet. During opposition, Lulin will be visible all night.
The comet's perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) is inside the orbit of Mars, but outside the orbit of Earth, so we will never be able to see a "fan" shaped tail. In fact, since the tail points away from the Sun, and the Earth in this case, and because the comet's orbit is aligned with the ecliptic, we will only see a thin tail extending from both sides of the comet. It's close approach to Earth in a dark sky is what should make it interesting.
For more detailed information, see the description at Sky and Telescope.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Sunday, February 01, 2009
XtraCycle FreeRadical Bicycle
Last weekend Lief and Abby helped me assemble my new XtraCycle. It was a fun project, and a lesson in how complicated a simple bike can be. We had to use a Dremel cut-off wheel to cut the new cable housings to the correct length, but other than that we used only typical mechanic's tools.
As you can see in the photo, I got the wide-loader option, but now I'm wondering why. It adds so much width to the bicycle that I wonder if I'll fit between posts at the ends of bicycle trails, and between light poles, fire hydrants and street signs on sidewalks.
With the XtraCycle FreeRadical extension, I am one step closer to having a StokeMonkey electric assist motor.
No worries about putting this bike on a Metro bus either. The friendly people at RideYourBike.com have posted photos of Seattle area XtraCycle owners, including proof of how to load one on a bus bike rack. (Click on the advertisement for XtraCycles to see the photos.)
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