Earth and Space News: May 2011

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Second of Four 2011 Partial Solar Eclipses Happens Wednesday, June 1

Summary: The second of four 2011 partial solar eclipses happens Wednesday, June 1, with the Northern Hemisphere’s high latitudes favored for visibility.

Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics for partial solar eclipse of June 1, 2011: "Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC," Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The second of four 2011 partial solar eclipses happens Wednesday, June 1, with the path of visibility favoring the Northern Hemisphere’s high latitudes.

On the NASA Eclipse Web Site, retired astrophysicist Fred Espenak, known as “Mr. Eclipse,” observes that the June 2011 partial solar eclipse entails partial obscuring of the midnight sun in areas in Scandinavia that lie above the Arctic Circle. Partial eclipses of the midnight sun occur for Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

In North America, most of Alaska and northern Canada fall within the partial solar eclipse’s visibility path. The path’s southern limit across Earth’s surface curves from south of Fairbanks in east central Alaska to eastern Canada’s central New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

From Earth’s perspective, a solar eclipse ensues from the moon’s passage between Earth and the solar system’s sun. A partial obscuring of the solar image produces a partial solar eclipse for observers on Earth.

First touching of Earth’s surface by the moon’s penumbra marks the beginning of the second of four 2011 partial solar eclipses. The penumbral shadow’s first touches take place Wednesday, June 1, at 19:25:18 Universal Time (3:25:18 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). P1 is the designator for the instant of first touches by the penumbra, the shadow’s lighter, outer region.

The NASA Eclipse Web Site indicates sunrise in northern China and in Siberia as points of first touches on the Earth’s surface.

Greatest eclipse takes place Wednesday, June 1, at 21:16:11 UT (5:16:11 p.m. EDT). Greatest eclipse represents the instant of closest passage of the axis of the lunar shadow cone to Earth’s center.

The penumbra’s last touching of Earth’s surface marks the eclipse’s end. Exit from the moon’s penumbral shadow happens Wednesday, June 1, at 23:06:56 UT (7:06:56 p.m. EDT). P4 is the designator for the last penumbral contact with Earth’s surface.

“Mr. Eclipse” notes that the penumbra last touches Earth’s surface over water. Last contact takes place in the Atlantic Ocean, just north of Newfoundland.

The June 2011 partial solar eclipse belongs to Saros 118. According to the Saros cycle, lunar eclipses and solar eclipses belong to families, known as series. A Saros cycle covers approximately 6,585.3 days (18 years 11 days 8 hours).

The second of four 2011 partial solar eclipses happens five and one-third months after the year’s first partial solar eclipse. The Tuesday, Jan. 4, partial solar eclipse opened the eclipse lineup. The year’s third and fourth partial solar eclipses take place Friday, July 1, and Friday, Nov. 25, respectively.

The 2011 eclipse lineup presents a rare 4:2 combination of four solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses. Only six years in the 21st century exhibit the 4:2 combination: 2011, 2029, 2047, 2065, 2076 and 2094.

The year’s two lunar eclipses are both total. The first of 2011’s two total lunar eclipses occurs Wednesday, June 15. The second total lunar eclipse closes the 2011 eclipse lineup on Friday, Dec. 10.

The 2011 lineup of four partial solar eclipses also distinguishes the year. Only six years in the 21st century experience four solar eclipses. The number of annual solar eclipses ranges from a minimum of two per year to a maximum of five per year.

Observers along the path of visibility should remember that direct viewing of partial solar eclipses is unsafe. Use of proper equipment and following of proper techniques are necessary for safe viewing of partial solar eclipses.

The takeaway for the second of four 2011 partial solar eclipses, which happens Wednesday, June 1, is the event’s favoring of the Northern Hemisphere’s high latitudes for visibility.

animation of June 1, 2011, solar eclipse: A.T. Sinclair/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics for partial solar eclipse of June 1, 2011: "Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC," Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SE2011Jun01P.png

animation of June 1, 2011, solar eclipse: A.T. Sinclair/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SE2011Jun01P.gif

For further information:

“June 1, 2011 -- Partial Solar Eclipse.” TimeAndDate > Sun & Moon > Eclipses.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2011-june-1

Espenak, Fred. “Eclipses During 2011.” NASA Eclipse Web Site > Observer’s Handbook.
Available @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2011.html

Espenak, Fred. “Five Millennium Catalog of Solar Eclipses: 2001 to 2100 (2001 CE to 2100 CE).” NASA Eclipse Web Site > Solar Eclipses.
Available @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEcat5/SE2001-2100.html

Espenak, Fred. “Greatest Eclipse.” NASA Eclipse Web Site > Glossary of Solar Eclipse Terms.
Available @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhelp/SEglossary.html

Espenak, Fred. “Table 2 -- Local Circumstances for Partial Solar Eclipse of 2011 June 01.” NASA Eclipse Web Site > Observer’s Handbook > Observer’s Handbook Tables.
Available @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHtables/OH2011-Tab02.pdf

Littmann, Mark; Ken Willcox; Fred Espenak. “Observing Solar Eclipses Safely.” MrEclipse > Totality.
Available @ http://www.mreclipse.com/Totality2/TotalityCh11.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "First of Four 2011 Partial Solar Eclipses Happens Tuesday, Jan. 4." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2010.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2010/12/first-of-four-2011-partial-solar.html

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Snoopy and Charlie Brown Are Hugging Each Other in Apollo 10 Docking

Summary: Snoopy and Charlie Brown are hugging each other in the Apollo 10 docking success confirmation given by Mission Commander Thomas Stafford.

Snoopy and Charlie Brown are hugging each other in the Apollo 10 docking success assurance reported to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Mission Control Center (MCC) by Mission Commander Thomas Stafford.

Commander Thomas Patten Stafford (born Sept. 17, 1930), Command Module Pilot (CMP) John Watts Young (born Sept. 24, 1930) and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Eugene Andrew Cernan (born March 14, 1934) named their spacecraft after characters in the Peanuts comic strip created by Charles Monroe “Sparky” Schulz (Nov. 26, 1922-Feb. 12, 2000). Command and Service Module (CSM)-106 received the call sign of Charlie Brown. Lunar Module (LM)-4 was named Snoopy.

Apollo 10 launched Sunday, May 18, 1969, at 16:49:00 Greenwich Mean Time/Coordinated Universal Time (11:49 p.m. Eastern Standard Time; 12:49 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time) from the John F. Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC) Launch Pad 39-B in central Florida. The Apollo space program’s fourth crewed mission was designed as a “dress rehearsal,” without the lunar landing, for the first lunar landing mission, Apollo 11.

The Apollo 10 Press Kit, released Wednesday, May 7, 1969, described the lunar orbit mission as marking the first lunar flight of the complete Apollo spacecraft. The Press Kit explained: “Following closely the time line and trajectory to be flown on Apollo 11, Apollo 10 will include an eight-hour sequence of lunar module (LM) undocked activities during which the commander and LM pilot will descend to within eight nautical miles of the lunar surface and later rejoin the command/service module (CSM) in a 60-nautical-mile circular orbit” (page 1).

Command Module Charlie Brown and Lunar Module Snoopy undocked Thursday, May 22, at 19:00:57 GMT/UTC (2 p.m. EST, 3 p.m. EDT). The undocking occurred 98 hours 11 minutes 57 seconds (098:11:57 Ground Elapsed Time GET) after liftoff. Commander Stafford occupied Lunar Module Snoopy with the lander spacecraft’s pilot, Eugene Cernan, while John Young, as Charlie Brown’s pilot, remained in the command module.

Four and one-half hours later, at 23:34:16 GMT/UTC (6:34 p.m. EST, 7:34 p.m. EDT; 102:45:16.9 GET), Lunar Module Snoopy’s ascent and descent stages were separated. The jettison placed the descent stage into a lunar orbit aimed at eventual impact on the lunar surface.

Rendezvous maneuvers brought the Snoopy’s ascent stage and Charlie Brown’s command module into alignment for docking. Docking occurred Friday, May 23, at 03:11:02 GMT/UTC (Thursday, May 22, at 10:11 p.m. EST, 11:11 p.m. EDT; 106:22:02 GET).

Commander Stafford descriptively affirmed the successful docking for Mission Control Center. “Hello, Houston. Snoopy and Charlie Brown are hugging each other,” he announced.

Twenty-four seconds later, the commander complimented John Young’s control of CM Charlie Brown during the docking. “Okay, John,” he said, “That was beautiful. Just beautiful, babe.” (Apollo 10 PAO Mission Commentary Transcript: page 383).

The three astronauts revisited Snoopy and Charlie Brown’s successful hug during their crew debriefing, conducted Monday, June 2. Lunar Module Snoopy Pilot Cernan recalled: “We were just partying.”

Commander Stafford noted: “Then John damped the maneuver. A loud ripple bang was heard as the latches latched.”

Command Module Charlie Brown Pilot Young mused: “A sigh of relief was given by all” (Apollo 10 Technical Crew Debriefing, 9-47).

The Apollo modules were constructed with a probe and drogue system. Docking required alignment of the command module’s docking probe with the lunar module’s drogue. The devices were mounted in the modules’ docking tunnels. Initial soft contact between the two modules was achieved by extending three capture latches in the CM probe’s tip to engage in a hole at the drogue’s bottom. The command module pilot brought the modules together by retracting the probe. Engaging the lunar module’s docking tunnel with the command modules 12 docking latches effected a hard dock.

The takeaway for Snoopy and Charlie Brown hugging each other in the Apollo 10 docking of the lunar module with the command module after the lunar module’s lunar surface orbits is that the Apollo 10 astronauts smoothly and successfully performed the crucial maneuver in the mission’s “dress rehearsal” for the subsequent lunar-landing mission, Apollo 11.

artist concept of Lunar Module ascent stage docked to Command/Service Module; LM ascent stage had left lunar surface for rendezvous with Command/Service Module (CSM); Dec. 1, 1966; NASA ID S66-11007; S66-05105; File Name 10074639: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Public Domain, via NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Science, Technology and Engineering website

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

The Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR) in Mission Control Center (MCC), Building 30, celebrates successful docking of Command Module Charlie Brown and Lunar Module Snoopy with cartoon of Snoopy giving Charlie Brown a congratulatory kiss and praise, ‘On target, Charlie Brown!’ Note replicas of Snoopy, in a spacesuit, and Charlie Brown on console, second row (right center); Friday, May 23, 1969; NASA ID S69-34877: John Uri, "50 Years Ago: Charlie Brown and Snoopy in Lunar Orbit," NASA image article, May 21, 2019, Generally not subject to copyright in the United States; may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages; general permission extends to personal Web pages, via NASA @ https://www.nasa.gov/feature/50-years-ago-charlie-brown-and-snoopy-in-lunar-orbit

Cernan, Eugene. The Last Man on the Moon: Eugene Cernan and America’s Race in Space. New York NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.

Dunbar, Brian; and Kathleen Zona, ed. “Snoopy Soars With NASA at Charles Schulz Museum.” NASA > News & Features > News Topics > NASA History & People. Jan. 5, 2009.
Available @ https://www.nasa.gov/topics/history/features/snoopy.html

Godwin, Robert, comp. and ed. Apollo 10: The NASA Mission Reports. Second edition. Burlington, Canada: Apogee Books, 2000.

Marriner, Derdriu. “Jettisoned LM Snoopy Descent Stage Appeared Near Taruntius Crater.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, May 11, 2011.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2011/05/jettisoned-lm-snoopy-descent-stage.html

NASA JSC Web Team. “Apollo: 1963-1972.” NASA JSC (National Aeronautics and Space Administration Johnson Space Center) History Portal. Updated July 16, 2010.
Available @ https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/apollo.htm

NASA JSC Web Team. “ASTP Documents and Transcripts.” NASA JSC (National Aeronautics and Space Administration Johnson Space Center) History Portal. Updated July 16, 2010.
Available @ https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/apollo.htm

NASA JSC Web. “Mission Transcripts: Apollo 10.” NASA JSC (National Aeronautics and Space Administration Johnson Space Center) History Portal. Updated July 16, 2010.
Available @ https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/mission_trans/apollo10.htm

NASA JSC Web. “Mission Transcripts: Gemini VI.” NASA JSC (National Aeronautics and Space Administration Johnson Space Center) History Portal. Updated July 16, 2010.
Available @ https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/mission_trans/gemini6.htm

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “11.3 Photographic Results.” Apollo 10 Mission Report: 11.3-11.5. MSC-00126. Houston TX: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Manned Spacecraft Center, August 1969.
Available @ https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a410/A10_MissionReport.pdf

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Apollo 10 Mission (AS-505) Post Launch Mission Operation Report No. 1. Report No. M-932-69-10. Washington DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, May 26, 1969.
Available @ https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap10fj/pdf/a10-postlaunch-rep.pdf

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Apollo 10 Mission Report. MSC-00126. Houston TX: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Manned Spacecraft Center, August 1969.
Available @ https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a410/A10_MissionReport.pdf

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Apollo 10 Press Kit. Release no. 69-68. May 7, 1969. Washington DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1969.
Available @ https://www.history.nasa.gov/alsj/a410/A10_PressKit.pdf

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Apollo 10 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription (Goss Net 1). Prepared for Data Logistics Office Test Division Apollo Spacecraft Program Office. Houston TX: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Manned Spacecraft Center, May 1969.
Available via Johnson Space Center (JSC) History Portal @ https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/mission_trans/AS10_TEC.PDF

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Apollo 10 Technical Crew Debriefing. Prepared by Mission Operations Branch Flight Crew Support Division. Houston TX: Manned Spacecraft Center, June 2, 1969.
Available via NASA History-Apollo Flight Journal @ https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap10fj/pdf/a10-tech-crew-debrief.pdf

Orloff, Richard W. “Apollo 10 The Fourth Mission: Testing the LM in Lunar Orbit.” Apollo by the Numbers: A Statistical Reference: 71-88. NASA History Series. NASA SP 4029. Washington DC: NASA Headquarters Office of Policy and Plans, 2000.
Available @ https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4029.pdf

Shepard, Alan; Deke Slayton; Jay Barbree; and Howard Benedict. Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon. Atlanta GA: Turner Publishing Inc., 1994.

Slayton, Donald K.; and Michael Cassutt. Deke! U.S. Manned Space: From Mercury to the Shuttle. New York NY: Forge Books, 1994.

Woods, W. David; Robin Wheeler; and Ian Roberts. “Apollo 10 Image Library.” NASA History > Apollo Flight Journal > The Apollo 10 Flight Journal. 2011.
Available @ https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap10fj/as10-image-library.html

Woods, W. David; Robin Wheeler; and Ian Roberts. “Apollo 10 Mission Documents.” NASA History > Apollo Flight Journal > The Apollo 10 Flight Journal. 2011.
Available @ https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap10fj/as10-documents.html

Sunday, May 15, 2011

American Pileated Woodpecker Habitats: Black Body, Cavity Nest, White Egg

Summary: North American pileated woodpecker habitats in southern Canada and the eastern and west-coastal United States get black bodies, cavity nests and white eggs.

female (right) and male (left) pileated woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus); Sunday, May 25, 2008, 07:05: AndrewBrownsword, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

North American pileated woodpecker habitats anticipate arborists, master gardeners, master naturalists and tree stewards in Picidae family wood pest-preyed distribution ranges in the eastern and Pacific coastal United States and southern Canada.

Pileated woodpeckers bear their common name from the crested tops of their heads and the scientific name Dryocopus pileatus (oak tree cutter [with] capped head tops). Ornithologists consider Carl Linnaeus's (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1787) classification in 1758 as the nominate, southern pileatus subspecies from the Great Plains to the east coast. They designate the Dryocopus pileatus abieticola (oak-cutting, capped fir [tree] dweller) specimen, described in 1898 by Outram Bangs (Jan. 12, 1863-Sept. 22, 1932), the northern subspecies.

Nine-year lifespans expect coniferous, deciduous, mixed, old-growth or second-growth forests and woodlands and wooded parklands and swamps with close stands of dead wood and live trees.

May through July facilitate one three- to five-egg clutch in new east- or south-facing holes fitted each year into the same dead stub or live tree.

Parents-to-be gut 2.75- to 4.75-inch (6.98- to 12.06-centimeter) diameter entrances with 10- to 18-inch- (25.4- to 45.72-centimeter-) deep, 4- to 7-inch- (10.16- to 17.78-centimeter-) wide tunnels. Pole- or tree-housed, woodchip-lined nests at 15- to 70-foot (4.57- to 21.34-meter) heights harbor 1.18- to 1.38-inch (30- to 35-millimeter) by 0.94- to 1.02-inch (25-millimeter) eggs. Day-shift mothers-to-be and day- and night-shift fathers-to-be oftentimes initiate 15- to 18-day incubations before the China-white, glossy, smooth, sometimes pointed, subelliptical to elliptical clutch is complete.

Predatory American martens, barred owls, Cooper's hawks, gray foxes, great horned owls, hunters, northern goshawks, red-tailed hawks, squirrels and weasels jeopardize North American pileated woodpecker habitats.

Blind, helpless, naked hatchlings keep fed on regurgitated insects in the bills of both parents, the first 25 to 27 days after hatching inside cavity nests. They look around with opened eyes as nine- to 10-day-olds and fluffy with feathers outside sheaths as 10- to 16-days-olds before leaving as 26- to 28-day-olds. They maintain daily contact with both parents, through the end of summer, after moving away from cavity nests into nearby roosts and mature sexually as one-year-olds. Adults need blackberries, carpenter ants, caterpillars, cockroaches, elderberries, flies, grasshoppers, hackberries, nuts, persimmons, poison ivy berries, spruce budworms, suet, sumac berries, seeds and wood-boring beetle larvae.

North American pileated woodpecker habitats through 7,545.93 feet (2,300 meters) above sea level offer winter's coldest temperatures at minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.77 degrees Celsius).

Aspen, beech, blackberry, cypress, dogwood, Douglas-fir, elderberry, greenbrier, hackberry, hemlock, hickory, holly, larch, maple, oak, persimmon, pine, sassafrass, spruce and sumac promote pileated woodpecker life cycles. Brown eyes and flesh-colored legs, black foreheads and mustaches and red foreheads and scarlet mustaches qualify as respective hallmarks of juveniles, adult females and mature males. Black backs, feet and legs, black, long tails, gray upper, yellow lower semi-curved bills, large white-patched black wings and white chins reveal red-crested, yellow-eyed adult presences. Alternating deep-beat, folded-wing undulations on 25.98- to 29.53-inch (66- to 75-centimeter) wingspans suggest 16.75- to 19.29-inch (40- to 49-centimeter), 8.82- to 12.34-ounce (250- to 350-gram) adults.

North American pileated woodpecker habitats transmit high-pitched, loud yuck-yuck-yuck and yuka-yuka-yuka calls in all but one Canadian province and in the eastern and west-coastal United States.

Female (left) and male (right) pileated woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) nest in Everglades National Park, southern Florida: USDA Forest Service - North Central Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0 United States, via Forestry Images

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

female (right) and male (left) pileated woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus); Sunday, May 25, 2008, 07:05: AndrewBrownsword, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PileatedWoodpeckerPair.jpg

Baicich, Paul J.; and Harrison, Colin J.O. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Second edition. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, Princeton Field Guides, 2005.

Bangs, Outram. April 1898. "Some New Races of Birds From Eastern North America: Ceophlœus pileatus abieticola, subsp. nov. Northern Pileated Woodpecker." The Auk, vol. XV (old series vol. XXIII), no. 2 (April-June): 176-177. New York NY: L.S. Foster.
Available via SORA (Searchable Ornithological Research Archive) @ https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v015n02/p0173-p0183.pdf

Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volumes 8-11, Birds I-IV, edited by Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

Linnaeus, Carl. 1758. "3. Picus pileatus." Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis, Tomus I, Editio Decima, Reformata: 113. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/764490

Peterson, Alan P., M.D. "Dryocopus pileatus (Linnaeus) 1758." Zoonomen: Zoological Nomenclature Resource > Birds of the World -- Current Valid Scientific Avian Names > Piciformes > Picidae > Dryocopus.
Available @ http://www.zoonomen.net/avtax/pici.html

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Red-Headed Woodpecker Habitats: Black Bodies, Cavity Nests, White Eggs

Summary: North American red-headed woodpecker habitats seasonally in Canada and year-round in the United States harbor black bodies, cavity nests and white eggs.

red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) in DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge; April 18, 2008: David Menke/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public Domain, via USFWS National Digital Library

North American red-headed woodpecker habitats appall arborists, master gardeners, master naturalists and tree stewards through Picidae family wildlife associations with dead woody plant-dotted, declining distribution ranges in Canada and the United States.

Red-headed woodpeckers bear their common name as the only completely red-headed Picidae family member and the scientific name Melanerpes erythrocephalus as a black, creeping, red-headed bird. Described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1787), they cluster into brodkorbi (William Brodkorb, Sept. 29, 1908-July 19, 1992), nominate and northwest subspecies. Breeding draws them seasonally east of the Rockies and west of the upper Mississippi and within scattered northeastern niches and year-round east of the Great Plains.

Ten-year lifespans expect dead stubs, fenceposts, live trees, roofs or telegraph poles near coniferous, deciduous, riparian or swampy woodlands, farmlands, forest edges, gardens, orchards or parklands.

May through August facilitate brooding one three- to eight-egg clutch, followed by another if the first fails, in cavity nests within barkless, dead, smooth, snake-unfriendly wood.

Parents-to-be gather no lining for 8- to 14-inch- (20.32- to 35.56-centimeter-) deep, 3- to 4.5-inch- (7.62- to 11.43-centimeter-) across cavities with 1.75-inch- (4.45-centimeter-) diameter entrance holes. Cavity nests at 8- to 80-foot (2.44- to 24.38-meter) heights house 8.66- to 11.42-inch- (22- to 29-centimeter-) long, 6.69- to 8.66-inch- (17- to 22-centimeter-) wide eggs. The daily laying intervals between the elliptical, oval or subelliptical, pure white, smooth, somewhat glossy, unmarked eggs initiate the parent-shared incubations before the clutch is complete.

Brown-headed cowbirds, Cooper's hawks, flying squirrels, fox squirrels, northern harriers, peregrine falcons, raccoons, racers, rat-snakes, red foxes, red-tailed hawks and screech-owls jeopardize American red-headed woodpecker habitats.

Parents-to-be keep away from birdhouse lifestyles since eggs know fatalities from cavity nest-invading starlings while blind, helpless, long-necked, naked hatchlings know poisoning in creosote-treated utility poles.

Different-aged, different-sized hatchlings and nestlings leave after three-and-one-half to four-plus weeks of parental care and food to nearby roosts unless located elsewhere because of second clutches. They manage sight within 12 to 13 days, their own feathering, food hunts and flight within 24 to 31 days and mature sexually within one year. Adults need ants, apples, beetles, blackberries, caterpillars, cherries, chokecherries, corn, crickets, elderberries, grapes, grasshoppers, huckleberries, laural-cherries, lizards, mice, mulberries, pawpaws, pears, raspberries, spiders, strawberries and wasps.

North American red-headed woodpecker habitats offer winter's acorn, beechnut, maple seed and pecan mast and coldest temperatures at minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.77 degrees Celsius).

Ash, basswood, beech, birch, cedar, cottonwood, cypress, elm, hickory, juniper, maple, oak, palmetto, pine, spruce, sugarberry, sweetgum, sycamore, willow and yellow-poplar promote red-headed woodpecker life cycles.

Black-barred white wing feathers, blue-shining black tails and upper-parts, brown heads, dark eyes and gray bills, feet and legs qualify as juvenile female and male identifications. Black, narrow necklaces, blue-gray bills, feet and legs, blue-shining black tails and upper-parts, white rumps and underparts and white-patched black wings reveal black-clawed, dark-eyed, red-headed adults. Strong-flapped, unremarkably undulating flight on 16- to 18-inch (40.64- to 45.72-centimeter) wingspans suggest 8.5- to 9.5-inch (21.59- to 24.13-centimeter), 2- to 3-ounce (56.69- to 85.05-gram) adults.

North American red-headed woodpecker habitats transmit alarm, breeding and loud churr calls in central Canada during summers and the eastern United States summers, winters or year-round.

illustration of red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) eggs; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate XLIV, opp. page 147: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) in DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge; April 18, 2008: David Menke/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public Domain, via USFWS National Digital Library @ https://digitalmedia.fws.gov/cdm/singleitem/collection/natdiglib/id/395/rec/1

Baicich, Paul J.; and Harrison, Colin J.O. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Second edition. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, Princeton Field Guides, 2005.

Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volumes 8-11, Birds I-IV, edited by Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

Jones, Howard. 1886. Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio. Illustrations by Mrs. N.E. Jones. Vol. II. Circleville OH: s.n. (sine nomine).
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34908243

Linnaeus, Carl. 1758. "5. Picus erythrocephalus." Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis, Tomus I, Editio Decima, Reformata: 113. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/727018

Peterson, Alan P., M.D. "Melanerpes erythrocephalus (Linnaeus) 1758." Zoonomen: Zoological Nomenclature Resource > Birds of the World -- Current Valid Scientific Avian Names > Piciformes > Picidae > Melanerpes.
Available @ http://www.zoonomen.net/avtax/pici.html

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Jettisoned LM Snoopy Descent Stage Appeared Near Taruntius Crater

Summary: Jettisoned LM Snoopy descent stage appeared near Taruntius Crater during Apollo 10 Command and Service Module (CSM) Charlie Brown’s lunar orbit 29.

Two-stage lunar module comprises ascent stage (above) and leggy descent stage (below); Lunar Module (LM) 4, moved for mating with the Spacecraft Lunar Module Adapter (SLA) in the John F. Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC) Manned Spacecraft Operations Building (MSOB), flew as the Apollo 10 mission’s LM Snoopy; Jan. 13, 1969; NASA ID S69-17810: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Public Domain, via NASA Human Spaceflight

Jettisoned LM Snoopy descent stage appeared near Taruntius Crater on the moon’s near side during Apollo 10 Command and Service Module (CSM) Charlie Brown’s lunar revolution number 29.

Apollo 10 was designed as a “dress rehearsal,” minus the lunar landing, for lunar-landing mission Apollo 11, scheduled to launch approximately two months later, in July. Thomas Patten Stafford (born Sept. 17, 1930) commanded the three-astronaut mission. John Watts Young (born Sept. 24, 1930) and Eugene Andrew Cernan (born March 14, 1934) piloted the command module and the lunar module, respectively.

The astronauts gave Peanuts comic strip characters’ names to the mission’s modules. The command and service module was given the call sign of Charlie Brown. The lunar module was named Snoopy.

The Apollo 10 space vehicle launched on time Sunday, May 18, 1969, at 16:49:00 Greenwich Mean Time/Coordinated Universal Time (11:49 p.m. Eastern Standard Time; 12:49 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time) from central Florida’s John F. Kennedy Space Center. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Post Launch Mission Operation Report No. 1, released May 26, 1969, noted liftoff as “the fifth successive successful launch on-time of a Saturn V” three-stage rocket.

Three days later, on Wednesday, May 21, at 75 hours 55 minutes 54 seconds after liftoff (075:55:54.0 Ground Elapsed Time GET), the service propulsion engine commenced a 356.1-second firing to insert the spacecraft into lunar orbit. The lunar orbit insertion maneuver cut off at 076:01:50.1 GET (20:50:50 GMT/UTC; 3:50 p.m. EST, 4:50 p.m. EDT).

On Thursday, May 22, at 15:51 GMT/UTC (10:51 a.m. EST, 11:51 a.m. EDT; 09:02 GET), Commander Stafford and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Cernan transferred from Charlie Brown into Snoopy via the spacecraft’s docking tunnel. Command Module Pilot (CMP) Young remained in Charlie Brown. Undocking of the lunar and command modules occurred at 19:00:57 GMT/UTC (2 p.m. EST, 3 p.m. EDT; 098:11:57 GET).

The lunar module’s two stages were successfully separated during preparations for rendezvous with Charlie Brown. The separation, which occurred at 23:34:16 GMT/UTC (6:34 p.m. EST, 7:34 p.m. EDT; 102:45:16.9 GET), placed the descent stage into a temporary lunar orbit that would inevitably degrade into a lunar surface impact. The location of the Snoopy descent stage’s impact site is unknown.

Docking of the ascent stage and the command module occurred Friday, May 23, at 3:11:02 GMT/UTC (Thursday, May 22, at 10:11 p.m. EST, 11:11 p.m. EDT; 106:22:02 GET). The ascent stage was subsequently jettisoned, on Friday, May 23, at 05:13:36 GMT/UTC (12:13 a.m. EST, 1:13 a.m. EDT; 108:24:36 GET), for placement into a solar orbit.

During extensive landmark tracking and lunar feature photography from Command Module Charlie Brown, the three astronauts “visually acquired the LM descent stage on several occasions” (page 5). Encounters potentially posed safety threats, with the descent stage tumbling in and out of plane with the command module and moving above, below, behind and in front of the astronauts.

During the command module’s lunar orbit 29, the Apollo 10 astronauts espied Snoopy’s descent stage near the lunar near side’s Taruntius Crater. Taruntius lies on the northwestern edge of Mare Fecunditatis (Sea of Fecundity) in the eastern hemisphere and parents 15 satellite craters.

At about 132:16 GET, during the command module’s lunar orbit 29, Commander Stafford reported: “. . . . He’s getting awfully close. You could see the silver panels and -- there he is right down below us; he’s trying to cross the Taruntius . . . Yeah between Taruntius twins P and K. That rascal is right in-plane with us. . . .” (Apollo 10 PAO Mission Commentary Transcript, page 451/1).

At about 133:36 GET, Commander Stafford expressed the astronauts’ concerns about Snoopy’s proximity: “Yeah, I know it’s highly improbable a collision, but it’d sure ruin your whole day, if it ever happened” (453/1).

Mission Control Center’s (MCC) capsule communicator (CAPCOM) joked: “Okay. Old Snoop’s just a devoted old hound dog, Tom. He’ll probably be trying to follow you back home.”

Commander Stafford replied: “Just as long as that rascal doesn’t sniff too close” (453/3).

The takeaway for the jettisoned LM Snoopy descent stage’s appearance near Taruntius Crater on the moon’s near side is that the Apollo 10 mission’s three astronauts were concerned that the descent stage’s erratic tumblings posed a safety hazard, albeit “highly improbable,” to their spacecraft.

oblique view of Taruntius craters K and P, where Apollo 10 astronauts encountered jettisoned LM Snoopy descent stage; taken with 70mm Hasselblad by Apollo 10 mission, film magazine 31 (R); 70mm color film; NASA ID AS10-34-5134: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), No known copyright restrictions, via U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Cernan, Eugene. The Last Man on the Moon: Eugene Cernan and America’s Race in Space. New York NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.

Godwin, Robert, comp. and ed. Apollo 10: The NASA Mission Reports. Second edition. Burlington, Canada: Apogee Books, 2000.

International Astronomical Union. “Mare Fecunditatis.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/3673

International Astronomical Union. “Taruntius.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/5878

Marriner, Derdriu. “Lunar Near Side’s Taruntius Crater System Lost Four Satellites in 1976.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, April 27, 2011.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2011/04/lunar-near-sides-taruntius-crater.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Lunar Taruntius Crater System Borders Northwestern Mare Fecunditatis.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, April 13, 2011.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2011/04/lunar-taruntius-crater-system-borders.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Lunar Taruntius Crater System Lost Three Satellites in 1973.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, April 20, 2011.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2011/04/lunar-taruntius-crater-system-lost.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Taruntius Crater Parents 15 Satellites on Northwest Mare Fecunditatis.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, May 4, 2011.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2011/05/taruntius-crater-parents-15-satellites.html

NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, comp. Analysis of Apollo 10 Photography and Visual Observations. NASA SP-232. Washington DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Scientific and Technical Information Office, 1971.
Available via NASA History @ https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap10fj/pdf/19710018395_analysis-of-a10-photography+pbservations.pdf

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center. Apollo Madrid: Manned Space Flight Network Station. Greenbelt MD: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center, Jan. 15, 1969.
Available via NASA https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19710009001.pdf

Ransford, Gary A.; Wilbur R. Wollenhaupt; and Robert M. Bizzell. Lunar Landmark Locations -- Apollo 8, 10, 11, and 12 Missions. NASA Technical Note TN D-6082. Washington DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, November 1970.
Available via NASA History @ https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap10fj/pdf/19710002567_lunar-landmark-locations-a8-a10-a11-a12.pdf

Shepard, Alan; Deke Slayton; Jay Barbree; and Howard Benedict. Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon. Atlanta GA: Turner Publishing Inc., 1994.

Slayton, Donald K.; and Michael Cassutt. Deke! U.S. Manned Space: From Mercury to the Shuttle. New York NY: Forge Books, 1994.

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “Apollo 10 (AS-505).” Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum > Missions > Apollo 10.
Available @ https://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/apollo/apollo-program/orbital-missions/apollo10.cfm

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “Saturn V Launch Vehicle.” Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum > Spacecraft & Vehicles > Saturn V Launch Vehicle.
Available @ https://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/apollo/apollo-program/spacecraft/saturn_v.cfm

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time: A Reader's Companion

Summary: The book Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time: A Reader's Companion from 1992 clarifies the same-named book from 1988 and film from 1991.

At Pasadena, California's Caltech in Dec. 10, 1974, Stephen Hawking and American theoretical physicist Kip Thorne famously bet about the mass of a black hole at Cygnus X-1; release date Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2002, artwork of artist's impression of Cygnus X-1 by Martin Kornmesser: NASA, ESA, Martin Kornmesser (ESA/Hubble), CC BY 4.0 International, via Hubble Space Telescope

Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time: A Reader's Companion acts as "The Book of The Film of The Book" since it accompanies the documentary produced for Anglia Television by David Hickman.

The 80-minute anecdotal biography brought together cinematographers John Bailey and Stefan Czapsky, director Errol Morris, musician Philip Glass and uncredited producers Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg. Freedman consulted with Kennedy and Spielberg on creating a documentary whose editing Brad Fuller completed with writer Stephen Hawking, author of the same-titled bestseller from 1988. Positive film and DVD and Blu-ray reviews in 1991 and 2014 drew the documentary into The Criterion Collection "important classic and contemporary films" April 15, 2014.

The five-part book Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time: A Reader's Companion simultaneously elucidates "background for those who read the book or watch the film."

The first part furnishes interviews with Michael Church; the physicist's siblings Edward and Mary Hawking; the theoretician's mother Isobel Hawking; Janet Humphrey; Basil King; John McClenahan.

Free-lance journalist Church, Hawking, pediatric tropical medicine doctor King in Kenya and King's Fund College administrator McClenahan in London got together at St. Albans School, 1951-1959. Humphrey, general medicine-trained Freudian analyst, had neighborly roles in North London's Highgate village, as mother of Simon, Hawking's classmate at the progressive Byron House School, 1945-1950. The book's second part includes the memories of Robert Berman and Patrick Sandars; Gordon Berry and Derek Powney; Norman Dix; and Isobel, Mary and Stephen Hawking.

Berman and Sandars judged Harking as physics tutors to the first- through third-year holder of a University College scholarship in natural science at Oxford University, 1959-1962.

Argonne National Laboratory researcher Berry in Chicago, Illinois, Abbs Cross School headmaster Powney in Essex and University College Boatsman Dix knew Hawking as student and coxswain.

Part three lists Bernard Carr and Don Page; Brandon Carter, Antony Hewish, Fred Hoyle, John Taylor, Kip Thorne and John Wheeler; Roger Penrose and Dennis Sciama. Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time: A Reader's Companion mentions world-famous physicists Carter, Hewish, Hoyle, Taylor and Wheeler and Hawking dissertation examiners Penrose and Sciama. The year 1974-1975 nestled Oxford graduate Carr, Hawking, California Institute of Technology (Caltech) student Don Page and Professor Kip Thorne personally and professionally together in Pasadena.

Part four offers observations from Carr, Hewish, Page, Penrose, Sciama and Thorne; University of California-Santa Barbara Professor Jim Hartle; Imperial College Professor Christopher Isham in London.

Isham paraphrases the Hartle-Hawking no-boundary, no-edge proposal, from 1982-1983, of an Earthlike-curved, finite, near-smooth universe whose rough irregularities provoke expansion, galaxies and stars in finite space-time.

The fifth part queues up Carr; Isobel, Mary and Stephen Hawking; Humphrey; Isham and Wheeler; Hawking students Raymond Laflamme, Ian Moss and Brian Whitt; and Page. Laflamme's equations reveal that life never regresses, present to past, while an expanding universe's arrow of time from the big bang reverses into the big crunch. Isobel and son Stephen, who suggests that "the universe in time will come to an end at the big crunch," show up in all five sections.

Lucasian Professor of Mathematics Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time: A Reader's Companion teams family with friends and a unified theory's gravity with energy-transmitting particles.

Stephen Hawking attended St. Albans School, Hertfordshire, South East England, from 1951 to 1959; St. Albans School's Abbey Gateway, Hertfordshire, South East England; Friday, April 9, 2004, 14:25: Gary Houston (Ghouston), Public Domain (CC0 1.0), via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Hawking, Stephen. 1996. The Illustrated A Brief History of Time. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

Hawking, Stephen, ed. 1992. Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time: A Reader's Companion. Edited by Stephen Hawking. Prepared by Gene Stone. New York, NY: Bantam Books.