power surge and planets

Sunset clouds

Last night we had a power surge, not anything new, happens all the time.  Most of our appliances and computers etc. have surge protectors that kick in when the power goes out. Booting back up is usually no problem and we get back to normal.

My main computer is old and last nights surge did it in. i'd been thinking it wasn't long for this world but i wasn't actually ready to move it out. Fortunately the only thing i hadn't backed up was yesterdays work and eerily enough i had second thoughts when i decided not to print anything out or back up.

 i should have listened.

Cool clouds

We have been having cloudy weather here with much needed rain. So this morning it was touch and go as to whether we would get rained upon during the morning walk. Fortunately the clouds had broken up and the sky was visible. i commented to my friend that as i was walking to meet her i saw really bright planets or stars in the eastern sky. As it turns out it was one of those rare optimal viewing times to see Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Mercury. i guess i got really lucky and was one of the few to see it.

After a bit of research i found out that Jupiter and Venus were so close together this morning that they almost looked like a supernova. That must be why i thought it looked so unusual. If you are out tomorrow morning you should be able to see them again but looking more like a triangle with Mars in there too. NASA has a piece up about the configuration through out the rest of the month.  Between 5:00 and 5:30am is a great time to see them if its not too cloudy.  Do go its definitely a lovely sight.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Sticking with the stars and planets, there is a new theory out that suggests some black holes predate the big bang and could be part of the Big Crunch. All very interesting stuff if you have ever wondered about the Big Bang theory.  Way back when i was in college and taking Astronomy i found myself having a difficult time believing in the Big Bang. Why, thought i did the universe have to have a beginning? Was it because we all are born and then we die, so everything else has to too?

i had always thought back then that we thought ourselves too significant in the whole universal scheme. Who were we to come up with a Big Bang theory when we couldn't see any edge to the universe? Expansion did not mean explosion and what exactly was it we were exploding from?

Now scientists are  theorizing(that again) that we collapse over and over again, which creates new questions like if we are only a mere dot in the universe maybe our view is limited and these expansions and collapses are always happening.  Maybe there is no edge(which has always been my theory) and if we are exploding over and over could it be normal and natural?  If black holes are surviving the blast, leaving their signatures and sending out gamma rays that we examine could it be there never was a Big Bang that started it all? Could it be we can't see enough of the universe to develop a Big Bang or Big Crunch Theory?

i'd like to think so.