> Space Weather News for March 25, 2016
 > http://spaceweather.com
 >  
 > HOLE IN THE SUN'S ATMOSPHERE:  A canyon-shaped hole in the sun's atmosphere
 > has 
 > opened up and it is spewing solar wind toward Earth. Estimated time of
 > arrival: 
 > March 27-28.  Arctic sky watchers should be alert for a springtime display
 > of  auroras.  Visit http://spaceweather.com for more information.
 > NEW RADAR IMAGES OF EARTH-BUZZING COMET:  Earlier this week, comet fragment
 > P/2016 BA14 made an unusually-close approach to Earth. Using a radar in the
 > Mojave Desert, NASA researchers pinged the comet as it passed by, revealing
 > an  icy nucleus that looks like a brick--or a pear--depending on your point
 > of  view. See for yourself on today's edition of http://spaceweather.com
 >  
 > http://tinyurl.com/hpwtb7k
 >  
 > Above: This canyon-shaped coronal hole is spewing solar wind toward Earth
 
I have been a amateur astronomer for over 35 years. I presently have two 8"
telescopes, a Meade and a Celestron with electronic and computer-operated
controls (the Meade is the best one, although I am going to have the Meade
tube adapted to the Celestron mount...I'll explain why another time).

When I first got into astronomy many years ago I had no idea what I was
really getting into. The best way I can explain it is by sing an article 
I recently read in one of my Astronomy magazines where a university professor
of an Astronomy course opened his article by pointing out that students who
need a class for credits who don't want to get into a math, or chemistry,
or other difficult subjects select Astronomy, thinking `how hard can it be
to look at a few stars or constellations?'

Little do they know...and little did I know many years ago...that Astronomy
IS all those sciences. Mathematics, Astrophysics, Chemistry...and a whole
host of other disciplines, too numerous to list, come into play as well.

I had to teach myself basic physics and algebra, get into Calculus, chemistry
and a lot of other things, just to be able to read some of the papers put 
out by those who opened up the world of Astronomy to what it became in the
last century, and understand what they were talking about! Mathematics is
almost a `language' of it's own. 

Anyway...when studying the stars, it's easiest to study the stars nearest 
to us. We have a big advantage in that we have a large star within 94
million miles from us. 

Our sun is a pretty typical normal star of the `G' class...it's mass and
composition allow it to begin burning and remain on the Main Sequence for
around ten or fifteen billion years. 

It is subject to various `cycles' (as all stars are, some of which we are
aware (the 11-year Sun-spot cycle, etc etc...) and some of which we cannot
possibly know about as Human History has not existed long enough to become
familiar with. 

There is one thing, however, that by now in Human History Man should be
painfully aware of:

Just how fragile our existence on this planet is. The Sun could have a single
catastrophic event which, should the resulting shock and material wave be
aimed at the Earth in just the right way, could wipe out all (or the major
portion) life as we know it. Sudden extinctions of life have occurred in the
Earth's past history. Just because we have evolved to hydrogen bombs and 
space travel doesn't mean we are immune to the on-going processes taking
pace in the Sun's interior. Or from a large asteroid being altered in it's
orbit due to various shifts in the Sun's gravity, and colliding with Earth.

By the way....anyone seen this `disaster' Al Gore warned us about many years
ago? Neither have I!
--- SBBSecho 2.27-Win32
 * Origin: Telnet://valhalla.synchro.net - Richmond, Virginia (1:275/93)