Hi everyone,

My original plan for today was to cut the jungle which used to be called “my yard”, but, as my phone is cheerfully announcing, “Flood Advisory In Effect”, the yard and the unknown secrets it holds will have to wait yet again.

Have you ever been in a rain forest? Well keeping in mind, a quote from last month’s Newsletter “Tropical conditions are dominant, with conditions similar to that of the Amazon Valley” and considering that Alabama is 70% forest, and since it has been consistently dumping rain on us nearly every afternoon, this is about as close as it gets to being in a rain forest without airfare becoming involved.

Enjoy(?) it while it lasts, for in just a little over a month the heat and humidity will begin its annual retreat towards the tropical realms and in about 6 months from now we will be griping and wishing we could borrow one of these days for a welcomed winter thaw.

So hang onto that buoy and lifeboat, for the rain is coming to an end!

Our next ALERT meeting will be on August 13, at the NWS Forecast Office at the Shelby County Airport.

See you there!

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When The Squirrels Sneeze On The Power Pole

On July 8, 2024, Category 1 hurricane Beryl made landfall along the southeast Texas, snapping power poles as it shredded the power grid. CenterpointEnergy, the supplier for Houston and the surrounding areas reported that roughly 87% of their customers lost power.

Repairing such damage doesn’t occur overnight, as it basically means rebuilding an electrical infrastructure that took decades to build.

In the days that followed, with the help of electrical crews from nearby states, steady progress was made as is seen here:

Date Outages

July 8 2,745,894
July 9 2,095,934
July 10 1,546,564
July 11 1,233,332
July 12 994,461
July 13 529,098
July 14 435,000
July 15 281,850
July 16 139,485
July 17 50,099
Julu 18 15,000
July 19 6,817

As you can see, many we’re out of power for days, many for a week and some for nearly two weeks.

Closer to home, after the April 27, 2011, tornadoes some were without power for two weeks.

So, the question arises, how long could YOU remain sustainable without power?

I remember as a child in the 1960’s it was said “if a squirrel sneezes the pole the power goes out”.

I loved it. My Mom would dig out long taper candles, little stubby candles and Dad would drag oil lanterns out of the cupboard and for a few hours we were in the 1800’s. Mom would say “do your homework. This is how Abraham Lincoln did it”. I loved the “adventure living” and would groan in disappointment as the appliances groaned back to life as the power was restored.

Sixty years later I still have those lanterns. The glass globes are polished, the wicks are trimmed, and the fuel is ready should “adventure arrive”.

That’s the fun part that still appeals to the child in me. The not so fun part is what to do with the food in the fridge and freezer, and in my case, my CPAP machine and other various necessities. So the child in me fights the adult in me and as a young lady at work said “adulting isn’t fun”.

So, what, besides waiting, can you do to ease the impact of a prolonged power outage?

Here are some ideas.

One answer of course is having a generator. There are two approaches to this:

1. A large generator to power the entire house. This is absolutely not a DIY project. First you need deep pockets, as they cost from $7000 up to the five digit mark. Then you need an actual electrician to install the wiring and the transfer switches that will switch the house off the electric grid and onto the generator. Try this yourself, and you probably will end up with ashes where the house once stood. So, this is a major investment, though I have seen it done.
2. A smaller portable generator can be used to power key equipment and appliances. In this scenario you can power the freezer, refrigerator, medical equipment, maybe small heaters, etc. The size and cost of the generator is determined by the anticipated load it will bear. These may range from $500 to $5000 or more depending on its capacity. A cheaper one may only be able to run the freezer and a few “luxury items.

Generators, not including the initial and ongoing costs have some drawbacks to consider:

1. Maintenance. Have you ever put a lawn mower away in the fall and then pulled it out in the spring and nearly dislocated a shoulder trying to get the miserable thing to crank and it just goes “rat-tat-tat-tat” and nothing else? Generators, unless they are properly maintained, will do the exact same thing. Fuel lines will clog, carburetors will gum up and spark plugs fouled up simply by them not being run. You may make every promise in the world to fire that puppy up once a month, but life and it’s 10,000 responsibilities will interfere, and you probably will forget. Then the lights go out, you try to crank it up and the poor thing will only give you “rat-tat-tat-tat” and nothing else. So, if you get one, fire her up on a regular basis. At work I monitor ours as it test fires every Monday.
2. Fuel. How much fuel can you practically and safely store? Putting 500 gallons in the basement not far from the pilot light of your gas heater is a recipe for disaster. You need to rotate the fuel on a regular basis, as it doesn’t stay good forever. I keep fuel stabilizer in stock also, for “just in case”.
3. The “Beacon Effect”. Generators are noisy. After a major power outage, the sound of a generator in the darkness can act as a beacon drawing people to your location thinking you can or should help them, whether you have the ability and resources to or not.

You may have no clue who they are, what they are or if they can be trusted. Plus, you probably don’t have the goods in stock to feed a few hundred random folks showing up at your doorstep. Not all of whom may be “understanding” if you don’t just fork over the family food.

Though largely forgotten, this was a problem after Katrina and to a lesser degree occurred after Beryl also.

Here is a true example of how things can go wrong. One friend’s power was lost during a snowstorm, and he fired up his generator and all the neighbors came pouring in. Being kindhearted, he let them stay. Things went ok for a couple of days, until some of the men decided to hike a few miles to the highway, where they could see lights, go to the liquor store, come back and get roaring drunk. My friend told them if they tried that they would have to leave, as he didn’t want his wife and young children exposed to that, as you never know how people will react when they get “soaked”. Will they be sleepy, weepy, be the life of the party or want to cut you up for a chicken wing? They went ahead with their plan anyway, came back loaded so they could “get loaded” and my friend booted them out, and though some apologized later, some won’t speak to him to this day.

So, maybe you don’t want to advertise to the world that you are prepared. For not every visitor “behaves”.

Another answer, which I opted for, is an inverter.

One place I worked at had an equipment room which housed a hefty charger and inverter all tied in to 32 deep cycle batteries in parallel. This was to power the computer system and other key systems until the power was restored or they could safely power everything down for the long haul. This was well maintained.

At another place I worked they had a similar system, but it was not maintained at all, and all the batteries went dry, and the connections corroded, and the entire mess was covered with green goop.

I use a much smaller system using the same concept. In my case two deep cycle batteries in parallel powering is 2400-watt inverter. I periodically charge the batteries using a car charger, and if there was a prolonged outage, I can charge the batteries using the SUV as a charging station. At some point I may add a solar option.

With this I can power the freezer, let’s say hit it every four or five hours to chill it down. Also I can power the communications gear, which includes CB, GMRS, ham VHF and HF capability and the TV, which can run off an antenna if the cable goes out, for “situational awareness” and to watch The Young & The Restless.

And, I have my beloved lanterns!

But, let’s say the clock runs out, as the fuel runs out. What do you do then?

Let’s focus on food.

First, eat what’s in the fridge, as it will spoil quickly.

Cook and eat what you can and boil the eggs, so they will last a few days extra.

How are you supposed to do that cooking with the power out you might ask?

Simple, by using Coleman stoves, butane stoves, propane stoves, Sterno stoves. Camp stoves, solar ovens, grilling, campfires, a camping Dutch Oven with charcoal, etc. You can cook without electricity, and probably have in the past.

It’s like when we have periodic Snowmageddons. For whatever reason, folk, not only here in the South, but, also across North America, Europe and even Australia, anywhere a threat of a blizzard is mentioned, will rush to buy bread and milk. If you mention there are better options folk get defensive as one lady did when she said online “laugh all you want, my children are not going hungry”.

That’s great.

But, they could be having hot chili, soups, stew, chicken and dumplings, steaks, potatoes, bacon, eggs, anything that can be cooked over a flame, as you would on the blooming patio deck grill or if you were camping instead. Nutritious, delicious, beneficious, which ought to be a word, a veritable smorgasbord of culinary delights at one’s fingertips. You can have a steaming plate of pan seared salmon served in with garlic butter. Perched atop mashed potatoes with a side of asparagus. A toothsome, tasty treat guaranteed to tantalize the tastebuds and tickle the tonsils. A bonafide epicurean delight…but instead people choose….(sigh)…sandwiches….

Next is the freezer, which you should not open until now, as it’s the world’s best cooler. Go ahead and invite the neighbors over, as you are going to have to cook everything in it and there is no way you can eat it all.

After you have eaten your way through the fridge and freezer, next comes the cans and dry goods in your pantry.

You do have a pantry, don’t you? I do.

My Mom and Dad were of the Great Depression / World War II Generation. They conserved, took care of their things, gardened and preserved food, how to “make do with what you have” and believed in having a well-stocked pantry of food. They were not hoarders, but believed in being prepared, for “SHTF” was not a theoretical scenario to them, for they lived through the “real deal”. Economic wasteland and a nation and world at total war.

The children of the Great Depression / World War II Generation laughed at them for being hoarders and old fogeys. Even today a major insurance company has advertisements about “not being like your parents”.

But, the grandchildren of that WWII generation are actively buying books, devouring videos and earnestly trying to relearn the knowledge and skills that were common knowledge of their grandparents. For, the world is an unpredictably volatile place and being prepared is a prudent move.

Are you ready for life’s adventures and misadventures?

Hopefully I’ve given you some ideas to chew on.

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Mark’s Almanac

August was originally named “Sextilis”, the sixth Roman month. It was renamed August in honor of Caesar Augustus and lengthened to 31 days, to equal Julius Caesar’s month of July.

August is hot and humid and summer temperatures remain at or near their summer peak.

The rapid vegetation growth of spring is over, and, since conditions are now perfect for the growth of mold, fungi & germs, plants have a “used” look, which is enhanced if rainfall is scarce.

In August the choir of cicadas whine in the afternoon & towards the end of the month the big Yellow Sulphur Butterflies will begin heading to the South-Southeast, giving hints of their soon upcoming fall migration & cats will begin to hint of growing their winter coats.

Hurricane breeding grounds in August are the Atlantic, with Low Latitude “Cape Verde” storms forming off Africa crossing the Ocean and either threatening the Eastern Seaboard or striking the Leeward Islands, entering the Caribbean and then striking the Yucatan, or the Western or Northern Gulf coast. Breeding grounds also include the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.

August is second only to September in the number of Tropical Storms and Hurricanes. From 1851 to 2023 there have been 407 Tropical Storms and 254 Hurricanes, 84 of which made landfall in the United States, the most notable storms being Hurricanes Camille, Katrina and Ida in 1969, 2005 and 2021, which devastated Mississippi and Louisiana and Hurricane Andrew which ravaged South Florida in 1992.

21% of a year’s Hurricanes occur in August, however, 85 to 95% of land falling Hurricanes have not occurred by August 15.

Days grow shorter as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon steadily decreases from 74.4 degrees at the beginning of the month to 65.0 degrees at the month’s end. Daylight decreases from 13 hours 48 minutes on August 1 to 12 hours 54 minutes on August 31.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

August 1 Sunrise 6:00 AM Sunset 7:47 PM
August 15 Sunrise 6:09 AM Sunset 7:34 PM
August 31 Sunrise 6:20 AM Sunset 7:14 PM

Looking skyward, the Sun, magnitude -26.7 is in Cancer, The Crab.

Mercury, magnitude +0.7 in Leo, The Lion, is lost in the glow of the Sun

He will pass between the Sun and the Earth, or reach “Inferior Conjunction” on August 18.

Venus, magnitude -3.9 in Leo, The Lion, is lost in the glow of the Sun the first third of the month.

She emerges in the evening sky 8° above the western horizon around 7:42 PM CDT as the duck fades into darkness and sets 59 minutes after the Sun.

At month’s end she rises at 7:28 PM CDT, 9° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness and sets at 20:16 PM CDT.

Earth, magnitude -4.0 as viewed from the Sun, and her Moon is in the Leo, The Lion.

Mars, magnitude +0.9, with his Moons Phobos and Deimos in Taurus, The Bull, is an early morning object.

At the first of the month, he rises at 1:25 AM CDT and reaches an altitude of 46° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:20 AM CDT.

At midmonth he rises at 1:05 AM CDT and reaches an altitude of 53° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:32 AM CDT.

At months end he rises at 12:43 AM CDT and reaches an altitude of 60° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 05:45 AM CDT..

Dwarf Planet Ceres, magnitude +7.8, is in Sagittarius, The Archer.

Jupiter, magnitude –2.1, and his 95 moons and (invisible from Earth) ring, in Taurus, The Bull, is an early morning object.

At the first of the month, he rises at 1:51 AM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 45° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:40 AM CDT.

On August 14 Mars and Jupiter will pass by each other, or be in “Conjunction” as they pass within 0.3° of each other in the predawn sky.

By midmonth he rises at 1:05 AM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 57° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:51 AM CDT.

At months end he rises at 12:11 AM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 70° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 6:02 AM CDT.

Saturn, magnitude +0.7, and his 146 moons and extensive debris ring system, is in Leo, The Lion.

He is a late evening and early morning object, becoming visible around 10:38 PM CDT at an altitude of 11° above the eastern horizon. He will reach his highest altitude of 49° above the southern horizon around 3:25 AM CDT. He will be lost as he fades into the dawn.

By midmonth he becomes visible around 9:41 PM CDT at an altitude of 11° above the eastern horizon. He will reach his highest altitude of 49° above the southern horizon around 2:27 AM CDT. He fades into the dawn around 5:34 AM CDT at 29° above the southwestern horizon.

At month’s end he becomes visible around 8:35 PM CDT at an altitude of 11° above the eastern horizon. He will reach his highest altitude of 49° above the southern horizon around 1:20 AM CDT. He fades into the dawn around 5:46 AM CDT at 14° above the western horizon.

Uranus, magnitude +5.8, and his 27 moons and ring, in Taurus, The Bull, is reemerging into the predawn sky.

Near the first of the month, he rises at 12:45 AM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 49 ° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:51 AM CDT.

By midmonth he rises at 11:51 PM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 62° above the southeastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:03 AM CDT.

At months end he rises at 10:49 AM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 74° above the southeastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:17 AM CDT.

Neptune, magnitude 7.8, and his 14 moons and ring, is in Pisces, The Fish,

At the first of the month, he becomes accessible at 11:56 PM CDT at an altitude of 21° above the eastern horizon and reaches an altitude of 55° above the southern horizon at 4:05 AM CDT and fades into the dawn twilight around 04:51 AM CDT, 53° above the southern horizon.

By midmonth he becomes accessible at 11:00 PM CDT at an altitude of 21° above the eastern horizon and reaches an altitude of 54° above the southern horizon at 3:09 AM CDT and fades into the dawn twilight around 5:03 AM CDT, 45° above the southern horizon.

At months end he becomes accessible, at 9:56 PM CDT at an altitude of 21° above the eastern horizon and reaches an altitude of 54° above the southern horizon at 2:04 AM CDT and fades into the dawn twilight around 5:17 AM CDT, 32° above the southern horizon.

Dwarf Planet Pluto, with his five moons shines at a dim +14.4 in Sagittarius, The Archer.

Dwarf Planet 136108 Haumea, her ring and moons Hiʻiaka and Namaka, shines at a faint magnitude of +17.4 in Bootes the Herdsman

Dwarf Planet 136472 Makemake with his moon S/2015 (136472) 1, nicknamed MK1 by the discovery team, shines faintly at magnitude +17.2 in Coma Berenices.

Dwarf Planet 136199 Eris and her moon Dysnomia, originally referred to as Xena and Gabrielle, is barely visible in the most powerful telescopes at magnitude +18.7 in Cetus the Sea Monster.

At least six additional bodies with the preliminary criteria for identifying dwarf planets, and though not “officially” declared as such, are generally called dwarf planets by astronomers as well.

90482 Orcus, and his moon Vanth shines at magnitude 19.1 between Hydra and Sextans, The Sextant.

50000 Quaoar, and his moon Waywot shines at magnitude +18.6 in Scutum, The Shield.

90377 Sedna, the coldest, and at one time, the most distant known place in the Solar System, glows faintly at magnitude +20.9 in Taurus, The Bull.

225088 Gonggong, originally nicknamed Snow White by the discovery team, and his moon Xiangli glows dimly at +21.5 magnitude in Aquarius, The Water Bearer.

2014 UZ224 nicknamed “DeeDee” for “Distant Dwarf” is 8.5 billion miles from the Sun, at magnitude +23.1 in Eridanus, The River.

120347 Salacia, and her moon Actaea glows at magnitude 20.7 in Andromeda, The Chained Woman. Salacia is considered a “borderline” Dwarf Planet. Some astronomers saying she “most certainly is a Dwarf Planet”, while others disagreeing based on her size, saying she is too small to have compressed into a fully solid body, to have been resurfaced, or to have collapsed into “hydrostatic equilibrium”, that is to assume spherical shape like a planet.

This dark world lies beyond the orbit of Neptune, orbiting 4,164,420,166 miles from the Sun.

The most distant man-made object, Voyager 1, still operating after 46 years, 10 months and 25 days is 14,214,591,428 miles, or in Light Time, 22 hours, 41 minutes and 14 Seconds from Earth as of 4:18 PM, July 27, 2024, sailing 38,027 miles per hour through Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer.
Voyager – Mission Status (nasa.gov)

There are 1,385,938 known asteroids and 3,975 comets as of July 24, 2024 per NASA/JPL Solar Dynamics Website JPL Solar System Dynamics (nasa.gov).

5,741 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of July 23, 2024, per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/.

New Moon will occur at 5:15 AM CDT or 11:15 UTC on August 4. The Moon will be located on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky. This is the best time of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere.

The moon will be at Apogee or its farthest distance from Earth on August 8, when she will be 251,841 miles from Earth.

The Perseid Meteor Shower peaks on the night of August 12 & 13, with 50 to 60 meteors per hour. This shower, produce by debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1862, ranks as the best of the best, famous for producing bright meteors. The shower runs annually from July 17 to August 24. It peaks this year on the night of August 12 and the morning of August 13.

The first quarter moon will block out some of the fainter meteors in the early evening. But the Moon will set shortly after midnight leaving dark skies for what could be an excellent early morning show. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Perseus, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

First Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Western side illuminated, will occur August 12 at 10:19 AM or 16:19 UTC.

During the Quarter Moons the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

August’s Full Moon will occur August 19 at 1:27 PM or 18:27 UTC. August’s Full Moon was called “Fruit Moon” in Cherokee Folklore, “Women’s Moon” among the Choctaw, “Sturgeon Moon” by the Algonquin because the large sturgeon fish of the Great Lakes and other major lakes were more easily caught at this time of year. This moon has also been known as the Green Corn Moon and the Grain Moon and at one time was called “Dog Days Moon” by the Colonial Americans.

This is the first of four Supermoons for 2024. The Moon will be near its closest approach to the Earth and may look slightly larger and brighter than usual.

Since this is the third of four full moons in this season, it is known as a blue moon. This rare calendar event only happens once every few years, giving rise to the term, “once in a blue moon.”

There are normally only three full moons in each season of the year. But since full moons occur every 29.53 days, occasionally a season will contain 4 full moons. The extra full moon of the season is known as a blue moon. Blue moons occur on average once every 2.7 years.

The second definition of a Blue Moon is two full moons in a calendar month, but this doesn’t apply in this case.

During a Full Moon the Moon’s magnitude is -12.7.

The moon will be at Perigee or its closest approach to Earth on August 20, when she will be 223,817 miles from Earth.

Last Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Eastern side illuminated, will occur August 26 at 4:28 AM CDT or 09:28 UTC.

During the Quarter Moon the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

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This month’s meeting will be on August 13 at 7PM at the NWS Forecast Office in Calera.

Hope to see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter

Hi everyone & an early Happy 4th of July!

I hope you are staying cool and hydrated as we bake in the heat of Summer.

That time of the year you always look forward to has arrived!

Yes the time for ALERT dues! Yay!!!

To maintain roster records, according to ALERT’s constitution and bylaws, members who have not paid their 2024/2025 dues (which are due on July 2024’s meeting date, per Article IV), will be removed from the roster. After this point, these members may re-apply.

Members who are not current in good standing may be ineligible for Callouts, NWSchat access, officer positions and the right to vote in the monthly meetings.

In special cases/hardship, members may submit a confidential request to be considered by the board. Such a request will be kept ultra-hush-hush, and can be brought to any board member: (Currently Mark Wells, Russell Thomas, Roger Parsons, Johnnie Knobloch & Casey Benefield).

More on dues, including payment address, can be found in the ALERT Bylaws, on the ALERT-Alabama.org website under Join/Documents.

Join ALERT/Documents

The direct link to the application can be found at https://alert-alabama.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/Documents/alertapp.pdf

Existing members who are renewing can also use PayPal option via billrodgers1973@gmail.com

Also, if anyone would rather use Venmo, route it via @William-Rodgers-73

Until next month, everyone stay safe!

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Echoes Of Signals And Strange Squeals In The Night

I love radio. My first memorable exposure to radio, besides Mom listening to Elvis and Patsy Cline on WSGN, WVOK and WBRC, now WAGG, WJOX and WERC, was hearing the weird “tick, tick, tick at the tone eighteen hours forty six minutes Greenwich Mean Time” on my brothers Shortwave radio.

That was in 1963 and I was 5 years old. So, counting this as the start, listening to AM radio and discovering in 1967 that distant signals drifted in at night, which lead to AM DXing, which lead to Shortwave listening, then scanning, then CB radio, then ham radio, then GMRS and other realms, I can claim to have been “radioing” for sixty plus years.

To me having elevator music from CMBQ “Radio Encilclopdia” on 530 kHz in Cuba, oldies from CFZM “Zoomer Radio” in Toronto battling it out with talk shows from KMRG in Tulsa on 740 kHz or endless political blah, blah, blah from WBAP Dallas on 820 kHz, drifting into my radio fascinates me just as much today as it did when I was a teen sitting up all night listening, when I should have been sleeping. Now I can’t get enough sleep. “Youth is wasted on the young”.

Adding that I can talk to Africa using an antenna that looks like my Mom’s clothesline from back in 1968 and let’s just say that the love affair with radio is still strong.

In the course of time, you hear strange things on the radio. Not just meaning strange people either, which if delved into, would result in a 900 page article.

But, weird squeaks & whistles, for instance the squirmy sound that drifts up and down the 10 meter band when the sun is shining, and the band is open.

Some of these are just regular quirks of a band. Not unusual at all, but, first noticed, makes on scratch their head.

The secret of finding or noticing strange signals and things, is eliminating the normal signals and things. And this takes becoming familiar with the band or becoming a “Band Master”. Don’t Google the term. Just trust me, it’s real, or should be anyway.

Anyone can be a Band Master, that person you know who knows where to look when the band opens for strange or exotic signals and locations. And, it doesn’t take long to become one.

First, you pick a range of frequencies. Preferably not so large as to be unmanageable. Then you just listen. You listen regularly at various times as occasion permits and as you listen you note what signals, stations, nets or regions are there regularly, whether it is repeaters on 2 meters, nets on 75 meters, roundtables that gather at various times of the day or on HF recognizing that New England come in on 15 Meters at such and such times.

Within a week, maybe two you will know what to expect, who to expect and get a good sense of the propagation range and direction of signals at various times of the day.

Then you are ready to listen for signals that pop up where there is usually nothing or at times they are normally absent. Or signals that appear on regular frequencies, but not from the usual source.

For instance, did you know that a repeater from Illinois was booming in on the BARC repeater frequency on 146.880 MHz Monday morning on June 24?

If you did, and if you knew how to go to VFO or change your radio’s subtone from 88.5 Hz, (the Birmingham repeater’s tone) to 107.2 Hz, you probably could have been talking to folk on the Chicago 88 repeater.

The 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands are open far more regularly than most people realize. Especially from dawn extending to midday. That’s why it’s a good idea to not just program a radio and never venture from those preprogrammed frequencies, but, explore! Go to VFO and explore the band. You never know what you may find. From distant repeaters, long distance stations on simplex to the Zombie Liberation Army Nerf Gun Squad bootlegging on Baofengs, you never know what strange things you may find.

What is the strangest thing I’ve encountered?

Many years ago, in the mid 1980’s, there was a slow speed CW Traffic Net, the Alabama Emergency Net Delta, that met nightly at 5:30 local time on 3.725 MHz.

One fall night the Net Control Station began the net, and we thought something was wrong with his radio, because as he sent the CW characters there was still a signal to be heard that filled in the spaces between the dits and the dahs.

There was a fault that occasionally occur with transmitters where the transmitter will not fully cut off between CW elements, “backwave” if I remember the term correctly, and this is what we thought was happening.

But, then we noticed that the same thing was happening to every station checking in.

In those days we were using older analog equipment, and many times the frequencies were tuned by ear, rather than by dial, everyone was sending manually, and some transmitters had some quirks. So everyone sounded just a little different and distinct.

We heard a mirror image of each stations individual frequency, cadence of sending and if a transmitter was a little chirpy (due to a voltage regulator getting ready to kick the bucket) the image chirped right along. Sometimes it was so loud that it was hard to copy anyone.

We finished the net and the next night everything was back to normal, and it never happened again.

Some of those CW operators had been CW operators had been radio operators in the Navy during World War II (and could copy CW at 40 – 55 WPM be ear). They had never heard anything like this happening. In the years since, Google has not been my friend, in explaining this matter.

Signals can do strange things.

There is a Long Delay Echo which, if conditions are absolutely perfect, you can hear yourself at the end of a transmission 1/7 second after you unkey. In this case the signal has bounced off the ionosphere and the Earth repeated and has completely circled the Earth.

Sometimes a signal can have a metallic sounding “stutter” as it is being received via both the long path and short path simultaneously.

Sometime Medium Wave and Short Wave signals can fade and strengthen, sometimes slowly disappearing into the night, only to reappear a few minutes later stronger than before, or on VHF or UHF, flutter rapidly like a slow drum roll, as signals are arriving at the antenna from different points and a different phases, cancelling each other out and then reinforcing each other.

Signals can flutter bouncing off an aurora on the upper HF bands and 6 meters, sounding like you are violently shaking your head back and forth as you speak.

But none of these apply in this case.

One person on social media explained it to me that “under certain conditions an electromagnetic wave in the ionosphere is coupled into a slow-moving electromechanical wave for a distance, then de-couples into the electromagnet wave.”

It sounds reasonable. Especially since I have no clue what he is talking about. So, why not?

I don’t know.

If we had not been on the air regularly we would have not known whether this was something strange or just a regular occurrence. But, since we haunted that frequency and band, we knew something was afoot.

You have a window to a realm, an unseen world at your fingertips. Familiar, yet unfamiliar. Understood, but is it really understood?

This realm is waiting for your interest and exploration.

So, turn off Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the Young & Restless and turn on that dust covered radio and do some exploring!

Whether it’s peeking between the repeaters or plowing through the static on HF, you never know what you may find.

Oh, did I mention it’s fun?

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Mark’s Almanac

Originally called “Quintilis”, the fifth Roman month, Quintilis was renamed “July” in 44 BC in honor of Julius Caesar.
July is miserably hot, as land temperatures reach their peaks in late July through early August – the Dog Days of Summer.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac lists the traditional period of the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11.

The Romans on the other hand said that the Dog Days ran from July 24 through August 24, or, alternatively, from July 23 through August 23, coinciding with the Sun and the Dog Star Sirius rising at the same time & their combined heat supposedly adding to the summer misery.

As you endure this heat, remember to drink lots of fluids, hug the shade & avoid the afternoon sun.

Also please resist the temptation to take Fido for a walk during the heat of the day. Remember that the “official” temperature readings are taken 6 feet above ground level. It’s much, much hotter on the ground where Fido & Puss must walk with bare paws, where it could easily be 150 degrees.

Before taking Muttley for a walk, place your hand on the pavement and see how hot it is. If it’s miserable to you, it will be miserable to him also. Just walk him in the morning or wait until the sun is setting and it cools off to a tolerable level and try to stick to grassy areas. Then go have a good time together.

The last week of July is usually the hottest week of the year. Tropical conditions are dominant, with conditions similar to that of the Amazon Valley.

This is the time to test the “Brown Grass Theory”. According to this theory, if the grass remains green the temperature will probably not reach 100, but, if the grass turns brown, get set for triple digits. This is a local Birmingham rule, which the Old Timers at the Birmingham NWS, such as Frank Makosky and J.B Elliott used for years.

In July the least rainfall falls in the Northern Hemisphere.

Tornado activity drops sharply, with a 47% decrease nationwide. July has an average of 103 tornadoes.

Hurricane activity increases, but major hurricanes are not yet frequent. By months end, one hurricane will have occurred. Seven percent of a year’s hurricane total occurs in July.

July Tropical Cyclone Breeding Grounds

Long track hurricanes are possible, forming off the African coast and crossing the Atlantic, either to threaten the US East Coast, then eventually veering off towards Bermuda. Or in the case of “Low Latitude” storms, cross the Atlantic, strike the Leeward Islands; enter the Caribbean and then striking the Yucatan, or the Western or Northern Gulf coast.

From 1851 to 2023 there have been 130 Tropical Storms and 62 Hurricanes, 29 of which made landfall in the United States.

Among notable storms are 2005’s Hurricane Emily, the only Category 5 storm to form in July, reaching 160 MPH and striking Mexico.

Hurricane Bertha, a 125 MPH storm holds the record for the longest lifespan for a July hurricane, churning for 17 days.

Days grow shorter as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon decreases from 79.6 degrees at the beginning of the month to 74.7 degrees at the month’s end. Daylight decreases from 14 hours 20 minutes on July 1 to 13 hours 49 minutes on July 31.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

July 1 Sunrise 5:41 AM Sunset 8:01 PM
July 15 Sunrise 5:48 AM Sunset 7:58 PM
July 31 Sunrise 5:59 AM Sunset 7:48 PM

Looking skyward, the Sun, magnitude -26.7 is in Gemini.

At the first of the month Mercury, magnitude -1.2 in Gemini, The Twins, is lost in the glow of the Sun.

He will emerge into the evening sky on July 4th, becoming visible at 8:25 PM, 9° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness.

He will then sink towards the horizon, setting 1 hour and 17 minutes after the Sun at 9:17 PM.

He will reach his highest altitude above the Western horizon on July 13, reaching a low 10° above the horizon.

He will then fade from view, lost once again on the glow of the Sun, on July 15

He will reach her farthest distance from the Sun, or “aphelion” on July 27.

Venus, magnitude -3.9 in Gemini, The Twins, is lost in the glow of the Sun.

She will reach her closest distance from the Sun, or “perihelion” on July 10.

Earth, magnitude -4.0 as viewed from the Sun, is in the constellation Capricorn, The Sea Goat.

Earth will reach her farthest distance from the Sun or Aphelion on July 5 at 12:16 AM CDT or 5:16
UTC, when the distance from the Sun’s center to Earth’s center will be 94,510,539 miles from our home star, as she and the Moon wobble through space, the Moon tugging on the Earth like an unruly pup on a leash.

Mars, magnitude +0.9, with his Moons Phobos and Deimos are in Aries, The Ram,

At the first of the month, he rises at 2:15 AM CDT, 3 hours and 23 minutes before the Sun and reaches an altitude of 32° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:58 AM CDT.

At midmonth he rises at 1:52 AM CDT, 3 hours and 53 minutes before the Sun, reaching an altitude of 38° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:06 AM CDT.

By months end he rises at 1:27 AM CDT, reaching an altitude of 46° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:19 AM CDT.

Dwarf Planet Ceres, magnitude 7.5, is in Sagittarius, The Archer.

Jupiter, magnitude –2.0, and his 95 moons and (invisible from Earth) ring, is in Taurus, The Bull, is a predawn object.

At the first of the month, he rises at 3:29 AM CDT, 2 hours and 9 minutes before the Sun, and reaches an altitude of 21° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:20 AM CDT.

By midmonth he rises at 2:47 AM CDT, 3 hours and 0 minutes before the Sun and reaches an altitude of 31° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:28 AM CDT.

At months end he rises at 1:54 CDT, and reaches an altitude of 44° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:39 AM CDT.

Saturn, magnitude +0.9, and his 146 moons and extensive debris ring system, is in Aquarius, The Water Bearer, and is an early morning object.

At the first of the month, he becomes visible at 11:43 PM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 49° above the southern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:59 AM CDT.

By midmonth he becomes visible at 11:47 PM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 50° above the southern horizon at 4:43 AM CDT, before fading into the twilight at 5:08 AM CDT.

On July 24 Saturn sit next to the Moon. If you were in Asia, he would be seen skimming just above the Lunar disk.

At months end, he becomes visible at 10:43 PM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 49° above the southern horizon at 3:29 AM CDT before fading into the twilight at 5:21 AM CDT.

Uranus, magnitude +5.8, and his 27 moons and ring, in Taurus, The Bull, is reemerging into the predawn sky.

Near the first of the month, he rises at 2:36 AM CDT, 3 hours and 3 minutes before the Sun, and reaches an altitude of 21° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:28 AM CDT.

By midmonth he rises at 1:50 AM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 32° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:36 AM CDT.

At months end he rises at 12:49 AM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 48° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:50 AM CDT.

Neptune, magnitude 7.8, and his 14 moons and ring, is in Pisces, The Fish,

At the first of the month, he rises at 12:08 AM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 47° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:27 AM CDT.

By midmonth he rises at 11:13 PM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 54° above the southern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:46 AM CDT.

At months end he rises at Midnight, and reaches an altitude of 21° above the eastern horizon at 4:09 AM CDT, before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:50 AM CDT.

If one looks at the times given for the rising of Saturn and Uranus through the month: 11:43 PM, 11:47 PM and 10:43 PM for Saturn and 12:08 AM ,11:23 PM and Midnight for Neptune, one might think there is a typographical error. This is not the case.

Saturn and Neptune have entered a period called “retrograde motion”, where they stop their usual eastward movement through the constellations, and start moving westward instead. This apparent reversal of direction is a phenomenon that all the of the outer planets periodically undergo, a few months before they reach opposition, or the point exactly opposite from the Sun.

This retrograde motion is caused by the Earth’s own motion around the Sun. As the Earth circles the Sun, our view or perspective changes, and this causes the apparent positions of objects to move from side to side in the sky during a one year period. This nodding motion is super imposed on the planet’s long-term eastward motion through the constellations, causing them to appear to be moving backwards in their orbits.

A terrestrial example would be passing a car on the highway. Both are moving forward, but the car you are passing looks as if it were going backwards as you look at it through the side window.
This motion was known to ancient observers, and it troubled them to no end, as they could not reconcile this motion with their models which had the planets moving in uniform circular orbits around the Earth, since they believed that the Earth was the center of the solar system.

Saturn entered retrograde motion on June 29, will reach opposition on September 8 and will end retrograde motion on November 15, 2024

Neptune enters retrograde motion on July 2, will reach opposition on September 20 and will end retrograde motion on December 7, 2024.

Dwarf Planet Pluto, with his five moons shines at a dim +14.4 in Capricorn, The Sea Goat.

Dwarf Planet 136108 Haumea, her ring and moons Hiʻiaka and Namaka, shines at a faint magnitude of +17.4 in Bootes, The Herdsman.

Dwarf Planet 136472 Makemake with his moon S/2015 (136472) 1, nicknamed MK1 by the discovery team, shines faintly at magnitude +17.2 in Coma Berenices.

Dwarf Planet 136199 Eris and her moon Dysnomia, originally referred to as Xena and Gabrielle, is barely visible in the most powerful telescopes at magnitude +18.7 in Cetus the Sea Monster.

At least six additional bodies with the preliminary criteria for identifying dwarf planets, and though not “officially” declared as such, are generally called dwarf planets by astronomers as well.

90482 Orcus, and his moon Vanth shines at magnitude 19.2 between Hydra and Sextans, The Sextant.

50000 Quaoar, and his moon Waywot shines at magnitude +18.7 in Scutum, The Shield.

90377 Sedna, the coldest, and at one time, the most distant known place in the Solar System, glows faintly at magnitude +20.8 in Taurus, The Bull.

225088 Gonggong, originally nicknamed Snow White by the discovery team, and his moon Xiangli glows dimly at +21.5 magnitude in Aquarius, The Water Bearer.

2014 UZ224 nicknamed “DeeDee” for “Distant Dwarf” is 8.5 billion miles from the Sun, at magnitude +23.1 in Eridanus, The River.

120347 Salacia, and her moon Actaea glows at magnitude 20.7 in Andromeda, The Chained Woman. Salacia is considered a “borderline” Dwarf Planet. Some astronomers saying she “most certainly is a Dwarf Planet”, while others disagreeing based on her size, saying she is too small to have compressed into a fully solid body, to have been resurfaced, or to have collapsed into “hydrostatic equilibrium”, that is to assume spherical shape like a planet.

This dark world lies beyond the orbit of Neptune, orbiting 4,164,420,166 miles from the Sun.

Currently the most distant observable known object in the Solar System, Asteroid 2018 AG37, nicknamed “FarFarOut”, which is 12,392,647,939 miles or 18 hours, 28 minutes and 46 seconds from Earth, glows at a barely detectable +25.5 magnitude in Lynx.

The most distant man-made object, and the most distant known object in the Solar System Voyager 1, still operating after 46 years, 8 months and 22 days is 15,161,125,747 miles, or in Light Time, 22 hours, 36 minutes and 27 Seconds from Earth as of 5:17 PM, June 23, 2024, sailing 38,027 miles per hour through Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer.

There are 1,351,401 known asteroids as of June 23, 2024, per NASA.

5671 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of June 11, 2024 per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

New Moon will occur at 5:59 PM CDT or 22:59 UTC on July 5. The Moon will be located on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky. This is the best time of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere.

The moon will be at Apogee or its farthest distance from Earth on July 12, when she will be 252,457 miles from Earth.

First Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Western side illuminated, will occur July 13 at 5:49 PM or 22:49 UTC.

During the Quarter Moons the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

July’s Full Moon occurs July 21 at 5:19 AM CDT or 10:19 UTC, when the Moon will be located on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun and its face will be fully illuminated.

July’s Full Moon is called “Buck Moon” in Native American folklore. This moon gets its name because the male buck deer begin to grow their new antlers at this time of year. It has also been called “Full Thunder Moon” & “Hay Moon”.

During a Full Moon the Moon’s magnitude is -12.7.

Last Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Eastern side illuminated, will occur July 27 at 9:54 PM CDT or 2:54 UTC on July 28.

During the Quarter Moon the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

The moon will be at Perigee or its closest approach to Earth on July 23, when she will be 226,747 miles from Earth.

Though it won’t peak until the night and morning of August 12 & 13, the Perseid Meteor Shower begins July 17, and lasts until August 24. This shower, associated with comet Swift-Tuttle will peak at 60 meteors per hour in August.

The Delta-Aquariad Meteor shower peaks on the night of July 28th into the morning of the 29th.
This shower annually occurs from July 12 through August 23 is made up of debris from Comet Marsden Kracht and produces a ZHR or Zenith Hourly Rate of 20 meteors per hour.

The second quarter moon will block many of the fainter meteors this year. But if you are patient, you should still be able to catch a few good ones.

Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Aquarius, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

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This month’s meeting will be on July 9 at 7PM at the National Weather Service Forecast Office at the Shelby County Airport,

Hope to see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter

Hi Everyone,

I hope this finds you well as we ease into summer!

Have you seen or HEARD our plague of cicadas?

In Birmingham and Homewood, I have not heard or seen a single red eyed bug. But, while attending my school reunion held near Alabaster, the drone of the blasted things lived up to their billing as “deafening”. I never had one land in my hair, but one did come perilously close.

So, in a year where we have had an eclipse, an aurora and a LOUD chorus of cicadas, what other adventures await us as the year progresses on?

All I can say is “buy a bug net” as wish you a happy, safe and drama free summer!

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2024-2025 officers for ALERT!

The results of the 2024 are in and your Officers are:

• President: Johnnie Knobloch, KJ4OPX
• Vice President: Casey Benefield, NZ2O
• Treasurer & Membership: Bill Rodgers, K4FSO
• Secretary: Justin Glass, N0ZO

Thank you for your dedication and willingness to serve!

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2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season Begins

The Atlantic Hurricane Season officially begins June 1. The National Hurricane Center, to err on the side of caution in case there was an early arriving storm, began issuing outlooks on May 15.

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center has issued 2024 outlook, released May 23, and is calling for the most intense Atlantic hurricane ever. NOAA predicts a likely range of 17 to 25 named storms, of which 8 to 13 could become hurricanes, including 4 to 7 major hurricanes.

This is the most storms NOAA has ever predicted in a preseason outlook.

NOAA provides these ranges with 85% confidence in an intense season. A 10% chance of an average hurricane season, which normally produces 14 named storms, of which 7 become hurricanes, including 3 major hurricanes and 5% chance of a below normal season.

As mentioned last month, Colorado State University is calling for an “extremely active” season, with 23 named storms.

CSU says there is a 62% chance of the US having a major hurricane landfall, as opposed to the “normal” 43% chance. The call for a 42% chance of the Gulf Coast and Florida Panhandle having a major hurricane landfall and 34% chance that the East Coast and Florida Peninsula will be struck.

Accuweather predicts a “well above average” or “explosive”, season and the UK Tropical Storm Risk,com outlook calls for a “hyper-active” season.

Out of 20 major hurricane season outlooks, all but 2 call for an above average season, calling for 50% more hurricanes than normal.

La Niña conditions are forecast to return this summer around the peak of hurricane season, During La Niña wind shear dies down, which helps promote tropical activity. Add to this
sea-surface temperatures that are well above historical average across much of the Atlantic basin, especially across the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean and the Atlantic, and you have the prime ingredients for an exceptionally active year.

In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter how many storms form, what matters is where they end up arriving. A year with 28 storms that never reach land isn’t overly significant, where a year with only one named storm and it being a repeat of Katrina, Camille or Andrew is.

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The following is an annual tradition, and the only Newsletter rerun that you ever see. As it seems to grow a little longer year by year. And it possibly making the length of the newsletter somewhat oppressive, I considered omitting this, as I don’t want the Newsletter to become a novel. But, since I do think the information is of value, and hopefully of interest, I’m including it. And, so without further ado, I present:

Mark’s Hurricane Guide 2024

With the 2024 North Atlantic Hurricane Season beginning it is a good time to review our preparedness plans.

The source for much of this information is the late John Hope of the National Hurricane Center and later The Weather Channel.

While at the NHC, Hope developed a theory called the John Hope Rule. It consists of two parts. Part 1 states: “If a system is not a bona fide tropical storm before crossing the Windward Islands, or the Lesser Antilles, it will not survive the trek across the Eastern Caribbean Sea. If the wave is still present, formation in the Western Caribbean is possible.” Part 2 states: “If the structure of a wave or storm is good, never discount it or write it off”.

I call that “The Oops Rule” for when something shouldn’t have developed, but it does it anyway.

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Hurricane Impact & Hurricane Response

Alabama is impacted by hurricanes in three ways:

1. Direct Impact – Where the core of the storm or the rain / wind field strikes or passes through a portion of Alabama. Examples being Hurricane’s Fredrick, Opal, Ivan, and Katrina.

2. Indirect Impact – where the core is not over Alabama, but the feeder bands are passing through and causing havoc. Rita’s feeder bands being a good example, which dropped 21
tornadoes over west Alabama in a 4-hour period.
3. Distant Impact – A storm that is not even near Alabama but affecting our weather. Such as with Olivia, a Pacific Hurricane which was off Western Mexico. Her moisture was captured by the jet stream, crossed the Sonora desert, the Arklatex region & dumped monsoon type rains on Alabama & Mississippi, causing flooding.

ALERT typically will activate during scenarios 1 & 2. ALERT’s coverage would concentrate on monitoring D-Star directly and using a liaison station to monitor HF offsite on 3.965 MHz or the backup 40-meter frequency of 7.243 MHz

Then as the storm moves northward into the BMX County Warning Area the focus would then shift to the individual county Skywarn Nets, as we would do during a “normal” callout.

HF Gulf Coast Nets to monitor are:

Primary State ARES Frequencies & Nets for Gulf of Mexico & regular meeting times.

3.965 MHz Alabama Emergency Net Mike 4:00 PM Sunday*
3.940 MHz Florida Amateur Single Sideband Net 6:00 PM
3.975 MHz Georgia Single Sideband Net 7:30 PM
3.910 MHz Louisiana Traffic Net 6:30 PM
3.862 MHz Mississippi Section Phone Net 6:00 PM
3.873 MHz Texas Traffic Net 6:30 PM

* Note that this is also the frequency of the Alabama Traffic Net Mike, meeting daily at 6:00 PM Central Time & Sunday’s at 8:00 AM Central Time and the Alabama Day Net, which meets daily at 10:00 AM Central Time.

Wide Coverage Nets

14.235 MHz Hurricane Watch Net As Needed
3.935 MHz Central Gulf Coast Hurricane Net 1:00 UTC

The Hurricane Watch Net is only activated when a storm is within 300 miles of a populated land mass. Normally you shouldn’t check into this net, but only listen. Only check in if you have a legitimate need to do so. A legitimate need being emergency or priority traffic or if the NCS specifically calls for a station in Central Alabama, only then should you pick the microphone up. Occasionally, if there is a lull in activity, they may give a call for general check-ins. But don’t be surprised if they don’t. Helping stations in the affected area is their primary concern.

Once upon a time a, which if I remember correctly was in 1988 when Gilbert, was rearranging Jamaica, the NCS asked “do we have any stations in the affected area, the affected area only?” Some fellow from Zero-land, piped in and very slowly drawled out “This is Kay Zero Que Arr Emmm, Homer over in Tulsa Oklahoma, just wanting to tell you fellers what a fine job, a fine job you fellers are doing. And, if I can be of any help, any help at all just let me know. This is Homer, K0QRM, over in Tulsa Oklahoma on frequency and standing by on the side.”

What harm was done? You might ask.

First, it hampers any emergency traffic trying to reach the net.

Fifteen distress calls probably could have been received and handled in the time it took Homer to ooze over “on the side”.

Secondly, it exacerbates the problem of NCS operator fatigue. Sometimes the adrenalin rush of the moment can keep an NCS sharp and “in the game” as it did with Ivan when I was on the air at K4NWS for 16 hours straight, but, minus that adrenalin rush, when it’s just station after station, checking in hour after hour, just so they can say they checked in, it can wear an NCS out.

So, learn from a bad example. Don’t do this.

Some Internet resources you should have in your toolbox include:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ – The National Hurricane Center out of Coral Gables, FL

http://www.hwn.org/tools/streaming-audio.html – Hurricane Watch Net Streaming Audio.
Note that the audio feed is only active when the net is active.

http://derecho.math.uwm.edu/models/ & http://www.ral.ucar.edu/hurricanes/realtime/current/
– Hurricane Forecast Models

Satellite imagery? We’ve got it!

https://rammb-slider.cira.colostate.edu/
HurricaneZone.net – Tropical Cyclone HQ™
Navy/NRL TC_PAGES Page
Sector Images: Gulf of Mexico – NOAA / NESDIS / STAR
Sector Images: Caribbean – NOAA / NESDIS / STAR
Sector Images: U.S. Atlantic Coast – NOAA / NESDIS / STAR
Sector Images: Tropical Atlantic – NOAA / NESDIS / STAR

Radar Sites? Try these!

Barbadoes Radar
Weather Radar: Barbados – meteoblue

Cuba Radar
Tiempo Actual, Red de Radares Meteorológicos de Cuba (insmet.cu)

Leeward Islands – Guadeloupe & Martinique Radar
ANIMATION SATELLITE et RADAR de PRECIPITATION par Météo-France (meteofrance.gp)

Mexico Radar
Live Weather Radar – Mexico | RainViewer

Puerto Rico Radar
NWS Radar (weather.gov)

United States Dual Pol Radar
COD NEXRAD: LOT

(Note that the COD site will default to Illinois. Chose the radar site you want from the radar site map on the upper right side of the screen. To find the map look for the first icon under “NEXRAD Base Reflectivity & click the icon. A map of the US with every NEXRAD site in the continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and Puerto Rico.

For the most reliable storm information, the National Hurricane Service and the local National Weather Service Forecast Offices for your area and the areas affected should always be your prime source.

The local offices know the historical conditions, topographical factors and the local quirks which make up the microclimate of the area, which may influence or alter situations on a local level, which a forecaster 500 miles away, no matter how good they may be, might not have a clue about.

Major media sources can be trusted, however, internet sources, especially social media prophets and gurus should never be substituted for official sources.

Social media reports and websites, until one knows their sources, the timeliness of their information, their track record of veracity and in some cases their motives, should, for one’s own safety, be viewed with a jaundiced eye and treated with the same caution as you should with all internet sources. Don’t just believe everything you read. Even if you agree with it or want it to be true. And, that applies to a very wide spectrum of subjects, as you cruise down the Disinformation Superhighway.

Don’t spread information without it being verified from authentic sources, no matter how flashy or how convincingly it may be presented. Your credibility and very possibly the safety of others is at stake.

That includes my wise weather prognostications also.

Just remember that some who would have you believe their “expert opinions” are also the same ones who would have you believe that King Charles is a shape shifting lizard dude. And, though I have always suspected that my second-grade teacher, “Mrs. Martin” aka “Madre De Satanás”, might have actually been one, in the case of the King, it is still yet unproven.

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Hurricane Tracking Gleams And Glints From Mark’s Crystal Ball

I’ve always enjoyed trying to second-guess the National Hurricane Center. It’s fun! Many times our forecasts agree, they have outguessed me an honorable number of times & every now and then, when Divine Providence intervenes, I have beaten them.

The following are some random hints and items I have stored in my dusty brain, which every now and then come into play as I gaze into my tropical crystal ball.

The first thing I will touch on is the name itself – “Hurricane” and its origin.

Some believe the name originated from “huracan” which was the Carib peoples of Northern South America term for “evil wind”. Others credit the Mayans of Central America and believe that is originates from “Hurakan”, the Mayan god of wind, storm and fire. According to the Mayan Creation Myth, Hurakan caused the Great Flood after the first humans angered the gods. According to the myth, he lived in the windy mists above the floodwaters and repeatedly called forth the earth until land came up from beneath the seas.

Whichever its origin, it is known that the names Hurican and Hurikan predate the appearance of Europeans on the horizons of what would become known as the “Americas”, stretching back into the dim mists of antiquity.

The Spanish word for “Hurricane” is “Huracan” to this day.

A couple of terms which you have undoubtedly heard of is “El Niño” & “La Niña”.

El Niño or more precisely the “El Niño Southern Oscillation” (ENSO), is a planetary-scale climate variation caused by interactions between the atmosphere and the Central and Eastern Pacific Ocean, which in turn affects the tropical climatology of the Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic Ocean.

El Niño refers to unusually warm ocean temperatures that occur every 2–7 years around Christmas time along Peruvian coast, extending into equatorial eastern and central Pacific Ocean, while La Niña refers to unusual cooler temperatures. A normal temperature is referred to as “neutral”.

Though many factors are used in making seasonal hurricane forecasts, El Niño & La Niña weigh heavily in the process.

The warm El Niño favors stronger hurricane activity in the central and eastern Pacific basins due to lower vertical wind shear, weaker trade winds and greater instability, while suppressing it in the Atlantic basin due to stronger wind shear tearing and shredding the thunderstorm columns of storms trying to form, stronger trade winds hampering large scale organization and greater atmospheric stability.

The cool La Niña does the opposite suppressing hurricane activity in the central and eastern Pacific basins and enhancing activity in the Atlantic basin.

2024 is La Niña year, which is one of the reasons why 2024 is expected that we will have a vigorous tropical season.

Some other hurricane facts are:

The maximum number of tropical systems that the Atlantic Basin (which includes the Gulf and Caribbean) can simultaneously contain, and support is five storms.

If major tropical systems get too close to one another they don’t merge as thunderstorms often do. The upper-level winds associated with each storm counteract or buffets each other preventing this from occurring.

If you have a large storm and a smaller storm enters the influence or wind field of the larger storm, the smaller storm will tend to rotate counterclockwise around the primary storm in a process called the Fujiwhara Effect.

If the smaller storm is very weak, say a tropical storm versus a Category 4 storm, it is possible that the smaller storms circulation can be totally disrupted by the larger storm and then it can be absorbed into the larger storm’s circulation. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNjUSsqJgek&feature=relmfu as Typhoon Ma-On gobbles up Tropical Storm Tokage in 2011.

Tropical systems, for all of their tremendous energy, are totally without an engine or steering mechanism, but are at the mercy of the whims of the upper-level winds. A tropical system can spin all it wants to, but unless the storms thunderstorm columns reach high enough to snag the upper-level winds, and then act as a sail, the storm is going nowhere fast. If the upper-level winds die down, the storm can drift aimlessly for days.

If the storm sits still long enough, it will begin to dissipate due to it stirring up the deeper cooler waters beneath it and it cooling the sea surface temperature below the 80 degree critical threshold needed to sustain a tropical storm. This is “upwelling”. The one exception to this rule is if it is sitting over the Gulf Stream, as the incoming current will continually replenish the warm water beneath the storm.

Air pollution or the lack thereof can influence tropical activity. NOAA has found that a 50% decrease in pollution particles and droplets in Europe and the U.S. is linked to a 33% increase in Atlantic storm formation in the past couple decades, while the opposite is happening in the Pacific with more pollution and fewer typhoons. Less pollution lets more sunlight to reach the ocean surface and vice versa.

Saharan sand blown across the Atlantic and into the Gulf will limit tropical development by blocking sunlight. This is a common occurrence which happens every spring and summer.

A well-formed storm will have a perfectly circular Central Dense Overcast or CDO, an area of thunderstorms surrounding the eye wall, with “feeder bands” of thunderstorms spiraling inward counterclockwise, parallel to the storm’s inbound horizontal winds, and “feeding” energy from the warm tropical ocean into the storm.

The winds being drawn into the eye, once arriving can only go in one direction – up – and in a well formed storm the system will be capped by high pressure, which helps evacuate these winds as they reach the stratosphere. This forms a false cirrus shield of clouds rotating in a clockwise fashion, as the winds are vented outward. If the storm has a tear drop shape or a long plume of clouds extending from the storm, this indicates heavy shearing, which will limit its growth, or shred the circulation. The storm will be veered by the shearing and try to deflect towards the direction of the plume.

A poorly organized storm can have a completely exposed center, with the cloud shield nowhere near the center. Until it starts “stacking up” it will remain a weak storm.

Intense, Category 3 or greater hurricanes will go through a process called an “eyewall replacement cycle”. In this case the eyewall contracts so small that some of the outer rain bands may strengthen and form an outer eyewall, causing the storm to weaken by robbing energy from the inner eyewall and will eventually choke it out completely and replace it, causing the storm to re-intensify.

This is a common occurrence. Less common is when you have a triple eyewall, as was the case with Typhoon June and Hurricane Juliette.

The fastest intensification from a Tropical Storm to a Category 5 Hurricane occurred with Hurricane Wilma in 2006, which in 24 hours went from 70 mph to 155 mph and then vacationed in the Yucatan.

The fastest intensification from a Tropical Depression to a Category 5 Hurricane occurred with Wilma & Hurricane Felix, which took just 54 hours to bloom and then blessed Nicaragua with its presence in 2007.

Honorable mention also goes to Hurricane Delta, which took just took just 36 hours to grow from a Tropical Depression to a Category 4 storm in October 2020.

The World Champion is Super Typhoon Hagibus which grew from a tropical storm to the equivalent of a Category 5 storm in only 18 hours in 2019.

Tropical systems cannot penetrate frontal boundaries. If a tropical system is threatening the coast, and you see that a front will be approaching the coast from the West, don’t worry about the coast, as it will either stall the storm, deflect it to the Northeast or as in the case of 2009’s Tropical Storm Danny, it can absorb a weak storm.

When looking at hurricane forecast model ensembles, RAL | Tropical Cyclone Guidance Project | Real-Time Guidance (ucar.edu) you can judge the “confidence” of the models by the grouping of the plotted tracks. If the plots are tightly grouped together, you can have “high confidence” in the reliability of the track and if the timing given by the plots agree, that also. The narrower the spread, the greater the confidence, and the wider the spread, the lesser the confidence. Some tracks will be obviously wrong, those you can dismiss. If the forecast tracks go look like they were written by a drunken spider, with paths going in every direction at once, that storm is heading nowhere fast.

One must be very cautious of jumping to conclusions when they see a forecast model indicating a tropical system and then blasting on the internet that “it’s about to get real in Mobile” and then causing people to panic and spread even more rumors online, when in fact that one model shows nothing 12 hours later. A single model can be misleading or just plain wrong. Consistency is the key. If a model consistently and persistently shows a system, then you know that THAT model thinks something will happen. But what do the other models say? Do they agree with the intensity and forecast track? Do they even show anything at all? That’s why the NHC is the best place to get your information.

The NHC issues outlooks for 2 days and 7 days. Beyond that everything is guesswork.

If a storm exists, they will issue full advisories every 12 hours and intermediate advisories every 6 hours.

One staple of NHC graphics is the “forecast cone” or “cone of uncertainty”, which represents the probable track of the center of the tropical cyclone.

The size of the cone is drawn so that about two-thirds of the time, the center of the storm will remain in the cone.

The cone does not take the size or shape of the storm into account, only where they think the center will be located. Some storms are large with damaging winds extending far beyond the cone. Some storms are compact, and the damaging winds lie within a small area in the cone. Some storms are lopsided, with nothing much happening on the western side leading people to carp about “over hyped forecasts for ratings” while the same distance away on the eastern side of the storm people are literally hanging on for dear life.

It is always to be remembered that a hurricane is not a point on a map; impacts often occur well outside of the core.

The cone indicates the forecast up to five days out from the last recorded position of the storm, with each increase in time from this initial period, the error factor grows.

Forecast Period (hours) Average NHC Forecast Track Error (miles)
12 9.1
24 26.3
36 42.0
48 56.9
72 73.8
96 109.7
120 221.7

This is why one should always get the latest information from the NHC, as they are constantly fine tuning their forecasts.

Tropical storms and hurricanes are steered by winds aloft, and the overall track can be a function of a storm’s intensity. These days, intensity forecasts still have some limitations, but there is a concerted effort to make improvements.

Theoretically Tropical Storms will lose strength over land. The 1997 version of Danny (which came up I-65 reached Birmingham and then turned East heading along I-20 towards Atlanta, as if He knew what he was doing) forgot this and strengthened while over the swamps of South Carolina and then moved into the Atlantic as a rejuvenated system heading for New England. The theory at that time was that the swamps were so warm and humid that the storm “thought” it was over the sea. Now they say it was due to the effects a frontal system closely following the storm. I always preferred the first explanation, as it seemed more logical, if not niftier.

Storms named “Danny” and I are old companions, incidentally. In 1985 I accidentally managed to intercept Hurricane Danny a few hours after it struck Louisiana. I remember the feeder bands passing with heavy rain and gusts, and then it calming and clearing in between waves. “Looks like it can’t decide whether it’s coming or going” said the old guy at a truck stop where I was refueling. I also remember making a ham sandwich for an old dog at a rest stop. Old Shep looked hungry, so I fixed him one. He woofed it down, thanked me kindly and then disappeared into the mist.

If a storm strikes just West of Alabama, expect sorry weather. If it strikes just East of Alabama, expect dry weather and lowering humidity, as the storm drags the moisture away with it.

If a 120 MPH storm is moving North at 20 MPH the wind field around the eye will be affected as follows. The winds on the Eastern side combine and are in effect 140 MPH, while the winds to the West subtract and are in effect 100 MPH. This is the “fast moving hurricane rule”.

If the Eastern Pacific Basin is active, the Atlantic Basin will be quiet & if the Atlantic Basin is active the Eastern Pacific Basin will be quiet.

Category 5 storms have never occurred in both the Atlantic & Pacific Basins in the same year.

Hurricanes can cross Central America from either the Atlantic or Pacific Basins, enter the other Basin and restrengthen and be renamed. The last being in 1996 when Category 1 Hurricane Cesar which scraped Northern South America, crossed Central America & restrengthened into Category 4 Hurricane Douglas.

Then there is the case of 1961’s Hurricane Hattie, which formed in the Caribbean, stuck Central America on Halloween, dissipated, then after reaching the Pacific, her remnants helped generate Tropical Storm Simone on November 1. Simone then turned Northwest striking Southern Mexico on November 2, dissipated and her remnants crossed Mexico, entering the Gulf of Mexico. These remnants in turn helped generate Tropical Storm Inga, which dissipated on November 8.

Alphabetical name position can’t be used as an indicator of possible storm strength. Andrew and Opal, both unruly guests, with names toward the opposite ends of the alphabet, are good examples.

Never underestimate the potential impacts of late season storms. Category 5 Hurricane Mitch was active from October 22 – November 5, 1998, with maximum sustained winds of 180 MPH. This storm struck Central America, Yucatán Peninsula & South Florida causing 6.2 billion dollars in damage and caused 11,000 deaths.

Remember that winds do not blow OUT of a hurricane; they are drawn INTO the storm in a spiraling motion. By factoring in the Coriolis Effect of the Earth’s rotation and the counter-effects of surface friction you can determine the general direction of any tropical storm or non-tropical low-pressure center using the surface wind direction as follows:

Wind Direction Storm Center Location

South North West
Southeast West
East Southwest
Northeast South
North Southeast
Northwest East
West Northeast
Southwest North

Calm winds suddenly occurring during a hurricane indicates the eye is over you. The winds will return just as suddenly, often stronger in the opposite direction.

My sister’s family was living at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines in 1974, when Typhoon Bidang passed directly over. When the winds suddenly died down, they knew they were in the eye. Suddenly there was a knock on the door and opening it she found a delivery van with the furniture she had ordered. The Filipinos crew unloaded everything, said “thank you” and drove off into the darkness as the rear of the eyewall appeared and began blowing at full force.

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NHC Hurricane Tracking Chart PDF’s

Here are handy hurricane tracking charts from the National Hurricane Center.

For the Atlantic Ocean: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/tracking_chart_atlantic.pdf
For the Pacific Ocean: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/tracking_chart_epacific.pdf

Someone once asked me “why do you bother tracking the Pacific ones?” For practice, so that when the Atlantic ones do appear you are already ahead of the game experience wise.

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Mark’s Almanac

Originally the fourth Roman Month, June at one time had 29 days, until Julius Caesar in a glow of inspiration added the 30th day.

What June was named for is uncertain. Some say it was named for Juno, wife & sister of Jupiter. Juno was the goddess of marriage and a married couple’s household, so some consider it good luck to be married in this month, which is why June has become a month for so many marriages.

The beginning of meteorological Summer is June 1.

Storm activity retains many of the characteristics of spring, but more and more the pattern takes on the summer pattern of pop-up thunderstorms.

Hurricane season begins, June 1, however June hurricanes are usually small and of minor intensity, occurring roughly once every two years.

The centers for June Tropical Cyclone activity are the extreme Western Caribbean, with the storm tracks striking the Yucatan or veering toward Western Florida & the Southwestern Gulf of Mexico, with other storm tracks aiming toward the Mexican mainland.

From 1851 to 2023 there have been 102 Tropical Storms and 33 Hurricanes, of which 19 impacted the United States. The most notable June hurricane was Audrey, one of the deadliest tropical cyclones in US history, which killed 416 as it devastated the southwestern Louisiana coast in 1957.

The center of maximum tornadic activity shifts northward over Kansas and Iowa. Activity in Texas and Oklahoma dies down. There is a 5% decrease in tornadic activity over the May average & by June 4th 50% of the year’s tornadoes have occurred.

Days continue to grow longer as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon increases from 78.5 degrees at the beginning of the month to maximum of 79.9 on Summer Solstice on June 21 and then lowering to 79.6 degrees at the month’s end. Daylight increases from 14 hours 14 minutes on June 1 to the maximum daylight of 14 hours 23 minutes at Summer Solstice on June 21 and then decreases to 14 hours 21 minutes on June 30.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

June 1 Sunrise 5:38 AM Sunset 7:52 PM
June 15 Sunrise 5:37 AM Sunset 7:59 PM
June 30 Sunrise 5:40 AM Sunset 8:01 PM

Before we precede, a few words about the recent aurora.

In 2003 I had a beagle named Wendy. One October night, about 9 PM, as I was feeding her, she kept staring at the northern sky. Once before she had done this and I spotted an owl sitting in the tree, so I thought maybe Hootie had come back. But, I looked and saw nothing, so I came back in.

An hour later, a TV meteorologist, possibly named Spann, said Alabama had been treated to a rare display of the Northern Lights.
In 2024 I have an Australian Shepherd / Collie named Bo. On May 11 around 9:00 PM I let him out to take care of business and he stood on the deck looking at the northern sky. Thirty minutes earlier I had gone outside trying to spy out the Northern Lights and saw scattered clouds and the skyglow of Birmingham and nothing else, so I didn’t go back.

At 9:00 PM, according to the security camera at work, the Northern Lights appeared over Birmingham and moved across the northeastern and eastern sky for 20 minutes and then disappeared, never to return.

Two things I learned from this experience: 1. I should listen to my dogs, 2. These are not necessarily “once in a lifetime” or “once in a century” events.

The solar conditions leading to the 2024 event were stronger that the 2003 event, but, not as strong as an event in March 1989.

The sunspot AR3664, which caused the auroral outbreak has survived a two week long passed behind the Sun and reappeared, bearing a new number, AR 3697 and is still spitting out X class flares as it reemerges from the southeastern limb of the Sun.

So, who knows? Maybe Bo the Dog will see the aurora again, and maybe Mark will be smart enough to pay attention this time.

I hear varying descriptions of the aurora’s actual visibility in Alabama. Pictures posted, many taken with smart phones in night mode, which are more infrared sensitive than the human eye, show an impressive display, however, naked eye reports vary from “grayish, which a little pink” to “I couldn’t see them without the phone.”

Aurora sightings in Alabama are normally red. Why is that?

The color of an aurora is dependent on the aurora’s altitude.

In the God forsaken far northern realms, aurora’s are usually green. Green auroras can reach up to 150 miles in height.

During intense solar activity there can be blue auroras up to 60 miles high and violet auroras above 60 miles, but being that low in altitude, and that high in latitude, they will not be seen in God’s country, the South.

A red aurora, which is only visible during intense solar activity, occurs at altitudes of over 150 miles. If you are seeing a red aurora, you are seeing the tops of the display. The bottom may be over Illinois. Not unlike having cirrus over Birmingham streaming from the anvils of thunderstorms over Mississippi.

Observers in the UK say that if a red aurora starts to turn yellow, the “fun is about over”, as the aurora is subsiding.

One resident of Alaska says that auroral displays come spurts of activity and vary wildly during the event and can suddenly die away.

With the sunspot group rotating our way again, there are certain numbers to watch.

One, the Kp-index, describes disturbances in the horizontal component of Earth’s magnetic field with a range of 0–9, with 1 being calm and 5 or more indicating a geomagnetic storm. It is based on the maximum fluctuations of horizontal components observed on a magnetometer during a three-hour interval.

The Other is the Bz. The north-south direction of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), is the Bz, measured on nanoTeslas (nT). When the north-south direction of IMF flips south, the magnetic field lines connect to the earth’s magnetosphere which faces north. A rift opens that allows the solar wind to pour into our magnetosphere. The Bz becomes negative, for example –10nT, which is a good sign that auroras will start to appear.

So, cutting through the mumbo jumbo, if the Planetary Kp-Index goes into the 8 or 9 level and the Bz level goes into negative values, it’s a good sign that an aurora may appear.

All of these readings, and more may be found at Auroral activity | SpaceWeatherLive.com and
ON6ZQ | Propagation / N0NBH

We are at or near the speak of Solar Cycle 25. The “fireworks” may be far from over.

Looking skyward, the Sun, magnitude -26.7 is in Taurus, The Bull.

Mercury, magnitude -0.6 in Aires, The Ram, is lost in the glow of the Sun.

He will reach his closet distance from the Sun, or “Perihelion”, on June 13, and will pass behind the Sun, or reach “Superior Conjunction”, on June 14,

Venus, magnitude -3.9 in Taurus, The Bull, is lost in the glow of the Sun.

She will pass behind the Sun, or reach Superior Conjunction, on June 14.

Earth, and her Moon, magnitude -4.0, as viewed from the Sun, is in the constellation Ophiuchus, The Serpent Bearer.

Mars, with his moons Phobos and Deimos magnitude +1.1, in Pisces, The Fish, is emerging into the predawn sky.

At the first of the month, he rises at 3:09 AM CDT, 2 hour and 26 minutes before the Sun and reaches an altitude of 21° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:54 AM CDT.

The Northern hemisphere’s Winter Solstice will occur on the Red Planet on June 7.

At midmonth he rises at 2:43 AM CDT, 2 hours and 51 minutes before the Sun, reaching an altitude of 26° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:53 AM CDT.

By months end he rises at 2:17 AM CDT, 3 hours and 20 minutes before the Sun and reaches an altitude of 32° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:57 AM CDT.

Dwarf Planet Ceres, magnitude +8.0 is in Sagittarius The Archer.

Jupiter, and his 95 moons and (invisible from Earth) ring magnitude –2.0, in Taurus, The Bull, is hidden in the glow of the Sun as the month begins.

He reemerges in the predawn sky on June 12

At midmonth he rises at 4:19 AM CDT, 1 hours and 15 minutes before the Sun, reaching an altitude of 10° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:16 AM CDT.

By months end he rises at 3:32 AM CDT, 2 hours and 5 minutes before the Sun and reaches an altitude of 20° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:20 AM CDT.

Saturn, and his 146 moons and extensive debris ring system, magnitude +1.0, in Aquarius, The Water Bearer, is visible in the dawn sky.

At the first of the month, he rises at 1:39 AM CDT, 3 hours and 56 minutes before the Sun, and reaches an altitude of 36° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:56 AM CDT.

By midmonth he rises at 12:46 AM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 44° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:56 AM CDT.

At months end he rises at 11:47 PM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 49° above the southern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:59 AM CDT.

Uranus, and his 28 moons and ring, magnitude +5.9 in Taurus, The Bull, is lost in the glow of the Sun.

Neptune, and his 16 moons and ring, magnitude 7.8 in Pisces, The Fish, is visible using a telescope in the predawn sky.

At the first of the month, he rises at 2:05 AM CDT, 3 hours and 30 minutes before the Sun, and reaches an altitude of 27° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:26 AM CDT.

By midmonth he rises at 1:11 AM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 37° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:23 AM CDT.

At months end he rises at 12:12 AM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 47° above the southern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:27 AM CDT.

Dwarf Planet Pluto, with his five moons shines at a dim +14.5 in Capricorn, The Sea Goat.

Dwarf Planet 136108 Haumea, her ring and moons Hiʻiaka and Namaka, shines at a faint magnitude of +17.3 in Bootes, The Herdsman.

Dwarf Planet 136472 Makemake with his moon S/2015 (136472) 1, nicknamed MK1 by the discovery team, shines faintly at magnitude +17.2 in Coma Berenices.

Dwarf Planet 136199 Eris and her moon Dysnomia, originally referred to as Xena and Gabrielle, is barely visible in the most powerful telescopes at magnitude +18.7 in Cetus the Sea Monster.

At least six additional bodies with the preliminary criteria for identifying dwarf planets, and though not “officially” declared as such, are generally called dwarf planets by astronomers as well.

90482 Orcus, and his moon Vanth shines at magnitude 19.1 between Hydra and Sextans, The Sextant.

50000 Quaoar, and his moon Waywot shines at magnitude +18.6 in Scutum, The Shield.

90377 Sedna, the coldest, and at one time, the most distant known place in the Solar System, glows faintly at magnitude +20.8 in Taurus, The Bull.

225088 Gonggong, originally nicknamed Snow White by the discovery team, and his moon Xiangli glows dimly at +21.5 magnitude in Aquarius, The Water Bearer.

2014 UZ224 nicknamed “DeeDee” for “Distant Dwarf” is 8.5 billion miles from the Sun, at magnitude +23.0 in Eridanus, The River.

120347 Salacia, and her moon Actaea glows at magnitude 20.7 in Andromeda, The Chained Woman. Salacia is considered a “borderline” Dwarf Planet. Some astronomers saying she “most certainly is a Dwarf Planet”, while others disagreeing based on her size, saying she is too small to have compressed into a fully solid body, to have been resurfaced, or to have collapsed into “hydrostatic equilibrium”, that is to assume spherical shape like a planet.

This dark world lies beyond the orbit of Neptune, orbiting 4,164,420,166 miles from the Sun.

Currently the most distant observable known object in the Solar System, Asteroid 2018 AG37, nicknamed “FarFarOut”, which is 12,365,836,632 miles or 18 hours, 26 minutes and 22 seconds from Earth, glows at a barely detectable +25.5 magnitude in Lynx.

The most distant man-made object, and the most distant known object in the Solar System Voyager 1, still operating after 46 years, 8 months and 22 days is 15,135,486,361 miles, or in Light Time, 22 hours, 34 minutes and 10 Seconds from Earth as of 8:10 PM, May 27, 2024, sailing 38,026 miles per hour through Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer.

There are 1,351,400 known asteroids as of May 27, 2024, per NASA.

5632 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of May 21, 2024 per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

The Moon will be at Perigee, or her closest point from the Earth on June 2 at 228,732 Miles.

New Moon will occur at 7:40 AM CDT or 12:40 UTC on June 6. The Moon will be located on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky. This is the best time of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere.

First Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Western side illuminated, will occur June 14 at 12:19 AM or 5:19 UTC.

During the Quarter Moons the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

The Moon will be at Apogee, or her farthest point from the Earth on June 14 at 251,082 Miles.

Summer Solstice will occur at 2:41 PM CDT or 20:41 UTC on June 21. The North Pole of the earth will be tilted toward the Sun, which will have reached its northernmost position in the sky and will be directly over the Tropic of Cancer at 23.44 degrees north latitude. This is the first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

June’s Full Moon is “Strawberry Moon” in Native American folklore. This will occur on June 21 at 8:09 PM CDT or 1:09 UTC on June 22. The Moon will be located on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun and its face will be fully illuminated. It is called “Strawberry Moon” for it signals the time to start harvesting strawberries, as it is peak strawberry ripening time. Other names are “Rose Moon” and “Honey Moon”.

During a Full Moon the Moon’s magnitude is -12.7.

The Moon will be at Perigee, or her closest point from the Earth on June 27 at 229,467 Miles.

The June Bootids Meteor Shower will occur from June 26th until July 2nd. It peaks on June 27th. Normally the shower is very weak, with a Zenith Hourly Rate or ZHR of 1 or 2, but occasional outbursts produce a hundred or more meteors per hour. The source of the June Bootids is Comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke, which orbits the Sun once every 6.37 years.

The Last Quarter moon will block out some of the faintest meteors with this unpredictable shower, but if you are patient, you should be able to catch quite a few good ones. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight.

Last Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Eastern side illuminated, will occur June 29 at 4:55 PM CDT or 9:55 UTC.

Around 10 PM in mid-June, Libra the Scales will be passing due South. When Alpha Librae, the lower-right of the two brightest stars of Libra, is due south, if you look directly below it you will see nothing but horizon. But, if you were at a lower latitude, say 29°, the latitude of Orlando, or points south would see our brilliant, -0.27 magnitude neighbor Alpha Centauri above the horizon.

At 4.37 light years distance, the Alpha Centauri system is nearest star system to our own.

It is a triple star consisting of Alpha Centauri A, also called Rigil Kentaurus, Alpha Centauri B or Toliman and the closest star to the Sun, Alpha Centauri C also called Proxima Centauri, 4.24 light years from Earth.

Alpha Centauri A is a near twin of our Sun in almost every way, including age, while Alpha Centauri B is somewhat smaller and dimmer but still quite like the Sun. The third member, Proxima Centauri is a much smaller red dwarf star that travels around the A-B pair.

Proxima Centauri has three known planets: Proxima b, an Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone or so called “Goldilocks Zone” – not too hot and not too cold to support some form of life if it has a suitable atmosphere. Proxima c, a super-Earth, which is possibly surrounded by a huge ring system and Proxima d, which orbits very closely to the star.

Alpha Centauri A may have a Neptune-sized habitable-zone planet, though it is not yet known to be planetary in nature and could be an artifact of the discovery mechanism. Alpha Centauri B has no known planets.

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This month’s meeting will be on June 11, at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Calera.

I hope to see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter

 Hi everyone, I hope this finds you doing well & that you have been enjoying these cool spring days.

Our May 14 ALERT meeting will feature our annual elections.

Positions to be decided are President, Vice President, Treasurer/Membership, Secretary and NWS Liaison/K4NWS Station Trustee.

Those recommended by the Nominating Committee and any nominations from the floor (made by a current ALERT Operational Member) and any volunteers for those positions will be voted on by secret ballot, or acclamation if no other nominations exist from the floor.

If you are a paid-up Operational Member or Supporting Member, who is a member interested in Amateur Radio, Skywarn or Emergency Communications, but doesn’t have a ham license, you may vote in the 2024-2025 ALERT leadership elections.

The positions of Public Information Officer and the non-permanent 1 year Board of Director positions will be appointed by the incoming President. The 2 year Board position was chosen last year. If a Board position we’re to be vacated during the year, the President would appoint a member to serve the remainder of the term, per ARTICLE VI, Section 2, of the ALERT Bylaws & Constitution.

The Editor of the Newsletter isn’t mentioned in the Bylaws and is merely a voluntary “labor of love” of which I have been overseeing since 2007. And, unless there is a volunteer clawing at the doors to take over, I will probably (pending Presidential approval) continue onward.

The officers will assume their positions at the July meeting.

July is also when ALERT dues are due. Remember, if you wish to respond to ALERT callouts or serve as an officer you MUST be current with your dues.

May your May be a happy one!

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Troublesome 2024 Hurricane Outlooks

Colorado State University has issued its outlook for the 2024 tropical season, which runs from June 1 to November.

EXTENDED-RANGE FORECAST OF ATLANTIC HURRICANE ACTIVITY FOR 2024 (colostate.edu)

Their forecast predicts an “extremely active” season with 23 named storms during the Atlantic hurricane season. Of those, researchers expect 11 to become hurricanes and 5 to reach major hurricane strength of Category 3 or greater, with sustained winds of 111 miles per hour or greater.

There is 62% chance for at least one major hurricane to strike the United States. The average from 1880 – 2020 is 43%.

There is 34% chance for at least one major hurricane to strike the US East coast including the Florida Peninsula. The average from 1880 – 2020 is 21%.

There is 42% chance for at least one major hurricane to strike the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle to Brownsville Texas. The average from 1880 – 2020 is 27%.

AccuWeather’s 2024 Atlantic hurricane outlook also calls for an “well above average” or “explosive”, season with 20 – 25 named storms. Of those storms, 8 to 10 are forecast to become hurricanes, 4 to 7 being major hurricanes and 4 to 6 hurricanes are likely to hit the United States.

Explosive Atlantic hurricane season predicted for 2024, AccuWeather experts warn

The UK Tropical Storm Risk,com outlook calls for a “hyper-active” season with 23 named storms, 11 hurricanes and 5 “intense” hurricanes, with the US being visited by 7 tropical storms and 3 hurricanes, intensity unpredictable.

Click to access TSRATLForecastApril2024.pdf

A “Normal” season sees about 12 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and 3 major hurricanes.

The 2023 Atlantic hurricane season was the fourth most active season on record with 20 named storms, 7 becoming hurricanes and of those 7, 3 becoming major hurricanes.

Of those 20, only four directly impacted the US

Hurricane Idalia struck Florida as a Category 3 hurricane in late August. Tropical Storm Harold drenched southern Texas. Tropical Storm Ophelia made landfall in North Carolina. A much weakened Lee swiped the New England coast as a tropical rainstorm before making landfall in Nova Scotia, Canada. Earlier Lee made his name as the strongest storm of the season, a 165 MPH Category 5 storm.

This year La Niña conditions are forecast to return this summer around the peak of hurricane season, During La Niña wind shear dies down, which helps promote tropical activity. Add to this
sea-surface temperatures that are well above historical average across much of the Atlantic basin, especially across the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean and the Atlantic, and you have the prime ingredients for an exceptionally active year.

The 2024 North Atlantic Basin Tropical Cyclone names are Alberto, Beryl, Chris, Debby, Ernesto, Francine, Gordon, Helene, Isaac, Joyce, Kirk, Leslie, Milton, Nadine, Oscar, Patty, Rafeal, Sara, Tony, Valerie & William.

Note that the names are used on a six-year rotation & that this list will return in 2030. Only names of catastrophic or damaging storms are retired. Which is why you will never have another Andrew, Betsy, Camille, Fredrick, Gilbert, Ivan, Katrina or Opal, to name a few ne’er-do-well storms of the past.

If so many storms occur that the 2024 list is depleted, the storm names will revert to the World Meteorological Organization supplemental list of names: Adria, Braylen, Caridad, Deshawn, Emery, Foster, Gemma, Heath, Isla, Jacobus, Kenzie, Lucio, Makayla, Nolan, Orlanda, Pax, Ronin, Sophie, Tayshaun, Viviana and Will.

The National Hurricane Center will issue their outlook in May.

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Rescue From Death Valley

On April 6, 2024, Amateur Radio Operator Caleb Gustwiller, KD8TGB, in Wauseon Ohio, after unsuccessfully attempting to contact a DX station, turned off his equipment around 5 PM to do “something else.”

At 6:30 PM he turned the equipment back on to “play some more” and he heard KO6DZX calling “Mayday, we are stuck in Death Valley and need help”.

He attempted to contact him and succeeded, but the 10 meter band changed, and the station faded away. He called a friend and had him try to contact him, with little success.

He then went on Facebook to the Parks On The Air group to see if anyone could tune in and hear the station. “Can anyone hear KO6DZX on 28.430? Saying Mayday, but we are losing them.”

A member of the group called the National Park Service in Death Valley California, and Park Rangers indicated that they might know his location and would send help as soon as they could.

Recent floods had washed out many of the roads and many sites were closed and impassable.

The Park Rangers successfully located the operator, KO6DZX, Moritz Wacker, who had had vehicle trouble and was stranded, and he was rescued safely.

Moritz had been a ham for 9 days.

So, ham radio saved a person’s day, if not his life.

Think of the odds though.

The receiving operator decided to turn the radio back on, at just the right time, on just the right frequency on a band that usually fades at sunset and heard him from 1,700 miles away.

What if he decided to watch Family Feud instead of returning to the radio?
What if he had got on 30 minutes later and found the band had closed?
What if he had moved off that completely random frequency or had switched to another band?
What if he had thought someone was just clowning around?
Thankfully he did none of those things and knew that ANY distress call HAS to be treated as legitimate. (And I have heard some bogus ones through the years)

Sounds like someone was looking after KO6DZX.

KO6DZX holds a Technician class license.

Let’s not forget that Technicians have HF privileges also.

The original purpose of the Technician license, as created in 1951, was to encourage and provide access for experimenters in the 220 MHZ and above bands. It was for hams who might not have any interest in long distance HF communications, but wished to experiment with repeaters, moon bounce and other modes.

In the early 1960’s there were two entry level ham licenses, the Novice and the Technician.

The Novice License was for “communicators” and was good for one year and later two years and was nonrenewable. You had two years to upgrade to General, or you lost your license and could not apply again. I remember as a novice knowing that the “clock was ticking” and breathing a sigh of relief in 1978 when I upgraded.
Later that year the FCC changed the rules, and the Novice license became renewable, a decision which some decried as “the death knell of Amateur Radio”, since “no one would ever bother upgrading now”.

The Technician License was for ”experimenters” – people with technical interests in technical things which is why it was called “Technician”.

Technicians had no HF privileges, nor access to 6 or 2 Meters, while Novices had HF CW and 2 Meter voice privileges.

If you wanted to both “communicate” and “experiment”, you had to have both licenses. You could hold both a Novice and Technician License at the same time, each with a different callsign. You would use the appropriate callsign depending on whether you were “communicating” or “experimenting”.

In the process of time and the invention of “incentive licensing” in 1967, there were now six classes of Licenses – Novice, Technician, Conditional, General, Advanced and Extra.

The Conditional Class was a test given by two ham “proctors” to those with “hardship cases”.
This was for those who lived 75 miles or beyond from the nearest FCC office, as tests we’re normally given at the Field Office or as with the Atlanta Field Office, occasionally the FCC staff would travel to a major city and hold testing sessions for ham and commercial licenses.

In Birmingham, the FCC would come sometime in March and sometime in August. The testing dates were not published until a week or so before the test. So, you either studied too early and started forgetting everything, or studied too late and crammed until your brain overheated.

The only sure date was the Birminghamfest, which in those days was held in May at the BJCC, and up until a few years ago was always a Saturday & Sunday Affair, as the Huntsville Hamfest is today.

As other major adjustments came over the years, Novices lost voice privileges, Technicians gained 6 and 2 Meters, and the Conditional Class was grandfathered into General Class. In 1975 Technicians gained HF Novice privileges. Technician 10 Meter voice access came in 1987, as did Novice voice privileges on 222 – 225 MHz and 1.270 – 1.295 GHz bands as is today, in the so called “Novice Enhancement” by the FCC.

In 1991 the FCC adopted the No-Code Technician, which had no Novice privileges. Existing Technicians and new ones that passed the 5 WPM CW test became Technician Pluses and had HF Novice privileges.

On April 15, 2000, after the FCC rearranged things yet again, new Novice and Advanced licenses were no longer issued, though existing licenses could still be renewed and in 2007, since all code requirements we’re dropped, No Code Technicians we’re granted Novice HF access, and all Technicians, No Code and Pluses we’re now Technicians.

So, if you are holding a Technician Class license you have access to:

80 Meters – 3.525 – 3.600 MHz – CW only (which is also the entire General & Advanced CW band)

40 Meters – 7.025 – 7.125 MHz – CW only (which is also the entire General & Advanced CW band)

15 Meters – 21.025 – 21.200 MHz – CW only (which is also the entire General & Advanced CW band)

10 Meters – 28.000 – 28.300 MHz – CW, RTTY & Data, including FT8, 200 watts PEP maximum (which is also the entire General & Advanced CW band)

10 Meters – 28.300 – 28.500 MHz – CW & Phone, 200 PEP watts maximum, which is the heart of the 10 Meter band and is shared with General, Advanced and Amateur Extra class licensees.

All frequencies above 50 MHZ.

The reason I’ve stressed “which is also the entire General & Advanced CW band” is that these frequencies are not just little itty bitty slivers, slices or “windows” of the HF bands, as was the case when I started in 1977, but they are “the whole tamale” of non-voice CW frequencies available in the 80, 40, 15 & 10 Meter bands, same as if you held the General or Advanced Class license. The only CW frequencies not available to Technicians in these bands are the bottom 25 kHz reserved for the Amateur Extra class licensees on 80, 40 & 15 Meters.

The only advantage General and Advanced Classes have on these shared frequencies is that they can run RTTY and digital signals such as FT8.

So, Technician HF privileges are a much bigger deal than is advertised or that most even think.

Color_Band_Chart_Image.jpg (989×768) (arrl.org)

CW did not fade away after the code requirement was dropped, but is more popular now than ever before.

One reason being that people have realized the fact that watt for watt, a CW signal has greater range than a SSB signal. With an SSB signal your radiated power is spread wider across the band than a CW signal. A SSB signal covers 3 kHz or 3,000 Hz vs 150 Hz for a CW signal. A CW signal is laser focused like a Maglite focuses a beam of light and so, using this comparison, is “brighter” than a SSB signal.

Also, a CW signal is at 100% power 100% of the time, whereas SSB signals only briefly reach full power on voice peaks. A CW signal squeezes every available watt into the ether.

So, a CW signal will reach farther and penetrate noise better than a voice signal. As an example, many times I have heard stations “tuning up” using a CW carrier and blasting my speaker and then they switched to voice and there was only the faintest wisp of “CQ CQ”.

So, to all Technicians I say, right now you can have the ability to “work the world” at your fingertips. So why not give it a try?

There are many online resources to help you learn CW. And, if I could learn it, being a complete dullard, you can certainly do so, and probably learn it quicker than I did. Just start slow as you need, and speed will follow. I started at 3 WPM and eventually got to 35 WPM by ear. I was younger then and my ears were not corroded as they are now, thanks to Father Time & a little too much LOUD Rock and Roll, so I prefer 13 to 18 WPM.

Plus, as I tell folk, with high speed CW, if the cat sneezes or the dog blasts gas, you miss half of the exchange. So, for me “slow is the way to go.”

Or if you want to try voice, throw up a 17 – 18 foot dipole antenna between two trees, get 10 a meter rig or a full feature HF rig, from 4 to 100 watts, and when the sunspots cooperate, and we are currently at the solar maximum of the 11 year sunspot cycle, you can “work the world”.

10 Meter Technician Class Dipole – Build a Technician Class Dipole for 10 Meters! (hamuniverse.com)

You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain! So, as someone said, “c’mon man”, give it a try!

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Mark’s Almanac

May is the fifth month & third month of the Roman calendar. May is named for the Greek goddess Maia, who was identified with, Bona Dea, the Goddess of Fertility, who was celebrated in May.

Since ancient times the first day of the month, “May Day” has been a time of celebration. In Rome it honored Flora, the goddess of flowers.

On May the fifth Mexican’s celebrate Cinco De Mayo, the celebration of Mexico’s 1862 victory over Napoleon III’s forces at Puebla. This is not, as many assume, Mexico’s Independence Day, which is actually on September 16.

Rainfall decreases in May as the Azores-Bermuda High strengthens, expands Westward over the Southeastern US & begins rerouting storm systems northward.

The door opens to the Gulf of Mexico & Gulf moisture spreads northward over the continent.

The center of maximum tornadic activity also shifts northward over the Nation’s Heartland. May is the peak tornado month, with a 42% increase over April’s amount.

Eastern Pacific hurricane season begins May 15, and although the North Atlantic hurricane season has not arrived, occasionally a tropical system will form in the Gulf of Mexico. From 1851 to 2023 there have been 27 Tropical Storms and 5 Hurricanes, including an 1863 Category 2 storm, the knowledge of which is based on historical reanalysis by NOAA’s Michael Chenoweth and Cary Mock in 2013 and posthumously given the name Hurricane Amanda, named after, a Union ship the storm washed ashore. It made landfall near Apalachicola Florida.

60% of off-season Hurricanes occur in May.

Days continue to grow longer as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon increases from 71.6 degrees at the beginning of the month to 78.4 degrees at the month’s end. Daylight increases from 13 hours 31 minutes on May 1 to 14 hours 13 minutes on May 31.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

May 1 Sunrise 5:59 AM Sunset 7:30 PM
May 15 Sunrise 5:47 AM Sunset 7:41 PM
May 30 Sunrise 5:39 AM Sunset 7:52 PM

Looking skyward, the Sun, magnitude -26.7 is in Pisces, The Fish.

Mercury, magnitude +4.8 in Pisces, The Fish, is lost in the glow of the Sun.

Venus, magnitude -3.9 in Pisces, The Fish, is lost in the glow of the Sun.

Earth, and her Moon, magnitude -4.0, as viewed from the Sun, is in the constellation Libra, The Scales.

Mars, with his moons Phobos and Deimos magnitude +1.1, in Aquarius, The Water Bearer, is emerging into the predawn sky.

At the first of the month, he rises at 4:09 AM, 1 hour and 47 minutes before the Sun and reaches an altitude of 13° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 05:17.

He will reach his closest distance from the Sun or “Perihelion”, on May 8, 2024.

At midmonth he rises at 3:42 AM, 2 hours and 2 minutes before the Sun, reaching an altitude of 16° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 05:04.

By months end he rises at 3:11 AM, 2 hours and 24 minutes before the Sun and reachies an altitude of 20° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 04:55.

Dwarf Planet Ceres, magnitude +8.7 is in Sagittarius The Archer.

Jupiter, and his 95 moons and (invisible from Earth) ring magnitude –2.0, in Aries, became lost in the glow of the Sun on April 26th is hidden in the glow of the Sun.

He will pass behind the Sun, or be in “Conjunction” on May 18.

Saturn, and his 146 moons and extensive debris ring system, magnitude +1.1, in Aquarius, The Water Bearer, is visible in the dawn sky.

At the first of the month, he rises at 3:35 AM, 2 hours and 21 minutes before the Sun, and reaches an altitude of 20° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 05:19.

By midmonth he rises at 2:43 AM, 3 hours and 1 minute before the Sun and reaches an altitude of 27° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 05:05.

At months end he rises at 1:43 AM, 3 hours and 52 minutes before the Sun and reaches an altitude of 36° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 04:56.

Uranus, and his 28 moons and ring, magnitude +5.9 in Aries, The Ram, is lost in the glow of the Sun.

He will pass behind the Sun, or be in “conjunction”, on May 13.

Neptune, and his 16 moons and ring, magnitude 7.8 in Pisces, The Fish, is lost in the glow of the Sun for most of the month, until finally emerging into the predawn sky on May 24. rising at 2:36, 3 hours and 2 minutes before the Sun and reaching an altitude of 22° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 04:30.

I’ll note that except for the Earth, every planet is either lost in the glow of the Sun, or just emerging into the predawn sky. This means that the solar system is currently lopsided with every planet on one side of the Sun, except for little old Earth, sitting alone on the opposite side.

There is no particular significance to this, but I find it an interesting configuration.

Dwarf Planet Pluto, with his five moons shines at a dim +14.5 in Capricorn, The Sea Goat.

Dwarf Planet 136108 Haumea, her ring and moons Hiʻiaka and Namaka, shines at a faint magnitude of +17.3 in Bootes, The Herdsman.

Dwarf Planet 136472 Makemake with his moon S/2015 (136472) 1, nicknamed MK1 by the discovery team, shines faintly at magnitude +17.1 in Coma Berenices.

Dwarf Planet 136199 Eris and her moon Dysnomia, originally referred to as Xena and Gabrielle, is barely visible in the most powerful telescopes at magnitude +18.7 in Cetus the Sea Monster.

At least six additional bodies with the preliminary criteria for identifying dwarf planets, and though not “officially” declared as such, are generally called dwarf planets by astronomers as well.

90482 Orcus, and his moon Vanth shines at magnitude 19.1 between Hydra and Sextans, The Sextant.

50000 Quaoar, and his moon Waywot shines at magnitude +18.6 in Scutum, The Shield.

90377 Sedna, the coldest, and at one time, the most distant known place in the Solar System, glows faintly at magnitude +20.8 in Taurus, The Bull.

225088 Gonggong, originally nicknamed Snow White by the discovery team, and his moon Xiangli glows dimly at +21.5 magnitude in Aquarius, The Water Bearer.

2014 UZ224 nicknamed “DeeDee” for “Distant Dwarf” is 8.5 billion miles from the Sun, at magnitude +23.0 in Eridanus, The River.

120347 Salacia, and her moon Actaea glows at magnitude 20.7 in Andromeda, The Chained Woman. Salacia is considered a “borderline” Dwarf Planet. Some astronomers saying she “most certainly is a Dwarf Planet”, while others disagreeing based on her size, saying she is too small to have compressed into a fully solid body, to have been resurfaced, or to have collapsed into “hydrostatic equilibrium”, that is to assume spherical shape like a planet.

This dark world lies beyond the orbit of Neptune, orbiting 4,164,420,166 miles from the Sun.

Currently the most distant observable known object in the Solar System, Asteroid 2018 AG37, nicknamed “FarFarOut”, which is 12,304,868,885 miles or 18 hours, 20 minutes and 55 seconds from Earth, glows at a barely detectable +25.5 magnitude in Lynx.

The most distant man-made object, and the most distant known object in the Solar System Voyager 1, still operating after 46 years,7 months and 10 days is 15,123,350,964 miles, or in Light Time, 22 hours, 33 minutes and 15 Seconds from Earth as of 1:28 PM, April 15, 2024, sailing 38,026 miles per hour through Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer.

There are 1,351,400 known asteroids as of April 15, 2024, per NASA.

5609 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of April 10, 2024 per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

Last Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Eastern side illuminated, will occur May 1 at 6:27 AM or 11:27 UTC.

During the Quarter Moons the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

The Moon will be at Perigee or its closest distance from Earth on May 5, when she will be 225,661 miles from Earth.

The Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower, an above average shower, peaks May 6 & 7. It can produce up to 60 meteors per hour at its peak, but most of the activity is seen in the Southern Hemisphere. In the Northern Hemisphere, the rate can reach about 30 meteors per hour, which is still a decent shower. It is produced by dust particles left behind by comet Halley, due to return in a mere 39 years in the summer of 2061. The shower runs annually from April 19 to May 28. It peaks this year on the night of May 6 and the morning of May 7. The nearly New Moon means dark skies for what should be an excellent show this year. The best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Aquarius but can appear anywhere in the sky.

New Moon will occur on May 7 at 10:24 PM CDT or May 8 at 3:24 UTC. The Moon will be located on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky. This is the best time of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere.

First Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Western side illuminated, will occur May 15 at 6:49 AM or 11:49 UTC.

During the Quarter Moons the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

The Moon will be at Apogee, or her farthest point from the Earth on May 17 at 251,432 miles.

Full Moon will occur May 23th at 8:55 AM CDT or 13:55 UTC. The Moon will be located on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun and its face will be fully illuminated. May’s Moon is “Flower Moon” in Native American folklore, because of the abundance of spring flowers. It has also been called “Corn Planting Moon” & “Milk Moon”.

During a Full Moon the Moon’s magnitude is -12.7.

May’s second Last Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Eastern side illuminated, will occur May 30 at 12:13 PM or 18:13 UTC.

In the Northern Sky the Big Dipper, part of Ursa Major, the Great Bear, begins the month upside down, “spilling its water” on Polaris, the North Star, which is the tip of the handle of the Little Dipper or Ursa Minor, the Little Bear.

Interestingly, the Big and Little Dippers are arranged so that when one is upright, the other is upside down. In addition, their handles appear to extend in opposite directions. The Big Dipper is by far the brighter of the two, appearing as a long-handled pan, while the Little Dipper resembles a dim ladle.

The Big Dipper is called by other names across the world. In the Netherlands it’s the “Saucepan”, “The Plough” in England and “The Great Wagon” in other parts of Europe.

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This month’s meeting will be on May14 at 7 PM.

The meeting will be held at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Calera.

I hope to see you there!

Mark Wells
WD4NYL
Editor
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