I’ve crunched some more precise numbers for this evening’s ISS and STS-133 passes. The times are in UTC, so you need to subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard time. (Click here to download them in a text file.)

Ottawa-To-ISS
Time (UTCG)                Azimuth (deg)    Elevation (deg)    Range (km)
-----------------------    -------------    ---------------    -----------
9 Mar 2011 00:20:38.123              292                  0    2159.492211
9 Mar 2011 00:21:38.000              287                  4    1765.477591
9 Mar 2011 00:22:38.000              280                  9    1389.558028
9 Mar 2011 00:23:38.000              267                 15    1055.451478
9 Mar 2011 00:24:38.000              244                 22     818.373598
9 Mar 2011 00:25:38.000              209                 24     774.603489
9 Mar 2011 00:26:38.000              180                 18     951.326850
9 Mar 2011 00:27:38.000              164                 11    1258.305207
9 Mar 2011 00:28:38.000              156                  6    1622.294953
9 Mar 2011 00:29:38.000              150                  1    2011.420073
9 Mar 2011 00:29:58.922              149                  0    2150.274764

Ottawa-To-STS-133
Time (UTCG)                Azimuth (deg)    Elevation (deg)     Range (km)
-----------------------    -------------    ---------------    -----------
9 Mar 2011 00:20:05.553              292                  0    2159.008371
9 Mar 2011 00:21:05.000              287                  4    1767.294751
9 Mar 2011 00:22:05.000              280                  9    1390.441394
9 Mar 2011 00:23:05.000              268                 15    1054.707599
9 Mar 2011 00:24:05.000              244                 23     814.906252
9 Mar 2011 00:25:05.000              209                 24     768.231806
9 Mar 2011 00:26:05.000              180                 18     943.899552
9 Mar 2011 00:27:05.000              164                 11    1250.970718
9 Mar 2011 00:28:05.000              155                  6    1615.247805
9 Mar 2011 00:29:05.000              150                  1    2004.620053
9 Mar 2011 00:29:27.464              149                  0    2153.829615

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The International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Discovery will be passing over Ottawa the next couple of days and, weather-permitting, there should be a couple of opportunities to see them as they pass overhead.

You won’t need any fancy equipment to view them. They’ll look like a pair of bright dots, one chasing the other across the sky. According to the Heavens Above website, there are three passes between now and Thursday evening that should be visible from Ottawa.
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According to Wiarton Willie, Spring is coming soon. Apparently, he poked his head out of his burrow this morning and failed to see his shadow, which is the portent of an early Spring. The cynics among you will appreciate the irony that the weather in Wiarton was so inclement that people gathered under a giant tent to await the news. (Presumably, Willie did not benefit from the tent.)

And he’s not the only Marmota monax who failed to see its shadow. Nova Scotia’s Shubenacadie Sam and Puxatawney Phil in Philadelphia both failed to see their shadows, meaning an early Spring is on its way for those parts of the world, too. I’m sure that Nova Scotians were particularly happy by this news given the abysmal winter they’ve had so far this year.

Alberta’s Balzac Billy, on the other hand, apparently saw his shadow and fled to the safety of his burrow. So, it seems that Alberta’s in for another six weeks of winter, while the rest of us can toss away our winter coats, dig the sunscreen out of the cupboard and start basking in the sunshine.

Well… after all the^$!@$% snow that fell today melts!

So, it’s officially Winter.

But why is it Winter today? Why not yesterday or tomorrow or next Tuesday?

It has to do with the tilt of the Earth’s axis relative to the Sun. Specifically, when the angle reaches 23° 26′, Winter begins.

The Winter Solstice occurs on the day with the shortest sunlight hours and the longest night. Up to this point, the days have been getting shorter and the nights longer. From now until the Summer Solstice, we’re going to start seeing more sunlight each day – something that I’m quite happy about!

Many cultures have traditions based on the winter solstice. As I wrote a couple of years ago, the Norse celebrated Yule from the 21st of December through January, giving us our 12 days of Christmas. The ancient Greeks celebrated the festival of Cronus, Kronia, which the Romans rebranded as Saturnalia. Wikipedia has an extensive list of the various cultural celebrations based on the winter solstice that’s worth checking out.

In the mean time, Gledelig Jul!

A tip o’ the hat to NASA for the graphic by Dr. David P. Stern. You can find out when the various solstices, equinoxs and other astronomical events happen on the USNO’s website.

This is the weekend that we fall back in time.

No, I’m not talking about travelling through the Time Vortex, though that would be cool. Rather, I’m talking about changing back to Standard Time.

Twice a year most parts of North America change their clocks to chase the sun. Most recently, the dates this happens were changed to be the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November by the US Energy Policy Act of 2005. This year, it happens at 2am on Sunday, November 7th, so you can safely sleep in this Sunday.

The main reason being touted in support of daylight saving time is that it will result in an overall reduction in energy consumption. I have yet to see anything that says this has been achieved to any degree. David Prerau’s book Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time (hardcover: 1560256559; softcover: 1560257962) tells the story of daylight saving time starting with when Benjamin Franklin mused about how many candles could be saved if the clocks were adjusted so that people were more in-sync with the sun up to just a few years ago. Worth a read if you have a chance.

If you’re a *NIX system administrator you probably updated your systems a couple of years ago, but in case you haven’t you probably should take a look at this. The zdump command should give you something like this:

[gordon@seedling]$ /usr/sbin/zdump -v /etc/localtime |grep 2010

/etc/localtime  Sun Mar 14 06:59:59 2010 UTC = Sun Mar 14 01:59:59 2010 EST isdst=0 gmtoff=-18000

/etc/localtime  Sun Mar 14 07:00:00 2010 UTC = Sun Mar 14 03:00:00 2010 EDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-14400

/etc/localtime  Sun Nov  7 05:59:59 2010 UTC = Sun Nov  7 01:59:59 2010 EDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-14400

/etc/localtime  Sun Nov  7 06:00:00 2010 UTC = Sun Nov  7 01:00:00 2010 EST isdst=0 gmtoff=-18000

So, it’s now officially Spring. March came in like a lamb and the first day of Spring has turned out to be quite a nice day. Hopefully, this is a preview of the next few months until summer arrives.

These words were uttered by Julius Caesar who was taunting Titus Vestricius Spurinna, an Etruscan haruspex who had warned Caesar that something bad would befall him. In this case, Spurinna had the last laugh, so to speak, because later in the day Julius Caesar was assassinated by his enemies.

Other notable things that happened on this date in history:

• Christopher Columbus returned to Spain in 1493 after his first trip to the Americas.
• South Carolina became the first American colony to set up its own independent government in 1776.
• The first World Contact Day with organized in 1953 by the International Flying Saucer Bureau
• The Godfather was released in 1972
• symbolics.com, the first .com domain was registered on the Internet in 1985

As well, one of my good friends celebrates her birthday today. Happy birthday to her! 😉