Iowa Tom

This may have already come up. I noticed last night when I visited some of my cache pages that several of them had been visited but I had not received notice of that yet. The person’s cache records on their profile pages also made note of the fact that they had visited those caches. Eventually some of the logs came in my e-mail but some did not. It has been at least 12 hours. Surprisingly I just got an e-mail of an “enabled the cache” log I myself posted 4 days ago! Has anybody else had problems like this?

I am really confused about the current WAAS satellite sitiuuation. I see here http://gpsinformation.net/exe/waas.html that one of them was moved. Can someone tell me the identification of and the longitudes for the WAAS satellites that I can see in Iowa? Thanks! -it

I did the same thing.

The water along a creek where many of my caches are has risen high enough that I temporarily disabled a bunch of them. Hoping that people could make use of the USGS water level monitoring of that creek I added the following code to those cache pages. <a href="http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?05463500">Flood water level check</a>. It comes out looking like this: Flood water level check. This should help people that want to take a chance in going out. -it

And while you are there keep an eye out for travel bugs from Iowa. I have some and several owned by my students are there as well.

I love reading the posts of a few special people that always brighten my day. Often it's one of those things that means far more to me and the others that are mentioned in their posts than to anyone else. Some of the stories I’ve read are hilarious to say the least. Local Iowans like UNIBear, Barthonis, Windchill and Summitt Dweller are gifted writers. They are never at a loss for words and wit, ribbing each other about being FTF and STF and on and on, always making me laugh. Likewise I try to write a short story. I am sure that the owners appreciate it. To me the Internet is like a diary and I take advantage of that. I have literally found things I’ve written but lost track of by doing a Google search for them. I’m all for telling stories. They are a gift to the people that I believe deserve them. -it

I have used the cache in question at an event. I suppose that's the only place I'll be able to use it. I have two others that use batteries. One requires the person to plug their own 9V in before they can get it to work and the other one has batteries that are only used when they press a button. Those batteries have lasted a good year per set.

I was wondering about something somewhat related to this topic. My question has, I'm sure, come up before, but I am going to ask it here because I don't know what words to use to conduct a search. My question is this, can a person hide a cache for a week (or whatever) then archive it and move it to a new spot? That way a person could find the same cache over again but get credit for each find. I thought of doing this with a very unique cache I have that lends itself to being a temporary cache. It uses batteries and I don't want to leave it out indefinitely. I would set it out now and then. I don't suppose this would be the best idea but, if a person did do this, could they use the same cache name over again? Maybe the name followed by the number of times it has been hidden would be better. -it

Great stuff John, I just checked and the highest GPS sat in my sky at the moment is 69.9 degrees. It's also 20,436.5 km away. The distance to the GPS sats compared to the elevation within the troposphere should be negligible. Their orbits are called intermediate circular orbits.

Thanks HaLiJuSaPa, The screen data is from an ephemeras stored in the software I believe. So what I was seeing was satellites that were "supposed" to be there, regardless of a signal. The number of satellites on the screen doesn't increase when the GPSr starts receiving signals. Here is a picture of the satellite status screen on one of my units during a spectacular aurora over NE Iowa. I was getting full signals from 10 out of 11 satellites on the screen!

Does anyone know if the satellite status screen lists all the GPS satellites above the horizon or is there an above 5 degree low limit etc? My Magellan showed one that was, according to CalSky, only 8 degrees above the horizon. It did not show one that was 6 degrees up though. You can check your own GPS screen with the list of what's up for your IP address here?. Simply adjust the Minimum elevation of satellites then hit “Now.” I noticed (for the first time) tonight that just as CalSky starts with the highest altitude sat on top so my Magellan starts with the highest sat on the left in the list at the bottom of the screen. -it

Well...I see that I'm over the hill. I would rather be over it than under it though. -it

What I want to know is, is this a "who you know" thing? How did you arrange this? I once worked on an event with Don Pettit while he was aboard the ISS. I tried to signal him with a large mirror. I was in Waterloo, IA and he was in orbit. For me it was one of those who you know things. -it

I just started this topic that is an offshoot of this one. -it

I saw the flare and observed the satellite's position using this this website. It's position compared to my position, the house, at the time of the flare, is shown below. I forgot to use J-Track!

J-Track 3D does not show all the operational satellites in orbit. It is selective. Here's an image I made showing a lot more of the stuff that's up there. The green haze close to the earth are low earth satellites. I'm currently writing curriculum about satellites and their orbits and do find J-Track 3D to be very useful! Just today I discovered a fun trick that I didn’t realize that a person can do with it. Try this, click on this URL then under “Satellite” and “Select” highlight the top satellite in the list. Then press and hold down the down arrow on your keyboard. A fast computer will produce quite a show. I find it especially informative when the GPS and COSMOS satellite orbital planes are displayed one after the other. The Iridiums occupy many planes as well. I especially like watching for the highly eccentric orbits like the one for DOUBLESTAR (TC-1). Tonight at my location I will see a magnitude -4 flare from the Iridium 57 satellite. Flares from these satellites are not uncommon but the really bright ones, e.g. up to magnitude -8 or -9, don’t occur often at any one location, aside from the poles that is, and then only at certain times of the year. Here's a picture I took of a -8 Iridium flare that occurred over my place the other day. What I’m going to do at the time of this flare is, not only will I observe the satellite directly, but I will have J-Track 3D up on my laptop using wireless outside. I’ll have Iridium 57 “selected” and “centered” and as the flare occurs and I will see where it is with respect to my location. I have planetarium software that will do a lot better job but I would like to see how J-Track 3D works live in this situation. Secondly I will also go to this website to see where it’s at. Lastly I will click on this URL as well. -it

A friend of mine once said he had a satellite orbiting the earth and the moon for two days, at least. -it

Just discovered this topic. I've been Googling "Earth to Moon Experiment" for years. I challenge my students by telling them to try to get a satellite to do a figure-8 around the earth and the moon. This applet works real well when showing the acceleration of gravity. -it

The speculation is that every new set of batteries might have different magnetic properties, and therefore will cause different distortions in the compass readings, than the last set. Calibrating the electronic compass after replacing a set of batteries corrects for whatever distortion the new batteries cause. --Larry I just moved a battery around a compass and the needle did move. I then placed the battery against a powerful maget I have and when I brought it near the compass again it swung the needle a lot more. Hey Larry, finally, someone that actually signs their post! Now I believe that I will too. -it

I didn't read carefully. Nope. Don't have that. By the way, what happens that makes it need calibration?

How do you calibrate a GPSr? I use Magellan and don't know that I can do that.

Often times, instead of painting PVC or plastic (the paint rubs off) I do a deliberately sloppy job of wrapping the cache with camouflaged duct tape. I wrinkle it etc. Then I paint that. The tape fades to cyan if exposed to light, so by itself it's not good. However, the paint sticks well to it and even if it does come off, the tape serves as something other than white or colorless as a base. Then again, it also adds texture.

The image below and the quotation here is from SpaceWeather.com. "Even experienced astronomers have never seen anything like it--a sweeping fan of comet dust visible to the unaided eye despite city lights and twilight. Steve Crane sends this Jan. 19th picture from Cape Town, South Africa." I made this graphic to show what was up in the west as seen from the Cape after sunset on Jan 21st. The upward slanting lines are about a fist-width held at arm's length apart. If you want to try to determine what satellite you saw go to Heavens-Above. It looks like you will have a high pass of the Space Station on Jan 30. It may even cross in front of the moon! I've seen that happen. It’s a brilliant object to watch. It'll be about as bright as Venus, the star-like object you saw. Iowa Tom NE Iowa USA

Hey are you guys down there seeing Comet McNaught right now? I can hardly believe my eyes when I see the pictures coming in from the Southern Hemisphere. I only caught one glimpse of it from here in the central US before it headed south. I have made many geocaches that have a theme that is related to something about nature. I would think that making one about this unreal comet would be good.

Hey are you guys down there seeing Comet McNaught right now? I can hardly believe my eyes when I see the pictures coming in from the Southern Hemisphere. I only caught one glimpse of it from here in the central US before it headed south. I've made many geocaches that have a theme that is related to something about nature. I would think that making one about this unreal comet would be good.