Mountain Views News          Saturday, October 18, 2014

THE WORLD AROUND US

B2

Mountain Views-News Saturday, October 18, 2014 


PARTIAL SOLAR ECLIPSE VISIBLE HERE OCTOBER 23;

“RECENT” VOLCANIC ACTIVITY SEEN ON MOON


A PARTIAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN will 
be visible across most of North America on 
Thursday, October 23, as the Moon partially 
obscures the Sun between 2:10 and 4:40 p.m. 
PDT. At eclipse maximum (3:29 p.m.) the Sun 
will be approximately half covered, as the Moon 
passes in front of it. 

 Viewers should exercise extreme caution to 
avoid eye damage. NEVER look directly at the 
Sun except through specially-designed filters or 
through welder’s glass. A good alternative to 
looking at the Sun is to look for crescent-shaped 
images of the eclipsed Sun on a sidewalk in the 
shade of a tree, naturally formed as the sunlight 
passes through tiny openings between leaves.

 During the eclipse, the world-famous 
Mount Wilson Observatory in the San Gabriel 
Mountains above Pasadena will present a special 
eclipse-viewing event for the visiting public. 
Several telescopes, equipped with filters for safe 
solar viewing, will be set up in the Observatory 
parking lot for the public’s enjoyment. In 
addition, the historic 150-foot solar tower 
telescope will be open so visitors can view the 
large projected image of the Sun throughout the 
eclipse.

 The Observatory grounds are open to the 
public from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily from 
April through November. On October 23, the 
Observatory’s “Cosmic Café,” where visitors 
to this historic site can purchase fresh-made 
sandwiches, hot dogs, soft drinks, snacks and 
souvenirs, will also be open. For driving directions 
to Mount Wilson and other Observatory visiting 
information, see HYPERLINK “http://www.
mtwilson.edu/vis.php” www.mtwilson.edu/
vis.php.

____________________________________

NASA’s LUNAR RECONNAISSANCE 
ORBITER (LRO) has provided researchers 
strong evidence the Moon’s volcanic activity 
slowed gradually instead of stopping abruptly 
a billion years ago. Scores of distinctive rock 
deposits observed by LRO are estimated to be 
less than 100 million years old. This time period 
corresponds to Earth’s Cretaceous period, the 
heyday of dinosaurs. Some areas may be less 
than 50 million years old. Details of the study are 
published online in Nature Geoscience [http://
www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/
full/ngeo2252.html].

 “This finding is the kind of science that is 
literally going to make geologists rewrite the 
textbooks about the Moon,” said John Keller, 
LRO project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space 
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

 The deposits are scattered across the Moon’s 
dark volcanic plains and are characterized by a 
mixture of smooth, rounded, shallow mounds 
next to patches of rough, blocky terrain. Because 
of this combination of textures, the researchers 
refer to these unusual areas as irregular mare 
patches. The features are too small to be seen 
from Earth, averaging less than a third of a mile 
(500 meters) across in their largest dimension. 
One of the largest, a well-studied area called 
Ina, was imaged from lunar orbit by Apollo 15 
astronauts.

 Ina appeared to be a one-of-a-kind feature 
until researchers from Arizona State University 
in Tempe and Westfälische Wilhelms-
Universität Münster in Germany spotted many 
similar regions in high-resolution images taken 
by the two Narrow Angle Cameras that are part 
of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera. 
The team identified a total of 70 irregular mare 
patches on the near side of the Moon.

 The large number of these features and their 
wide distribution strongly suggest that late-stage 
volcanic activity was not an anomaly but an 
important part of the Moon’s geologic history.

 You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@
MtnViewsNews.com.


QUALITY OF LIFE – AND BUILDINGS – IN SIERRA MADRE By Christopher Nyerges

Recently on 
Facebook, 
The Moutain 
News’s animal 
columnist, 
Chris Leclerc, 
lamented a 
house that 
recently was 
built in Sierra 
Madre. First, 
there had 
been a quaint, 
quintessentially Sierra Madre-style house with 
trees, a beautiful wall built of river stones, and 
some open space for fruit trees and garden. That 
house was razed, and – well, let’s be blunt – a box 
was built there that preserved none of the old-
style quality that had been there before. No more 
stone wall, no trees, no view of the mountains, 
no yard, just a border to border building with a 
pool crammed in. Many commented on Leclerc’s 
Facebook post, also unhappy with what could 
be a trend in local building. Of course, it was all 
apparently “legal.” 

 Many years ago, while driving through towns 
like Arcadia, and Temple City, and surrounding 
areas, and saw that the charm and quality that 
once was there is now gone. Homeowners 
sold and moved on when they saw that their 
neighborhood was being swallowed up by the 
Mammon worshippers, and the developers –in 
some case the out-of-town flippers – who looked 
only for border to border profit. 

 Yes, all legal, perhaps, and possibly inevitable 
as more and more people crowd into our 
relatively tiny slice of land on this coastal desert 
plain called Los Angeles County. 

 I’m fully aware how money controls our lives. 
It is inescapable, and money is almost as critical 
for life as is oxygen. Still, it is entirely possible 
to live our lives doing good, and thinking about 
the future generation, and thinking about the 
earth, if we choose to do so! It is really that 
simple, and yes, sometimes this means you are 
not maximizing your profit. 

 Over a hundred years ago, we knew what was 
necessary to build a house that uses less power, 
and is “friendly” to its inhabitants. Many books 
were written on this subject, such as “Shelter” 
(1973), published by Ten Speed Press. 

 Then, in the 60’s with all the back-to-the-
land interest, people began to do their best to 
incorporate some of these methods into their 
urban lifestyle. In the 70s with the Arab Oil 
Embargo, and long lines at the gas pumps, it 
began to hit home that the way we live our lives 
is not sustainable. Furthermore, countless books, 
magazines, and documentaries showed us that 
there are indeed many ways to live lightly on the 
land, even in the cities. In fact, especially in the 
cities. 

 For example, every house could be built to 
face the dominant light of the sun during the 
day so that less electricity would be needed. 
Light tubes are available today which can bring 
sunlight into the house so that no electricity is 
needed for lights during the day. 

 All roofs can and should be painted white to 
keep the house naturally about 15 degrees cooler 
in the summer. Code should be upgraded so that 
all walls are thicker, and all walls, attic space, and 
floor space insulated. Roofs can and should be 
constructed to passively capture some of the rain 
water so that it can be used in the yard for fruit 
trees and garden. 

 Local wind patterns should also be taken into 
account in order to naturally cool down a house 
in summer. Every home – at least every home in 
the West – should have deep southern overhangs, 
like all the Greene & Greene homes. None of this 
is in any way “new” – in fact, it’s all been around 
a century and longer. 

 In other words, there are scores of ways to 
passively build energy efficiency, and beauty, into 
a home, but rare is the architect and builder who 
is doing this. Yes, it costs maybe 10% more to 
build a home that will save you up to 80% of your 
energy costs year after year. It’s a good long-term 
investment. 

 But the trend is not in that direction. Rare 
is the builder who studies the plot of land, its 
sunshine patterns, wind patterns, lay off the 
land. It’s all about cramming as much into a 
given space as possible. 

 When the soul of the land is wiped out by a 
blind devotion to the bottom line, there is often 
very little that can be done for many generations. 
In the extreme cases, when the character of a 
whole neighborhood is altered, and the quality of 
life is limited, you set the stage for new slums. 

I would love to see the planning commissions 
of cities begin to recognize that the quality of 
old neighborhoods is as fragile as the quality 
of certain ecosystems in nature. All it takes 
are a few inappropriate actions and entire tiers 
of wildlife are threatened and endangered in 
nature. Neighborhoods are no different. And 
those who see such a fate tend to be the tireless 
crusaders for a quality of life that is all-too-often 
not recognized until it is gone. This means it 
takes real courage to move in the direction of 
what is right and best for Sierra Madre, and our 
way of life. 

[Nyerges is the author of “Self-Sufficient Home,” 
“Extreme Simplicity: Homesteading in the City,” 
“How to Survive Anywhere,” and other books. 
He has been leading ethnobotancial walks since 
1974. He can be reached at School of Self-Reliance, 
Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041, or www.
SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com.]