Mountain Views News, Sierra Madre Edition [Pasadena] Saturday, July 22, 2017

MVNews this week:  Page A:11

Mountain Views-News Saturday, July 22, 2017 11THE WORLD AROUND US 
A NEW SEARCH FOR EXTRASOLAR PLANETS WITH THE ARECIBO RADIO TELESCOPE: 
BARNARD’S STAR WILL BE STUDIED SIMULTANEOUSLY FROM DIFFERENT OBSERVATORIES 
Mountain Views-News Saturday, July 22, 2017 11THE WORLD AROUND US 
A NEW SEARCH FOR EXTRASOLAR PLANETS WITH THE ARECIBO RADIO TELESCOPE: 
BARNARD’S STAR WILL BE STUDIED SIMULTANEOUSLY FROM DIFFERENT OBSERVATORIES 
The National Science Foundation’s Arecibo 
Observatory and the Planetary Habitability 
Laboratory of the University of Puerto Rico at 
Arecibo have joined the Red Dots project in 
the search for new planets around our nearest 
stars. This new collaboration will simultaneously 
observe in both the optical and radio spectrum 
Barnard’s Star, a popular star in the science fiction 
literature. 

Barnard’s star is a low-mass red dwarf almost 
six light-years away and the second-closest stellar 
system to our Sun after the Alpha Centauri triple-
star system. There are hints of a possible super-
Earth mass planet in a cold orbit around this star.

The Arecibo Observatory’s giant radio dish 
will be used in a new campaign to observe nearby 
red dwarf stars with planets. The purpose of this 
campaign is to detect radio emissions from these 
stars, such as from flares, to help characterize their 
radiation and magnetic environment and any 
potential perturbations due to other bodies. These 
perturbations might reveal the presence of new 
sub-stellar objects including planets.

Barnard’s Star will be the eighth red dwarf star to 
be recently observed by the Arecibo Observatory. 
Results from Gliese 436, Ross 128, Wolf 359, HD 
95735, BD +202465, V* RY Sex, and K2-18 are 
currently being analyzed. These observations are 
led by Prof. Abel Méndez, Director of the Planetary 
Habitability Laboratory of the University of Puerto 
Rico at Arecibo in collaboration with Dr. Jorge 
Zuluaga from the Universidad de Antioquia in 
Colombia. 

The Red Dots team will be joining the 
observations with the Arecibo Observatory 
of Barnard’s Star in coordination with other 

observatories. They are planning simultaneous neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic 
photometric and spectral observations from radiation. The first planet around a Sun-like star 
SNO, LCO, TJO, and CARMENES from Spain, was later discovered in 1995 and today we know of 
and earlier with ASH2 from Chile. All these more than 3,500 of them. 
observations will be used to understand the star, The first and only time that Barnard’s Star was 
but more observations by the Red Dots team will observed from the Arecibo Observatory was 
be necessary for the detection of any new planet.during the SETI Institute’s Phoenix Project (1998


The first extrasolar planets were discovered 2004), as part of SETI’s search for extraterrestrial 
from the Arecibo Observatory in 1992. They were intelligence. The new observations are in a different 
three small planets named Draugr, Poltergeist, and frequency (4 to 5 GHz) where radio emission from 
Phobetor around the Lich pulsar, a fast-rotating stellar flares have been observed in other similar or 


CHRISTOPHER Nyerges 
BUILDING A LEAN-TO 

[Nyerges is the author of So let’s say you’ve determined that we need to build“How To Survive Anywhere,” a shelter. How do you begin?
and other books. He leads Just like with real estate, the primary considerationregular outdoor skills classes.is location. You need to build your shelter where thereFor more information, go tois the necessary abundance of natural materials. You 
www.ChristopherNyerges.want a location that provides some natural protection,
com or Box 41834, Eagle if possible. But you don’t want rocks or branches to

Rock, CA 90041]fall on your shelter. You don’t want to be too close 

Should you build a primitive shelter if you get lostto water for many reasons: mosquitoes, possibility ofin the woods and you know you need to spend theflooding, inability to hear people approaching. Etc. 
night there? Perhaps. But if you were alert, you might You’ve found your ideal spot. A simple lean-to begins 


be surprised how many ready-to-occupy sheltersabound in the wilderness. Why build somethingif you can simply find some shelter for the night,
whether man-made or natural? You know, hollow 
trees, caves, rock overhangs, old cabins, outhouses,
utility shacks.

But if there is nothing around to protect you fromthe cold, the snow, the rain, then you must buildsomething.

At one of our survival skills courses, we built a 
simple lean-to shelter and one of our students spenta few nights in it. Though the lean-to is only one ofmany possible emergency shelters, it is relatively easyto construct, assuming there are sufficient naturalmaterials available. 

Since the student, Christopher Reamer, spent a fewnights in the shelter without blankets or a sleepingbag, I asked him if he had a comfortable night.

“I was plenty warm without blankets in my lean-
to motel,” says Reamer. “But that’s only because I gotunderneath all the leaves and duff that was supposedto be the padding that I slept on top of. I was reallysorry that we hadn’t picked out all the sharp pointytwigs when we built the shelter.” 

Reamer pointed out that, when sleeping in sucha shelter, it is always well-worth the time to spendas much time as possible to make the beddingcomfortable. “It’s a better use of your time to makethe bedding as thick and soft as possible,” he explains,
“than to lie awake all night from the cold.” 

Reamer said that he had a fairly comfortable nightin the lean-to, except “there were some sort of weirdanimals roaming around outside the shelter, whichwas kinda scary.” 

with a tripod so that one length is as long as yourbody. The simple tripod is the frame for your shelter.
And in an emergency survival situation, you don’tstart with a high tripod, like a tipi. You want a low 
ceiling in order to capture your heat. Then you simplylean branches onto your frame, keeping in mindwhere your entrance will be.

Once you’ve covered the frame with branches, youadd little branches and leaves, and eventually coverthe shelter with a thick layer of insulation.

You then add thick layers of grass or leaves into thefloor of the lean-to for your bedding. I try to avoidusing pine needles for insulation because it pokes intoyour body, and you get full of the bits of sap that seepout of it. But if there is nothing else, use it.

If possible, add a layer of large rocks to define yourbedding area to keep all the leaves and grass fromflattening out too much.

Reamer said that someday he wants to try sleepingin a shelter with massive loads of cattail fluff for 
bedding. Cattail down has been used in the past as asubstitute for the goose down in sleeping bags.

Another way to begin a lean-to is to simply lean asolid ridge post onto a low branch of a standing tree.
Then lean your smaller poles onto the ridge post, andcontinue from there. 

Shelter is extremely important, whether you’rein the extreme heat of the desert, or exposed to thewinter snows. But the process of shelter-buildingneed not be a daunting task. After all, children allbuild “forts” and “hideouts” in the woods. 

Perhaps the best way for adults to make shelters isto become like a child again, not worry about gettingdirty, and just go and learn by doing. 

cooler objects. This is the first time Barnard’s Star compared to other nearby stars in the two seasons 
is seen with such frequencies and sensitivity.as the Earth moved in its orbit around the Sun. 
Barnard’s Star is named after its discoverer, He found that one star, a “red dwarf ” later 

E.E. Barnard, a pioneer American astronomer named for him, had an extreme change in position. 
who used Yerkes Observatory’s 40-inch refracting A simple calculation using trigonometry showed it 
telescope in the early 1900s to photograph the to be only about six light-years away from us—the 
nearby stars in the Milky Way Galaxy and create an closest known star after the Alpha Centauri star 
atlas of their positions and distances. To determine system. 
the distances to the stars, he would photograph 
the same star-field in both the spring and fall—You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@ 
and then measure changes in a star’s position MtnViewsNews.com. 
OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder 

GO AHEAD, CALL ME IF YOU DARE 

I don’t think it was in the to send you to deal with that pain?”

mind of Dr. Bell when he I still was a little dizzy because of being awakenedinvented the telephone for people like me to befrom my Power Nap that I was not quite able toharassed by people who are only after my money.comprehend what he was talking about. He justDon’t get me wrong here. The telephone has been akept on talking.
great blessing to many people. But lately, the wrongFinally, he said, “What kind of pain doespeople have my number.anybody in your household have that we could

It finally came to a head this past week. At leastaddress today?”
as far as I was concerned. Obviously, he had solutions for pain, but the

The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage andproblem was I did not have any pain for him toI had a very busy week and byThursday we hadaddress. 
accomplished a lot, or at least we thought we had.I was about to hang up on him when a few grayWe had lunch with a very good friend and enjoyedcells woke up from their Power Nap and nudgedourselves tremendously.me with a thought.

On our way home from lunch I mentioned the“Now that you mentioned it,” I said as seriouslyfact to my wife that I was feeling very tired and Ias possible, “there is a pain here that perhaps youprobably could do with a Power Nap, as they callcould help me with.” 
them today. She just looked at me and said, “Go“Yes, sir,” he said most enthusiastically, “we wantahead and get your nap in.” to help you with all the pain that you might have.

Being the husband that I am, I always obey myHow can we help you today? What is your pain?”
wife. And so, off to the parsonage I headed to get“Well, sir,” I said rather slowly, “I have thisin a well-deserved, at least I thought it was, Powerthrobbing pain in my neck. How in the world canNap to rejuvenate what little energy I had left.you help me with that?”

Nothing feels better to me than stretching out onI noticed his pause at the other end of themy easy chair, closing my eyes and drifting off intotelephone. Then I heard the question I was waitingLala land, of which I am a frequent visitor.for. 

I am not quite sure how long I was sleeping, but“Where did you get this pain in the neck? Andsuddenly I heard a weird noise that awakened me.how in the world can I help?”
That weird noise was the telephone ringing. I neverWithout any pause, I jumped in and said, “Myknow who’s calling and I never know if it might bepain in the neck is from people like you calling meimportant, so I answered the phone.and disturbing me in my nap. The only way you can

I am so tired of getting telephone calls that justhelp me is to quit calling me!”
interrupts my day. I get calls from somebody who[Click]
has a solution for my student loan and how to payWith that click, he cured my pain in the neck.
it off. I never went to college and therefore I don’tIf all pain could be solved that quickly this worldhave a student loan. At my age, if I had a studentwould be a much better place I am sure.
loan it would be a tragic situation.A little while later my wife came into the

The call was from some health agency that hadparsonage, took one look at me and said, “Whya deep concern about my health. More particularly,do you look so happy? Did your nap work for youthey had solutions for pains that I was experiencing.today?”
“I understand,” the person on the other end of“No,” I said with a little giggle, “I just got rid of athe telephone said very businesslike, “that you arepain in the neck.” 
having problems with pain in your body.” I could not help but think of one of my favorite

I do not know where he got that understandingProverbs. “A merry heart doeth good like aor why he would be interested in any of my pain.medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones”
“No, sir,” I said with a healthy yawn, “there ain’t(Proverbs 17:22).
no pain here.” With all the agitation in the world, a person“Is there someone in your house,” he went on tois sometimes tempted to get all caught up withsay, “that has some back pain?”bitterness and anger. I have learned the hard way,

Without giving me time to respond, hethat the best way to deal with agitation is to makecontinued, “I believe you qualify for one of ourfun of it so that somebody laughs, particularly me. 
back braces to help manage your back pain.” 

“No, sir,” I said most pathetically, “nobody hereDr. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family of Godhas that kind of pain.” Fellowship, 1471 Pine Road, Ocala, FL 34472. He lives

Not hindered in his salesman pitch, he said,with his wife in Silver Springs Shores. Call him at 352“
Is there someone in your home that has an ankle687-4240 or e-mail jamessnyder2@att.net. The churchpain? I have a wonderful solution that I would like web site iswww.whatafellowship.com. 

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