We're Having Company.

I hope you were on your best behavior today as the Earth had two guests drop by to visit.  They were actually kind of rude and antisocial but, as mother always says, that's no excuse for bad manners on our part.  Neither one even stopped in long enough for coffee.

We're talking, of course, about two small asteroids, 2010 RF12 and  2010 RX30, that passed by Earth today closer than the Moon.    This time lapse image is from Associazione Friulana di Astronomia e Meteorologia (don't freak, it's in English).  I'll let them explain:

We have been able to follow-up 2010 RF12 few hours ago, on September 08 at at 06:45am UT (00:45am local time) through the GRAS network, using a scope located in Mayhill (NM). Below you can see our animation composed of 4 unfiltered exposures, 30-seconds each obtained by means of a 0.25-m, f/3.4 reflector + CCD:

If it's any comfort, we did know these guys were coming.  They were discovered three days ago by the professional "Catalina Sky Survey" using the 1.5-m telescope at Mount Lemmon in Arizona.  Granted, neither of these asteroids were big enough to do anything more than cause a nice light show had they fallen to earth.  Bigger ones would have shown up sooner.  But will we know in time to do anything about it?  Until we have the option to pack up and leave the answer is "we'll never know".  Till that day comes the best we can do is duck and pray.

Relief Efforts for Haiti

Nothing like a real disaster to put my petty bitching about the weather and a few dozen extra people in my house into perspective.  I'm just grateful to still have a house and all those people to stuff in it now.

I'm aware that times are very tough for the majority of the average workers worldwide but, if you have anything at the moment, it's more than a lot of the people of Haiti can claim.  Give what you can, and make your gifts count.  Make sure you're giving to an organization that gets the aid into the field and not into the pocket of some fund raiser.  Instead of texting $10 to the Red Cross and having $1 or more of it disappear along the way in bank and phone charges go to the bank and withdraw the money, take it to the local Red Cross office, and--while you're there--ask what they need in addition to money.  They probably have a very long list of volunteer jobs that need to be filled to support their relief efforts.  And there will be lots of other groups who can use your labor, your soon to be out of date canned food, serviceable used cloths, shoes, and lots of other items you just might have lying around.  Check for local churches and civic organizations that are mounting relief efforts and pitch in.