Orionid Meteor Shower

If you wake up before sunrise on Tuesday, Oct.
21st, set aside 15 minutes or so to watch the sky around Orion.  You
might see some meteors.  The annual Orionid meteor shower, caused by dusty debris from Halley's Comet, is peaking today and tomorrow.
 Little was expected of this year's display because a bright Moon is
hanging in the pre-dawn sky, causing an interfering glare.
 Surprisingly, however, sky watchers on Oct. 20th witnessed 15 or more
Orionids per hour, many of them brighter than first magnitude stars.
 If this stronger-than-expected display spills into Tuesday, you might
be glad to wake up early. 

Check http://spaceweather.com for updates and a sky map.

Save Energy, Save the world (and your computer)

If you’re not going to use your computer for more than 20 minutes, turn off just the monitor. If your computer will stand idle for more than 2 hours, turn both it and the monitor off. Ensuring your computer is powered down, either manually with a power strip or by setting your computer’s power management features, saves money and cuts your greenhouse gas emissions.

How this helps

Powering computers requires a substantial amount of energy. Yet most computers are only used a fraction of the time they are on. Adjusting your computer’s power settings to save energy means the computer and monitor will switch into sleep mode when standing idle. This energy saving change will cut your computer’s electricity use by up to 80 percent and put $25 to $75 in yearly power costs back in your pocket.

Read this tip in full at GreenYour.com.

More information

• Energy Star: how to save $25 to $75 annually through power management
• UC Berkeley’s guide to power management in PCs and monitors

Related tips

• Recycle old computers, or donate them to charity
• Use a smart power strip
• Make sure your next computer is an Energy Star computer

Quote of the Week: The Financial Crash

"Confident
men took leave of common sense and bet on the idea of perpetual profit
in the real state market and crashed. But it wasn't their money. It
was your money they were messing with. And that's why we need
government regulators. Gimlet-eyed men with steel-rim glasses and
crepe-soled shoes who check the numbers and have the power to say,
'This is a scam and a hustle and either you cease and desist or you
spend a few years in a minimum-security federal facility playing
backgammon.' "

Garrison Keillor, Alternet, October 6, 2008

Sunspot alert

A  "new-cycle" sunspot belonging to Solar Cycle 24 is emerging near the
sun's northeastern limb. This is the third time in as many weeks that a
new-cycle sunspot has interrupted the year's remarkable run of blank
suns.  The accelerating pace of new-cycle sunspot production is an
encouraging sign that, while solar activity remains very low, the
sunspot cycle is unfolding more or less normally.  We are not stuck in
a permanent solar minimum.  Readers with solar telescopes should train
them on the sun this weekend to observe sunspot genesis in action.



Visit http://spaceweather.com for images and updates.