An Update for Moderator Eric

[Rex]

Hello,

Please note, your reference to "Cruithne" as Earth's second moon is actually incorrect, Cruithne does not orbit Earth, it orbits the Sun, therefore cannot be classed as an Earth moon.

Rex.:)

[Eric]

mmmmmm.but, the 3-mile-wide (5-km) satellite, which takes 770 years to complete a horseshoe-shaped orbit around Earth, is called Cruithne and will remain in a suspended state around Earth for at least 5,000 years. One of the scientists involved with the study called the object a "moon", because it shares Earth's orbit, however, it's definitely not a moon like our Moon. First, a horseshoe orbit is much different from the elliptical orbit that the Moon makes around Earth. The Moon actually orbits the planet Earth, while Cruithne just shares the Earth's orbit around the Sun.

[Rex]

Hello,

Let's just agree it's there, in common with one of Saturn's two "natural bodies", Janus, discovered by the little known South African obvserver, Hugh Janus in 1966.

Rex.;)

[chumbo]

"the 3-mile-wide (5-km) satellite, which takes 770 years to complete a horseshoe-shaped orbit around Earth, is called Cruithne and will remain in a suspended state around Earth for at least 5,000 years".

It doesn't complete a horseshoe-shaped orbit around Earth. It completes an orbit around the Sun. Seen from the Earth it APPEARS to complete a horseshoe-shaped orbit, because it's in a similar orbit around the Sun to the Earth's orbit. There are another three bodies known (so far) that do the same. Sorry, Rex is right, it is not Earth's natural satellite or 'moon' by any definition of the word.

[mikeyj]

Hola,

Har-de-har Moderator Eric, see, what he said, so there, raaaaaassssspppp!!


Isaac Gloater.:p

[The Sheriff]

I always thought horseshoes had a gap a the back ? what does this Planet / Asteroid do when it gets to the bottom of one side ? jump across the gap.

[Rex]

Hello Sheriff,

A fair point, the orbit could also be termed "kidney bean", taking slightly less than one year to orbit,as we do, at present Earth is falling behind the "bean" each year, the circuit does not appear to be closed, hence the "horseshoe" effect, part of the orbit disappears.

Rex.

Remember, a leopard cannot change its spots but, an onion changes when its layers are removed!;)

[Eric]

Moon Trees! Have You got one in Your Town?

Here and there around our planet are trees that are so special they're "out of this world" or to be more precise, they've been out of this world. As seeds, these trees have been to the Moon and back. And there's a mystery attached to many of the trees because we don't know where some of them are!

What makes these trees so special is how they got to the Moon in the first place. It all began back in 1953 when Stuart Roosa took a job as a US Forest Service firefighter. He would parachute into the wilderness to fight forest fires. Stuart came to love the forests, a love that he would have the rest of his life.

A bit later, Stuart Roosa became an Air Force test pilot, a career which took him away from his precious trees, but on to an adventure few shared. Roosa became an astronaut and was scheduled to fly on Apollo 14, to launch in 1971, along with Alan Shepard and Ed Mitchell.

Every Apollo astronaut was permitted to take a few small personal things into space with them. What they chose, varied greatly. Alan Shepard chose golf balls, John Young on Gemini 3, took a corned beef sandwich. Stuart Roosa took tree seeds, a choice that delighted the Forest Service.

Roosa choice became part science and part stunt. Scientists wanted to know what would happen to the seeds if they went to the Moon. Would they sprout when they came back? But the tiny seeds would also play ambassadors, and be given as gifts as part of the bicentennial celebration in 1976.

The particular seeds selected were a wide variety. Redwoods were chosen because they are so well known. Others such as Sycamore, Douglas Fir and Sweetgum were chosen because they grew well in a variety of climates.

On January 31, 1971, Apollo 14 launched on its trip to the Moon. Roosa did not actually walk on the Moon, but remained orbiting the Moon in the command module. During the mission, he orbited the Moon, with his seeds, 34 times. Apollo 14 was a success and the scientists were as happy with the tree seeds as they were with the lunar rock samples.

During decontamination, there was a bit of a scare for the seeds. During the process the canister the seeds were in was explosed to vacuum and unfortunately the canister burst, scattering and possibly damaging the seeds. Scientists feared the seeds might be damaged, but nonetheless separated the seeds by type and sent them to the US Forest Labs. Amazingly, nearly all the seeds germinated.

During the following years, the trees not only grew, but thrived. Their growth was normal despite their zero gravity time as seeds.

And they not only grew up to be big trees, but they reproduced with Earth trees, and their offspring, called half-moon trees, were normal too.

In 1975, when the seedlings were ready to leave the lab, it seemed that everyone wanted a Moon tree! Some choices were obvious, the White House , and Independence Square. Politicians wanted Moon trees to dedicate buildings. One tree went to the Emperor of Japan. So many requests for Moon trees came in that the Forest Service had to take cuttings and produce more Moon trees!

Unfortunately, no one kept records as to where the Moon trees were sent, and you could have one near you and note know it! Most of them should still be around today as trees are long lived. Redwoods could last for thousands of years, but most trees live for a few centuries. In fact, the trees have outlived two of the humans who took them to the Moon, Alan Shepard and Stuart Roosa.

Says Jack, Roosa's son, "I think my father always knew that these trees would serve as a long-lasting, living reminder of mankind's greatest achievement--the manned missions to the Moon." Of course, if humans don't return soon, Moon trees could become the only living things on our planet that have been to the Moon. That's probably not what Stuart had in mind.

Jack, however, is optimistic: "These trees will be here 100 years from now," he says. "By then I believe we'll be planting Mars trees right beside them!"

[Eric]

Of all the wonders of nature, a tree in summer is perhaps the most remarkable; with the possible exception of a moose singing "Embraceable You" in spats.

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in their way.

A tree never hits an automobile except in self defense.

[The Sheriff]

I haven't got a moon tree, but I do have a pair of Shoe Trees !

[El Gordo]

My Mug Tree is very interested in this thread........or am i the mug?

[mikeyj]

Hola,

Eric, you been sniffing round the "Datura" plants again you little monkey, I bet your winter evenings simply fly by eh!

Wk Piddy.:D

[Eric]

SACRED DATURA

In Native American tribes of the southwest, as is often the case with tribes elsewhere, in rites of passage, a young person coming of age would fast and pray for days in order to purify himself. In some cases, the initiate might be isolated or left in the wild alone. At the appropriate time, a Medicine person or tribal spiritual elder that would nominally be called by others than Native Americans, a Shaman, might accompany the initiate to a holy place, possibly a mountain top or cave, and a tea would be made from the roots, leaves and even the seeds from the prickly seed pod of a plant called Sacred Datura. The individual would drink this tea and wait for visions, and the initiate would definitely have visions.

Besides those sacred rites of passage, Datura, which is refered to in some cultures as la Yerba Del Diablo, but known to the Chumash people of California, the Mohave, Yuma, Cahuilla, Zuni and others as toloache from the Aztec toloatizn, "to incline the head" (and the person adminstering the Datura as a tolachero), has been used to hex and to break hexes, to produce sleep and induce dreams, and for protection from evil. It has also been used for Divination, to find one's Totem Animal, to allow one to see ghosts, for communing with birds, for long hunts and strength, for sharper vision, for sorcery and to increase supernatural powers as in Aushadhis, the awakening of the supernormal perceptual states through the use of certain drugs and herbs. Like other tropane-containing plants that have been used historically for so called Flying Ointments, Sacred Datura has been used in certain rituals related to inducing the ability to fly through eating or drinking and sometimes an ointment (see). Datura is still widely used in the Caribbean for similar or all of the reasons as well, and called there "herbe aux sorciers" (herb of the sorcerers) among the various French speaking islanders. On the English speaking islands, Jamaica for example, those who practice the spellcraft Obeah are also known to incorporate almost interchangeably with Datura another Nightshade herb they call Branched Calalue.

[mikeyj]

Hola Eric,

Pass me the fork......I'm not dead!:p

[Rex]

Hello,

Eric, pay no heed to some of the lesser erudite that contribute their worthless gibberish, I for one find your articles most interesting, are you a highly educated gentleman to know of such things, well travelled perhaps?

I may have a proposal for you in good time, please continue with your fascinating and informative scrolls, I will be in contact.

Yours

Rex.;)