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Columbia Gas Dept. GAS LEAK or GAS SMELL Contact Numbers 24 hrs/ 365 days 270-384-2006 or 9-1-1 Call before you dig 
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Adair County Night Skies: Great for amateur astronomers Tony Harvey, photographer and amateur photographer, lives on Adair County's fabled KY 704, one of America's most beautiful byways. He's finding it a great place, too, for watching events such as the recent close occultation of Venus and the moon With two Tony Harvey photographs By Tony Harvey Special ColumbiaMagazine.com story While most in Adair County were fast asleep on the morning of November 6, 2007, at approx 5:24:30amCT, there was a celestial event that took place in the heavens. A close occultation occurred just before dawn. In the first photo which accompanies this story, one can see a 26 day old crescent moon. I might add the very bright planet Venus above it. Venus shining at -4.33 magnitude rivals all other night time objects in brightness except for the moon. For perspective I included the tree to the right of both objects in the sky. You can just barely make out the Iridium satellite racing across the sky at the bottom left hand side of this image. The Iridium satellite constellation is a system of 66 active communication satellites with spares in orbit and on the ground. It allows worldwide voice and data communications using handheld satellite phonesRead more about "Iridium (Satellite) in Wikipedia by Clicking Here.In the second photo, is a image that's zoomed in closer that shows Venus and the star Zavijava#with the moon below. I've highlighted Venus and the star Zavijava involved in the near#occultation. For the readers who may not understand or know exactly what an occultation is. In laymen terms it's when a star is eclipsed by the moon or in this case a planet. The night sky in Adair County is great for astronomers You may be wondering how I knew this or why I've submitted this to the Columbia Magazine. I've been a amateur astronomer for almost 40 years and enjoy it immensely. The night time sky in Adair county is unbelievable when conditions are right, and I wanted to share this event with you. If you look closely at the image of you can see Zavijava just above the planet Venus. Being this close together in proximity it was quite a spectacle to witness these two shining so bright in the early morning sky. Zavijava is a 3rd magnitude star in the constellation of Virgo and is a multiple star about 1.6 times the size of our own sun. To the casual observer they appear to be very close to one another, in reality Zavijava is 35.5 light years away from our planet. It would take a spacecraft or person 35.5 years traveling at the speed of light or about 186,000 miles per second. Being a multiple star system like our very own sun it is quite possible for life to exist on the nearby planets of Zavijava. Not that#I think this it's possible for us to ever go there but it's amazing to think about how big space is. Or how small this little blue dot we call home is in comparison to the vastness of the heavens. Big show coming up November 14th through 21st Coming up next week there will be a meteor shower between the 14th through the 21st, and peaking on 17th Saturday night. If you want more info just do a search for the Leonid meteor shower. So the next time there's a clear sky at night, take the time to look up. Best seen from a rural night time sky, as we have here To appreciate the fact that you live in a rural area and can see the beauty of the night time sky. The folk who live in the larger cities aren't able to see what we can in the sky at night. And best of all it's absolutely free so enjoy it. Story, photos copyright Tony Harvey. Special edits, story & photo, copyright ColumbiaMagazine.com. To see other Tony Harvey photographs, enter "Tony Harvey" in searchbox, or, to see his wonderful photo contributions at the ColumbiaMagazine.com group at Flickr, Click Here This story was posted on 2007-11-08 02:47:02
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