SID monitor arrives in Mexico

Antonio Sanchez-Ibarra at the Carl Sagan Observatory in Sonora, Mexico has just
received his monitor (that we shipped weeks ago). They are announcing their
participation in the SID program on their website:
http://cosmos.astro.uson.mx
Thought you might be interested!

Debbie

About plugging in speakers with SID hooked up

According to our Chief Engineer, Ray Mitchell, plugging the speakers in and out can
cause data collection problems. However, if you want to have the speakers connected all the time,
then always have them connected -- even when you aren't listening to them. Ray had
noticed that the data collected was lower when the audio speakers were plugged in
and higher when unplugged. And the volume level also somewhat affected the readings.
He does not understand why this is happening. They have a buffer and a decoupling capacitor
between the SIDMON and the external speakers, and haven't been able to figure out why
this strange behavior. However, it is a known issue and one that they will be working on.

According to a new solar cycle model, based on the MDI data from here
at Stanford, the next solar cycle may be quite a bit larger than the last.
This should make our SID monitoring quite interesting! Details on
the research can be found at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/03/07/solar.storm.ap/index.html

Debbie

NASA - Jupiter's New Red Spot

This reminds me of that scene in 2010 where Jupiter gets obliterated by obelisks. NASA - Jupiter's New Red Spot

obtaining antenna wire

Several people have asked us about finding inexpensive wire to wind your antenna.
There are many options. If you don't want to worry about it much,
here are a couple we have tried and from whom you can order quickl
and easily through the internet:

http://bulkwire.com
Magnet Wire (gauge 24, weight 1 lb, 790')
WIRE-NM-24-1 Magnet $14.75
or
Solid Hookup Wire (300 V) (gauge 24, 500')
Wire-SO-24-500-RED $16.49