Market Farming

["Rick Williams" <mrfarm AT frontiernet.net>]

Del Williams wrote:
> Tell me you've never seen Orion on a cold clear night.  If not,
> look up and
> see the belt.  Absolutely worth taking the moment.

I bet there are a lot of other amateur astronomers out there. When we lived
in town and down in a valley it was depressing to not be able to see the
stars at night compared to when we lived on our previous farm.

Up here on the ridge, it has been absolutely fantastic, the best we have
ever had anywhere. Spectacular sunsets and moonrise and stars. And we have
had some stunning aurora even though we are only at 44 degrees N latitude.

When I was growing up we would sometimes see the aurora on the coldest crisp
evenings but way to the north and only a small little shimmering curtain.
The exception of course was 1957 which some of you might remember was IGY
(International Geophysical Year) and we had one night that seemed like the
"end of the world." I can imagine what primitive folks were thinking and
seeing the swirling clouds of plasma all night and extremely bright.

Since we have moved to Misty Ridge Farm, we have had red and green aurora
that appear to come in streaks right up to the observers position and go to
the south if you can believe it. And the streaks a moving at thousands of
miles per hour so they appear to be like low cloud wisps moving very
rapidly. But are actually miles up in the ionsphere:)

Friends of mine who live in the city did not even know we were having an
aurora event.

Of course they cannot even see the milky way either. Nor orion.

P.S. Trivia info:
Many of you probably have looked for the seven sisters (the Pleiades) in the
Constellation Taurus. I have poor vision but can often make out 6. It is
interesting that there is a make of automobile that uses this star pattern
as their logo and they show one bright star and 5 others of lesser
magnitude. When you use binoculars or a telecope, you realize that there
really aren't 7 after all, but there are many more. Some are so close
together they may appear as one brighter star.

Sincerely,

Rick Williams
Misty Ridge Farm
Dairy heifers and dairy beef graziers
Viroqua, WI

www.mistyridgefarm.com