NEKAAL Observer - February-March, 2010 Vol. 4 No. 2 Volume , Issue

	The NEKAAL Observer
February-March, 2010 Vol. 4 No. 2 PO BOX 951, Topeka KS 66619 (785)449-2102 http://www.nekaal.org The official newsletter of Farpoint Observatory and the Northeast Kansas Amateur Astronomers' League

Sunglasses For A Solar Observatory
Patrick Berry
NASA's Space Place article for December '09. The NOAA's GOES-13 satellite was designed to monitor solar flares, but the very thing that it was designed to monitor ended up partially blinding it - LOL. Now, in the spirit of learning from mistakes, which we all know is a good thing, the GOES -14 has a pair of sunglasses. Although this prevents similar damage, it also limits the data it can gather... D'OH!

Eclipses in Oman
Ed Woerner
NEKAAL's own Ed Woerner updates us on recent eclipses in his neck of the woods.

Evidence of Ancient Life in Mars Meteorite Strengthens
Bill Leifer
Here is an update from MarsToday.Com regarding the evidence of fossilized microbial life in that Martian meterorite found in Antarctica in 1996. I wrote a piece about this in the Observer some years ago. This is a follow-up. Apparently, after years of investigating the theories of proposed non-microbial origin, the case for biogenic origin is stronger than ever. We will hear more about this in the future.

Building A Case Against Ozone
Patrick Berry - NASA
This is the January, 2010 Space Place Article. Ozone in the stratosphere is a good thing, protecting us all from lethal levels of ultraviolet radiation. But the ozone that forms from man's industrial processes and is released into the troposphere is not a good thing. Not only does it cause illness, but it contributes greatly to climate change. This is one thing that we actually can control quickly and cheaply that will reduce the risk of catastrophic climate change, since its half-life is only a few days. Intervention in this area would give us many times the "bang for the buck" on reducing the risk of global climate change compared with going after CO2.