Thoughts from Starlight Cascade

An update on our seti@home progress.

The SETI@Home client program was recently upgraded and today we downloaded v7.0.64 to install on the PCs and v7.0.65 for the macs. We are still having issues with the linux versions and have had to use 6.10.58 and 6.12.34 due to missing libraries.
./boinc –version
./boinc: error while loading shared libraries: libssl.so.1.0.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

[BOINC]$ ls -l /usr/lib/libssl*
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 232488 Feb 25 13:13 /usr/lib/libssl3.so
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 21 Mar 23 11:40 /usr/lib/libsslcommon.so.5 -> libsslcommon.so.5.0.0
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 141608 Feb 15 09:00 /usr/lib/libsslcommon.so.5.0.0
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 41392 Jan 14 2012 /usr/lib/libssldap60.so
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 232508 Oct 2 2006 /usr/lib/libssl.so.0.9.7a
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 16 Mar 23 11:21 /usr/lib/libssl.so.10 -> libssl.so.1.0.0k
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 356872 Feb 19 16:13 /usr/lib/libssl.so.1.0.0k
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 16 Nov 1 2006 /usr/lib/libssl.so.4 -> libssl.so.0.9.7a

ln -s /usr/lib/libssl.so.1.0.0k /usr/lib/libssl.so.1.0.0
[BOINC]$ ./boinc –version
./boinc: error while loading shared libraries: libcrypto.so.1.0.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
That fixes the first error but now another is present.
ln -s /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.1.0.0k /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.1.0.0

./boinc –version
./boinc: /lib/libssl.so.1.0.0: no version information available (required by ./boinc)
./boinc: /usr/lib/libcurl.so.4: no version information available (required by ./boinc)
./boinc: /lib/libcrypto.so.1.0.0: no version information available (required by ./boinc)

hmm.. now another type of error. But! It still runs.. looks like it was a warning message only.
./run_client &
to start and
ps aux | grep -i boinc
6581 0.0 0.1 23176 4128 pts/1 S 12:54 0:00 ./boinc
shows that it is running. But it doesn’t seem to be doing anything… hmmm.

We have gained a few more spots in Canada:
2012 November: 199 out of 48,069
2013 March: 163 out of 48,069
2013 April 153 out of 48,069

and in all of the world-wide SETI effort
2012 November: 3,935 out of 1,342,720
2013 March: 3,393 out of 1,374,686
2013 April: 1,707 out of 1,387,235

It will be slow going from here on out, as the top crunchers tend to have faster machines.
Not sure where this is going in the future.. the novelty has long since worn off, there appear to be no hard successful results. Already there have been times when the increase in home computing has outstripped the servers ability to serve data and they run out! This will only get worse in the future.

We got home late but not too late to still observe and image the Lunar X feature on the moon. The event peaked around 20:00 local but was still visible around 21:30 local. There was a thin haze and the sky was lit up by the moon.
We also observed visually using the 20cm “Starbuck” dobsonian. Very nice!

Unfortunately, the handyavi imaging program and the netbook could not communicate over the serial-usb adapter and we did not have remote control of the telescope, including the focusing.

Still we took a lot of .avi sequences and then screen captured one of them (shown above).

From http://the-moon.wikispaces.com/Lunar+X

Description
This is a famous “optical feature” on the Moon, which appears like the letter “X” when the terminator is at a suitable position. It is a fine example of how the combination of lighting and topography can combine to produce a pattern that repeats on each lunation, but only for a short time. The illusion of the “X” is created by sunlight falling on the rims/ridges between the craters La Caille, Blanchinus, and Purbach.
The “X” is observable for about 4 hours around the lunar First Quarter.

Astronomers watch the mostly static skies. Once in awhile, something moves. Sometimes things move fast.. very fast.
At those times it is very useful to know what time it is. Exactly what time it is.
In the past we used to get a shortwave radio and listen for the audio time signal from WWV at 5 or 10 MHz. We could never pick up CHU, the Canadian equivalent.

In any event, we were preparing for an occultation a couple of weeks back and realized the need for exact time. The best we had was a shortwave radio (that didn’t work) and my wristwatch, which sync to the so called “atomic clock” radio signal at 60Khz. Better called “Radio Clock” sync.

A wristwatch is often hard to see in the dark when working other equipment, so we went on a hunt for a larger desktop clock. This is what we found on amazona.ca

Sets itself automatically to the time signal from the US atomic clock at Fort Collins, Colo
Automatically adjusts for Daylight Savings Time and standard time
Built-in solar cell and rechargeable battery
Large easy to read liquid crystal display time, month, date, day and indoor temperature
Digital seconds counter

For about $25 we now have a good primary source of time. We will be testing it in the future to see how much it drifts when not able to sync daily with the atomic clock, but for now, we’ll take it as our best source.
We also now have two working shortwave radios that can pick up the WWV audio signal as well. We should be good for the next event.

The longest dimension is less than 15cm (6″), the battery inside should keep it running for up to 8 years and the solar cell on top is an assist. It also comes with an alarm and a light/snooze button. Try as we might, we could not find any red LED displays.