Power Outage affecting July 1 APOD

geckzilla · Post by **geckzilla** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 4:35 am

APOD won't be back until power is restored in DC. Here's a map of the power outage affecting it:
http://www.pepco.com/home/emergency/maps/stormcenter/
and another one:
http://www.bge.com/customerservice/stor ... ounty.html
(I'm not sure which company supplies the power to APOD)

And here's to hoping everyone's electricity is restored swiftly.

This thread will self-destruct (or something) when APOD is back. Until then... yeah, I guess you can discuss the power outage or astronomical things here, if you want.

Beyond · Post by **Beyond** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 4:48 am

The sky has fallen. Who wudda thought

godshawk · Post by **godshawk** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 11:37 am

Good luck with that, a power outage is an effective way to cut short almost all modern day human activity, even here in Uruguay

owlice · Post by **owlice** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 1:01 pm

Not all the links work -- am working on fixing some, disabling others, but here ya go:

http://asterisk.apod.com/library/APOD/A ... 120701.htm

saturno2 · Post by **saturno2** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 3:56 pm

Thanks, Owlice
Your links yes work

Beyond · Post by **Beyond** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 4:05 pm

Todays APOD kinda makes me think of the storm that just went through and took out the power so APOD got posted late. You can see the path of destruction it caused, in the middle. Also, I'm familiar with the 'cat in the hat', but the cat in the shell is cute!

owlice · Post by **owlice** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 4:26 pm

godshawk wrote:Good luck with that, a power outage is an effective way to cut short almost all modern day human activity, even here in Uruguay

It's certainly taking its toll; I think a million are still without power in the greater metro area. Some are under boil water orders; my area is under mandatory water restrictions.

LocalColor · Post by **LocalColor** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 7:01 pm

We have frequent power outages up here in the mountains when it storms. (We have a back up generator.) Sympathy for all those affected by this major outage in the east, our friends said it was a wild storm.

Thanks for the mirror link for today's APOD.

owlice · Post by **owlice** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 11:11 pm

The storm was a derecho. I had no idea it was coming -- hadn't listened to the news or weather -- and was surprised when it slammed into my house. We have tropical storms and the occasional hurricane, but they don't do what this storm did: it hit. It was an amazing, and amazingly destructive, system.

owlice · Post by **owlice** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 2:23 am

APOD Mirror Sites

English language
Italy (in English from Observatorio Astronomico di Brera): http://www.brera.mi.astro.it/apod/, maintained by Chiara Giorgieri
Japan (in Japanese and English): http://home.u05.itscom.net/apodjpn/apodj/apodj0.htm, maintained by Aiichirou Niwa
Russia (in English from Moscow University): http://www.sai.msu.su/apod/ maintained by Oleg Bartunov
Taiwan (in English): http://www.phys.ncku.edu.tw/~astrolab/m ... /apod.html maintained by Han-Tzong Su
United Kingdom (University College London): http://www.star.ucl.ac.uk/~apod/apod/astropix.html, maintained by Ian Howarth

Translated
Algeria (in Arabic from the Sirius Astronomy Association): http://www.apodar.com/, maintained by Abdrahman Zoghbi
Austria (in German): http://www.starobserver.org/, maintained by Eugen Reichl & Maria Pflug-Hofmayr
Brazil (in Portugeuse): http://www.apod.astronomos.com.br/apod.php, maintained by Marcelo Domingues
China (in Chinese from Beijing Planetarium): http://www.bjp.org.cn/apod/today.htm, maintained by Guo Xia
Czech Republic (in Czech): http://www.astro.cz/apod/, maintained by Josef Chlachula
France (in French from Ciel des Hommes): http://www.cidehom.com/apod.php, maintained by Laurent Laveder
Iran (in Persian): http://www.iranapod.com, maintained by Kambiz Khaleghi
Israel (in Hebrew, translated by R. Mada): http://www.astronomia2009.org.il/info/apod/apod.htm, maintained by Yair Grinberg
Japan (in Japanese and English): http://home.u05.itscom.net/apodjpn/apodj/apodj0.htm, maintained by Aiichirou Niwa
Netherlands (in Dutch): http://www.apod.nl/, maintained by Rolf A. Jansen
Poland (translated to Polish within a few days by the Polish Astronomical Society): http://byk.oa.uj.edu.pl/apodmain/apod/astropix.html maintained by Tomasz Kundera
Romania (in Romanian): http://apod.binet.ro/ maintained by Christian Graure
Russia (in Russian from Astronet.ru): http://www.astronet.ru/db/apod.html maintained by Oleg Bartunov
Spain (in Catalan): http://www.apod.cat/ maintained by Xavier Berenguer
Spain (in Spanish): http://observatorio.info maintained by Alex Dantart (AstroRed)
Taiwan (in Chinese): http://www.phys.ncku.edu.tw/~astrolab/m ... /apod.html,
and (in English): http://www.phys.ncku.edu.tw/~astrolab/m ... /apod.html maintained by Han-Tzong Su
Turkey (in Turkish): http://www.bulutsu.org, maintained by Murat Tuncay
United States (Spanish translation): http://fadd.corank.com/, maintained by Rogelio Andreo

c canessa · Post by **c canessa** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 3:38 am

Lord have mercy !!!!!!! I have been pulling my hair out trying to get APOD. Sorry about the outage. Checked in to the London mirror site. Thanks

owlice · Post by **owlice** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 4:09 am

The July 2 APOD is here: http://asterisk.apod.com/library/APOD/A ... 20702.html

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 12:33 pm

We can send men to the moon but we can't bury cables.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_pole wrote:
[b][color=#0000FF]Utility pole supporting wires for electrical power distribution, coaxial cable for Cable TV, and telephone cable. Two pairs of shoes can be seen hanging from the wires (center-left, far right).[/color][/b]
<<In 1844, the United States Congress granted Samuel Morse $30,000 to build a 40-mile telegraph line between Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C.. Morse began by having a lead-sheathed cable made. After laying seven miles underground, he tested it. He found so many faults with this system that he dug up his cable, stripped off its sheath, bought poles and strung his wires overhead. On February 7, 1844, Morse inserted the following advertisement in the Washington newspaper: "Sealed proposals will be received by the undersigned for furnishing 700 straight and sound chestnut posts with the bark on and of the following dimensions to wit: 'Each post must not be less than eight inches in diameter at the butt and tapering to five or six inches at the top. Six hundred and eighty of said posts to be 24 feet in length, and 20 of them 30 feet in length.' One of the early Bell System lines was the Washington DC-Norfolk line which was for the most part, square sawn tapered poles of yellow pine probably treated to refusal with creosote. Some of these were still in service after 80 years.

In the United States electricity is predominately carried on unshielded aluminum conductors wound around a solid steel core and affixed to rated insulators made from glass, ceramic, or poly. Telephone, CATV and Fiber Optic cables are generally attached directly to the pole without insulators.

In the United Kingdom, much of the rural electricity distribution system is carried on wood poles. These normally carry electricity at 11 or 33 kV (three phases) from 132 kV substations supplied from pylons to distribution substations or pole-mounted transformers. The conductors on these are bare metal connected to the posts by insulators. Wood poles can also be used for low voltage distribution to customers.

In many places, as seen in the illustration, providers of electricity, television, telephone, street light, traffic signal and other services share poles, either in joint ownership or by renting space to each other.

On poles carrying both, the electric power distribution lines and associated equipment are mounted at the top of the pole above the communication cables, for safety. The vertical space on the pole reserved for this equipment is called the supply space. The wires themselves are usually uninsulated, and supported by insulators, commonly mounted on a horizontal crossarm. If non-insulated conductors touch due to wind or fallen trees, the resultant sparks can start bushfires. To reduce this problem, aerial bundled conductors are being introduced.>>

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 2:25 pm

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ is back up, but still two days behind.

Psnarf · Post by **Psnarf** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 2:27 pm

> "We can send men to the moon but we can't bury cables."

Nor can we afford to purchase diesel generators for uninterrupted backup power.

[I don't know how many times while I was the national help desk in the early nineties some backhoe severed one of MCI's buried fiber cables. (All of our T1's were via MCI.]

owlice · Post by **owlice** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 2:42 pm

bystander wrote:http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ is back up, but still two days behind.

YAY!!!!!!!!!

owlice · Post by **owlice** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 3:14 pm

Psnarf wrote:Nor can we afford to purchase diesel generators for uninterrupted backup power.

As much as I love APOD, I can't see its being defined as mission critical, and I doubt it would be placed on a UPS for continuous service unless it is mission critical.

owlice · Post by **owlice** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 4:37 pm

APOD's now up to date!

(We need a jumping-up-and-down-for-joy smilie.)

We have a poll: When I couldn't find APOD online, I thought....

Di in Ocala · Post by **Di in Ocala** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 5:18 pm

Missed you while you were gone; understood why. Welcome back!

Emo1970 · Post by **Emo1970** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 5:33 pm

Sad problems:
Power outage for millions in U.S. could last days

geckzilla · Post by **geckzilla** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 7:34 pm

neufer wrote:We can send men to the moon but we can't bury cables.

Something I love about where I currently live is that in over five years and a lot of snow, ice, thunder, wind, and even a tornado -- never has the power been interrupted. I had a UPS set up just in case and one day it started beeping at me to inform me the battery was at the end of its life. I threw the thing out instead of purchasing a new battery. I wish the cables were buried everywhere like they are here. (Fresh Meadows, NY)

ametsrss2swim · Post by **ametsrss2swim** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 3:17 am

Welcome back! Missed you, although we were without power due to the same storm.

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 10:50 am

Psnarf wrote:> "We can send men to the moon but we can't bury cables."

Nor can we afford to purchase diesel generators for uninterrupted backup power.

[I don't know how many times while I was the national help desk in the early nineties some backhoe severed one of MCI's buried fiber cables. (All of our T1's were via MCI.]

Solar cells on one's roof have never been cheaper.

orin stepanek · Post by **orin stepanek** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 2:58 pm

This thread will self-destruct (or something) when APOD is back. Until then... yeah, I guess you can discuss the power outage or astronomical things here, if you want.

geckzilla · Post by **geckzilla** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 4:12 pm

Yeah, I ended up not deleting it because it got linked to on APOD when it came back.

Starship Asterisk*