Kangaroo Valley Voice - Lazyfish Technology

July 2008 Kangaroo Valley Voice Page 34Star struckBy Gerard KeyserOnce again it's worthwhile getting astart on your observing as early aspossible in July as the New Moonoccurs on the 3 rd .This means the best conditions forobserving will be happening as yourValley Voice arrives.June has been a bit of a washout with days ofrain or threatening clouds keeping me insideand now the sky is clearing the Full Moon iswashing out the sky in a different manner.As it did last month the Moon guides us tosome very interesting alignments and objects.On July 1 Mars and Regulus are within 1° andon July 10 we should make a special note tolook for Mars and Saturn.Appearing only 0.7° apart.This is less than the width of your fingernail atarms length and both planets will be visible inone field of view in binoculars or low power inyour telescope.For those with telescopes you should try andrecord the positions of Saturn's moons duringthis alignment. Note: Some of the magazinesgive the date of this occurrence as the 11 th sotry both nights.Early in the month Saturn is setting around 9pm and by the end of the month 8 pm.We need to view this beautiful gas giant planetnow as by the end of August Saturn is settingonly half an hour after the Sun.Early in May I observed Saturn in companywith four visitors to the observatory and oneFor Valley Voiceadvertisingplease phone44 651 621ANJON PROFESSIONAL SERVICESMINI DINGO DIGGER HIREMOBILE LOG SPLITTINGJOHN MCKINLEYKANGAROO V ALLEYMOBILE - 0428 610 508A.H. - 4465 1181FAX - 4465 1904lady with especially keen vision could see fourof Saturn's moons.This was an outstanding effort.Jupiter rises at about the same time as the sunsets so it is prime viewing from now untilChristmas.Take a look at the alignment of three moons onthe 2 nd at 7.15 pm, all stacked on top of eachother.Again on July 3 rd at 10 pm, Callisto, Io, andGanymede form a lovely equatorial triangle onone side with Europa visible on the other.This month Jupiter reaches opposition whichmeans it crosses our meridian at midnight.On the 21 st at around 8 pm Io appears frombehind the planet just before Europa begins totransit (go in front).The actual times are 8.13 pm for thereappearance of Io, at 8.42 pm the transit ofEuropa begins and at 9.18 pm the shadow ofEuropa will follow the little moon across.Both the moon and its shadow will be seen fortwo hours until Europa passes the planet.Similar events occur daily, some at excellentviewing times and tables or positional diagramsare published in the better Astronomymagazines as well as our Almanac, Astronomy2008 by Qasar publishing.A bit of an early warning is due here regardingthe only Total Solar Eclipse to occur this year.This eclipse is exclusively a northernhemisphere event but can be viewed “live”through the NASA website.The path of the eclipse goes from northernCanada over to Russia and then culminates inXian, China.The duration will be a maximum of 2 minutesand 27 seconds.It will occur on August 1 so there won't beanother article to give you any moreinformation to prepare.I hope someone is able to photograph theconjunction of Mars and Saturn on the 10 th (orthe 11 th ) and I would be interested in seeinganyone’s efforts.Clear Skies.* MOBILE LOG SPLITTING* CHAINSAW OPERATING* LAWN MOWING* FIREWOOD SUPPLIES* 4 IN 1 BUCKET* TRENCHING* POST HOLE BORING* SOIL LEVELLING* POLY PIPE LAYING* ROTARY HOEING* STUMP GRINDING* ANGLE BLADE* RUBBISH REMOVALDIFFICULT & CONFINED AREAS 1.1 MTR ACCESSThe fuel debate(Continued from page 14)sanctioned price fixing (simple as that). Parityallows fuel companies to sell their products forthe highest current price they find in the AsiaPacific region.It completely disregards supply and demandeconomics and eliminates any need forcompetition amongst themselves.Don’t believe me? Just look at the price ofDiesel.If you remember growing up when Diesel wasalways 10-15c p/l cheaper than Petrol you mightunderstand this more.How can a product that costs far less to produce(partially a by-product of producing Unleadedas well) and a product that Australia uses moreof than any other fuel be MORE EXPENSIVEthan Unleaded?Simple, ring Singapore, where they don’t use alot of Diesel and import all their fuel, find outhow much it’s selling for there and charge thesame here – sound fair? NOT!Any other industry who tried this one would behauled of to the High Court quick smart andprosecuted for price fixing!Oh but hang on, our government ALLOWSthem to do thisNUMBER TWO – BARRELL PRICEThat price the news loves to show us each nightis the PREMIUM GRADE crude oil price.Australian oil companies DO NOT buyPREMIUM GRADE crude oil! In fact Australiaproduces around 70% of its own oil and importsabout 30%. The cost of production per litreproduced here is cheaper than that of importedfuel, but in no way is this factored into the pumpprice, because they don’t need to (SEE PARITYABOVE) we pay a pump price based onPREMIUM GRADE crude oil price the same asif we imported all of it, say somewhere likeSingapore! Starting to get the picture?NUMBER THREE – LEVIESEveryone knows that both State and FederalGovernments take a large slice of the cost of alitre of fuel.This equates in total to about 46% of the priceper litre. This money is used for infrastructure,road trauma etc. etc. so fair enough right?WRONG!What is wrong is that it is a PERCENATGE!Look at this.If a litre of fuel costs $1.00 then theGovernment gets 46c p/l, right?A week later fuel rises to $1.10 p/l; theGovernment gets 50.6c p/l, bingo! Somethingtells me that in one week, their costs, IN NOWAY have gone up 9%!As I stated previously – THE GOVERNMENTHAS A VESTED INTEREST TO KEEP FUELPRICES HIGH. THEY MAKE LOTS MOREFREE MONEY!Why else do they allow fuel companies tomaintain PARITY?If they changed the tax (sorry, levy) to a flat ratetied to the GDP then the fuel price would dropdrastically and immediately!NUMBER FOUR – GST - THE DOUBLEDIPNow this one is outright “THIEVERY” and alsoapplies to cigarettes and alcohol.(Continued on page 43)