Page 46 - Sonoma County Gazette March 2018.indd

Forestville Fire:
A Guide to
the Night Sky March 2018
Our new Type 3 Wildland Engine has arrived. This engine will assist with all res in our district, and serve as the primary engine to access narrow roads where access is limited.
Fire ghter Charles (Chuck)
Franceschi was hired as a
full time Driver/Operator
with the Department. Chuck
has served the Department
and our community as volunteer and part-time Fire ghter for the last 14 years.
The Fire Association hosts our EASTER EGG HUNT, March 24th at 10am at the Forestville Youth Park. INFO: (707) 887-2212.
Graton Fire: YES, respond for fires in clothes dryers... and February was no exception. They are caused by a buildup of lint underneath the drum or in the vent. Every year, more than 16,000 fires are sparked by dryers. That accounts for almost 5% of all house fires! While the lint screen captures most of the lint, smaller particles pass through and build up on the bottom
of the dryer... and the dryer duct vent. Most people don’t realize that the area underneath the drum is open to the air flow and lint collects here even faster than it collects in the dryer duct. Over time, enough collects to catch fire due to the heating element... whether gas or electric. Check your owner’s manual about the best way to access this area and clean it out (make sure you unplug the dryer first). Also make sure that the dryer duct vent is cleaned regularly – this will save money as clothes will dry faster.
Russian River Fire: Daylight savings begins on March 11 so remember to set your clocks forward. Time changes area a great way to remember to change the batteries in your smoke detectors. Remember, smoke detectors save lives.
By Tre Gibbs, L.A.A.S.
On February 1st
This is known as the Vernal (or Spring) Equinox. The word Equinox is a Latin term which means “equal night”. On this day, Earth’s northern and southern hemispheres both receive equal amounts of day and night AND as a visual testament to this occurrence, the sun rises due east and sets due west—again on this day only.
The Russian River CERT will be hosting an informational meeting on March 22nd at 6pm at the re station. This program is a great opportunity for community members who are not necessarily interesting in being a volunteer re ghter, but still wants to participate in their community. If you have any questions in advance of this meeting, please email russianrivercert@gmail.com
The word “planet” is derived from the Greek word, “planeta” which means “wanderer”. Ancient astronomers noticed that seven lights moved—or wan- dered—through the sky The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, which is why we have seven days of the week. The other planets, Ura- nus and Neptune, require a telescope, or at least a good pair binoculars, to see them. Although planets do resemble stars, there are a few di erences that help the novice skywatcher identify which is which. First of all, planets tend to be brighter than stars. Because they are brighter, they tend to be the rst objects to appear as the sky darkens. This could be part of the reason why a lot of wishes are not coming true for people. Case in point
The next meeting of the Board of Directors will be on March 14th at 6pm at the re station. We hope you’ll consider attending. www.russianriver re.org.
First star I see tonight
I wish I may, I wish I might, Have this wish I wish tonight.
Bodega Fire: Sunday February 11thwe held an appreciation dinner to thank our volunteer re ghters and major community member supporters. Our volunteer re ghters spend countless hours to train and respond to emergencies for no compensation. Our 15 volunteers responded to 188 calls
for service in 2017. 45 of those emergencies were in our small community of Bodega. 80 of the calls were to assist Bodega Bay Fire and 32 calls for service were to the community of Valley Ford. The remaining 31 emergencies were to other neighboring towns including spending 2 weeks helping battle the Santa Rosa Fire Storm. Bodega Volunteer Fire has a strong automatic aid working relationship with Bodega Bay Fire and Valley Ford Fire which is important to insure there is adequate emergency response available at all times. We thank our community for helping with fundraisers to continue to maintain our volunteer re department. We thank our Fire Chief Ron Albini and our Board members for running a successful volunteer re department without relying on a special tax. For almost 70 years this department has been run on volunteers with the support of fundraisers, donations, voluntary dues, grants and support from Sonoma County Fire and Emergency Services. We hope to see you at
46 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 3/18
our next fundraiser- Polenta and Beef Stew Dinner. Saturday March 3rd @ McCaughey Hall in Bodega. Tickets sold at the Door. www.bodega re.org
Spring arrives at 915 am on the morning of March 20th.
The very next day, the sun will rise and set just slightly north of due east and west, respectively, and our days will o cially become longer than our nights. For our neighbors south of the equator (in the southern hemisphere), this day marks the beginning of Autumn and the days there begin to get shorter while their nights get longer.
Back in the northern hemisphere, the sun will continue to rise and set further north until June 21st, The Summer Solstice, at which point the sun will stop moving north, turn around and start heading back south, reaching it’s midpoint on September 22nd (The Autumn Equinox), then continuing on to it’s southern most point on December 21st, The Winter Solstice. The cycle continues, back and forth, on and on, and so it goes...
Earth’s natural satellite, The Moon, is approximately 239,000 miles away from Earth and orbits our planet every 28 days or so. Our word “Month” comes from “Moon”, as does “Monday”. The Moon also travels the same, nar- row path in the sky as the planets, which makes the moon a useful tool in nd- ing them. Two full moons this month - just like January. One on the 1st and the other on the 31st. I guess “Blue Moons” aren’t that rare after all...
Star light, star bright,
Turns out most people are wishing on planets rather than stars and thus, said wishes fail to come true. Another di erence is that stars twinkle but planets do not. The reason? Planets are a lot closer to us than the stars and therefor appear as disks of light rather than pinpoints of light, which are more susceptible to the bending and distortion from Earth’s turbulent atmosphere. Our eyes detect that bending and distortion of light as “twinkling” or, if you prefer, the more scienti c term, scintillation.
Speaking of planets, Jupiter—the mighty King of the Gods, rises around 1230am early in the month and around 1130pm at month’s end, and will be the brightest thing in the eastern sky, after the moon. On March 7th, use the moon to nd Jupiter - on this night only, it will be the bright, steady light just to the right of the waning crescent moon. Mars and Saturn follow Jupiter, but not until three and four hours later, respectively. On the morning of March 10th, the moon will have positioned itself practically equidistant between Mars and Sat- urn. Although, at month’s end, in the wee hours of March 31st, the moon will be gone and Mars will have caught up to Saturn, both rising in the ESE around 3 am as a pair of cosmic “eyes” staring down at us...Mars to the right, Saturn to the left. Set your alarm clock and check it out - weather permitting.
Until April, have a safe and wonderful change of seasons and as always... Keep Looking Up.