The DC Women's Hiking Group will meet at Pine Mountain on Tues., May 27th and Thurs., May 29th.
Take Ridgebury Rd. and take a right on to George Washington Hwy.
Follow George Washington Hwy. to end and take a right on to Pine Mountain Rd.
Meet at the parking area at the end of Pine Mountain Rd. at 8:30am.

May 2014 Constellation of the Month: Bootes

"Arc to Arcturus":  Face north, and find the Big Dipper high in the sky.  The dipper shape is comprised of a bowl formed by 4 stars and an arc-shaped handle of 3 stars. Extend the curve of the arc away from the Dipper – to the East and South.  The very bright star nearby is Arcturus, in the constellation Bootes.

Bootes is shaped like a kite.  Arcturus is at the bottom of the kite.  In Greek mythology, Bootes is either the Hunter or Herdsman – hunting or herding the bear represented by the Big Dipper (Ursa Major, or Big Bear in Latin).  In May 2014, there are two bright planets Mars and Saturn, which are south and east of Arcturus

Arcturus is the 2^nd brightest star visible from earth's northern hemisphere.  The brightest is Sirius, which sets around 9 PM in May.  In brightness, Arcturus just edges out the very bright star Vega, in the constellation Lyra, northeast of Bootes.  Arcturus appears orange to the naked eye, and it is classified as a red giant – which is what our sun will become in about 5 billion years, as it nears the end of its life.

There are no exciting nebulae or galaxies in Bootes, but there are some nice double stars which can be seen as such in binoculars.  The best of these is named Izar, or epsilon Bootis.  It has an orange giant close to a white dwarf.  It was given the name Pulcherrima, "most beautiful," by its discoverer. 

The DC Women's Hiking Group will hike Tues., May, 13th and Thurs., May 15th at Scott Lot Preserve in Redding, CT.

Coming from the north on Route 7 turn left onto Old Redding Rd. Right after going under RR bear right onto Mountain Rd. Follow Mountain Rd. to end and turn left onto Peaceable St. Parking for the open space will be on the left. If you come to an electrical substation, you went too far.

Meet at 8:30am.

The DC Women's Hiking Group will try out a new trail the week of Tues., May 6th and Thurs., May 8th.
The Knapp Preserve is located on Bennett's Farm Rd. across from Whitlock Lane.
Park on Whitlock Lane and meet at the trailhead on Bennett's Farm Rd. at 8:30am.

The DC Women's Hiking Group will hike Tues., April 29th and Thurs., May 1st at
Saugatuck Falls Natural Area in Redding, CT. The entrance is located between
mail box # 65 and 73 on Diamond Hill Road in Redding. Follow
straight in until you see the large sign (entrance marker) on your left.
Meet at 8:30am.

Pi

Pi Pie, created at Delft University of
Technology, applied physics,
seismics and acoustics

Pi, the mathematical constant not the delicious desert, is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.  It is an irrational number, which is a number that cannot be expressed as a simple fraction, or as such doesn’t settle into a repeating pattern or in fact end.

For most scientific applications 40 digits or less are accurate enough, but some people just like breaking records. In 2011, Alexander J. Yee and Shigeru Kondo calculated 10 trillion digits taking just little over a year to do so, on a desktop computer.  As of now the last know digit of Pi is a 5.  On the other hand, the record for the most number of digits memorized goes to Lu Chao of China who recited 67,890 digits accurately in 24 hours and 4 minutes on November 20th 2005.

The day March 14 is sometimes referred to as Pi day as March is the third month, thus 3/14.  It is celebrated by math jokes and eating various foods that start with “Pi” such as Pineapple, Pine Nuts, Pizza, and of course Pie.  Check out what’s going on in your area when it next rolls around.

The DC Women's Hiking Group will hike at Topstone Park in Redding on Tues., April 22nd and Thurs., April 24th.

Take Topstone Rd. off of Rt. 7.
Follow road over RR tracks until it becomes a dirt road.
Shortly after, a parking area will be on the right side of the road.
Meet at 8:30am.