Thanksgiving Traditions 

Thanksgiving traditions include gathering with family and friends for a large meal, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and American football games, and expressing gratitude. Other popular customs involve starting a new one by playing games, breaking the wishbone for good luck, and volunteering in the community. 

Meal and food

Traditional feast: 

A large meal is central to Thanksgiving, typically featuring roast turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. 

Other popular dishes: 

Many families also serve mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, and green bean casserole. 

Expressing gratitude: 

Before or during the meal, families often go around the table to share what they are thankful for. 

Activities and entertainment

• Parades and sports: Watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and professional football games are popular activities for many.

• "Turkey Trot" runs: Some people start their day with a fun run, known as a "Turkey Trot".

• Games and relaxation: After eating, families might play games, watch movies, or take a nap. 

Rituals and traditions

• Wishbone: 

Two people pull on the turkey's wishbone; whoever gets the larger piece is said to have their wish granted. 

• Giving back: 

Many people use the holiday to give back to their community by volunteering at soup kitchens or food drives. 

Other traditions

• Friendsgiving: 

Some people gather with friends instead of, or in addition to, family for a meal. 

• Black Friday: 

The day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday, which marks the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season with major sales. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

With the holiday towards the end of the week - 

When you travel, do you bring any ham radio gear with you?

Tell us what you take along, and whether you operate from your destination! Do you go full portable, bring an HT, or go completely QRT on vacation? 

If you do operate, what modes and bands to you prefer when you travel

For two nights, dazzling auroras delighted sky-gazers in unexpected places, including in the US as far south as Florida. The cause: dual solar storms unleashed by the sun reaching Earth.

A severe storm was initially predicted for Thursday as well, with the potential for the northern tier of the US to see auroras again in the evening. Forecasters at the National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center now believe Wednesday night might have been the last opportunity for the most intense conditions.

In addition to creating auroral displays, geomagnetic storms can disrupt communications, the power grid and satellite operations. The Space Weather Prediction Center said it had otified power grid and satellite operators in the US so they could prepare.

The British Geological Survey initially believed the current solar activity could lead to a G5, or an extreme geomagnetic storm — the highest level on the scale. The survey also dubbed Tuesday’s event a “cannibal storm” that disrupted communications and GPS satellite accuracy.

“On Monday, two Coronal Mass Ejections lifted off the sun a few hours apart,” the survey’s geomagnetism team explained. “The first one was moving more slowly than the second … and so the second one caught up with the first one and they amalgamated together by the time they reached Earth. Hence, the term ‘cannibalised,’ as the second one gobbled up the first one.”

Coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, are large clouds of ionized gas called plasma and magnetic fields that erupt from the sun’s outer atmosphere. When these outbursts are directed at Earth, they can cause major disturbances of Earth’s magnetic field, resulting in geomagnetic storms.

Forecasters at the Space Weather Prediction Center believe that the arrivals of the first two of three anticipated coronal mass ejections caused Tuesday evening’s auroral display.

“One of them packed a much stronger punch than we would have imagined originally,” said Shawn Dahl, forecaster at the center.

When a storm reaches satellites stationed 1 million miles from Earth, forecasters can measure its speed, the strength of the magnetic field and the magnetic orientation, he said.

“Is it pointed opposite Earth, or is it pointed the same as Earth?” Dahl said. “If it turns opposite Earth, then activity really quickly escalates, and those storm levels can dramatically increase very quickly. That’s what happened last night.”

The third solar storm arrived at Earth Wednesday afternoon at 2:17 p.m. ET, with solar wind speeds over 2.1 million miles per hour (950 kilometers per second).

But Earth appears to have been struck by a far flanking edge of the storm, meaning most of the magnetic cloud likely missed our planet, according to an update from the center.

Solar storm disruptions

Among those feeling the storm’s effects is Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. The company was expected to launch NASA’s Escapade mission — twin satellites set to head on a long journey to Mars — aboard its New Glenn rocket Wednesday. But the increased solar activity blocked that launch attempt.

“NG-2 Update: New Glenn is ready to launch. However, due to highly elevated solar activity and its potential effects on the ESCAPADE spacecraft, NASA is postponing launch until space weather conditions improve. We are currently assessing opportunities to establish our next launch,” according to a post by Blue Origin on social media platform X. The company confirmed on X Wednesday evening that another launch attempt is now scheduled for Thursday.

A flurry of activity around our sun sparked the storms. Three X-class flares, the most intense type of solar flare, have released from the sun this week, followed by a series of coronal mass ejections.

The recent surge in activity stems from an active region of sunspots on the sun called AR 14274, according to Ryan French, a solar physicist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder.

“AR 14274 still has the potential to produce more X-class solar flares,” French said. “However, the region is now rotating away from us, so any eruptions from future flares are increasingly less likely to hit us as the days pass.”

An X-class flare released Tuesday created a large solar particle storm, the largest since 2005, according to the British Geological Survey. Tuesday’s solar activity also created the largest measured geoelectric field since the survey’s records began in 2012.

Disturbances in Earth’s magnetic field can reach the ground, which triggers electricity in rocks and essentially creates an electric field in the ground. “This is usually tiny on the order of 0.001 Volt per kilometer but during geomagnetic storms it can be much larger,” the survey team noted.

On Tuesday, experts documented a value of 3.5 volts per kilometer in the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland, an unusually large number that “has not been recorded before,” according to the geological survey’s team.

Large geoelectric fields can interfere with transformers and may even cause them to shut down or overheat.

Source : CNN

Laika was a Soviet dog and the first living creature to orbit Earth. Launched aboard the spacecraft Sputnik 2 on November 3, 1957, her mission was a one-way trip, as the technology to safely return her did not exist at the time. Her tragic story is a notable chapter in the early Space Race, remembered for both scientific achievement and the ethical debate it provoked. 

Laika's mission

• The subject: Laika was a stray dog found on the streets of Moscow, selected for her calm demeanor and small size. Originally named Kudryavka ("Little Curly"), she was renamed Laika ("Barker") for the public.

• Purpose: The mission aimed to test the safety of spaceflight for a living organism in preparation for human space travel. Laika's vital signs were monitored with implanted sensors to see how she reacted to launch and microgravity.

• Launch: Sputnik 2 was rushed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. The hurried timeline meant the spacecraft's design was incomplete and rudimentary.

• A doomed journey: Scientists knew Laika would not survive the mission. Before the launch, one of the technicians preparing the capsule kissed her nose, knowing her fate. 

Death and controversy

• The truth: For decades, the Soviet Union claimed Laika was humanely euthanized or died when her oxygen ran out after about a week in orbit. The truth was not revealed until 2002, when a Russian scientist from the mission publicly disclosed that she died just hours after liftoff.

• Cause of death: Laika died from overheating and stress. A failure in the Sputnik 2's thermal control system caused the cabin temperature to soar during the fourth orbit. Her body remained in orbit for five months before the satellite disintegrated upon re-entry into the atmosphere.

• Regret: One of the scientists involved, Oleg Gazenko, later expressed his regret, stating, "We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog". 

Legacy

• Advancing spaceflight: Laika's mission proved that a living being could survive the launch and the effects of microgravity, paving the way for future manned spaceflight. Yuri Gagarin's historic human orbital flight took place just four years later.

• Ethical debate: The deliberate sacrifice of Laika sparked a global outcry over animal cruelty and contributed to the growth of animal rights movements worldwide.

• Memorials: Laika's story is commemorated in monuments, songs, and other tributes. In 2008, a statue of Laika standing on a rocket was erected near a military research facility in Moscow. 

Net Topic Questions:

1) How was your Halloween?

2) Would you travel into outerspace?