Archive for February, 2009

You can see five planets this month without the aide of a telescope. Two of them can be seen in the evening, and three more just before dawn.

This week Venus hangs as a lantern, high in the western sky. Its crescent shape can be seen from just before dusk until about three hours after sunset. On the evening of February 27, Venus will be just above and to the right of a three-day old crescent moon.

Also this week, Saturn will rise in the eastern sky about 1-1/2 hours after sunset. By March 8, it will be visible from dusk to dawn. On March 10, Saturn will be seen above a full moon.

Toward month’s end, Jupiter and Mercury will be visible with binoculars, just above the east-southeastern horizon about 30 minutes before sunrise. It won’t be an easy sighting, but well-worth the effort.

The fifth planet is Mars, an even more difficult sighting that Jupiter and Mercury. If you can locate Jupiter, you should be able to find Mars to the lower right less than an hour before sunrise, with nothing more than binoculars or a small telescope.

Learn more about how to spot these five planets in this Space.com article: Doorstep Astronomy: Spot 5 Planets

Image Credit: fdecomite on flickr (cc)

Technorati Tags: astronomy

Photo Credit: Bob Lewen

After six-hours of grueling racing on a 16-lane GT slot car course on October 31 and November 1st, the NINCO World Cup is over. This important race was held at the famous Formula 1 racetrack in Silverstone, England.

Mark Azarraga and Jason Stanley from Georgia & Kurt Moser from Indiana (MRC’s 2008 Team USA) have certainly put the international world of slot car racing on notice with their exciting and skillful performance. The rules are very strict and 16 International teams raced NINCO’s new, 1/32 scale Acura LMP2 slot cars in this annual event.

In the Superpole on Friday, Oct 31st, Mark Azarraga won Pole Position for Team USA with a blistering time of 12.855 seconds. Like full scale racing, winning the pole does not guarantee winning the race, and Spain eventually won the 1st place trophy, with Italy 2nd, Portugal 3rd and USA 4th (2 laps from being on the podium).

Silverstone NINCO Racetrack

Mark also received the award for fastest lap against the best and fastest in the world. His fastest time was 12.860 seconds. He said the practice the Team was able to get on the 6-lane track at Sling Shot Speedway in Lawrenceville, Georgia really paid off.

Team USA World Cup Car

Model Rectifier Corporation (MRC) sponsors all the USA races and the Team USA selection. The NINCO World Cup has been previously held in Spain, Italy, and Germany. As well as trophies, MRC provided free airfare, free hotel accommodations, free racecars and parts, and free Team USA uniforms for the trips to Europe for our Team members.

NINCO quality is high and our (MRC) customer support is legendary. We created NINCO on-line forums to interact directly with consumers, and provide authoritative reference, factual information and personal support about the products.

As Mark said, “The NINCO World Cup 2008 was a world class event and it was very special for our team; I could not have asked for better team mates to race by my side. The level of European driver skill was phenomenal and to achieve pole position and the race fastest lap in this group is truly an honor. Our team pushed all the way to the end, and even though we came short of the podium, we were happy with our finish. I would like to thank Model Rectifier Corporation for their generous efforts into making Team USA possible, and it was MRC’s races that introduced me into slots in September 2006.”

Photo Credit: Bob Lewen

MRC is confident and looks forward to the continued growth of NINCO dealer network and overall expansion of the Slot Car hobby on this side of the pond.  Mark, Jason and Kurt are certainly three of the best slot car racers in the world… Who will be on MRC’s Team USA for 2009?

Content provided by Model Rectifier Corporation.