Month: April 2014

Hunter Pope Golf Course, Monticello Georgia

Listed as semi-private, Hunter Pope is a friendly golf course of moderate difficulty near Monticello Georgia. While many holes are un-remarkable, the Par 4 first hole provides 350 yards of wide open play to make an easy start. The extremely short 3rd hole par 4 boasts a blind green from the tee, and the green is elevated and framed by woods and swamp.

Hunter Pope continues to mix the interesting with the boring, the short lengthed with the average. On a rolling piece of land, Hunter Pope is not overly hilly, but has several instances of teeing off down or up a long, slow climb. But the best at Hunter Pope is saved for last, as a Par 5 15th hole is one of the long, gentle climbs. Reachable in two, it is nonetheless restricted to those who can hit a straight 300 yard drive. The 16th is of average appeal, but 17 is a newly remodeled dogleg left around water, and 18 is a short par 3 over water. While 18 is certainly not a spectacular finish, it is a welcome reprise.

Considering the length and visual appeal of 15, 16 and 17, we would rate Hunter Pope as an above average finish, and the course as a whole as just slightly below average in appeal, but fairly priced.

Kepler-186f

500 light years from earth, much further than Tau-Ceti at 12 light years, Kepler-186f orbits red dwarf Kepler-186 with a radius similar to Earth. Discovered and documented by the Kepler space telescope, it is accompanied by four other planets orbiting much closer to the star. The planet 186f would seem to orbit it’s ‘sun’ in just over four months.

While news reports make popular the existence of an Earth0like planet in an Earth sized orbit, this is not interesting because the star is a red giant, and the system seems to lack the protective gas giants that would shield a planet of this type from meteorites and comets. However the Earth sized palnet is important in that gravitational forces would be comparable. However the Olympics, if held on such a planet, would have their own set of high jump and pole vauit records to deal with minor gravitational differences.

Kepler-186 is a star one twenty fifth the brightness of the Sun. Kepler-186f is actually in a smaller orbit and would receive around one third the light energy than does Earth.

About ten percent larger than Earth, 186f is still not with any certainty identified as the home of oceans or a thick atmosphere. It’s rotation speed, or day is also not determined, but because of its proximity to the start 186, it is thougt that the day length might be much longer than Earth’s.