Here's Your Chance to Find Your Own Exoplanets!

Well, sort of.

Basically, what you can do is use a code a couple of researchers cooked up to search through archival data from Kepler. They've already found one exoplanet using this code, and now they've released it to the public. So if you want to do your part in the search for exoplanets, here's your opportunity. The link to the code and the instructions are here. Have fun!

Review: Dunedin Golf Club (Part 2)

Check out the front nine if you haven't already seen it. Otherwise, off we go onto the back nine!

The tenth hole is the first of three par 5s on the back nine. We're much closer to the Gulf of Mexico now than we were on the front nine, but even so, you can bet that if there's elevation to be found, Donald Ross found a way to use it. We go from a higher point on the tee down to the landing area, and then the golfer is confronted with a blind second shot. We're only a few hundred yards from the coast, and yet, we have a blind shot. The second plays up and then gently down to the green. The hole is just over 500 yards, so it's definitely reachable in two, but it's not a particularly wide fairway, and there's OB right the whole way. There are better birdie opportunities out there.

The tenth hole. Look, there's a fairway bunker out there!

The tenth green.

The eleventh hole is a medium-length par 3, and it's here that we get our first real encounter with water. Yeah, we're in Florida, it had to happen eventually. This is another tough par 3, there's water in the form of a tidal creek, there are bunkers, and the back of the green is significantly higher than the front. Luckily, as you can see, the hole was in the back, so there was no messing around with slippery downhill putts.

The eleventh hole, over Curlew Creek.

The twelfth hole is a short par 4, and for some reason this little hole contains half of Dunedin's four fairway bunkers. There are quite a few holes that could have used them, and yet, we've got two on a hole that didn't really need them. You can't see them from the tee really, they're barely a factor. Anyway, other than that little thing, this is a neat little drive and pitch par 4 that skillfully utilizes the limited elevation change to make the second shot that much more interesting. There's a bit of a horizon green effect going on, which makes judging distance a little more tricky. This is just another example of Dunedin going that little extra step, which I greatly appreciate. That's what makes this golf course good.

The twelfth hole. More creek in the foreground.

We still manage to get an uphill approach, despite the proximity to the coast.

The thirteenth hole is a mid-length par 4 playing back up towards the clubhouse. This is a pretty average hole, to be honest. The last hole plays very similar, but is generally better in every single way. I'd actually call this hole a decent birdie opportunity, it really isn't that tough a hole.

The thirteenth hole.

The fourteenth green, with the clubhouse just behind.

The fourteenth hole is a fairly short par 4, but as you can see from the picture, it's definitely not an easy hole. Yes, we've got a hole would blend in at any other Florida golf course. There's a pond, and it even has a fountain in it. They couldn't resist, could they? It's certainly tempting to pull out the driver and try to clear the pond, but there's no obvious reason to do that. You can't get to the green with the drive, and it's pretty narrow up past the pond. I think the best play is to lay up right, then hit a full wedge into the green. It's not a long hole, and doing that makes the water a minor factor.

The fourteenth hole. This is the most Florida looking hole on the course.

Lots of accuracy is called for on this hole.

The fifteenth hole is a very short par 5, and is probably the best hole on the back nine. The creek cuts the hole in two, and unless the hole is playing into the wind, the drive is best hit with a 3 wood. Driver may be a bit too much otherwise. Obviously, you don't want to go in the water (how about that), but if you bail out too far right, some trees may block you out, and it'll be a longer second. Drive close to the water and you'll get a better view, a better angle, and a shorter shot. This is a fun hole, and a lot better than the par 5 running parallel to it (we'll get to it soon).

The fifteenth fairway. The creek is to the left.

Hit a good drive, and the fifteenth is a definite eagle opportunity.

The sixteenth hole is a medium length par 3, and other than the water tower right behind the green, there's not a whole lot to this hole. It's not as well guarded as the other par 3s, so it's probably the easiest one of the bunch.

The sixteenth hole.

The seventeenth hole is a 500 yard par 5, and I have to say, it's a good thing Dunedin only has three par 5s, because they are definitely not a strength of this golf course. Oh sure, the mound that you can see on the tee shot is pretty cool, but unless you top your drive or hit a truly prodigious hook are you going to encounter any sort of trouble. There's only one bunker, leaving the green oddly undefended. So hey, it's a great birdie or even eagle opportunity right at the end of the round. And that's about it.

The seventeenth from the tee. That is a big mound on the right side of the fairway, just over the creek.

You can definitely go for the green in two on this hole

The seventeenth green, with the fourteenth in the background

The eighteenth hole is a mildly long par 4 at 413 yards, but since we haven't had a par 4 over 400 yards since the fourth hole, it feels a little longer. It's a fairly tight driving hole, with a denser bunch of trees left and the driving range right, a 3 wood might be a good play. Being on the fairway is important, because this green is not particularly big, is noticeably elevated at the front, and is very well bunkered. This isn't a hole you can cruise in on, but it's not so dramatically difficult that it beats you up at the end. A solid ending to a solid golf course.

Fun fact, I didn't play the hole anything like I just recommended. No, I hooked one way left, then hoisted a massive 6 iron up over some trees to within 15 feet, which was by far the best shot I hit during the entire mini-vacation. That's golf for you sometimes.

The eighteenth hole

One last staunchly bunkered green.

You can see the result of my EXTREMELY well-hit second shot just below the hole. I didn't make the birdie though.

Granted, beautiful weather can make even a questionable golf course seem good. But Dunedin is a good golf course, and it feels like a classic Golden Age design, in sharp contrast to Clearwater Country Club, which dates from the same time period but has fared far worse. Clearwater didn't feel like much of anything, Dunedin definitely did.

Dunedin has another thing going for it: elevation change. This is better seen on the front nine, which is further from the coast, but even on the back, there is a definite sense of movement to the landscape. Holes do play up or downhill, and some by a significant amount. It adds that extra dimension to the course.

Is there anything particularly noteworthy about Dunedin? No, not really, you're not missing anything exciting if you haven't played it. There's no hole here that I would include on my list of favorites. But there isn't a hole here that I can say I really don't like. There are a few boring holes, but nothing unlikeable. Aside from some water on the back nine and a bit of OB floating around, there isn't anywhere you'll lose a golf ball, and it is entirely possible, maybe even probable, that you'll finish the round with the same golf ball you finished with. I did, and that's saying something. And really, that's high praise for a golf course. Nobody likes losing golf balls. And yet, Dunedin is not an easy golf course. It's not brutally difficult, but you will have to work to get a decent score out of the place. Good iron play is critical. The greens are reasonably complex. But above all else, Dunedin is fun to play. I really enjoyed it, and any other reasonable golfer would agree. Donald Ross may not have done flash, but he was able deliver hundreds of consistently fun and enjoyable golf courses for people of all skill levels. Dunedin is one of these golf courses, and I would highly recommend playing there if you're in the area.

And with that, we've reached the end of our little trip down to Florida. Reviewing a golf course in April may be a bit tricky, not only is Maryland currently experiencing the biggest snowstorm of the season, but I can't play golf for two weeks. I hope to work something out, but there's a good chance it will be on a smaller scale. We'll see.

Review: Dunedin Golf Club (Part 1)

Good news! I've been smart about my backlog of Florida golf courses, and I've saved the best course for last. And even better, the weather was great when I played there, so you'll get to see plenty of blue sky for our last trip south.

We finish things off at Dunedin Golf Club. The course opened in 1927 and was designed by Donald Ross. This course actually has a fair amount of history behind in, beyond being designed by one of the most prolific golf course architects in history. From 1945 to 1962, Dunedin was the home of the PGA of America, and hosted the Senior Tour Championship during that time. So perhaps not quite as historic and noteworthy as Atlantic City Country Club, it's no birthplace of the birdie, but it's interesting nonetheless. Also interesting, Dunedin was renovated and restored in 2006-2007, so the course I played is pretty close to the original Ross design. There are ample sea breezes here, after all you're very close to the ocean. You can't see it, but there's a marina no more than a mid-iron from the eighteenth tee. I don't know how historically interesting that is, but as always, the addition of wind makes a golf course much more compelling.

The first hole is a fairly long par 4, doglegging slightly left, and with OB left, it's a pretty stern start to the round. Actually, Dunedin opens up with a oddly tough stretch, with the three longest par 4s on the golf course all coming in the first four holes. The idea tee shot is a gentle draw if you've got one to a reasonably wide fairway, and the second shot is to a medium-sized green guarded by bunkers left. The greens here are generally quite enjoyable, they run well and have enough undulation to make them interesting.

The first hole. It was 8:30 in the morning when I started, and my group was very nearly the first on the course

The first green.

The second hole is a long par 4 at 466 yards. This hole really illustrates what separates Dunedin from the other Florida golf courses I played. The tee shot plays significantly downhill, and the second plays significantly uphill. While playing up and down giant mountains isn't fun, being able to utilize actual elevation change really does improve a golf course. This hole wouldn't be as good if it were dead-flat. This hole is also home to one of the few fairway bunkers on the course. I'm not sure what it is with the old Florida golf courses and not having fairway bunkers, but Clearwater had one, and Dunedin has four, two of which are on one hole. And this course was recently renovated, so the lack of fairway bunkers was definitely intentional. It's too bad, I think a few fairway bunkers would improve the course, but that's me. Anyway, a draw is once again the best choice off the tee, and the second is a mid-iron up the hill to the green, which is not big, slopes sharply from back to front, and is well-stocked with bunkers. This is definitely a tough hole, I'm not sure it's the toughest on the course, but it's up there. And better yet, it's completely playable and fair to everyone. There's OB left, but it's not close, there is plenty of room to miss, and no significant hazards other than the bunkers.

The second hole. The lighting was a bit weird on the first couple holes

The approach to the second

The second green, which is definitely not flat. This is not an easy par.

The third hole is a mid-length par 3, and is ringed by four greenside bunkers. There's really not much give on these first few holes, but again, there's nothing wrong with the challenge provided. The golf course is very clear about the challenge, the hazards are fair, there are no forced carries so if the golfer so wishes, a lay-up short of the green is most definitely an option. It won't win any awards, but it's a decent par 3.

The third hole. The lighting is much better from here on out.

The fourth hole is the end of the tough opening stretch. At 433 yards, it's the second longest par 4 on the course, but unlike the second, it doesn't have some neat elevation change to help make it interesting. So instead we get a fairly significant dogleg right around a group of palms and live oaks. If you're really long you can trim off the dogleg, but in general, this hole plays a full 433 yards. There's not even much to be gained by going over the trees, if anything the hole is best approached from the left side of the fairway, which would make the hole play longer, not shorter. I wish I could tell you what the approach is like, but I've gone way right both times I've played here, and so I've never played the hole correctly. But there's a bunker front-right which is very much in play, and a bunker back-left that I only realized was there when I looked at the hole on Google Maps. That's not so much in play.

The fourth hole.

The fourth green. The interesting little green contours are visible from back here.

The fifth hole shouldn't be a particularly interesting hole. It really shouldn't. It's less than 370 yards, it's dead straight, and there is absolutely no hazard on the drive except for a few trees. But look at it. We're in Florida, less than a mile from the ocean, and we've got a hole that plays significantly uphill. If I saw this hole back in Maryland I wouldn't think twice about it, but here? There's a certain charm about a hole that's this much uphill. And while the tee shot is easy, the second shot really isn't. If you're a professional golfer, there's nothing difficult about a little wedge to a green surrounded by sand. But most of us aren't professional golfers, wedges aren't easy for us, and those bunkers are very much a factor. A good wedge is definitely required here.

The sixth hole. You can clearly see the elevation change.

The approach to the sixth is a wedge, but it's not an easy wedge.

The sixth hole is a fairly short par 3 playing over a big bunker. I don't know if you've gotten this impression yet, a third of the way through the round, but Dunedin puts a big emphasis on iron play. If you're not hitting your irons well, it's not going to be a good day for you.

The sixth hole. Yes, this isn't a great picture, you'll just have to trust me when I say there's a green behind this bunker.

The seventh hole is the only par 5 on the front nine, and is definitely the weakest hole on the front nine. As I said, this golf course only has a few fairway bunkers, and while not every hole has needed them, they really could improve this hole. There's simply not a whole lot to do on the tee shot, and if you're not long enough to go for the green in two, not much to do on the second shot either. The green is a bit more interesting, but otherwise, this isn't a hole really worth noting.

The seventh hole from the tee. Not much to see here.

Alright, now we're starting to get somewhere.

The seventh green.

The eighth hole is a 350 yard par 4, and it's surprisingly tough for a little par 4. It's fairly narrow and doglegs significantly left, I would argue that a 3 wood is the best play off the tee. There's just not a lot of room and the hole is short enough that driver seems like unnecessary force. Now, I've used the phrase "surrounded with bunkers" or some variation a few times in the review thus far. But I haven't meant it as much as I do here. Five bunkers, including one in front, surround a very small green. You definitely want to be on the fairway approaching this green, another very good reason to not use driver off the tee.

The eighth hole doglegs left around the trees.

The approach to the eighth is another tough wedge.

The ninth hole is a mid-length par 4, doglegging back to the right around a group of oaks. This is a hole where it is worth your time to cut the dogleg, if you can. Those oaks are a lot tougher to carry than a few palm trees. Hit a good drive, and this green, while guarded by three bunkers, is a little less crowded by them. There's some breathing room, and this hole is a definite birdie opportunity. Not the only one on the front nine, of course, but it's nice to end the front with an opportunity to get some momentum going on the back.

The ninth hole doglegs right. That's the green on the right side of the picture, and the fairway left.

The ninth green.

That's it for today, next week we'll get the back nine.

The Universe's First Stars Have Been Discovered

These are some pretty old stars we're talking about here. Previously, the oldest stars we knew about formed 400 million years after the Big Bang, but it was suspected that stars formed much earlier than that. We just couldn't see them yet. Well, now we have. And they did form much earlier, coming into existence a mere 180 million years after the Big Bang.

Credit: N.R. Fuller, National Science Foundation

Finding these old stars took some doing. Until 500 million years post-Big Bang, the universe was filled with loose, heated hydrogen, which is very good at blocking light. So instead of looking for the stars themselves, astronomers have to look for their impact on the cosmic background radiation. This is no easy task, the radio signals astronomers were searching for were something like 10,000 times dimmer than normal radio noise. But you know what? They did it.

Besides that, there's something interesting going on with the signals. They're twice as bright as expected, meaning the radio background was stronger than expected, or the hydrogen filling the young universe was cooler. The second option is more likely, but what would be cooling down the hydrogen is a mystery. A likely contender is dark matter. If that's the case, this discovery may accidently have given us our best look at what dark matter actually is. And that's news worth mentioning.