Q: The AJC published that you must have an original birth certificate to renew your driver's license. What if I can't produce my original birth certificate? What do you do?
—R.E. Gilbert, Tucker
A: The Georgia Department of Driver Services provides links to order a replacement birth certificate at www.dds.ga.gov/secureid/accepteddocs.aspx, or instructions and contact information also can be found at www.rover.ga.gov and www.cdc.gov/nchs/w2w.htm. DDS also will accept a valid, unexpired U.S. Passport. "Customers are able to create a personalized custom checklist and/or print a list of all the acceptable documents" at www.dds.ga.gov/SecureID/default.aspx, a DDS spokesperson told Q&A on the News in an email. The DDS implemented "additional procedures that enhance the integrity and security of your Driver's License (DL) and Identification Card (ID)," beginning July 1.
Q: My husband and I watched the recent transit of Venus using special glasses made for eclipses - therefore we were observing it directly, rather than in reverse. We clearly saw Venus begin across the sun at about the 1-2 o'clock point. But everywhere we read, and all of the online videos, demonstrate it beginning at the 8 o'clock position. What gives?
—Mat and Jill Morgan, Decatur
A: The online videos and images are usually taken through telescopes, which invert it both up and down and left and right, Angela Sarrazine, an astronomer with the Fernbank Science Center, told Q&A on the News in an email. "Thus, with your eyes, Venus appears in the 1-2 o'clock position," she wrote. "A telescope flips this to the 4-5 o'clock position, and then also from there, to the 7-8 o'clock position."
Andy Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We'll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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