Category: Astronomy

Observing the Blood Moon Eclipse

I went to bed slightly early last night, but first I set my alarm for 4:45 a.m. Central. As I noted a couple of days ago, I wanted to get up early to observe a total lunar eclipse.  As usually happens, I woke up early at 4:15 a.m.  Who needs an alarm?

I decided to go ahead and throw on my clothes, grab my purse and smartphone and take the van to Dillons to fill it up.  While I drove west (one mile) and north (two miles), I noted that the full moon was already missing a good chunk in the upper left-hand quadrant.  After filling up the van, I continued west on Eisenhower Road, crossing Tonganoxie Road and heading up over the ridge.  I crossed over 187th street, leaving the paved roads behind and continued until I was forced to turn left at 195th street, just south of an electrical substation (talk about light pollution out in the middle of no where).  Continue reading “Observing the Blood Moon Eclipse”

Blood Moon Total Eclipse Early Wednesday Morning (for Central Time Zone)

Central Daylight Time (October 8, 2014):

  • Partial umbral eclipse begins: 4:15 a.m. CDT on October 8
  • Total eclipse begins: 5:25 a.m. CDT
  • Greatest eclipse: 5:55 a.m. CDT
  • Total eclipse ends: 6:24 a.m. CDT
  • Partial eclipse ends: 7:34 a.m. CDT
Chart, displaying eclipse phases in Universal Time (GMT), courtesy of EclipseWise.com

There is a total eclipse of the full moon on October 8, 2014. This is the Northern Hemisphere’s Hunter’s Moon – the name for the full moon after the Harvest Moon. It’s also a Blood Moon, and this eclipse is the second in a series of four so-called Blood Moon eclipses. For North America and the Hawaiian Islands, the total lunar eclipse happens in the wee hours before sunrise on October 8.

For more information about the total eclipse and answers to questions like ‘What’s a Hunter’s Moon?”, please visit the full article at EarthySky.

18.263k days or .5c yrs

MyBabyPhoto64
Me (late 1964)

Good morning!

And Happy Birthday to myself.  I’ve crossed over.  I’ve reached another dreaded milestone.  Today is the first day of my fifth decade.

To make myself feel better about this dubious event, I’ve reverted to two of my favorite past times:  math and astronomy.

I decided to calculate how many days I’ve been breathing air on Earth.  For that I had to find a date calculator.  Plugging in the relevant date (today in 1964 and 2014), the following results popped up:

From and including: Friday, October 2, 1964
To and including: Thursday, October 2, 2014
Result: 18,263 days

It is 18,263 days from the start date to the end date, end date included

Or 50 years, 1 day including the end date

Alternative time units 18,263 days can be converted to one of these units:

1,577,923,200 seconds
26,298,720 minutes
438,312 hours
18,263 days
2609 weeks

In addition, the Earth is travelling through space, via the Milky Way, at the incredible speed of 3,728.23 mps.  Roughly, the Earth has moved 5.88286061194e+12 miles since I was born, give or take a few.  That equates to approximately 63,256.57 astronomical units.  A rolling stone gathers no moss . . .

And the .5c I included in the title of this post?  No, I’m not travelling at half the speed of  light (except in my dreams).  I’m merely reflecting upon reaching my half century mark.

I decided to make a four day weekend out of this auspicious occasion so I’m relaxing at home, reading and doing other none stressful activities.  No parties (that I know of) and no surprises.  Just Terry, me and the dogs hanging out.

Just another day in the neighborhood.  Eighteen thousand two hundred sixty-three and counting.

This Date in Science: Earth and Moon as Worlds in Space | EarthSky

http://earthsky.org/space/this-date-in-science-sept-18-1977-voyager-1-earth-moon-photo

Here is the first-ever photo of the Earth and moon in a single frame. Voyager 1 took the photo on September 18, 1977, when it was 7.25 million miles (11.66 million kilometers) from Earth. Image Number: P-19891 via NASA/JPL

37 years ago today.

Voyager to Earth: “Hello World!” or more likely “Goodbye World!”

Voyager is still sending us postcards from the edge though.

The Seven Wonders of the Solar System

http://io9.com/the-seven-wonders-of-the-solar-system-1600220388

Some suggestions for a superlative list of solar system wonders.

My list off the top of my head:

1. Saturn’s rings
2. Jupiter’s red spot
3. Mars’ Olympic Mons
4. Io
5. Titan
6. Uranus for being axially contrary
7. Oort cloud

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

Less Than Three Years to Prepare

SolarEclipsePathAug2017
Path of Total Solar Eclipse August 21, 2017

For once, I live in just about the best spot to observe a total solar eclipse. The center line for the eclipse coming in August 2017 is just a few miles north of where I live.  That being said, the path of the eclipse cuts diagonally across the United States from Oregon to South Carolina.

Update Monday 9/1/2014:  I forgot to include a link to the Astronomy magazine article that will take you to the interactive map shown above:  Make Plans for the 2017 Eclipse with This Great Map. Continue reading “Less Than Three Years to Prepare”

Venus Overtakes Jupiter

I thought I’d use the European racing term more commonly known in the States as ‘passing’ to refer to the progress Venus has made in the predawn sky this past week.

Saturday morning I woke up way too early for a weekend, but remembered reading something about Venus and Jupiter getting closer together.  Without reminding myself by actually looking the information up via Facebook or Twitter or Google, I threw on some clothes, grabbed the keys to one of the vehicles (didn’t care which one) and rushed outside.  It was still very dark, just after five o’clock (Central time zone).  I drove a block up a slight hill to my favorite eastern horizon viewing site (just to the east of Lansing City Hall) and waited … and waited … and waited.  I finally used my smartphone (which I never leave home without) to check when Venus and Jupiter were supposed to rise (using Astronomy.com’s Tonight’s Sky mobile web page).  Continue reading “Venus Overtakes Jupiter”