cloudy lunar eclipse

I was disappointed the sky was so cloudy Tuesday morning. I checked at 1:15 AM, and again at 3:00, and the Moon was not visible thru the clouds.

Tim, a buddy who lives about 45 minutes north of us, had more fortune. He snapped these images of the last lunar eclipse of the year. Our next lunar eclipse is scheduled for December 10, 2011. It will be only partially visible at moonset from the east coast.

First Snow of Winter

Today we were suppose to get a light dusting of snow that would quickly melt because of the ground temperature.

It snowed for several hours this afternoon. At times the flakes were small, at others the flakes were big and fat.

We've got more than a light dusting.

Doonesbury Astronomy

I enjoy the tension in Garry Trudeau's work Doonesbury.

I also enjoy finding astronomical errors. I shared the comic strip of November 14, 2010

(to be found at:

http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/archive/2010/11/14

in its entirety)
with my students. They were able to find the mistake.

Assuming the time in the panel above is 3 AM, can you find the astronomical mistake?

Eastern Standard Time

Last weekend Barbara and I were at Myrtle Beach for the change back to Eastern Standard Time.

To remember how the change affects observing:

It gets light earlier in the morning.

It gets dark earlier in the evening.

Sharing the Moon

Greensboro has a nice new park downtown, and the site has become a magnet for folks and events. I took my 6 inch Celestron telescope to the park today for a couple of hours.

I was in the shadow of tall buildings for most of the hours I spent there. The Moon peeked above a building around 4 o'clock and other park patrons took turns looking thru the telescope. The Moon is currently just past 1st Quarter, and we could see the rugged southern area as well as the large mare on the western limb.

I got the usual questions about the size of the Moon and its distance from Earth, the relative distances to the Sun and the Stars, and so on. One guest was very knowledgeable and professed that he had done a good amount of research to support his belief that the world "as we know it" will end December 21, 2012.

I mentioned the 100% track record of such predictions being wrong, and he talked about the Federal Reserve Board and fascism. The Haitian earthquake, the increasing number of sunspots, and the Book of Revelations were all too much for him to dismiss, so he seemed firmly grounded in the "true believer" community.

Where do we learn?

Last week a tragedy happened. A young college student was recorded without his consent and the activity was broadcast on the Internet, to his embarrassment.

The young college student then committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge.

Where do our young people learn such outrageous behavior and why do they think it's OK to blindside and embarrass others?

Above is a still image from a current TV ad in which one person records a video of another doing something potentially embarrassing. The video gets posted to the Internet.

Galaxy

"Hurricane" by Chelsea Bredeson-Hayes was a gift from Barbara yesterday. When I first saw it, I thought of a galaxy.

Click on the image to enlarge.