Saw the moon rise like Mars—red and large in the sky, with the Earth’s shadow on it. And two shooting stars close in both time and origin, but in opposite directions…the Perseid meteor group.
We caught it later, white and high, with the shadow only a third of the moon’s disk.
Beauteous. And a crystal clear night. Bad as my distance eyesight as gotten, I could still make out the Milky Way.
So it looks like liquid water flows on Mars…
Sigh. We had wonderfully clear skies last night, but have this minor obstruction to the east called the Coastal Mountain Range. By the time the moon had cleared that (after midnight), all the excitement was over. But glad you were able to enjoy it.
In my case it was trees.
WE got no eclipse. It was over in HI before the moon rose.
Scattered clouds, plus trees. I did see a bit very near the end.
our forecast was for mostly cloudy skies, but they seemed to part just about a half hour before the eclipse started, and only a few wisps and contrails seemed to cross the moon’s face, not enough to obscure vision.
I sat out with a 60X spotting scope and watched it from the initial “touch”, until I saw the first glimmer of light as the shadow passed the “horizon” of the moon. All in all, about 2 hours 15 minutes, and then, because I was alone, eye glued to a scope, and not really able to watch all around me, I got out. That area isn’t a “BAD” area, but it’s not the best, either.
At the ancestral homestead in OH, the concern wouldn’t necessarily be from the human element, but the animals. We are on the edge of a national park, and the wildlife has gotten increasingly numerous and bold — herds of whitetail deer, coyotes, other critters. We even have rumors of bear sightings, in a relatively suburban area. All this makes Mom a little nervous about lingering outside after dark, or throwing anything potentially interesting onto the compost heap.
The Mars announcement is sort of what I expected because it was one of the things they were strongly looking for; I think the dramatic delay was due to bringing in one of the chief researchers for the news conference.
As to what it means—water is one of those very, very common things in the universe, and it is a ‘flexible’ sort of material that gives certain other molecules some variety also. Helps things combine. Helps move stuff around. Takes the input of energy, as in warmth, and eventually some ‘stuff’ makes an arrangement that replicates itself and there we are…Martians. Dunno if there are any left, or whether we’re all Martians, or whether any Martians we find are Terran in origin—impacts have tossed a lot of stuff into space, and comets have brought us both some sincerely old stuff. But knowing Mars is periodically that temperate, still, is exciting. It’s been through some adventures. Something smacked it real hard at one point. It’s a little world, and it’s chilled down and locked up: its moons don’t have the heft or staying power of ours—one of them in particular. But it’s still got several things, like atmosphere and some warmth that could make life possible, and now it’s proven to have another one.
One evening, neigh a half century ago, I was driving in to UCLA for an Extension class when I saw the “crescent” moon. I’d heard nothing, but thought. “That’s strange.” It only took me a few seconds to decide, “That’s got to be an eclipse.” It wasn’t until the next day I got confirmation.
I figured out later, what I noticed was the curvature of the “terminator”, the line between light and dark, wasn’t right, not curved enough–being based on the Earth’s radius, not the moon’s. And the points of the “horns” weren’t at the poles, i.e. the tangents weren’t parallel.
I always remembered that because I recognized it without knowing how I did so.
Not in the least related to eclipses or water on Mars, or…
One does not wish to be a nag, but will CC ever be offering signed copies of Tracker for sale? I would like to get one as an Xmas present for a friend; luckily, said friend is local and I do not need to figure further shipping into the timeframe. I’m already bearing down on completing a gift quilt for someone on the East Coast in a timely fashion. I found out the hard way that unless I get it in the mail early, I will pay through the nose to get it east of the Mississippi by Christmas.
Yes. It’s just been insane and we can’t put them onto CC–haven’t time to deal with multiple orders, but for people who read and comment on the blog, yes, we can do this. LEt me figure the next time I’m downstairs: I think they’re the same price as usual, same postage as usual.
Yes, and this goes for any one else—go to CC, figure the cost plus postage for the previous book—I think it’s 25.95 for the book and then add the postage… then drop the requisite amount into the Donation box and write to us via regular email, giving the situation, WHICH book you want, and your mailing address, and how you would like the book signed. We can do this.