Conversation – 16

Peace Out Peeps! Be safe and enjoy your evening. 😎

When to Watch a Lunar Eclipse and Supermoon in Late Night Skies

People out west in the United States and in Australia and East Asia will have a good view of an event some call a “super blood moon.”

Night owls in California and other points out west are in for a treat on May 26 as the moon enters Earth’s shadow and turns a blood red color during a total lunar eclipse, the first in more than two years visible from the United States.

And if you hear anyone calling this a super blood moon, that’s because the moon will also line up in its closest approach to our planet, an event some call a supermoon.

“You’re actually getting to see the solar system working, and Newton’s laws of gravity in operation before your own eyes,” said Edwin Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

Where and when can I see the lunar eclipse?
This month’s event will be visible primarily from Australia, East Asia, islands in the Pacific and the Western Americas. People on the West Coast of the United States, from Southern California up through Washington State, can expect the action to commence around 1:47 a.m. Pacific time on May 26.

In the beginning, the moon will enter only Earth’s outer shadow, called the penumbra. Any changes to the lunar surface will be subtle at first, Dr. Krupp said.

After sailing along over the next few hours, the moon will travel deeper into the shadow, at which point it will look as if something took a bite out of it. During this phase, it will begin turning reddish. This will start around 2:45 a.m. Pacific time.

At 4:11 a.m., the moon will fall completely within Earth’s inner umbral shadow and its full face will become a deep, dark red. The quirks of the moon’s orbit mean this total eclipse will be relatively short, lasting about 14 minutes and ending by 4:25 a.m. Pacific time. Some total lunar eclipses go for nearly an hour.

But the eclipse isn’t over and sky watchers can enjoy seeing the process reverse itself as the moon passes out of Earth’s umbra and penumbra, gradually returning to its normal self until sunrise, at which point it will sink below the horizon for West Coasters.

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On Tuesday afternoon, weather forecasters expected skies in many parts of Northern California to be relatively clear during the time of the eclipse, heading down the coast. But fog could shroud some coastal areas around Los Angeles and San Diego, which may obscure views of the moon.

Astrophotographers in the path of the eclipse may want to try setting up a telephoto lens on a tripod and vary the exposure at a few different shutter speeds to get the best shot, Dr. Krupp suggested.

A cellphone camera will usually make the moon appear quite small, he added, but keen observers can usually play with their phone’s settings to get a nice image.

So there’s no eclipse visible from the East Coast or other parts of the United States?
Sorry to say, no.

As a consolation for those elsewhere in the country, the Griffith Observatory is hosting a live feed of the eclipse on its website from 1:45 a.m. to 5:50 a.m. Pacific. You can also watch it in the video player embedded above. That means people in the Eastern time zone who wake up early enough can watch some of the show online.

What happens during a lunar eclipse?
Lunar eclipses occur when our planet comes between its two major heavenly companions, the sun and moon. Moonglow is actually reflected sunlight and so the lunar surface gradually darkens as the moon falls into Earth’s long shadow.

Sometimes, the moon’s celestial movements cause it to only graze part of our planet’s shadow, leading to partial lunar eclipses, which are often difficult to see. But the event later this month will see our natural satellite totally obscured by Earth’s bulk.

During such occurrences, a small amount of sunlight gets lensed around the edges of our planet. Earth’s atmosphere filters out everything but the longer, redder wavelengths, which are projected onto the moon. The coppery light — a combination of all the world’s sunrises and sunsets — creates the moon’s scarlet color during a total eclipse.

“It’s quite a spectacle to behold,” said Madhulika Guhathakurta, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Why is this a supermoon, too?
The moon’s orbit is not a perfect circle around Earth but rather an ellipse, so sometimes it will be closer and farther from our planet. This month’s supermoon should make our natural satellite appear about seven percent larger and brighter than usual in the sky, though most people will have a hard time telling the difference.

When the moon is close to the horizon, it tends to appear extremely big, a well-known optical illusion that has so far defied complete explanation. Some people hear about supermoons, witness this effect, and believe they have seen something special. But the two are unrelated, Dr. Krupp said.

Supermoons lining up with lunar eclipses aren’t uncommon. The most recent super blood moon was on Jan. 21, 2019, and the next is May 16, 2022. The fact that headlines have focused on creating fun names such as the “super flower blood moon” for this month’s eclipse “is strictly a product of the internet age,” Dr. Krupp said. “We are paying attention to celestial events in far more detail than before.”

But in that sense, it is almost a return to an earlier era, when the sky had much more meaning to everyday people’s lives.

“I have no quarrel with the digital age bringing attention to things that would pass by without notice,” he added.
What science is happening during the eclipse?
Research during lunar eclipses has a long pedigree. Aristotle demonstrated that Earth was a sphere by pointing out that it always casts a round shadow on the moon, no matter where on the ground the eclipse was seen or where the moon was in the sky. Only a spherical object, he reasoned, could produce a circular shadow from every angle.

In the modern day, NASA has used instruments on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a robotic spacecraft around the moon, to take temperature readings of the lunar surface as it passes into Earth’s shadow. By observing how quickly different rocks cool, scientists can infer their density, Dr. Guhathakurta said.

She was pleased that people all over the world are paying increased attention to astronomical phenomena like eclipses.

“They are beautiful to behold and they also teach us science,” she said.

@oodiebom,

I know just how you feel. I don’t like you getting on stools you may slip. I wish I were
there I am tall and could reach those heights for you. 😎Just be careful.

I am working on three threads at the same time I will be tired when this is over my
head is working real fast and I go at the speed of the keyboard. 🌹🤣

Guess I have to dust my broom off and fly to bring rain from OZ. 😎

This is a song from my father’s archive which I now own. 😎

Mountain Of Love
Johnny Rivers

Standing on a mountain looking down on a city
The way I feel is a doggone pity
Teardrops fallin’ down a mountainside
Many times I’ve been here, many times I’ve cried
We used to be so happy when we were in love
High on a mountain of love
Night after night I’m a-standing here alone
Weepin’ my heart out till cold gray dawn
Prayin’ that you’re lonely and you come here too
Hoping just by chance that I’ll get a glimpse of you
Tryin’ hard to find you, somewhere up above
High on a mountain of love
A mountain of love, a mountain of love, you should be ashamed
We used to be a mountain of love
But you just changed your name
Way down below there’s a half a million people
Somewhere there’s a church with a big tall steeple
Inside a church there’s an altar filled with flowers
Wedding bells are ringin’ and they shoulda been ours
That’s why I’m so lonely, my dreams gone above
High on a mountain of love
A mountain of love, a mountain of love, you should be ashamed now
Used to be a mountain of love
But you just changed your name
Way down below there’s a half a million people
Somewhere there’s a church with a big tall steeple
Inside a church there’s an altar filled with flowers
Wedding bells are ringin’ that shoulda been ours
That’s why I’m so lonely, dream gone above
High on a mountain of love
High on a mountain of love
High on a mountain of love
High on a mountain of love
High on a mountain of love

@oodiebom,

Just got the email this evening. 💕

@sheba2011

I already did. That is, I checked out the Heidi Daus thread and I love everything. Perfect for Florida and the Cape. And, she’s on tomorrow. …….decisions, decisions, decisions.

@sheba2011

Good evening from the Gulf Coast where temps are in the 90s with humidity. No rain until, maybe, the weekend. Our lawn is now non-existent. No more just spots of brown. Whole area is brown. Only can water on Fridays, and then only for a few short minutes.

Both of us are feeling better. I’m back to redoing kitchen cabinets. Tossing all spices that have expired. May empty some of the glass ones and use it for loose tea. Can always make a label and put tape over it. I’m using the step stool to get at the upper shelves. Hope to have hubby’s help on those as well since heights is not my forte.

No news on cousin. I surmise his brother isn’t sharing the info with family. And, he left word that he isn’t accepting e-mails or phone messages at this time. I surmise he needs some breathing room.

Hope you have a nice evening. Stay safe.

Heidi Girls I am wearing everything in the picture. I have the entire suite. 😎😎😎
My hair is the same color and I have it in a long ponytail. 😘

Sharing this because Heidi Daus will be on tomorrow check the Heidi Daus Thread I have new information
on Heidi Daus visit. 💕

Club Sheba

@sheba2011

Hi to you in Oz. It is a very hot and humid day here, upper 80’s.🔥 By the weekend it will be in the 60’s and 70’s. No big plans yet. Mom’s complex is having a social/picnic on Saturday so I know she will be there. Just hope it doesn’t rain.

Hockey team played one of their best games all season last night, double overtime, and lost on a flubbed play by the goalie.😣 My heart was broken.😪 If they lose tomorrow, they are out of the playoffs; otherwise, game 7 on Friday. Makes me wonder how they were first in the division and fall apart in the playoffs.🥴 May have to start rooting for another team.

Chicken salad for dinner, something easy and light. Jake is relaxing in the A/C, way too warm outside for the furry fellow. You and Poppy are invited for evening ice tea under the awning on the deck.🧉

How Long

When we take the time to sit with our emotions fully, it will become apparent that the emotion was a catalyst for much-needed healing

Our emotions color our lives with varying palettes. Sometimes we feel a strong emotion in reaction to something that has happened, but emotions also visit us seemingly out of the blue, flooding us unexpectedly with joy or grief or melancholy. Like the weather, they come and go, influencing our mental state with their particular vibration. Sometimes a difficult emotion hangs around longer than we would like, and we begin to wonder when it will release its hold on us. This is often true of grief stemming from loss, for example, or lingering anger over a past event.

Usually, if we allow ourselves to feel our emotions fully when they come up, they recede naturally, giving way to another and another. When an emotion haunts us, it is often because we are afraid of really feeling it. Emotions like despair and rage are powerful, and it is natural to want to hold them at bay. Certainly, we don’t want to let them take us over so that we say or do things we later regret. When we are facing this kind of situation, it can be helpful to ask the spirit, “How long do I need to sit with these emotions, how long do I need to feel these emotions before they can pass?” If you ask sincerely and wait, an answer will come. Setting a time limit on your engagement with that difficult emotion may be just the technique you need to face it fully.

When you have a sense of how much time you need to spend, set a timer. Sit down and make yourself available to the emotion that has been nagging you. All you have to do is feel it. Avoid getting attached to it or rejecting it. Simply let it ebb and flow within you. Emotions are by their nature cyclical, so you can trust that just as one reaches its apex it will pass. Each time you sit with its presence without either repressing or acting out, you will find that that difficult emotion was the catalyst for much needed emotional healing. AMEN! 💕😎😘

@kittengirl,

Good morning Kitten in California. I do hope this weekend will be a good one for you
and the family. God Bless. 💕