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When I was a kid, the first constellation that I learned was the Big Dipper, and oh yeh, the little one too.

Second, and very easy to see was Orion. The warrior.

After that, I got tired of star watching and can't remember looking to find another constellation. Too dark, too cold, too little reward.

So, thrilled to see the guy coming up in the east this morning.

Back again, wielding that sword. Flexing all those muscles.

The admiration of the muscles came later.

What the appeal was way back then is hard to figure.

Perhaps the thrill of knowing something no one else I knew knew.

Of course, they also did not care about it.

As is the case today I suppose.

But that is too bad for you.

Here he is again.

Deal with it.

Labels: astronomy

When I was a kid in an astronomy club, the only constellation I was able to learn was Orion.

Even the dippers eluded me many nights.

And the rest of them? Nah. I wore glasses.

So a thrill to see my very own constant constellation friend rising in the east.

What can I say?

How about "hi!".

Now if they had shown me this picture, I would have had it down cold. But as it was, I had Mr. Ravelli who cared enough to stand out in a cold field with the class nerds with one of those star maps in our hands.

Mr. Ravelli. Not my type but a definite heart-throb. Perhaps the reason I went into science and engineering.

He was very supportive to a kid who needed adult male attention. I remember him fondly.

Let's try another picture without all the picture folderol.

Labels: astronomy, life

Marcus and I went out to pee this morning and I looked up at the sky as I always do.

There was the beginning of a lunar eclipse. The "blood moon"

I can see why it made the early people freak out. It is quite spooky when it is not expected.

It has happened fast.

I went and got John and we watched it creep to a complete wipeout which, as you know, is not really a black out. More a brown out.

It is quite something.

And to see it by accident was a particular thrill. I am not sure why I didn't know it was happening. actually. But there was that neat global cartoon showing the path of it about a week ago. I figured it would hit us in the daylight and then forgot about it.

Gee whiz! Holy kaboley!

Some of the christers think that this will be a part of the end times.

The same as the primitives.

But what do I know?

Labels: astronomy

This is an old story with no new twists.

The kind that old men tell over and over. Even if you say you have heard it before, you are going to hear it again.

Orion is up in the eastern morning sky.

He has been gone for awhile. It is still a thrill each year.

When I was a kid, our science teacher organized some weekly star watches. They lasted for two weeks. Only one other kid and I showed up. Richard H. who followed me to MIT the year after. We didn't bond there. Another story.

But the first constellation I ever saw was Orion. It is easy. The easiest. You look up and there he is. The familiar shape.

I do not remember any of the other constellations. I cannot even find the North Star. Never could.

Basically, because I don't give a shit about it all.

Why this one thing? Probably Mr. Ravelli. My first boyhood crush. I was one of his pets.

He was a smoker so I and a few others would get to "monitor" the class while he went down to have a smoke with Frank Blitz the building janitor and Ed Bosman the math teacher. They all reeked of tobacco smoke all the time. Tough to be a teacher that smokes. Especially now. Tough to be a smoker anywhere.

Anyway, Al Ravelli got in trouble with a girl in the class ahead of me. My Dad was on the School Board so I knew a lot more about it than I should have. Very upsetting. For all the reasons you might guess although I couldn't at the time.

He packed up and left town. I never heard from him again.

But I do hear about Orion. Or see him. Every year. And I remember the night on the hill with Al. Romantic, right? No. But a little sad. Bittersweet. Almost like a french movie.

Sublimation.

I couldn't have Al but I still have the guy in the sky.

Labels: astronomy, crushes

TAKING A DIP

I often say that the only constellation that I know is Orion.

This is true as far as it goes but not true in the entire galactic sense.

I also know the Big Dipper when I see it but only when I see it. I haven't ever paid enough attention to know where it at any particular time.

Now, though, I see it every morning. First thing in the sky. It hangs over the north eave of our back patio and doesn't seem to move from that location.

Is that possible? No. Actually not.

Because it is so far north, its sweep is not as big and wide as Orion so it appears to always be there. We are more revolving around it.

This video explains it.

Not so important as I have become used to seeing it every day as I take a feel of the temperature. I look up and there it is.

Sorry, I don't see a bear, me.

It has been cold lately so I don't spend much time at all looking.

Just a glimpse.

Good morning.

Listen to this guy. I'll bet that he is from Canada. "Ooouut".

Labels: astronomy

DAYLIGHT

John says that the reason we don't see light at night is that it is all infra-red.

That is what the little film vignette says.

I didn't get it. Or, I think that it is extraordinarily mundane. If that is possible. Extraordinary/mundane.

A more pertinent question is "how come there is daylight?". Or more precisely,"how come there is a lit sky?"

Answer: sunlight scattered through air particles. Sun is gone at night so is skylight.

There is a lot to how questions are posed. You can make something very mundane, extraordinary.

If you don't know what I am talking about see below for Sunday Sept 30.

Labels: astronomy, science

WHY IS IT DARK AT NIGHT?

This seems to be a really good explanation and all but I have to admit that I still don't get it.

I mean it is filled with extraneous facts but nothing to answer the specific question posed.

Or perhaps it does.

Maybe my bad luck with physics still abstains. I am, after all, an MIT graduate but this kind of stuff doesn't work for me.

Maybe I don't listen.

Labels: astronomy, science

ORION

It happens every fall.

I am outside in the morning with Booker. Waiting for him to pee and sniff out the overnight activity.

I look up at the sky and see it.

Orion!

The only constellation that I know and can always find in the sky when it is there. Which will be about six months.

Then he is gone.

I belonged to the Astrology Club and our first night, Mr. Ravelli took us up on a hill near the school to look at the sky. The first constellation he showed us was Orion.

The club either never met again or I never returned. Whatever. So this is the only constellation that I every learned. Hence, the only one I know.

Oh, I know the Big Dipper when I see it but I don't really look for it or know where to look. Finding it is an accident. I have never, ever been able to locate the North Star.

There are the Pleiades. Where are they? Dunno.

But always Orion. And he is still here all the way out here in California.

Today!

The first morning I have seen him.

Labels: astronomy

HIGH ABOVE

Yesterday or today are the longest day of the year.

Franklin and I can look forward to after supper walks that get cooler and cooler and darker and darker.

Because we are behind the mountains on the west our day is already shorter than a lot of other people. But since there is no moisture in the air, when the sun is out we get the full radiation.

Of course the heat will continue all the way to September. But this is the first sign of a change for the "better".

Actually we like the heat or we wouldn't be here.

Here. Everything you wanted to know and more about the summer solstice.

Labels: astronomy, heat, seasons

SUNDOWN

We just got back from walking through the thirty minute peak of the solar eclipse.

It started to get that brownish tinge about 615 and then darker, darker until the peak at 638.

No total dark.

We watch the shadows. They take the shape of the crescent. Quite spectacular.

Our shadows show like we have fringe on the bottom of the image.

We haven't seen anything like this since maybe 20 years ago in Boston.

No. We didn't know about it soon enough to get glasses for it.

Maybe next time. I will be 96.

Booker didn't get it. "What the shit Dads? Why all the excitement. My shadow has a furry look to it all the time".

Labels: astronomy, nature

HE IS BACK

I await the return of Orion every mid summer. Later summer.

I found him yesterday.

It is not as easy to see the stars at this new place. There is a lot of ambient light and at the end of our daily pee walk (Booker not me) there is a really bright lollipop light so we are star sighting challenged looking that way.

I do remember that he was here last year when we moved. Just over the eastern horizon. When the light goes out, a regular electrical malfunction, it is amazing how many stars there are to see.

I am big on Orion because it is the first and only constellation that I learned to identify. Well, there is the Big Dipper but everyone can see that. I cannot see the Little Dipper though. Where is it?

It was in 8th grade, the first meeting of the school's Astronomy Club. Mr. Ravelli and three other kids. Not enough. It was our last session.

That is how come I never saw any others. I had a star map and I could do it on my own but I didn't and don't. Now, I don't stay up late enough.

Half the year, Orion is rising in the night. In the winter I can catch him because of the time difference and it is dark. But then I lose him when he starts coming up after 7-8 PM.

And so on.

I was not made to be an astronomer. Not even an astrologist.

Labels: astrology, astronomy

APOD IN BOSTON

Today's APOD picture has the big moon rising behind the Boston Skyline.

We missed the entire show. It was cloudy and rainy here on the opening night and even the next evening. Now it is gibbous.

The skyline has changed a lot since we were there, most notably the cable bridge across the Charles. The Zakim. A fine old New England name if there ever was one.

I had read that this will not happen again for 18 years but, right here in the APOD, it says next May.

What a relief. A second chance.

The photo looks a lot like a drawing. I guess the lens.

I know. It is too big for your computer page. Scroll left and right.

Labels: astronomy, Boston

SPACED OUT

Labels: astronomy

FLASH

This is the time of year that we always went to the Caribbean for three weeks. St. Croix.

There we encountered the mysteries of the "green flash".

Hotly contested at the sunset gathering, in our resort, the faithful split from the agnostics and atheists over the question of whether the "flash" existed or not.

We joined the fray and, after a few sunsets, saw the "flash". We were born again.

Many still deny its existence but this posting today from APOD tells the true story.

There is a green, sometimes blue, flash and it is good.

A Green Flash From the Sun

Conditions need to be right to see it. In the photo shown, not the APOD, there are two things that favor the flash. One is that the air is hazy. The other is that the photographer had the luck to snap at just the right instant.

You can go to Google images for photos of the flash and most of them do not show green at all. The finger is slower than the eye.

The other thing about this controversy, particularly in resort settings, is that it provides safe and sane opportunity for argument over drinks.

Beats politics and religion every time.

Labels: APOD, astronomy, astropix

THE BIG GUY

I have written that Orion is the only constellation I know.

That is because the first session of the Astronomy Club had only three kids in it and they folded the group.

But we did see Orion.

I still look at him every morning, now. In the spring he will re-emerge at sunset.

This has more detail to it if you go to the link.

Orion: Head to Toe.

Labels: APOD, astronomy, astropix

BACK IN THE SAME NEW PLACE

It has been a bright moon for awhile so I missed the ascension of Orion here in our new location.

Amazing.

He came up here right on time even though we had moved.

We are out further in the desert here so the sight lines are a lot better.

This is his eastern self.

This will last for a while and then he will become a day guy until we start seeing him as the sun goes down.

I get all into this because Orion was the first and last constellation that I ever identified.

8th grade. Mr. Ravelli's optional evening star gazing. On the hill behind our house. I lived close to the school.

I think there was only one session because just three kids showed up.

Orion has been a constant friend over the years. And he is still there for me.

Labels: astronomy, life

NEO ORBITAL

No. Not a "new" theory. An old thing. No one ever thought about. Or not in my awareness.

How cool.

NEO Space

Near Earth Object.

How cool.

How tricky. A lot cheaper to get to and a lot of payoff if it works.

From Daily Kos.

President Obama threw out an intriguing idea during a speech about the future of the US space program earlier this month: "Early in the next decade, a set of crewed flights will test and prove the systems required for exploration beyond low Earth orbit. And by 2025, we expect new spacecraft designed for long journeys to allow us to begin the first-ever crewed missions beyond the Moon into deep space. So we’ll start -- we’ll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history".

Some asteroids are CO2 and water. A water source.

There are 7000 of these things.

If they were inhabited, you could see them. Lighting up the sky.

This is not too far from possible now.

Did I say how cool I think this is?

And so much more practical than traipsing off to Mars or another trip to the desolate moon.

Labels: Administration Obama, astronomy

UNDERGROUND

This is from the website Spaceweather.com which I have been reading every day since one of my young interviewees turned me on to it.

Today, I am informed that we have a worm moon. Ever hear of that?

WORM MOON: According to folklore, tonight's full Moon has a special name--the Worm Moon. It signals the coming of northern spring, a thawing of the soil, and the first stirrings of earthworms in long-dormant gardens. Step outside tonight and behold the wakening landscape. "Worm moonlight" is prettier than it sounds.

I am not sure how they got here. I imagine that they have been here since before the desert went dry. We used to be underwater.

The smart ones live in the lawns and golf courses that get regular water. Darwin works for their survival as the weak minded or too adventurous of them crawl out on the hot sidewalk and, well, fry.

When I see them I put them back. If they are still moist and wiggling.

I have a long time fondness for worms of all kinds. When I was a kid, I kept an earthworm colony alive in a pot but they all died eventually. Earthworms need to wander and to explore. Just not out on the hot sidewalk.

I also kept mealworms in a jar. They didn't care. They liked it in there. They could lay their eggs and die and the eggs would rehatch. Every so often--yearly?--I would change the medium. Flour and bran.

I suppose that our earthworms work just like those back east. They are tuned to the the biological clocks that will have them stirring just about now.

I think that this is so because we do not have any earthworms on sidewalks (when it would be safe) from November until, well, about now.

I will look for them.

In the meantime we will enjoy the moon which seems especially bright just now. It is rising as it gets dark and setting just before dawn. Perfect timing.

Labels: astronomy, life

PERSPECTIVE

If you feel weighed down by current events or whatever is fucking with your head, this film might help you get a grip.

Labels: astronomy, spiritual life

ONCE

Tonight, last night, there is a blue moon.

This comes simply because the lunar calendar doesn't match the whatever we have. They happen every three years. But this year is the first, in a while, that has the blue moon fall on the New Year. Hoo hah.

But I do like the picture.

Labels: astronomy