With respect to Sunday (tonight's full moon), in the 1930s, a miscalculation in S&T starts a viral rumor that the Blue Moon occurs in a month with two full Moons. http://www.space.com/spacewatch/november-full-moon-blue-moon-101119.html
Fascinating! Thanks for the link. Quoting Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com>:
With respect to Sunday (tonight's full moon), in the 1930s, a miscalculation in S&T starts a viral rumor that the Blue Moon occurs in a month with two full Moons.
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/november-full-moon-blue-moon-101119.html
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There is an interesting opportunity next month for anyone who wishes to mark the December solstice in some special way. Many of you know of Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels near Lucin in northwest Utah. (For those of you who don't, there are numerous articles and images online, such as this one at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Holt.) The tunnels were created to mark observations of the sun's rising and setting at the solstices, but when the geometry is right the Moon can also be seen to rise and set through the tunnels. This December's lunar eclipse will offer such an opportunity. Although the eclipse itself will occur late at night when the Moon is high in the sky, eclipse geometry means that the Moon is very nearly centered on the ecliptic, so that it, too, will appear to rise through one pair of tunnels and set through the other pair. I first saw the sun tunnels in December of 1991 with VonDel Chamberlain, when a similar partial lunar eclipse allowed for photographs of the Moon through the Sun Tunnels. One advantage of observing the Sun Tunnels in December is that almost no one else is crazy enough to do it so there's a lot of room to get great photos. (VonDel and I stayed overnight at the tunnels. The temperature was at least -20F.) There's at least one motel in Montello, Nevada, about 20 miles away for those who aren't hardy enough for camping. ;-) Kim
Hi Kim, I've always said that my idea of roughing it is no room service in the hotel. :) But for those who do want to head to Sun Tunnels, here are directions: http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/SUNTUNNELS.HTML patrick On 21 Nov 2010, at 14:48, Kim Hyatt wrote:
There is an interesting opportunity next month for anyone who wishes to mark the December solstice in some special way. Many of you know of Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels near Lucin in northwest Utah. (For those of you who don't, there are numerous articles and images online, such as this one at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Holt.) The tunnels were created to mark observations of the sun's rising and setting at the solstices, but when the geometry is right the Moon can also be seen to rise and set through the tunnels. This December's lunar eclipse will offer such an opportunity. Although the eclipse itself will occur late at night when the Moon is high in the sky, eclipse geometry means that the Moon is very nearly centered on the ecliptic, so that it, too, will appear to rise through one pair of tunnels and set through the other pair.
I first saw the sun tunnels in December of 1991 with VonDel Chamberlain, when a similar partial lunar eclipse allowed for photographs of the Moon through the Sun Tunnels. One advantage of observing the Sun Tunnels in December is that almost no one else is crazy enough to do it so there's a lot of room to get great photos. (VonDel and I stayed overnight at the tunnels. The temperature was at least -20F.) There's at least one motel in Montello, Nevada, about 20 miles away for those who aren't hardy enough for camping. ;-)
Kim
Since both definitions are just human-applied labels, with no scientific relevance, I wouldn't kick someone out of the club for using the term for either. "Blue Moon" = no intrinsic scientific value. It's just poetic license by old farmers. ;o) This story has been aroud for about 20 years, with all due respect to Mr. Rao. In fact I believe S&T 'fessed-up to it decades ago. On 11/21/10, Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com> wrote:
With respect to Sunday (tonight's full moon), in the 1930s, a miscalculation in S&T starts a viral rumor that the Blue Moon occurs in a month with two full Moons.
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/november-full-moon-blue-moon-101119.html
I noticed on the weather last night (and I apologize I don't remember who or even the station that I was watching) that the weatherman actually referred to yesterday's full Moon as a blue Moon. Kim -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Chuck Hards Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2010 2:43 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Once in a Blue Moon Since both definitions are just human-applied labels, with no scientific relevance, I wouldn't kick someone out of the club for using the term for either. "Blue Moon" = no intrinsic scientific value. It's just poetic license by old farmers. ;o) This story has been aroud for about 20 years, with all due respect to Mr. Rao. In fact I believe S&T 'fessed-up to it decades ago. On 11/21/10, Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com> wrote:
With respect to Sunday (tonight's full moon), in the 1930s, a miscalculation in S&T starts a viral rumor that the Blue Moon occurs in a month with two full Moons.
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/november-full-moon-blue-moon-101119.html
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1153 / Virus Database: 424/3274 - Release Date: 11/23/10
participants (5)
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Canopus56 -
Chuck Hards -
Josephine Grahn -
Kim Hyatt -
Patrick Wiggins