Mooooon....

Ok, so I got into a debate with Mini-Dew the other night about the state of the moon. You see, when it is close to full, she calls it full, and I tell her that only once in every 28 day cycle is it completely full. She doesn't believe me.Outside of the one day of full moon, there are varying stages of fullness, which might appear full, but we cannot see the full face of the moon. Yesterday was our full moon for the month. The next won't occur until December 2. If you click on the graphic above, you will see the year of moon phases.
In honor of the phases, I decided to post my shots of 2008's lunar eclipse, where the phases are mimicked in the course of the eclipse, which is caused by the earth passing briefly between the sun and a full moon.

February 2008 lunar eclipse ― The only total lunar eclipse of 2008 occurred on February 21, 2008, beginning at 01:43 UTC, visible from Europe, the Americas, and Africa. The next total lunar eclipse will occur on December 21, 2010.

My favorite stage is when the moon is fully eclipsed and it glows red in the shadow.

The following scale (the Danjon scale) was devised by André Danjon for rating the overall darkness of lunar eclipses:[3]

L=0: Very dark eclipse. Moon almost invisible, especially at mid-totality.
L=1: Dark Eclipse, gray or brownish in coloration. Details distinguishable only with difficulty.
L=2: Deep red or rust-colored eclipse. Very dark central shadow, while outer edge of umbra is relatively bright.
L=3: Brick-red eclipse. Umbral shadow usually has a bright or yellow rim.
L=4: Very bright copper-red or orange eclipse. Umbral shadow is bluish and has a very bright rim.

Makes you want to howl, doesn't it?

Aside from that, temperatures across the nation start to plunge into a more seasonally appropriate range, as a high pressure line-up rolls in taking over almost the entire country with clear skies and cool breezes.I wouldn't expect this too change anytime too soon, which is good news for those areas recovering from recent flooding.

Have a great day!
~Dewdrop

Perfect Lunar Eclipse Viewing in South Georgia

Well, as it turned out, the skies of south central Georgia were PERFECT for viewing last night's total lunar eclipse. I, of course, in true Dew fashion, captured it photographically. I had my tripod set up in the back yard and around dinner, homework and American Idol (who scheduled a Lunar Eclipse to occur at the same time as American Idol?! lol). I even got a text message from Rick at one point asking if I was shooting it... Was I shooting the lunar eclipse...? lol Did he really have to ask?




Then, as the Earth's shadow began to cast that reddish glow on the moon, I changed my settings to capture that. All the while, during this event, I would encourage Mini-Dew to come out and see the various stages. She was amazed at the near total eclipse after having seen the full moon not 2 hours prior. I'm glad to have been able to share the experience with her. I could hear several of my neighbors reacting to what they were seeing as well.Click on the icon for a link to Jeff Gammons's site, where he has a time lapse video of the lunar eclipse last night. I love his time lapse work! CNN has an article with pictures that people have submitted.

I actually have a funny story about shooting the moon last night. It was a nearly full moon, but the sky was so clear with only a few drifting cirrus clouds accentuating its brilliance, while it was still low in the eastern sky that it lit everything up nicely. I was on my way to Mini-Dew's practice, and I saw that the moon was beautiful and barely resting above a barn on the way down the road... completely photographable, so (yep, you guessed it) I pulled off the side of the road to shoot it. Given time constraints, I didn't have the time to set up the tripod to get a more steady shot, but I did the best I could. You get the picture. Anyways, while I was there shooting this beautiful landscape shot, a sheriff's deputy pulls up, lights on and everything, right smack dab in the middle of my shot (grrr)... and he looks over at me, camera in hand... and asks, "Is everything all right, ma'am? Are you OK?" My humble, almost embarrassed, response... "Yes, sir. I was just taking pictures of the... moon. (cracking up on the inside at this point) I'll be on my way shortly." I followed his eyes as he checked to make sure that my vehicle was safely off the road, and he said, "Oh no, ma'am. Take your time. You are fine." I guess in retrospect, I should have gotten the tripod out at that point. It really was picturesque.

Now... let's explore the weather, shall we? I woke up this morning, to see that there was a (still ongoing) tornado watch in southern Louisiana. It looks like a bulk of the strong convection has moved out of the watch area, and some has actually moved further east than the slight risk area defined by the Storm Prediction Center, looks like it's a fast moving low with more storm activity than they might have foreseen. I expect that the updated outlook will move that slight risk well east shortly. Currently, the MCS appears to be moving east on I-10, so westward travel on I-10 could be a tough ride today... happens to be the direction bf is headed today. Storm chasing without me?! So not cool! It's OK though, Thursdays aren't my chase days. Tomorrow though... it looks like I am still solidly in place for a slight chance of a severe weather outbreak. The text isn't strong, the tornadic threat is conditional... heck, even the severe threat is limited by the potential cloud cover, but it could happen. Rick and I are exploring the possibility of a chase. Looks like Meso Mike will be ditching us for w**k... I guess it comes down to timing. I will keep an eye on things and see what happens. Here's what the SPC is saying...

WIND PROFILES IN WARM SECTOR WILL BECOME LARGELY UNIDIRECTIONAL. STORMS MAY EVOLVE INTO SUPERCELLS AND BOWING SEGMENTS WITH DAMAGING WIND EXPECTED THE MAIN THREAT...THOUGH HAIL MAY ALSO BE POSSIBLE DEPENDING ON MID LEVEL LAPSE RATES AND DEGREE OF DESTABILIZATION. ANY TORNADO THREAT APPEARS CONDITIONAL UPON HOW QUICKLY THE LOW LEVEL JET VEERS AND SHIFTS EWD AWAY FROM THE DESTABILIZING WARM SECTOR.

Let's see what the Dewvoid does to this one. Stay tuned.

Oh, I almost forgot, I wrote about my friend's daughter who lives in Prattville, AL, and I received a aerial shot of the tornado damage in her neighborhood from the February 17th EF-3 tornado that caused a tremendous amount of damage in that city. According to Celina's mom:

Here is a shot of Celina's neighborhood after the tornado went through on Sunday afternoon. Celina and family rode out the storm in the bathroom with blankets and pillows over them. Give thanks to God that they are safe and healthy.

Update 2:45PM: This tornado watch #70 was just issued for much of Southern Louisiana. Looks like bf will be going chasing without me, whether he wants to or not... he is headed just east of this watch box; in fact, he's on his way now, driving through torrential rains along I-10 in the panhandle... just rainy, drizzly day here, though I just heard some thunder.

God bless,
~Dewdrop

Welcome back Atlantis, a Lunar Eclipse and... the satellite is falling...?

(NASA Photo, which links to the source) Well, I was hoping I would have another shot at seeing the shuttle fly over, but I was quite dismayed to arrive at the office and see that the Space Shuttle Atlantis was not flying over me during its descent. No, no, this time the shuttle flew in from the south. I was ready though. The shuttle safely landed at Kennedy Space Center this morning shortly after 9AM. I hope to see a shuttle launch in April, but we shall see.

Tonight, we will have a special treat when a lunar eclipse occurs that we should have a good view of... I have been watching the forecast of cloud cover, to see how the clouds may or may not impede the view... It appears that a partly cloudy sky will turn to a mostly cloudy sky during the course of the night, so timing is of the essence. The total eclipse over the east coast region of the United States will be visible beginning at 10:01PM. I would like to set up my tripod and try to photograph it. According to NASA, who supplied this map of the country and associated viewing times:

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth lines up directly between the sun and the moon, casting a shadow over the moon's surface. The February 20, 2008 eclipse will last for nearly 3 and a half hours. For a full 50 minutes of that time the moon will be in totality - the period when the lunar surface is completely covered by the Earth's shadow.

During an eclipse the moon changes color, going from a light gray color to an orange or deep red shade. This is totality. The moon takes on this new color because indirect sunlight is still able to pass through the Earth's atmosphere and cast a glow on the moon.

Make sure and catch this one, because the next one won't occur until December 2010. No, this is not the type of eclipse that you have to view with special viewing contraption, that's a solar eclipse (The next total solar eclipse visible from the United States won’t happen until August 21, 2017. NEVER view the sun with the naked eye or with any optical device, such as binoculars or a telescope!). You can safely look at this one. Mike Hollingshead has some great photographs of last year's lunar eclipse. Brian Emfinger also has a great display of the phases.

With the Space Shuttle Atlantis safely landed at Kennedy Space Center, that opens the door for the Navy to shoot down a decaying out-of-control US spy satellite, which is literally ready to fall out of the sky. They are preparing to possibly do this as soon as today before it "tumbles into the Earth's atmosphere", sort of reminiscent of that childhood tale of "Chicken Little"... the sky is falling, the sky is falling! Yes, the plan is to shoot a missile (an SM3 Inteceptor Missile) into the sky and take out the satellite causing it to fall into the Pacific Ocean where Navy ships will be standing by. If they miss, they will have to wait a day for it to be over the Pacific again.

The plan is to hit a tank on the satellite carrying the toxic propellant hydrazine, which officials say could pose a threat to humans if it survives re-entry.

Are they serious?! Holy cow. Here is a link to my source article for this information.

Well, it's been cool and dry here. In fact, it's to the point where we have red flag warnings in the area. We have been experiencing cold mornings and mild afternoons after the cold front that came through. Tomorrow, we are looking forward to some thunderstorms, approaching as, yet another, cold front approaches from west, which should last through early Saturday. There isn't any severe wording with this one, but they are expecting several of them to be "on the strong side", according to the guys, but the Storm Prediction Center places us under a slight risk for Friday, so stay tuned.

The National Weather Service in Tallahassee has offered its damage report from this past weekend's outbreak; Kelly did a great job... as usual. Looks like my CWA had EF-1 and an EF-0 damage as the tornadoes passed through during the February 17th tornado outbreak. Still nothing out of Peachtree City. Sigh. I have heard that there were 22 confirmed tornadoes, making a total of 104 tornadoes this month, which is a record. Unbelievable.

Toodles,
~Dewdrop