Hello, my beautiful autumn leaves! How are you? Hasn’t the weather been gorgeous to behold this past week? The sunlight; the red, green, gold, yellow, brown leaves everywhere; the warm days shrinking for the longer, cooler nights; the blindingly beautiful sunsets. Oh my. I do so love this time of year. Mother Nature has really been outdoing herself recently. Thank you, Mother. When you outdo yourself in the spring or fall, it usually is a blessing upon all; when you outdo yourself in the winter or summer, it often turns out to be a bummer. Just joking, Mother, just joking…On March 19th, lots of people heard about the so-called Super Moon. The Super Moon was a full Moon that occurred when the Moon was closest to Earth in its elliptical orbit. Therefore, it appeared slightly larger and brighter in the night sky. The difference is small enough that most people would probably have trouble telling the difference without visual aid (I know lots of people said they could, but how many of them look at the Moon on a regular enough basis to judge? I would love to start a rumor that some random month had a super Moon and watch everyone claim it looks so much bigger but that's another story!)
Tonight is the smallest full Moon of the year which I have dubbed Mini-Moon for lack of a better term. The Moon near the farthest point in its orbit on the evening of full Moon. Again, it's not much smaller and you probably have a hard time telling the difference without visual aid.
Now I used visual aid in the form of a Canon Digital Rebel Xti and a 70-300mm zoom lens (at 300mm of course). I took a pic back on March 19th and another one just now. Not much has been done to them and they didn't come out as well as I had hoped, but the size is clearly different.
These are at the same scale of course. You can clearly see the March 19th pic (left) shows a larger Moon than tonight's photo (right). You don't need a lot of expensive equipment to do this type of photography. Many people have cameras similar to mine with comparable zoom lenses.
You can do the same with the Sun if you have a solar filter. Earth is closest to the Sun in early January and farthest from the Sun in early July. I think I will get some solar filter material and make that a 2012 project!
Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.
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| Aren't we a good looking bunch? ;> |
/ˈrÉ›tki/ ret-kee; May 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963) was an American poet, who published several volumes of poetry characterized by its rhythm, rhyming, and natural imagery. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his book, The Waking."Hello, my cherished chestnuts! How are you? What a delicious spate of weather we are having. Balmy days with sunshine and cool nights to snuggle under the blankets. It is just wonderful. Maybe some of my late tomatoes will even ripen. If not, I’ll try to ripen them in paper bags. If not that, I’ll call upon the forces of the æther to command them to ripen. 
As we start to get the announcements of the 2011 Nobel Prize winners, they were once again beaten to the punch by the 2011 IgNobel Prizes. The IgNobels are given for the stranger side of science, the studies that make you laugh and then make you think. Here are a few of this year's "winners".Be sure to check out the complete list of winners. You can even download a copy of the program given out at the ceremony. They usually post video of the ceremony a week in a week or so. Science Friday airs highlights of the show the Friday after Thanksgiving. The ceremony includes a mini-opera (This year "Chemist in a Coffee Shop"), Win a Date with a Nobel Laureate, the 24/7 lectures an a little girl who makes sure no one gets long winded with their acceptance speeches (a surprisingly large percentage of the honorees show up!)
Oh, and it's not too early to start nominating people for next year's awards!
Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.
From Racine Uncovered: "From 620WTMJ.com-RACINE – City of Racine Alderman Keith Fair was arrested on suspicion of choking and striking a pregnant woman who works at the bar he owns, the Racine County Sheriff’s Department confirmed.
I've been trying to think of ways to make some extra money. "I'm so poor that I can't pay attention." One of the ideas I had was to hold a raffle for a date with the inimitable and irascible OrbsCorbs. Make it $5 a ticket. I figure at least 200 women (hopefully, they'll all be women) will jump at the chance for a night out with Orbs. That's $1,000 right there. What does dinner and a movie for two cost? It's been a long time for me, but I think it can be done for $100 or less. That's $900 profit right there.
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