Looks like yet another cool astronomical phenonmenon is going to pass me by before I’ll get to see it. I’ve been checking the horizon every night for the past several days in hopes of being able to see Comet McNaught, but unfortunately, I’ve been hampered by consistent cloud cover. And the weather report for the next several does not look promising or encouraging. It’s a bummer, really. Seems like every time something cool happens in the night skies, I miss out. Last time Haley’s Comet traveled past, it was the same thing – heavy cloud cover during the prime viewing time. I did get to see Hale-Bopp, at least, so I guess that’s something. Looks like I’ll just have to content myself with seeing photographs of McNaught.
Posts Tagged ‘astronomy’
Full Moon
January 6, 2007 – 8:04 pm
“In the absence of the sun, I’ll take a full moon.”
It’s funny how attuned a person can get to the cycles of the moon. I’d never really paid all that much attention to what phase the moon was in – I never had much cause to. It took buying land and actually moving our horses onto that property coupled with the short days of winter to change that. I miss those nights (or early mornings) where the moon hasn’t risen yet (or has just gone down) or where the moon is new, thus plunging the landscape into complete darkness. Those are the nights where I actually need the flashlight to see deliver the hay and grain out to the horses.
But when the moon is full, it’s almost as good as full sunlight. The human eye is able to make amazingly good use of exceedingly low light, and I love being able to walk around outside with just the moonlight to illuminate the way. There’s something about it that sparks the imagination. I can just see the plains of Middle Earth, men (and hobbits and dwarves and elves) traveling hard and fast to reach their destination before evil can catch them. I can see a special forces unit making a nighttime assault on a secret compound, their equipment amplifying the moonlight.
Of course, the moon hadn’t come up yet tonight when I went out to feed. Moonrise is still a little ways off, but at least it will be up for the morning feed. Things are always a little more spooky out there without the moonlight, especially when our local pack of coyotes is making a racket about a mile away. But it’s still a night for imagination, for creativity, and it’s always a lot of fun.
Bits of Burning Rock
August 1, 2006 – 10:47 am
I hadn’t realized until my wife and I moved back out to the country just how many shooting stars fall in a given night. Nearly every time I am outside, in the dark, to feed the horses, whether it be early morning or after sunset, I usually see at least one or two.1 I don’t remember ever seeing so many as a kid, but then again I grew up in the mountains, so maybe it was a factor of having less sky to work with. And living in the city was never conducive to star-gazing.
Seeing shooting stars has a way of sparking the creative juices. It makes one think of what might be out there in the black. One recent night in particular had a particularly high showing of shooting stars – as I stood watching, listening to horses quietly munch their hay, I saw at least half a dozen streaks of light.2 Then the image came to mind of a little girl and her father lying in the grass just outside their home watching a meteor shower, and a new story was born. Of course, given the way my mind likes to twist things, the story’s ending is a little bit disturbing.
But that’s a story for another day.
Keep your eyes open; ideas can come from anywhere.