Total lunar eclipse Aug 28

In the early evening hours (Australian Eastern time) of August 28, sky watchers across much of the world can look on as the Moon crosses in to the shadow of the Earth, becoming completely immersed for one-hour and 30 minutes, a period of time much longer than most typical lunar eclipses. In fact, this eclipse will be the deepest and longest in 7 years.

Pic:The Moon takes on a strange reddish glow during a total eclipse due dust and pollution in the Earth’s atmosphere. Image credit: Shevill Mathers - Sky and Space Magazine.

At first, there is little change. The outskirts of Earth's shadow are as pale as the Moon itself; an onlooker might not even realize anything is happening. But as the Moon penetrates deeper in to the Earth's shadow, a startling metamorphosis occurs. Around 7.51pm (Australian Eastern time) the colour of the Moon changes from moondust-grey to sunset-red. This is totality, and it lasts for almost 90 minutes. Australia will be treated to a total lunar eclipse early in the evening of Tuesday August 28 and the moon is expected to take on an eerie 'reddish glow'. The most impressive part starts when the Moon's leading edge first enters the earth's shadow, and the eclipse begins,then over the next hour or so, the Moon will slip into total darkness. For Australian eastern states the partial eclipse begins 6.51 pm with the moon totally eclipsed at 7.52pm. This is when it will be at its most impressive. We won't see another one like this until 2010.Suddenly the moon begins to 'disappear'. From that time on, more and more of the Moon will be seen to be in shadow, as if a 'bite' were being taken out of it.As the eclipse progresses, the Moon's disc will take on an eerie coppery-red glow. This is because sunlight falling on the Moon has been filtered through the earth's atmosphere. In fact, the Moon can take on a range of colours, anywhere from dark brown and red to bright orange and yellow.The exact appearance depends on how much dust and clouds are present in the upper atmosphere at the time. The fully eclipsed moon won't be totally dark - and that's what makes totality delightful.Total eclipses tend to be very dark after major volcanic eruptions or major bushfires since these events dump large amounts of volcanic ash into Earth's atmosphere.Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are completely safe to watch. You don't need any kind of protective filters. It isn't even necessary to use a telescope. If you have a pair of binoculars, they will help magnify the view and will make the red coloration brighter and easier to see.

A day to remember

On Saturday August 25, 2007 Fluffy laid her annual egg.
As this is such a monumental occassion, it deserves it's own entry. How do we know that it's Fluffy's egg? Easy, because its a quarter of the size of all the other eggs!
Please note: Fluffy
She looks mean when viewed from this angle but in reality is anything but.

sun and quakes

Recent study by a team of scientists from the ESA (European Space Agency), proves sound generated by the Sun causes earthquakes. The ESA team involved in the HISCALE (Heliosphere Instrument for Spectra, Composition and Anisotropy at Low Energies), which sits aboard the Ulysses spacecraft, have determined specific isolated tones (waves) which are produced by the gravity waves in the Sun, reach Earth and are detecable by seismic instruments.
More on a related topic, "sun's rays affecting Earth:The team of more than 100 researchers, including National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported investigators at Princeton University and Virginia Tech, have operated the so-called Borexino experiment in one of the deepest laboratories in the world, the Gran Sasso Laboratory of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN, the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics), near the town of L'Aquila, Italy.These are the first results from the Borexino experiment that has been under construction since the late 1990s with the support of INFN as the lead agency, NSF in the United States, and institutions in Germany, France and Russia."In making these first direct measurements of low-energy neutrinos coming from the sun, Borexino represents a convergence of our present understanding of neutrino properties and the physics of solar energy generation," said Brad Keister, program director for nuclear physics in NSF's mathematical and physical sciences directorate."The great depth of the laboratory and the incredible purity of the materials used in the detection were critical to the discovery and demonstrated the impact of eliminating background radiation from such experiments," added Keister.Produced in the Big Bang, and more recently in stars and nuclear reactors, neutrinos are everywhere. They constantly bombard the Earth, but because they interact very weakly, chances are slim a neutrino will hit anything. More than 100,000,000,000,000 pass through each of us every second without our noticing them.An international team of researchers has detected low-energy solar neutrinos--subatomic particles produced in the core of the sun--and measured in real-time the rate the particles hit our planet. The researchers also obtained fresh evidence that neutrinos oscillate (transform from one state to another) before arriving at Earth, adding weight to present theories about the nature of neutrinos and the inner workings of the sun and other stars. http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Catching_Some_Rays_999.html

Peruvian quake 8.01

Personal Report of Peru Quake from Dr. Kristen Neiling in Argentina

Over 1000 people dead---

The Peru 8.0 earthquake was felt in Chile , Bolivia , Ecuador , and even Colombia . This is considered to be the most serious earthquake in the last several decades in Peru . The only communication system working is the Internet. No water, no electricity, no telephones, no food. President Alan Garcia has called a State of Emergency for at least for the next 60 days.

Situation is getting worst---Over 1,000 dead; people are in the streets destroying entire cities looking for food, more tourists missing. Aftershocks are intensifying and people are terrified. According to sources, the city of Pisco is being reported as completely destroyed. Homes do not exist; bodies are all over the place and no hope to find people alive. Still not able to get to remote locations. All prisoners, estimated to be around 300 from the Pisco jail, escaped when one entire wall fell and left the prison open. Huge fractures in the Earth's crust are visible throughout the locations. Electric wires are hanging all over the cities blocking the main highways south of Lima to the Andes mountains. No access is possible. Pope Benedict XVI is asking all countries in the western world for help to assist Peru in this tragedy. International Red Cross and the Crescent Moon, have sent airplanes, tents, plastic covers, blankets, and water.The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake hit at 6:40 p.m. August 16 07 about 90 miles southeast of Lima at a depth of about 25 miles. Four strong aftershocks ranging from magnitudes of 5.4 to 5.9 were felt afterwards. The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center responded with a tsunami warning for the coasts of Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama. A tsunami watch was issued for the rest of Central America and Mexico and an advisory for Hawaii. The center canceled all the alerts after about two hours, but it said the quake had caused an estimated 10-inch tsunami near the epicenter.

Australia's 'Conveyor belt'

A DEEP sea current flowing past Sydney has been found to be part of a long-sought "missing link" thought to connect all the world's southern oceans. CSIRO scientists who discovered the current say it plays a crucial role in controlling not only the world's temperature but the food supply for marine life around the globe. Dubbed the southern hemisphere supergyre, it travels at depths averaging 800 to 1000 metres. Starting in the Pacific north near New Zealand, it flows towards the Queensland coast, where it bends south. Passing Tasmania, it turns west until it reaches Western Australia, where it splits in two before crossing the Indian Ocean. Then it curves south of Africa and into the South Atlantic. Ken Ridgway, a scientist with the CSIRO Ocean Flagships research program, said yesterday that because the current travelled at great depths its temperature and salinity, as well as the nutrients swept along with the flow, changed little. As a result it played an important role in stabilising the world's temperatures, and ensuring the survival of sea life. Monitoring changes in such a stable system should provide pointers to global climate change. Dr Ridgway said scientists had known about what appeared to be three separate westward-flowing currents in the southern Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans. While modelling suggested they should be linked, there was no proof. "We knew about individual bits. We knew about the current east of Australia, but when it reached Tasmania, we didn't know whether it went east or west." The previously unknown section of the current, south of Australia, has been named the Tasman Outflow. "That's the missing link," Dr Ridgway said. "We have been able to show that the global circulation in the southern hemisphere is connected."Identifying such a deep current had taken "thousands and thousands of observations" collected between 1950 and 2002 by ships, automated ocean monitors and satellites. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/15/1186857596830.html?from=top5
Go Oz scientists!!!!

Lunar Eclipses: 2007 - 2012

Here is a list of Lunar eclipses for 2007 through to 2012. I am highlighting the lunar eclipses visible in Australia.
Date	Eclipse Type	Saros	Umbral Magnitude	Eclipse Duration	Geographic Region of Eclipse Visibility
2007 Mar 03	Total	123	1.238	03h42m 01h14m	Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia
2007 Aug 28	Total	128	1.481	03h33m 01h31m	e Asia, Aus., Pacific, Americas
2008 Feb 21	Total	133	1.111	03h26m 00h51m	c Pacific, Americas, Europe, Africa
2008 Aug 16	Partial	138	0.813	03h09m	S. America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Aus.
2009 Feb 09	Penumbral	143	-0.083	-	e Europe, Asia, Aus., Pacific, w N.A.
2009 Jul 07	Penumbral	110	-0.909	-	Aus., Pacific, Americas
2009 Aug 06	Penumbral	148	-0.661	-	Americas, Europe, Africa, w Asia
2009 Dec 31	Partial	115	0.082	01h02m	Europe, Africa, Asia, Aus.
2010 Jun 26	Partial	120	0.542	02h44m	e Asia, Aus., Pacific, w Americas
2010 Dec 21	Total	125	1.262	03h29m 01h13m	e Asia, Aus., Pacific, Americas, Europe
2011 Jun 15	Total	130	1.705	03h40m 01h41m	S.America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Aus.
2011 Dec 10	Total	135	1.110	03h33m 00h52m	Europe, e Africa, Asia, Aus., Pacific, N.A.
2012 Jun 04	Partial	140	0.376	02h08m	Asia, Aus., Pacific, Americas
2012 Nov 28	Penumbral	145	-0.184	-	Europe, e Africa, Asia, Aus., Pacific, N.A.

Geographic abreviations (used above): n = north, s = south, e = east, w = west, c = central

Meteor watch

meteor watching is a cold thing to do in the winter on a windy hill.
the air was reasonably still, clouds weren't too bad, although they kept sweeping slowly past the part of the sky that I was watching. During the day you don't see the number of planes high up in the sky but at night you do when they flash their lights. There are so many of them going in different directions.
The Milky Way was so clear as it weaved hazily across the sky and the black canvas was strewn with silver twinkles that sometimes flashed a wink at me and who ever was looking.
Oh yes, the meteors, well I saw a couple and it wasn't because I was looking in the wrong direction. It will be interesting to see what the astronomers say about the display but even though I'm out in the country and don't have to contend with the lights of the city, I didn't see many in the two hours I stayed outside watching before I decided it wasn't worth being outside in the cold waiting for that elusive meteor or two to pass by .
Maybe I'll find a photo of a Perseid meteor and post it here just to remind me of how much I didn't see.