George

Super Snow Moon Tonight, Feb 19, 2019

Step outside tonight, look up, and you’ll feel better.

Supermoon, 2019’s Biggest and Brightest, will Light up the Sky

Ashley Strickland and Rob Picheta, CNN
Tue February 19, 2019

February’s full moon will brighten the skies on Tuesday as the biggest and brightest supermoon of the year.

The super snow moon is the second of three supermoon events in the first three months of the year — a packed lunar calendar for 2019, which marks the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, the mission that took the first humans to the moon.
 
It will make the moon appear unusually large when it rises and sets, and — like most lunar events — is sure to draw amateur star gazers around the world outside.
 
The supermoon will occur during this full moon because it will be closest in its orbit to Earth.
Technically, the supermoon will reach its peak on Tuesday morning at 10:54 a.m. ET, but it won’t be visible then. Instead, keep an eye out later in the day.
 
Moonrise will be the best time for those interested in capturing dramatic supermoon photos because the moon will be closest to the horizon. Check your local time for moonrise here.
 
The moon looking deceptively large is known as a “Moon illusion,” which occurs when the moon is close to the horizon and objects such as buildings or trees are in front of it for scale, which tricks our brains into thinking the moon is closer to the objects than it really is.
 
Each month, the full moon carries a different name signifying what is most associated with that time. This is because centuries ago, lunar months were associated with the changing seasons rather than the solar year.

Farewell, Mars Rover

“My Battery is Low and It’s Getting Dark’: Mars Rover Opportunity’s Last Message to Scientists

NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover was built to operate for just 90 days, but kept going for 15 years. NASA officially declared it dead on Wednesday, and its last message to scientists before it went dark eight months ago is getting a lot of attention.

The rover spent a decade and a half sending data bursts, not words, but according to science reporter Jacob Margolis, scientists at NASA said the last message they received from Opportunity effectively translated to, “My battery is low and it’s getting dark.”

The solar-powered rover was, in the end, doomed by a ferocious dust storm.

Flight controllers tried numerous times to make contact, and sent one final series of recovery commands Tuesday night along with one last wake-up song, Billie Holiday’s “I’ll Be Seeing You,” in a somber exercise that brought tears to team members’ eyes. There was no response from space, only silence.

Thomas Zurbuchen, head of NASA’s science missions, broke the news at what amounted to a funeral at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, announcing the demise of “our beloved Opportunity.”

“This is a hard day,” project manager John Callas said in an auditorium packed with hundreds of current and former members of the team that oversaw Opportunity and its long-deceased identical twin, Spirit. “Even though it’s a machine and we’re saying goodbye, it’s still very hard and very poignant, but we had to do that. We came to that point.”

NASA tried to wake up Opportunity daily with different songs, and it wasn’t just Billie Holiday they thought might bring it out of sleep.

NASA published their “Opportunity, Wake Up!” playlist on Spotify. It contained hits like “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” by Wham!, “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles, “Life On Mars?” by David Bowie, “Telephone Line” by Electric Light Orchestra, “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor, and “I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty.

Click here to view the full “Opportunity, Wake Up!” playlist

Opportunity was exploring Mars’ Perseverance Valley, fittingly, when the fiercest dust storm in decades hit and contact was lost. The storm was so intense that it darkened the sky for months, preventing sunlight from reaching the rover’s solar panels.

When the sky finally cleared, Opportunity remained silent, its internal clock possibly so scrambled that it no longer knew when to sleep or wake up to receive commands. Flight controllers sent more than 1,000 recovery commands, all in vain.

Super Blood Wolf Moon this Sunday

You have to watch for it if for no other reason than its great name:  a Super Blood Wolf Moon.  

This total lunar eclipse will be visible all across the US this Sunday night. (The next one won’t be until 2021.)  Watch for it at midnight on the east coast, 9 pm on the west coast.  

It’s called a “Wolf Moon” because that’s the name sometimes given to a full moon in January.  

A “Supermoon” because it’ll be at its closest point in its orbit around the Earth this weekend.  

And “Blood Moon” because a total lunar eclipse like this will have a coppery-red appearance.  

More here from Reuters:

Super Blood Wolf Moon to get Star Billing in Weekend Lunar Eclipse

Barbara Goldberg
Jan. 18, 2019 

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Look up into the night sky on Sunday and – if it is clear – you may witness the so-called “Super Blood Wolf Moon” total lunar eclipse, which will take a star turn across the continental United States during prime time for viewing.

The total eclipse, which will begin minutes before midnight on the East Coast (0500 GMT) and just before 9 p.m. in the West, will unfold on the day before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national holiday when most Americans have no school or work.

That means even the youngest astronomy buffs may get to stay up late and attend one of many watch parties that have been organized from Florida to Oregon.

The total eclipse will last for about an hour, and the best viewing is from North and South America, according to National Geographic. Partial eclipses leading up to and following the total eclipse mean the entire event will last 3.5 hours.

 

Total lunar eclipses occur when the moon moves into perfect alignment with the sun and earth, giving it a copper-red or “blood” appearance to those watching from below.

“Amateur astronomy clubs are throwing parties because this is what they live for – to get entire families excited about our place in the universe by seeing the mechanics of the cosmos,” said Andrew Fazekas, spokesman for Astronomers Without Borders.

In Pennsylvania, the York County Astronomical Society has invited the public to peer through its observatory’s telescopes for a close-up look. In Los Angeles, Griffith Observatory said it was anticipating “extremely large crowds,” and its website will live-stream a telescopic view of the eclipse.

Coppery Red Glow

A “super” moon occurs when the moon is especially close to earth, while a “wolf moon” is the traditional name for the full moon of January, when the howling of wolves was a sound that helped define winter, according to The Farmers Almanac.

In a total lunar eclipse, the moon never goes completely dark. Rather, it takes on a reddish glow from refracted light as the heavenly bodies move into position – hence the “blood moon” moniker. The more particulate or pollution in the atmosphere, the redder the moon appears.

“All of the sunrises and sunsets around the world are simultaneously cast onto the surface of the moon,” Fazekas said.

As many as 2.8 billion people may see this weekend’s eclipse from the Western Hemisphere, Europe, West Africa and northernmost Russia, according to Space.com.

While total lunar eclipses are not especially rare, the 2019 version takes place early enough in the evening that it can be enjoyed by U.S. stargazers of all ages, said George Lomaga, a retired astronomy professor from Suffolk County Community College. He plans to attend an eclipse party at Hallock State Park Preserve on New York’s Long Island.

There, astrophotographer Robert Farrell will demonstrate how to use a mobile phone to photograph celestial objects through a telescope so the spectacle can be shared online.

If skies are clear, the phenomenon can be seen with the naked eye and no protection is needed to safely enjoy the view, Griffith Observatory said.

Granted permission to stay up past his 8 p.m. bedtime, Gabriel Houging, 8, of Citrus Heights, California, is already dreaming of what he’ll see.

“It’s going to be a moon, but it’s going to look like you painted it orange!” Houging said.

 

“Long Night Moon”

“Long Night Moon” = Winter Solstice + Full Moon. Plus some meteors thrown in for sparkle.

Happy Winter, everyone.

Winter Solstice 2018 Coincides With Both A Full Moon And Meteor Shower
Trevor Nace
FORBES

December’s full moon will coincide with the 2018 winter solstice.

The winter solstice, falling on December 21, 2018, will mark the shortest day of the year as well as a full moon in the night sky. The upcoming full moon named the Cold Moon or the Long Night Moon will be visible during the longest night of the year.

The two events don’t perfectly align. The peak full Moon will occur on December 22 at 12:49 p.m. EST while the winter solstice falls a day earlier on December 21. However, to the typical person viewing the moon, it will appear full for several days.

The winter solstice marks a transition period where days begin getting longer in the Northern Hemisphere and shorter in the Southern Hemisphere. The evening of the winter solstice will be the longest of the year for the Northern Hemisphere. This is because Earth’s poles create a maximum tilt away from the Sun in the Northern Hemisphere and maximum tilt toward the Sun in the Southern Hemisphere.

Winter solstice occurs in December for the Northern Hemisphere and June for the Southern Hemisphere.

The 2018 winter solstice will be accompanied by what NASA notes as the Cold Moon or the Long Night Moon. The names originate from the Native Americans, who marked December’s full Moon as the beginning of the coldest part of the year. Also, the Long Night Moon is named after the longest night of the year on the winter solstice.

How often do these events coincide, where the winter solstice is adorned by a full moon? The last time it occurred was in 2010 and the next event will not be until 2094. On December 21 you will also be able to see Mercury and Jupiter in conjunction in the long night sky. On top of all that, the Ursid meteor shower will peak on the nights of December 21 and 22, adding shooting starts to the mix.

Don’t miss the opportunity to look up into the night sky on this winter solstice and revel in the grandeur of the full moon and the Ursid meteor shower.

Not-so-New Story: For a Teenage Girl Embarking Upon a Weeklong Carnival Cruise with Her Parents

Here’s a piece I published a few years back: “For a Teenage Girl Embarking Upon a Weeklong Carnival Cruise with Her Parents.”

It’s included in the anthology A BOOK OF UNCOMMON PRAYER (Outpost19, Matthew Vollmer, ed.), a collection of poetry and prose pieces modeled (very loosely) after the BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, the Christian prayer book. The contributors are a terrific roster of contemporary authors, including Rick Moody, Clyde Edgerton, Dawn Raffel, J. Robert Lennon, Catherine Lacey, Wendy Brenner, Joseph Salvatore, and, of course, me.

My story’s about a rape at sea–which could be timely now. It begins:

“O most omniscient God our Father, Who art everywhere, even upon the high seas, look with mercy upon fifteen-year-old Deena Truitt as she sets sail with her parents on a week-long cruise on the Carnival Breeze, departing from Miami, Florida in August with three ports of call in the exotic Caribbean and an all-inclusive holiday package featuring a variety of exciting onboard entertainment, non-stop luxury dining, fun-filled youth programs, whale and dolphin viewing, and much, much more . . .”

More about A BOOK OF UNCOMMON PRAYER here at Outpost19.

Building Believable Characters in Fiction

If you’re anywhere near New Orleans on Saturday, September 8, come join me for a free (Free! Free! Free!) writing workshop on “Building Believable Characters in Fiction.” From 1-4:30 at the Rosa F. Keller Library in Broadmoor. Sponsored by the fabulous New Orleans Writers Workshop. And did I mention that it was free? Free free free!

More info here: “Building Believable Characters in Fiction.”

No Stars

Hello, old friend!  I’m working hard to finish up a new novel.  These things always take about four times longer than I imagine they will.

In the meantime, I’ll offer this song by Rebekah Del Rio, “No Stars,” seen on David Lynch’s new Twin Peaks.  

 

City News Cafe, Chicago, Wednesday, May 2

I’ll be joining fellow UNCW grads Jake Hinkson and Sneza Zabic this Wednesday in Chicago for a reading and talk at City News Cafe. Come say hello. Have some scones. Find out if geography really is destiny, and then stay for some music.

“South by Midwest,” hosted by Packingtown Review.

Here’s a photo of me and Jake looking authorial:

New Orleans Poetry Festival, April 20-22

I’m not a poet, but I’m looking forward to attending the New Orleans Poetry Festival, April 20-22, at the Healing Center here in, of course, New Orleans.

Saturday evening, I’ll be on a panel with writers Katy Simpson Smith, Kalamu Salaam, and Kristina Kay Robinson, talking about “Lonely Voices: Storytelling, Character, and Place.”

And then much later that night, if you’re lucky, you might catch me playing drums at the “Poets with Bands” after-hours party at Siberia Lounge down the street on St. Claude.

Here’s a picture of my drums:

Have You Ever Really Seen the Moon?

A lovely short video from Wylie Overstreet and Alex Gorosh. Amateur astronomer Overstreet set up his telescope outside on the streets of Los Angeles and let strangers look through it. They were all amazed by what they saw. “Oh my god. That’s the moon?”

Says Overstreet, “It makes you realize that we’re all on a small little planet, and we all have the same reaction to the universe we live in. . . . It’s a great reminder that we should look up more often.”

More here, from The Atlantic:

On a whim, Wylie Overstreet set up his telescope outside his apartment. He wanted to look at the moon. He had no idea he would, in a matter of hours, inspire awe in hundreds of strangers on the streets of Los Angeles. “It’s incredible how many people have never looked through a telescope,” Alex Gorosh, a friend of Overstreet’s, told The Atlantic.“Many people thought the image wasn’t real—they thought we were playing a prank on them.”

Overstreet and Gorosh were so taken by strangers’ reactions to the moon through their telescope that the friends began to set it up in different locations across the city, filming as they went. “That’s when we recognized the powerful message of unity that we were capturing,” said Gorosh.

Their resulting film, A New View of the Moon, is a simple tribute to human wonder. Like last year’s total solar eclipse, Overstreet and Gorosh witnessed how a cosmic event has the power to bring people together. “It’s about taking a step back and appreciating the beauty and grandeur of the natural world around us,” said Gorosh. “It sounds cheesy, but if we were able to do that more often, it would be much easier to work through the divisions that we’re facing as a culture.”