Tag Archives: Eclipse

Skywatch Friday – Sunset, Eclipse, River Views

I went on a walk one evening and found this sunset at the end.

We got a new backyard fence a couple months ago. I finally got my weather station reinstalled.

My sister and her husband came to visit. One day we had an eclipse party in the backyard. Everyone had the special sunglasses except for Kodi the dog but he doesn’t care about eclipses so it was all good. After this shot, I wished I had thought to launch my drone. Not to look at the eclipse but looking down at this group as it went up in the air. It would have simulated the rapture for me. Don’t worry, I’m not a rapture but I thought it would have been fun to simulate it.

I took a short bike ride and checked out the water behind the new dam on the Arkansas River here in Tulsa. The river sure looks like nice full of water.

I feel kind of guilty because the Arkansas River is braided prairie river. They have sandbars and multiple channels and support lots of wildlife. So I am conflicted. But the “new” river sure makes nice photos.

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And another Lego animal from our trip to the Tulsa Botanic Garden a few weeks ago.

So that is it for this week. I am linking to Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World.

Skywatch Friday Eclipse Madness in Totality – 2017

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I got to see the Eclipse in Totality in Idaho Falls, Idaho. My dad’s assisted living center had a viewing organized for the residents, staff, and guests. My sister had already bought me a pair of glasses.

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They brought out a bunch of chairs and provided refreshments and snacks. They had a narrator also telling us what was going on.

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So I got out there kind of late. The sun seemed as bright as ever but you would tell that the temperature was lowering and a breeze was picking up. Also, as the eclipse progressed, it didn’t seem to get that much darker until the very end but we could hear the crickets start chirping and the birds started singing. Right before totality it started getting notably darker.

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It got pretty dark but there was light on the horizon for 360 degrees around us. The narrator told us that we could take our glasses off and look directly at the eclipse. I didn’t bring my good camera, just my cell phone.

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When we took off our glasses off, everybody gasped. I have not seen any photographs yet that gives the experience justice.

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It was like living, breathing physics and astronomy and was a little overwhelming. I can understand a little more why people spent such vast sums of money coming from all over to experience.

The next total eclipse coming to the USA is on April 8, 2024 and is nipping the very southeastern corner of Oklahoma. The above is a NASA map of the route of totality. I’m going to do my best to experience it again.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Super/Blood/Eclipsing/Harvest Mooon

IMG_1565Last weekend we had the the big Moon Mania. Comprising a Super Moon, the Harvest Moon , a full eclipse of the moon, and a Blood Moon.  We had a true multi-tasking moon. IMG_1570A Super Moon is just where the elliptical path of the moon takes it closest to earth.  An eclipse of a Super Moon is pretty rare. The next one is going to be in 2033. A Harvest Moon is the first full moon in the Fall.  IMG_1582

This total eclipse was the last eclipse of a lunar tetrad a series of four total eclipses about four months apart.

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The term Blood Moon is used for total eclipses because when the moon comes out of the eclipse it is exposed to light that has gone through the earth’s atmosphere.

It was fun to watch and photograph. We were working a project for Logan’s school so we would work on it for a while and go watch the moon. Fortunately, the world didn’t end. It was all fun and I was especially intrigued with the red color of the moon on the back side of the eclipse. It was very difficult to photograph.

I’m hoping that my fellow Skywatchers took lots of pics of the event. I’ll be checking them out.

Facts about the Eclipse

Linking with Skywatch Friday

 

Lunar Eclipse – The Blood Moon

Taking pics of the #LunarEclipse

This morning I dragged myself out of bed at 5:15 to take pics of the Lunar Eclipse. I don’t think that I have ever seen one before. It took over and hour and I took over 60 photos of the process. I kept myself occupied by facebooking with my Tea Partier friend Mel who highly disapproves of how the US is handling the Iran negotiations.

Lunar Eclipse Collage

Anyway it was kind of cool. My camera had trouble focusing on the moon especially as the earth occluded the light. Anyways I did the best I could.

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When the moon got behind some branches down the street the camera seemed happy to have something to lock onto and did a better job. By that time the red color was starting to show itself. The red is why it is called The Blood Moon. It showed up better live than in the pics. I didn’t try to put the color back in so these pics are “SOOC.”

And just to show that the spirit of P.T. Barnum and Capitalism is still alive here in the US, some internet preachers are prophesying that the Blood Moon is a sign that the end times are about to come. Another guy says that the Blood Moon means that Obama made a bad deal with Iran. Keep, those cards, letters, and checks rolling in folks.

And Me and Mel again didn’t change each other’s minds. We’ve been arguing for 38 years. I wish he was’t so hard headed;)

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