Category: Space


How many super moons in 2019?

Moon rising File photo KDG

A moon coming to within 90 percent of its closest approach or 364,740 Kilometers of earth is super moon according to a 1979 definition.The next one is next week On January 21st. The year 2019 will see 3 more, August 1st and 3oth, and September 28th!

January’s moon a blood moon.

Next weeks moon is to be a blood moon where the shadow of the earth gets on the moon when all lined up with the sun and makes an eclipse.

Farmers Almanac take:

Totality will last a bit longer than average: 1 hour and 2 minutes. The eclipse will actually begin when the Moon enters the faint outer portion (called the penumbra) of the Earth’s shadow about an hour before it begins moving into the umbra. The penumbra, however, is all but invisible to the eye until the Moon becomes deeply immersed in it. Sharp-eyed viewers may get their first glimpse of the penumbra as a faint “smudge” on the left part of the Moon’s disk about a half hour after it first enters the penumbral shadow.

Source Farmers Almanac, Joe Rao

On this Day: January 16th 1964

Hello Dolly opens on Broadway to begin a run to nearly 3000 performances.

Wolf moon and eclipse coming January 20-21st!

Moon over Merritt .
File Photo KDG

Visible in North America

The month of January is shaping up good for sky watchers. One event is a full moon on the 20th – 21st with a lunar eclipse.

Totality, or total coverage of the moon, will begin at 11:41 p.m. ET on January 20 (4:41 UT on January 21) and will last for 62 minutes. The entire 3.5-hour event—including partial eclipses before and after totality—will be visible from the Americas, Greenland, Iceland, western Europe, and western Africa. Sky-watchers in eastern Europe and eastern Africa will witness only the partial eclipse, while people in most of Asia will not see any part of the sky show.

Source :National Geographic

Kamloops start,6:36 PM January 20th,19.6 degrees. Totality begins 8:41 PM, pacific time, altitude 38 degrees.

West of the Behive Cluster

The eclipse will take place in the Cancer Constellation, a little west of the Beehive Cluster,Five hours 12 minutes from start to finish if you include the penumbral events preceding the event.

Done Kamloops time 11: 48 PM, 58.3 degrees altitude.

On this Day: January 2nd 2004

The Stardust probe flies past Comet Wild 2

TGIF- Solstice

October 1st 1958 NASA open for business...
File Photo KDG

Shortest Day 2018

The winter solstice is on us again, December 21st at 2:23 PM pacific time the earth will begin its swing to equal daylight and night in March and then its 23 degree tip toward the sun giving us the longest daylight hours on the June summer solstice. The trip to spring is 88.99 days.

On this Day: December 21st 1937

Snow White an animated film is shown

The second extra stellar vehicle…

October 1st 1958 NASA open for business...
File Photo KDG

Voyager 2

Voyager 2  left the solar system on December 5th 2018, it becomes the second interstellar craft to leave on an observation and contact mission. Voyager 1 preceded it on August 25th 2012 after doing its primary mission of data collection from Jupiter and Saturn. It also collected data on the  Saturn’s moon Titan. The December 5th entry in to the Interstellar medium was reported by NASA on December 10th. the two twin probes  were launched 16 days apart.

Voyager 2 now is slightly more than 11 billion miles (18 billion km) from Earth. Mission operators still can communicate with Voyager 2 as it enters this new phase of its journey, but information – moving at the speed of light – takes about 16.5 hours to travel from the spacecraft to Earth. By comparison, light traveling from the sun takes about eight minutes to reach Earth. Together, the two Voyagers provide a detailed glimpse of how our heliosphere interacts with the constant interstellar wind flowing from beyond.

Source NASA

Golden records

Each Voyager space craft carries a golden record that could last billions of years and carrying photos, recordings and messages for possible contact.

On this Day: December 11,1962

Bill Wilson  a principal founder of  Alcoholics anonymous enters treatment for the last time.

Moon Base Alpha…

As reflected in NASA’s Exploration Campaign, the next step in human spaceflight is the establishment of U.S. preeminence in cislunar space through the operations and the deployment of a U.S.-led Gateway. Together with the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion, the Gateway is central to advancing and sustaining human space exploration goals and is the unifying single stepping off point in our architecture for human cislunar operations, lunar surface access and missions to Mars. The Gateway is necessary to achieving the ambitious exploration campaign goals set forth by Space Policy Directive 1. Through partnerships both domestic and international, NASA will bring innovation and new approaches to the advancement of these U.S. human spaceflight goals Source NASA

Nasa official site May 2018

On this Day: November 21st, 2004

The Paris club writes off up to a 100 billon dollars of Iraq’s debt.

The people at Nasa have recently reinforced their commitment to space,  the moon, and other planets by a new public relations display. The above statement is from May and you tube video from last week.

The people of earth are enriched by knowledge aquired every day by the fellowship of the discovery of the unknown and we should be grateful for its free and unfettered access. It truly is a shared goal. Good luck to the people of planet earth and may all new knowledge find place in attending the problems of this world. 

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File Photo KDG

On this Day: October 1st 1958

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration opens for business.

Thanks for digital photography…

Full harvest moon tonight…

 

MOON

Moon rising , Merritt BC       File  photo KDG

The higher the latitude the  greater the effect of the harvest moon. The northern hemisphere were we are has the benefit of diminishing daylight at this time making the effect more pronounced.

On this Day: September 25th 1977

Four thousand + people run the first Chicago Marathon.

TGIF- Last day of summer Saturday 6:45 PM

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Summer and its produce are ending.  File photo KDG

The fall equinox is on tomorrow and at some point around 6:45 PM the balance of sun light and dark will be equal. Daylight will be diminishing to the winter solstice coming at 5:23 December 21st.

On this Day: September 21st 1981

The US government confirms Sandra Day O’Connor to the SC.

Parker Probe

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The sun west of Merritt, Red from smoke, of the 2017 fire season in the Sothern interior of BC File Photo KDG

Nasa launched a probe to go into the atmosphere of the sun this week. The Parker probe is named after the scientist that first came up with the idea of solar winds. The probe is expected to go within 6.4 million KM of the sun and take data readings from instruments behind a new heat shield. Space weather will be the main focus of the 7 year mission.

probe

On this Day: August 14th 1975

The Rocky Horror Picture show opens.

 

Mars closest since 2003…

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Animation of the blood moon  File  photo KDG

The red planet  is visible to the naked eye at night  now, it will be closest to the earth since 2003 tonight, July 31st 2018.

On July 30-31, 2018, Mars and Earth are closer than since their historically close approach in 2003. Mars was closer in 2003 than in some 60,000 years, and it’s now only slightly farther from Earth now than then. It’s about 35.78 million miles (57.59 million km) away at its closest on July 31 at 08:00 UTC. That time places Mars’ closest approach before sunrise on July 31 for North American time zones – Earth sky news

Look to the right and down a little from the waning moon tonight. The red dot is visible, that is Mars from Merritt BC. Ca.

 

On this Day: July 31st 2012

Michael Phelps sets new record for most Olympic medals in one game.

Art show

Art displayed  on an art walk.
File Photo. KDG

The local art walk project is on its final weekend. The Arts Council and the Chamber as well as the City has endorsed the walk about town to see the local artists work. Passports are still available at the walk sponsored business locations including the Olde Court House Gallery 1840 Nicola avenue. The council says get your passport stamped to enter a draw for prizes.

Locations:

  1. Community futures
  2. Merritt Civic center
  3. Courthouse Gallery
  4. Community  Policing Office, Spirt Square
  5. Earth Walker Spiritual Shop
  6. Expresso Etc.
  7. Lynda’s Café
  8. Blacks Pharmacy
  9. Spanner and Webb
  10. Vision Quest optical
  11. Breathe Bikes
  12. Home hardware,
  13. Purity Feed
  14. Save on foods
  15. Nicola Valley Museum and Archives

The walk goes to July 31st. Quality reasonable community event!

Watch the moon  as an eclipse down under will color it red, Mars in opposition, partnered with Saturn for close approach to earth as well.  Nasa live

MOON

Moon rising File photo KDG

On this Day :  July 27th 1890

Vincent Van Gogh shoots himself.

Full moon this Friday 27th

 

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File Photo KDG

There is a partial solar eclipse on Friday as well ,however it will not be able to be seen from Merritt. Antarctica, Australia and perhaps parts of India the event will be seen . However if you are in a dark sky area the full moon in the summer sky should be enjoyable. The forecast is for clear skies all weekend with a hot 37 C in the Nicola Valley, Merritt BC Ca.

The moon will be completely full  here in BC is 1: 20 PM…

 

On this Day: July 25th 1868

Wyoming becomes a territory of the US.