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This is the Classical Astronomy Update, an email newsletter especially
for Christian homeschool families (though everyone is welcome!)
Please feel free to share this with any interested friends.
IN THIS UPDATE:
- Dance of the Planets
- Eclipse Reports With Photos!
He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.
- Psalm 104:19
Welcome to the Classical Astronomy Update!
Hello Friends,
Hope a lot of you had a chance to see the lunar eclipse on Tuesday morning! It was a neat experience for our family and we heard from several other families with similar reports. Let's dive right in....
Dance of the Planets
Eclipse Reports With Photos
Wowie, friends, we had a great experience with this early morning eclipse! Normally, I write these Updates and tell everyone else about these astro-events and then we don't see them ourselves! We usually get the classic "Ohio Astronomy Weather," and Ryan's Rules is a fact of life!!! But the LORD was gracious to us on the morning of August 28, and our skies were perfectly clear.
Here are some background articles about lunar eclipses, from previous Updates. Sorry I neglected to include these with the last newsletter:
Lunar eclipses are very common, and the Moon turns red almost every time. So a lunar eclipse is NOT a sign of the End Times!
Lunar eclipses have been used to establish a date for the birth of Jesus and by Columbus to trick the Indians in the New World!
Tuesday Morning, Cleveland Ohio
My wife and were up late as usual the night before the eclipse (we're astronomy types -- being a "night owl" comes with the turf!) So when the clock went off at 4:45 AM, we had only had a few hours sleep! I dragged it out of my comfortable bed and looked out the window. The skies were clear adn featured Old Crater Face himself, already with a dark edge from the penumbral stage.
I staggered into the kids room to break the news that it was time to wake up for the eclipse. I totally empathized with their groans, but explained that if they wanted to see this event, they had to get moving. Like father, like sons, my three sluggard boys dragged their weary carcasses out of their beds. Our six year old daughter Rockee would not be moved, so we let her sleep. The next day, after hearing the rest of us rave, she was sorry she stayed in bed.
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Here's our first attempt to take an eclipse photo!
| It wasn't so bad once we all got moving. So we went outside shortly after the beginning of ingress, as the Moon was passing into the Earth's shadow. We pitched a blanket on the dewey grass and layed there. The darkening Moon was already low in the sky, so we had to sit up to observe the progress. So we all just layed there and rested, catching looks at the Moon every few minutes. It was very pleasant in a cold, damp, groggy sort of way. We tried to be quiet lest we disturb the neighbors. But they already know that we're a bunch of astronomy wackos who do things in the dark at weird hours, so nothing would surprise them!
As we lay there, my wife asked me to point out some of the sights. Cassiopeia was overhead. The bright cluster of the Pleiades was also high in the sky. The red planet Mars was shining brightly in the constellation Taurus, outshining the nearby bright red star Aldebaran at the eye of the Bull. And then there was Orion, coming up in the east as reported in a recent Update, as sure a "sign" of the end of summer as the shorter days and cooler nights.
I went back in for the binoculars, and everyone oo-ed and ahh-ed at the eclipsing Moon and the other sights. Through the optics, the Pleiades looked like sparkling blue diamonds against black velvet. I showed everyone (for the millionth time) how to find the great Orion Nebula in the "Sword" of Orion, underneath his famous Belt. My wife was especially amazed, since she's seen it many times through the telescope but apparently not through the binocs.
Our boys started to get more excited as totality approached. The Moon began to take on the distinctive ruddy color of a lunar eclipse. I was happy to see that this wasn't a very bright eclipse. I've seen them so bright that the Moon looks like a yellow-orange color, not much different from how it looks while rising. On the other hand, I've seen them very dark and bloody. It can be easy to understand why superstitious pagans such as Columbus' Indians would get so troubled by such ominous signs in the sky. (Jeremiah 10:2).
As expected, the eastern sky brightened with morning twilight as totality commenced, around 6:00 AM eastern time. We stayed out til about 6:15, and then the boys started filtering back to their beds to salvage their night's sleep before it got too bright. I'd never seen a sunrise eclipse before and wanted to observe the visibility of a dark Moon in a brightening sky. I was very pleased and surprised to see the orange Moon plainly visible in the blue morning sky. It was quite a treat!
The guys were talking about it all that day. I think we made a very nice family memory that morning, observing the LORD's wonderful handiwork in the sky.
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The Reader's Eclipse Reports and Photos
We got some nice reports and pix from some of the readers. Thanks to all who contributed, hope you all enjoy your copy of Cycles. If there are any other pix or reports, thanks very much, but we've already received all we can use.
Here's a report from the Larimer family in Pennsylvania:
Our two older children (age 9 and 7) enjoyed watching the eclipse this morning. The sky was perfectly clear and the temperature wasn't too chilly. We were excited to get to see all of the ingress, and totality before the light from the coming sunrise made it too faint to see.
We tried to get some photos, but unfortunately our camera is not as sophisticated as our eyes! It was a beautiful sight, and made for quite a special "family time", sipping hot chocolate and watching the eclipse before my husband headed off to work.
Here's a very colorful report from the kids in the Paris family from Indiana. Great work guys! You got an early start on this year's writing assignments!
Last night, well this morning, at 4:30 a.m., we got up to watch the lunar eclipse. We were nuts to get up at that hour but it was really cool to watch. At first the moon was quite normal. The progression was as we had studied.
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The Paris family eclipse photo | The moon began to go behind the earth's shadow giving the appearance that someone had given the man in the moon a buzz cut. Then the phases progressed and the man in the moon appeared to morph into a cat in the moon with a big smile.
At this point we were settled on our now dew wet blanket and we turned to look at Orion which appeared to be reclining over our neighbor's rooftop. While turning back to the moon we saw two meteors race across the sky. The earth's shadow had changed again. The moon was now down to a red tinged sliver.
Soon the moon had a reddish border caused by the sun's rays were now filtering through the earth's atmosphere, just like we had studied. Inside the reddish border, the earth cast a black shadow. Soon the moon set here in northern Indiana. Soon the sun would be up and shining and we will see the moon as we have known it tonight. Seeing this piece of God's creation was a great early morning adventure. - Missy, Jason and Beth Ann
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Here's a very nice shot from Mrs. Steffens in Tennessee:
This was taken from Nashville, TN at 4:12am (central time). Praise the Lord for babies who get hungry in the middle of the night; otherwise I would have slept right through it! Thanks for teaching us!
Check out this very nice pic from Zachary in Ohio. Very nice work, Zachary! Good color and brightness control:
I am 13 years old. I am an amateur photographer and I love taking pictures. I hope you like my photo of the lunar eclipse.
Thank you for letting me know about the lunar eclipse. I thought it was amazing.
We got several very nice pix from our friend and fellow astronomy geek John Wilkerson in New York state. Be sure to check out John's Jesus Geek podcast, especially if you are a Christian with an interest in science and technology.
While everyone sent along some very beautiful pix, I was especially wowed by these from the Sikkema family in Ontario. If you missed this event, these look the closest I've seen in color and brightness to the actual appearances of the totality of this eclipse:
Here are some pictures that I took of the lunar eclipse this morning. My family got up and watched this event proceed. The eclipse was at its maximum when the sun came up and while the moon was setting (this is why the last picture is so light)!
These pictures were taken in St. George, Ontario and the time of each photograph is given below the image.
5:52:52 - Just After Totality Began
6:05:56 - fading moon in the lightening sky
Wow, what a tremendous response from the readers! Thanks very much folks!
We always welcome reader contributions, it sure makes my job a lot easier! We are especially grateful if you have questions about any topic from Classical Astronomy.... not Modern Astronomy! There are a million NASA space cadet web sites for those questions! Thanks in advance!
COMING UP IN FUTURE UPDATES
- We hope to find new things to write about with the arrival of autumn.
- When we continue our "pagan influences" series, we'll explain the differences between the science of astronomy and the pseudoscience of astrology.
Til next time, God bless and clear skies!
-jay
The Ryan Family
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and
the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art
mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
- Psalm 8:3,4, a Psalm of David
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